Persistent black screens in the dvd

[asparrow]

I have been getting black blank screens burned in my dvds even when they appear normal in the previews. I've tried doing small edits in the images but this only sometimes works. How can I prevent this from happening? I've been working on the same slideshow for days now!

 

BTW, I've updared my drivers, direct x, cleaned temp and %temp% folders, and repeateadly defragged.

 

Charlie

[asparrow]

Charlie, are you really trying to put 2000 images and some avi files on the disc? Do you have transitions between those images? Just remember if you put more than one hour of "movies" on a standard DVD, then the resolution quality goes down. You may not notice it much. If you try to put more than about 2 hours on a standard DVD, then you might run into all kinds of problems. Normally what happens is that the end of the movies are cut off.

 

According to your post, you are creating the slide show in Video Wave and saving it. Before you save the project, go to the top menu and select Tools, Options, and then "Clear" the Proxy files. Wait a minute, and then save the project. Don't close it. Use the film reel icon above the preview to out the project as an mpg2 file best quality. Name it and indicate where you want to save it. It will encode to a DVD compliant format. If there is a problem encoding the project, there may be a problem with a transition, audio file, image,etc. Note the time and you'll be able to trouble shoot the glitch. Repeat this for each of the titles. Since they are mpg2 files, you can view them in something like CinePlayer or WMP to see if the blank panels are still there.

 

Once they are all encoded to the mpg2 file format, simply add those to the My DVD menu. When you go to burn, the titles will not have to be encoded again so it will go pretty fast once the disc structure and the menu is encoded. Again use the ISO method.

 

One thing I don't remember is if the same images are always the ones that are blank or if the images that are blank switch randomly.

 

Yes, there are really about two thousand digital photos. There are about 800 on the first dvd, 800 on the second and 400 on the third. The avi files are on the third dvd only. I use dissolves as my transition with 0.7 seconds duration. The photos have a duration of 4.0 seconds each. I also use motion within the photo. Although I have menus and chapters within two of the titles, I've set it for continuous play. Background music accompanies all of the above. When it works it looks great. The blank screens are annoying and seem to be in the same position in the sequence most of the time.

 

Charlie

 

[bimicher]

Yes, there are really about two thousand digital photos. There are about 800 on the first dvd, 800 on the second and 400 on the third. The avi files are on the third dvd only. I use dissolves as my transition with 0.7 seconds duration. The photos have a duration of 4.0 seconds each. I also use motion within the photo. Although I have menus and chapters within two of the titles, I've set it for continuous play. Background music accompanies all of the above. When it works it looks great. The blank screens are annoying and seem to be in the same position in the sequence most of the time.

 

Charlie

 

In an earlier post you said you saved the slideshow via Videowave to a movie file (mpeg, best quality I hope). Do you get the blank "screens" when you play that movie through WMP? Does the iso file you created also have the blanks?

[sknis]

I have been getting black blank screens burned in my dvds even when they appear normal in the previews. I've tried doing small edits in the images but this only sometimes works. How can I prevent this from happening? I've been working on the same slideshow for days now!

 

BTW, I've updared my drivers, direct x, cleaned temp and %temp% folders, and repeateadly defragged.

 

Charlie

Charlie, when you go to burn the project in My DVD, select to create an ISO file and uncheck the other options. Name the file and where you want it saved. Let the project encode and then preview it in Copy and Convert or by mounting it in a virtual drive (under the Tools tab). If it looks OK, just copy the ISO file to a blank DVD.

 

The making of the ISO file and then the copying that file to your DVD separates the encoding from the burning so your computer is only doing one thing at a time.

 

Make sure you have check your hard drive for malware and that it has recently been defragged (do it even if Windows says you don;t have to). Make sure that nothing else id running during the encoding including your anti-virus software. No games or reading e-mail either.

[asparrow]

I save in either videowave or MyDVD (not sure which since the program seems to switch) to a project file I think. It starts with a "dXXX". Sorry for the imprecision but I'm away from my desktop until tomorrow. I haven't yet previewed the iso file except to view the actual dvd. And yes, there they are.

 

Charlie

[Big_Dave]

You might want to try software rendering. I was just burning a photo DVD today to the hard drive using MyDVD and hardware rendering and had a black silde. I switched to software rendering and it went away. I am using EMC version 9.1 but it may work for you with version 10. Mine also appeared OK in preview.

[asparrow]

And let us know the results…

 

 

I'm already using software rendering. I'm defragging TWICE A DAY now as well as deleting the files in "temp" and "%temp%". I disable both Norton Internet Security and a separate antispyware program, disconnect from the net, set screensaver to "none," turn off the monitor and create only an iso file. All this helped a bit but not 100 per cent. Worse still, when I preview in MyDVD, the black screens mostly appear normal (i. e. NOT BLANK/BLANK) but later appear BLACK but with the soundtrack playing in the new dvd. I've tried doing the minor edit trick too. It sometimes works but not 100 per cent either. I ran a full Norton antiviral scan and had only two tracking cookies which I eliminated.

 

I also tried to reduce the speed of the burn from 4X to 2.4X (sometimes 2.3 is the option). No luck.

 

I'd like to try to try to preview the iso file as you suggest but could you elaborate as to how to do that more precisely. If the preview does show more black screens, can I edit the iso file or do I go back to MyDVD, edit, resave, and reburn to the iso file again?

 

Thanks.

 

Charlie

[james_hardin]

And let us know the results…

[bimicher]

I'm already using software rendering. I'm defragging TWICE A DAY now as well as deleting the files in "temp" and "%temp%". I disable both Norton Internet Security and a separate antispyware program, disconnect from the net, set screensaver to "none," turn off the monitor and create only an iso file. All this helped a bit but not 100 per cent. Worse still, when I preview in MyDVD, the black screens mostly appear normal (i. e. NOT BLANK/BLANK) but later appear BLACK but with the soundtrack playing in the new dvd. I've tried doing the minor edit trick too. It sometimes works but not 100 per cent either. I ran a full Norton antiviral scan and had only two tracking cookies which I eliminated.

 

I also tried to reduce the speed of the burn from 4X to 2.4X (sometimes 2.3 is the option). No luck.

 

I'd like to try to try to preview the iso file as you suggest but could you elaborate as to how to do that more precisely. If the preview does show more black screens, can I edit the iso file or do I go back to MyDVD, edit, resave, and reburn to the iso file again?

 

Thanks.

 

Charlie

 

From you posts I gather that you used myDVD to create and edit your slideshow. That is unfortunate since you should really be using Videowave to do that part of a video project. myDVD is mainly used for menu creation and DVD burning.

With Videowave you could ouput your production to a DVD compliant mpg file which could be played by WMP. This might tell you if there are problems with your project and where they are.

 

To play the iso file, start Video Copy & Convert, load the iso file and select play

[asparrow]

From you posts I gather that you used myDVD to create and edit your slideshow. That is unfortunate since you should really be using Videowave to do that part of a video project. myDVD is mainly used for menu creation and DVD burning.

With Videowave you could ouput your production to a DVD compliant mpg file which could be played by WMP. This might tell you if there are problems with your project and where they are.

 

To play the iso file, start Video Copy & Convert, load the iso file and select play

 

 

Now they tell me! I'm trying to create a three dvd slideshow with appropriate background music of still digital photos as well as a number of AVI files of my daughter's wedding. I have about 2000 photos to include. I usually start with create slideshow and edit this in videowave. I'm forced to edit in videowave since I can't move the images otherwise. I save it as a movie. Each movie ultimately becomes a menu item, e.g., GROOM PREPARES, BRIDE PREPARES, CHURCH, COCKTAILS, DANCING, etc.After I've done a number of movies, I then use MyDVD. I add about seven or eight movies, choose the menu setting I like, do another edit of the individual movies including photo editing, position in the sequence of slides, moving the music around, changing the fonts and so on. I save it and then try to burn it. Here comes the major snag: BLACK BLANK SLIDES in the dvd. These don't always appear to be black when I press play within each movie. I also had problems getting EMC to burn the disc at all. Now I do an iso file first and burn the iso file to disc. I still get the black blank files but at least I get it to burn the disc. I'm glad I'm using +RW media! (They're good for 1000 wipes, right? I hope I don't test that with this project.)

 

Is there a better way to approach the project? This is my first serious foray into creating this kind of project. What I've almost achieved is breathtaking compared to merely loading a thousand images onto a disc with no music.

 

Thanks to all who have responded to my posts. You've really, really helped!

 

Charlie

[sknis]

Now they tell me! I'm trying to create a three dvd slideshow with appropriate background music of still digital photos as well as a number of AVI files of my daughter's wedding. I have about 2000 photos to include.

Thanks to all who have responded to my posts. You've really, really helped!

 

Charlie

 

Charlie, are you really trying to put 2000 images and some avi files on the disc? Do you have transitions between those images? Just remember if you put more than one hour of "movies" on a standard DVD, then the resolution quality goes down. You may not notice it much. If you try to put more than about 2 hours on a standard DVD, then you might run into all kinds of problems. Normally what happens is that the end of the movies are cut off.

 

According to your post, you are creating the slide show in Video Wave and saving it. Before you save the project, go to the top menu and select Tools, Options, and then "Clear" the Proxy files. Wait a minute, and then save the project. Don't close it. Use the film reel icon above the preview to out the project as an mpg2 file best quality. Name it and indicate where you want to save it. It will encode to a DVD compliant format. If there is a problem encoding the project, there may be a problem with a transition, audio file, image,etc. Note the time and you'll be able to trouble shoot the glitch. Repeat this for each of the titles. Since they are mpg2 files, you can view them in something like CinePlayer or WMP to see if the blank panels are still there.

 

Once they are all encoded to the mpg2 file format, simply add those to the My DVD menu. When you go to burn, the titles will not have to be encoded again so it will go pretty fast once the disc structure and the menu is encoded. Again use the ISO method.

 

One thing I don't remember is if the same images are always the ones that are blank or if the images that are blank switch randomly.