DVD-R image quality

[Morey, Laurence R]

In response to Ian's question about DVD quality of burned DVDs on his DVD player and TV: I have burned many DVD's (some with iDVD and many with a Panasonic stand alone burner) and found that varying results were typically due to the DVD player used.  I tried many types of media (Apple, Sony, Pioneer, generic, TDK, Verbatim, etc.) and many various DVD players by going to Sears, REX, Walmart, etc. to test a bunch of my DVDs on all of their players.  Some did well, some didn't.  Some DVD players played fine, some stuttered only at certain scenes, some wouldn't play DVD-Rs at all.  Quality of the image varied some too.  After a few weeks of trying various combinations, I determined the DVD player to be the most critical path in DVD-R quality and playability.  I found that most DVD player manufacturers had some models that worked well and some that didn't.  I believe it has to do with the firmware they use in the various DVD players.  Sony, JVC, Panasonic, and Toshiba seemed to have the most models which handled
Hope this helps, 
Laurence Morey Tangible 
Infinity Productions 
Painted Post, NY


Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 11:40:55 +0930
Subject: [MacDV] iDVD Menus
From: Ian Tucker <carlian at picknowl.com.au>
Message-Id: <54C43A96-6967-11D7-8547-0003938335F2 at picknowl.com.au>


Approx. one month ago I listed concerns I had with the quality of menus 
I had prepared and burnt with iDVD3 ( the finished product was 
seriously degraded from the template etc I had worked on in preparing 
the DVD).  My concerns were confirmed by at least two other people.

I now have to confess that I had not tried the finished DVD in my G4 
and instead,  had based my observations on watching it on our Loewe TV 
via our Pioneer DV-344 DVD Player.  A couple of days ago I  decided to 
view a couple of the DVD's I had burnt on the G4, using the Superdrive, 
  and found the actual quality is not much less than the original 
template , buttons etc.   It seems that the combination of our TV set 
and DVD player is the main cause for the reduction in viewing quality, 
not iDVD!   Sorry Apple!!

Is there anything I can do to improve the clarity of the picture when 
using our TV and DVD Player?   I notice, particularly when I first 
start watching one of my DVD's prepared in iDVD3 that there is a 
certain amount of pulsing/shimmer with some images.

Thanks,
Ian Tucker.