Produced DVD not compatible with DVD Player

Roger

Newbie Location: Sydney, Australia Joined: Sep 29, 2008 09:03 Messages: 29 Offline

Solved by

Apr 08, 2010 01:55

I have finally solved a persistent problem and thought the answer may be of interest to the group.

I recently replaced my old CRT TV and VCR with a Panasonic LCD TV and Panasonic DMR-XW350. I then found that a DVD I had made with PowerDirector 7 would not display properly. The top and bottom of the picture were cut off, and with that all the captions I had put on the still images in my production, as well as part of the titles. It only happens with this player, not my other LG one, and not on a computer. It is not dependent on aspect ratio, either player or TV, nor on DVD quality (SP, LP, HQ) or TV Safe Zone

I checked all the settings, searched this forum and asked the question but no joy. Then began a lengthy and very frustrating correspondence with Cyberlink. Finally they admitted defeat and offered me a free upgrade to PD8.

I installed this and dropped a short pre-Produced file (MPEG-2)to the time line, burnt a disc and it worked fine in the new player. So I returned to my current (unfinished) project and burnt it. The problem is back, with the top and bottom of the picture cut off.

After checking everything again and making a couple more trial discs (Hooray for re-writeables) I realised the only difference was that if the disc has a menu it plays OK. If I burn a disc without a menu it does not play properly in the Panasonic.

I want to make the DVDs, a collection of old family photos and 8mm film I have copied, without a menu for my vision-impaired father. He can see if he sits about 6 ft from a 106" TV, but has great difficulty using a remote for navigating menus.

I would be interested to hear if anybody has encountered a similar problem.

Regards

Roger.

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Apr 08, 2010 02:05

Interesting. I burn most of my DVD's without menus and have never noticed that. Is it 4:3 or 16:9? __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Roger

Newbie Location: Sydney, Australia Joined: Sep 29, 2008 09:03 Messages: 29 Offline

Apr 09, 2010 01:15

Hi Jaime,

The aspect ratio of the project makes no difference.

I first encountered the problem on a 4:3 movie. Following your suggestion I made two short movies from a video clip from my Sony DCR-SR65 camera set to 16:9, one with a menu and one without. I put a title on them, on the bottom just inside the TV Safe Zone. Both play normally on my two computers (one on WMP and the other on Toshiba DVD Player) Both display as expected on my very basic ($99) LG DVD Player. On my $800 Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder player the one with the menu displays normally, with the full image showing, including the bit outside the Safe Zone. This is the case at all the usual TV aspect ratios. When I play the DVD made without a menu the picture seems too large to fit on the screen, like it is zoomed in. No combination of settings on the player and TV give a normal picture.

I have asked Cyberlink for help on this but that was only two days ago. Previously they had no idea what the cause of the problem was and just advised the upgrade to PD8. I hope now I have defined the cause for them that they can provide a solution, apart from the obvious "always make a menu"

Regards

Roger.

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Apr 09, 2010 02:21

I'll have to play with it some. My TV has an option to zoom and I thought that might be the problem, but it seems that you disproved that theory. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Roger

Newbie Location: Sydney, Australia Joined: Sep 29, 2008 09:03 Messages: 29 Offline

Apr 09, 2010 09:14

Hi Jaime

Yes it seems that the problem is peculiar to discs without a menu that are made with PowerDirector and then played on this model of DVD player.

Discs without a menu made with Ulead work fine in the Panasonic.

I will do some trials in other players belonging to friends and family. This could take some time with a few other things that are happening at present. I will report back here when I know more.

Roger.