Hello everyone - this looks like a great place to learn and share.
I'm an event videographer, weddings, graduations, seminars etc, primarily delivering in DVD-R formats.

After about 3 years working with few problems, I'm now having issues with the finished product where clients experience skips and freezes, or can't load their discs.

I was steered to DVDInfoPro which is how I found this site.  I bought the program, now I'm hoping to find out how to use it to diagnose what is or isn't right.

I have two clients both with similar complaints - on my own players there is no skipping:

Here's the situations, my workflows and my tests:

1.  Client #1 - Judith
Not my own shoot, but a wedding I edited from someone else's mini DV tapes.  Edited on Dell workstation
450, with Adobe Premiere 6.5, encoded to M2V and Wav via Canopus Procoder Express, DVD authored with Adobe Encore 1.0 -(burned to disc Maxell media, disc watched by myself, Video TS files copied ot hard drive with Windows Explorer), client copies burned on Maxell Inkjet discs (printed before burn), burned with Nero Express - 8 copies.

Judith advised that all 8 copies skipped on her Sony DVD player, as well as on her mother's player, brand not known.
In response I burned additional discs direclty out of Encore, this time on Verbatim "Hardcoat" media.  Still skips.

2: Client #2 - Debbie (mother of bride)
This was my own production from start to finish:  edited on Dell 8400, again with Premiere 6.5, Procoder, Encore 1.5,
and Nero, Maxell media
I delivered 6 copies right before Thanksgiving, and the bride played it through once at her house without problems - I got a very nice note on how pleased they were.  She played it again at an Uncles house, flawlessly.  The third time it wouldn;t load.  Another copy couldn't be played by the grooms parents, another sent to a sister played in one player, not another, another sister had it play through once, but not again.
Today I recovered two of the discs at their house.  One wouldn't load at all at her house, the other played with stutters, and a green breakup blotch, then froze on a Toshiba player.
Of course I got them home and was able to play both on my Sony without issue.

I'm not sure which tests on DVDInfoPro are most relavant to me:  I did some playing mostly with the PIPO test which gives a quality rating:

Debbie's disc that skipped had a "Quality Rating of 41.35%, then I noticed fingerprints and dust, cleaned it and that brought the rating up to  78.48.  The one that wouldn't load at all for them had a Quality rating of  39.65, after I cleaned it 0.00

In the meantime I upgraded from Encore 1.5 to 2.0, and authored the project again to an ISO file, then burned that to a Pioneer 107 drive in an external USB enclosure - subsequent disc burned had quality ration of 98.2%.  That PC has an internal NEC drive that I never quite felt comfortable with, although it was used in the first place.

If this rating is in fact a good barometer, I hope I've found my problem.  Would anyone be able to give me some guidance in interpreting this Quality rating, and just what the other tests are telling me that would help me determine if I'm putting good discs out.

Thank you.

Bill

DVD+R is a better choice for compatability in some set-top DVD players.  Assuming you have a quality recorder that can bitset/booktype the media to appear as DVD-ROM.  Also, I have found that ImgBurn produces the best burns of about anything out there... and guess what, it is free.

Also, if you are going to be providing your discs to customers, you should consider professional grade Taiyo Yuden media.  Gotta cruise for a bit... I am wondering whay brand of DVD burner you are using and if you have looked to update the firmware in it.

(in reply to maxcel)

Thanks for the reply. 
I'm not new to this, I've turned out probably 3000 DVD-rs since 2002, mostly Fuji, Verbatim & Maxell.  The problem just developed in November.

I'd actually heard the opposite about DVD+R, in fact someone sent me some info today that DVD+R is compatible with about 86% of set top players, wheras DVD-R somwehat higher

I will look into the Taiyo Yuden media, I sort of remember a quality issue a couple of years ago that kept me away.
I remember my supplier with an ad that their media was now "improved" which put me off.

I have 3 burners, Pioneer 106, 107 and NEC 3530, and I have now updated the firmware.  Do you have a favorite?

I will download and play with Img.burn.

Best.

Thank you.

(in reply to SithTracy)

Right now I am liking the LG models.  I have a GSA-H10N and I just ordered a GSA-H22N... I have kept two of my older drives; a Plextor PX-716A and a BenQ DW1640... also have an older BenQ DW1620 in an older PC.

The key to compatibility with DVD+R is setting the book type of the media to DVD-ROM.  That is the most compatible.  My sister has a very old set-top player that will not play +R or -R media, but it will play +R if you bitset/book type it to DVD-ROM during the burn process.  I'm not familiar with the Pioneer drives you have, but I once had an NEC ND-3500A and it did not support bitsetting so I yanked it.  One fact, though... Pioneer and NEC use similar chipsets and do a better job burning -R media.

(in reply to maxcel)