Sometimes my DVD plays choppy on computers and DVD players. Why?

[oxband]

I made a film that I've been screening at some colleges. I notice that on some DVD players the film is kind of choppy, that it stops for what must be a fraction of a second...but it does it regularly so that someone walking is walking kind of stilted. This drives me crazy.

What causes that? Anything I can do about it? It plays fine on mine. I'm using Toast Titanium.

Thanks in advance!

 

[sevoneone]

Media quality and/or burn speed sound like the culprit here.

If you are burning a 'master' disc that will be played in a variety of players, you should burn it at the slowest speed your drive will support, this is especially true if you are using cheap/offbrand blank media.

Other things to check: make sure before you burn the disc that it is free of dust and fingerprints.

Also, try to use DVD-R discs instead of DVD+R. There is mostly no difference, but older DVD players tend to like DVD-R over DVD+R.

 

[ColdCase]

Try better quality DVD blanks, Verbatim Data Life Plus has been good for me.

If that and burning slower doesn't work well enough, try using a portable DVD burner to burn the disk, these are like $25 and plug into a USB port.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Don't max out the video bit rate on the DVD, that can cause some players to choke on it. Keep it at 8 or lower and see if the problem goes away.

 

[ColdCase]

Good point

 

[oxband]

It seems I had DVD+. I wonder if that is the issue!

 

[DemonMF777]

I'll second the tips on keeping down the data rate you're burning to disk, sometimes the lower burn speed can help. I always use DVD-R, but I have come across systems that don't like those disks, but will work with a DVD+R so it may help to have both versions just in case. I would also suggest a USB flash drive with an mp4 file on it, as many newer players can also use these files as well.