Titles will play, but menu won't.

[Brian from OKC]

I have a MyDVD project consisting of 2 titles, totalling 52 minutes in length. I preview the project in MyDVD, write the job to an iso, use Disc Copier to burn the iso to a disc, put the DVD into my set top, and the player recognizes the disc right away. Good. But here's where things go wrong.

 

Usually, the menu would pop right up, showing the 2 titles and letting the user pick which one he wants to watch. But instead of the menu, my player puts up a little red circle with a slash through it (i.e. it's having problems reading), and then it just starts playing the first title. When I press the button to get back to the main menu, I get that little red circle again. My player can't read the menu. So I tried a different set top of a different brand. This player tries for about 60 seconds to read the disc, and then launches straight into the first title. Clearly something is wrong with the menu, even though i didn't get any warnings in Roxio.

 

Out of curiosity, I edited the 2 titles down to just 2 minutes each, but I left everything else alone. Note: I changed nothing about the menu. The finished disc plays perfectly in both players. Is there something inside one of the titles (hiding somewhere in those other 47 minutes) that's causing a problem? If so, why would it affect the menu, and not the title itself?

 

I've tried changing the button type, deleting one of the titles, starting the project over from scratch, using different thumbnails, different background, everything I could think of. No matter what I did, the menu fails on the 52-minute version, but everything is fine on the 5-minute version. Now, I could sit here and keep re-editing that 5-minute version up toward 52 to see where the error pops up, but I don't have that kind of time.

 

So I ran a DVDInfoPro media test on the original 52-minute disc with a bad menu. Lo and behold, a single red square appears amongst the thousands of green ones. I'll try to explain where it is... the test shows a 9x9 grid of large blue squares, and my error is contained in the 8th column, 6th row. If this were a "Battleship" board, I would call it "H6". This square is further divided into an 8x10 grid. The red square is in the 7th column, 6th row.

 

Here's what the "read errors" box says:

1. Error - LBA = 00192f80h

2. Error - LBA = 00192f81h

3. Error - LBA = 00192f82h

4. Error - LBA = 00192f83h

5. Error - LBA = 00192f84h

6. Error - LBA = 00192f85h

7. Error - LBA = 00192f86h

8. Error - LBA = 00192f870h

9. Error - LBA = 00192f88h

10. Error - LBA = 00192f89h

11. Error - LBA = 00192f8ah

12. Error - LBA = 00192f8bh

13. Error - LBA = 00192f8ch

14. Error - LBA = 00192f8dh

15. Error - LBA = 00192f8eh

16. Error - LBA = 00192f8fh

 

Something is affecting the menu in my 52-minute project, that's NOT affecting it in my 5-minute version, even though the menus are identical.

Any advice?

Thanks

Brian

[Brian from OKC]

I don't have a 2nd computer, however I did burn a good project today. It's a full 2 hours long, and consists of 2 titles, just like the other one does (not the same 2 titles though). It fires right up in both of my set tops, the menu appears right away and works perfectly. I ran a CRC test and there were no errors at all. Does this rule out the theory that the drive has gone bad?

 

There must be something in that other 52-minute production that Roxio doesn't like. The 5-minute version worked, but the 52-minute version doesn't. I'd like to take that 5-minute version, and enlarge it to like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and find the point where it goes wrong. Any ideas on how I can do that without ruining a lot more discs? I would exeriment on some rewritables, but every time I try that, it works just fine on rewritables, and then doesn't work on DVD-R! So if it worked fine on a RW, that wouldn't really tell me anything. Is there another way to test?

[bimicher]

I don't have a 2nd computer, however I did burn a good project today. It's a full 2 hours long, and consists of 2 titles, just like the other one does (not the same 2 titles though). It fires right up in both of my set tops, the menu appears right away and works perfectly. I ran a CRC test and there were no errors at all. Does this rule out the theory that the drive has gone bad?

 

There must be something in that other 52-minute production that Roxio doesn't like. The 5-minute version worked, but the 52-minute version doesn't. I'd like to take that 5-minute version, and enlarge it to like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and find the point where it goes wrong. Any ideas on how I can do that without ruining a lot more discs? I would exeriment on some rewritables, but every time I try that, it works just fine on rewritables, and then doesn't work on DVD-R! So if it worked fine on a RW, that wouldn't really tell me anything. Is there another way to test?

 

Did you ever run the iso test on the 52 minute video as was suggested in post 5? Simply load the iso onto the virtual drive and the use a software DVD player to play the video

[Brian from OKC]

I did that just now. I loaded the iso to emulated drive G. Roxio Media Experience popped up as one of my choices, so I picked it. The menu looked good, and the titles both played all the way through. Now, there was a graphics issue. I'll post a separate question about it. The picture looked crappy -- but the menus played like they're supposed to, and the menus are what WON'T work when I burn discs.

 

So, the iso looks good in Media Experience. This is one of the ISO files that fails when I burn it to disc. What should I try next?

 

thanks

[gi7omy]

This may have a bearing or it may not (I just don't know) but another poster found out that he had menu problems with the fact that the menu boxes were different sizes - setting them all to the default size cured it

[Brian from OKC]

I'll give that a shot. I did use default buttons in the 5-minute version, which worked, so that's a positive sign. However, in one of my other experiments here, I tried using no buttons at all -- when I added the title to my project, it added in text form, and I just left it like that. It still failed. But let me give this a shot and see what happens...

[gi7omy]

This was the post that made me think of it (by azw)

 

"...Okay, here's the solution.

 

I've run into something similar at work in web pages, and reflecting on that made me wonder if the shape of the clickable areas was the problem.

 

So, I made the menu items all the same width and made sure that all menu items had left and right borders that lined up vertically. This seems to have fixed the problem.

.."

[ggrussell]

So I ran a DVDInfoPro media test on the original 52-minute disc with a bad menu. Lo and behold, a single red square appears amongst the thousands of green ones.

Sounds like a media problem and not a software problem. Is this a DVD RW? Or were these DVD Rs?

 

Have you tried playing the ISO to see if menu works BEFORE you burned? You can do that by 'mounting' the ISO as a drive letter and then use any DVD software player. I always burn to video folder for this reason. I can check the menus and links with PowerDVD and Disc Copier can burn the folder just like an ISO.

[bimicher]

I have a MyDVD project consisting of 2 titles, totalling 52 minutes in length. I preview the project in MyDVD, write the job to an iso, use Disc Copier to burn the iso to a disc, put the DVD into my set top, and the player recognizes the disc right away. Good. But here's where things go wrong.

 

Usually, the menu would pop right up, showing the 2 titles and letting the user pick which one he wants to watch. But instead of the menu, my player puts up a little red circle with a slash through it (i.e. it's having problems reading), and then it just starts playing the first title. When I press the button to get back to the main menu, I get that little red circle again. My player can't read the menu. So I tried a different set top of a different brand. This player tries for about 60 seconds to read the disc, and then launches straight into the first title. Clearly something is wrong with the menu, even though i didn't get any warnings in Roxio.

 

Out of curiosity, I edited the 2 titles down to just 2 minutes each, but I left everything else alone. Note: I changed nothing about the menu. The finished disc plays perfectly in both players. Is there something inside one of the titles (hiding somewhere in those other 47 minutes) that's causing a problem? If so, why would it affect the menu, and not the title itself?

 

I've tried changing the button type, deleting one of the titles, starting the project over from scratch, using different thumbnails, different background, everything I could think of. No matter what I did, the menu fails on the 52-minute version, but everything is fine on the 5-minute version. Now, I could sit here and keep re-editing that 5-minute version up toward 52 to see where the error pops up, but I don't have that kind of time.

 

So I ran a DVDInfoPro media test on the original 52-minute disc with a bad menu. Lo and behold, a single red square appears amongst the thousands of green ones. I'll try to explain where it is... the test shows a 9x9 grid of large blue squares, and my error is contained in the 8th column, 6th row. If this were a "Battleship" board, I would call it "H6". This square is further divided into an 8x10 grid. The red square is in the 7th column, 6th row.

 

Here's what the "read errors" box says:

1. Error - LBA = 00192f80h

2. Error - LBA = 00192f81h

3. Error - LBA = 00192f82h

4. Error - LBA = 00192f83h

5. Error - LBA = 00192f84h

6. Error - LBA = 00192f85h

7. Error - LBA = 00192f86h

8. Error - LBA = 00192f870h

9. Error - LBA = 00192f88h

10. Error - LBA = 00192f89h

11. Error - LBA = 00192f8ah

12. Error - LBA = 00192f8bh

13. Error - LBA = 00192f8ch

14. Error - LBA = 00192f8dh

15. Error - LBA = 00192f8eh

16. Error - LBA = 00192f8fh

 

Something is affecting the menu in my 52-minute project, that's NOT affecting it in my 5-minute version, even though the menus are identical.

Any advice?

Thanks

Brian

 

Have you played the 52 minute iso file through Disc Image Loader to see if the problem is already in the file and is not created during the burn?

[Brian from OKC]

Didn't work. I even tried starting a blank new project. Kept the default background, default music, everything. I added my 2 titles, turned the "snap to grid" on, and arranged them exactly above one another. Same result -- the menu won't play.

 

I did notice that when I select the iso in Disc Copier, my 32-minute title is listed as an "Individual Movie" while the 20-minute one is listed as an "Individual Extra". I don't know why that is. I would expect to see them both classified as Individual Movies. Also, there's another "Individual Extra" listed -- a red box with white letters that say "Sonic". This Extra has a duration of 0 minutes and 1 second, and I have no clue what it is, or where it came from. Maybe none of this is causing my problem, it just looks strange.

 

What should I try next?

thanks

[Brian from OKC]

In the 3rd paragraph of my first e-mail, I mentioned that a whittled-down version of this same project plays perfectly in both set tops. Doesn't that prove that the problem is not with the media, or with the players? Also, I've tried 2 different media (Sony & Maxell), and 2 different set tops (Philips and Panasonic) so that's 4 combinations, and about 20 wasted discs, with the same exact result every time.

 

Tonight I tried re-capturing the movies as WMVs instead of MPEGs. No difference; I got the exact same results. The file looks great when I play it from the emulated G drive. Something must be happening during the burn to the discs. I stuck tonight's disc back into the computer and ran a CRC test in DVD Info Pro. As always, it found 1 red square amongst the thousands of green ones, and at the end when it was "Testing individual blocks", it gave the a list of read errors that looks a lot like the list from my first e-mail:

1. Error - LBA = 001baa20h

2. Error - LBA = 001baa21h

3. Error - LBA = 001baa22h

(etc etc etc etc)

24. Error - LBA = 001baa37h

 

Surely those errors mean something. Could a Roxio programmer interpret them?

This used to work just fine in Version 7. I only mention that in case it provides a clue. Am I the only user reporting this problem? Wish I knew what I'm doing wrong.

[ggrussell]

Sounds more like a drive going bad and writing bad sectors in the same place regardless of media brand. That would also explain why the smaller version burns and plays just fine. If you have a second computer with a DVD burner, transfer the SAME ISO to thta computer and burn it to the same media. If that disc turns out fine, you then know it is the drive.

[Brian from OKC]

Sounds like a media problem and not a software problem. Is this a DVD RW? Or were these DVD Rs?

 

Have you tried playing the ISO to see if menu works BEFORE you burned? You can do that by 'mounting' the ISO as a drive letter and then use any DVD software player. I always burn to video folder for this reason. I can check the menus and links with PowerDVD and Disc Copier can burn the folder just like an ISO.

 

I've mounted the ISO in emulated drive G. Does Roxio have some place that I can run a test on the ISO? In DVD Info Pro, I tried to test drive G, but it says "please insert disc" or "sense error" or gives me other strange messages. What is PowerDVD?

 

I'd rather run a test on the ISO rather than sit there and watch it, for 2 reasons: (1) I have a ton of DVDs to burn, and I won't have time to watch all those ISOs, and (2) Sometimes things look just fine on the computer, but that's no guarantee they'll look fine on the discs. So if there's a way I can test it like I can test discs, that would be great.

 

If there's not a way to do that, then where do I go to watch Drive G?

thanks

[Brian from OKC]

Ok I'm back. Since the last time I posted, I've burned over 50 DVDs with absolutely no problem! They all play perfectly well. But this particular project (and now 2 others) still has the "no menu" problem that started this topic. I've done some playing around on my own here, and the results are very interesting.

 

As I mentioned before, this project has 2 titles in it. By burning them seperately to DVDs, I determined which title was causing the problem, and I zeroed in on it. It's 31 minutes long, and I figure there's a problem somewhere inside those 31-minutes that's causing the menu to crap out. I've captured, imported, and burned this thing several different times, exactly the same way I did all the other 50 projects.

 

In videowave, I broke the 31-minute title it into 4 small titles (15min, 4 min, 4min, and 8min) and saved them separately as 4 different files. Then in MyDVD I burned each little title to its very own DVD. I expected one of them to fail -- the one that holds the corrupt portion of the 31-minute video. But all 4 DVDs played just fine! Next, I tried putting all 4 small movies into one single DVD. It also played just fine!

 

So: if I break the 31-minute movie into seperate chunks, the chunks will play just fine. But if I try to burn the entire 31 minutes as one single chunk, the menu won't play. What on earth could cause this?

[gi7omy]

Presuming you set up Disc Image Loader (in Tools on the main Roxio menu in start, all programs), just point it to the iso image file

[Brian from OKC]

I've managed to successfully burn 2 more projects that work perfectly, but the one that started this chain still won't work. Everything about these projects is exactly the same -- the settings, the background, the menus, even the fonts -- except the videos themselves. I've tried multiple brands of media, and multiple DVD players, always with the same results. Evidently there's something inside one of the two titles in that project, that Roxio doesn't like. Now I'm setting out to find it. The reason I'm being so persistent with this project is because it's sentimentally valuable old home movies.

 

Whatever the problem is, it looks just fine when I play the iso in an emulated drive, and it looks just fine if I put it on a rewritable disc... but when I burn it to a read-only, the menu refuses to play, and sometimes the disc doesn't even get recognized.

 

One of these titles is 21 minutes, and one is 40 minutes. I'm going to start my testing my burning a project that contains only the 21-minute movie. If it plays just fine, that tells me the problem is with the other movie. After I've determined which movie contains the problem, I'll split it into chunks and keep burning each one in its own project, until one of them fails. Then I'll split that chunk into chunks, etc etc. I want to find out what's causing this, in case it comes back to haunt me in the future.

 

Now here's my question for you: can you think of a way I can do this, without wasting 20 more discs? Any kind of test I can run, DVDInfoPro, or anything?

[ggrussell]

Whatever the problem is, it looks just fine when I play the iso in an emulated drive, and it looks just fine if I put it on a rewritable disc... but when I burn it to a read-only, the menu refuses to play, and sometimes the disc doesn't even get recognized.

Sounds more like a media problem. Do you have any other 'brand' to blank DVD Rs?