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"Choppy video when recorded to CD-R"


1/28/2000 (3:52 pm) by Steve Bond    

Steve Bond
(39 Posts)

I am copying a video file (from a video camera) from my hard drive (Maxtor) to a CD-R (HP 7200). The video plays fine directly from the hard drive but when recorded on a CD the images and sound are choppy and unusable. Any suggestions on what I can do?


1/28/2000 (5:21 pm) by admin Staff    

(24314 Posts)

Play back the CD on a faster CD-ROM drive. CD-Rs generally aren't as fast as most stand alone CD-ROMs. The problem is that the hard drive can transfer data up to 33 MegaBytes/second, while your CD-R can only do (I'll look it up right now)...boy HP is slow today... 6X speed which is only up to 900 KiloBytes/second. Major difference. If you get a stand-alone CD-ROM you'll get anywhere up to 50X speed, and it should work quite a bit better (but you'll never have as good transfer rates as the hard drive - not that you necissarily need it for video (I think MPEG2 only requires <15 MB/s and .avi's quite a bit less)).


1/28/2000 (6:13 pm) by Steve Bond    

Steve Bond
(39 Posts)

I played it back on a regular 24X CD-ROM and it was still the same.


1/28/2000 (7:37 pm) by admin Staff    

(24314 Posts)

This sounds counterintuitive, but I remember reading that if you have problems with CD-R's skipping while playing back video, you should go into the Windows file system settings and set the CD-Rom access pattern to "No read-ahead"
(Control Panel -> System -> Performance tab -> File System button -> CD-ROM tab --- Change the field called "Optimize access pattern for:" to No read-ahead)

I don't know if this actually works since I have not encountered this problem. However, you can try it out and if it doesn't help, it's easy enough to switch back.


1/29/2000 (12:30 am) by Steve Bond    

Steve Bond
(39 Posts)

That did not work either. I don't know what else to do. Any other ideas?


2/4/2000 (4:14 pm) by admin Staff    

(24314 Posts)

What's the file type: .avi, .mpg? What version of windows do you have running? What chipset is on your motherboard (Via, intel?). What CPU? Have you tried playing back the CD on another machine? I'll get to the bottom of this! :)


2/7/2000 (12:45 pm) by Anonymous    

(1082 Posts)

avi. windows 98 Gateway system pentium II 350 with intel bx chipset. I have tried other machines.

If I copy the file from the CD I created to the hard drive and then play it from the hard drive it does work well - so I guess the CD player is too slow or something (but I would think 32X should be fast enough).


2/7/2000 (8:12 pm) by admin Staff    

(24314 Posts)

I found a link that you might be interested in. <A HREF="" TARGET="_top"></A> - It's all about the avi format. You might try updating your codecs (maybe there is a more efficient one out there?). Have you tried playing it back on a faster CD-ROM (faster than 32X?). Very odd indeed. You might want to try saving the video file in a different format (or convert after you create the avi), like mpeg? What format do you save the CD as (Joliet or ISO??)... I'm not sure if that would make a difference, but who knows?


3/24/2000 (4:09 pm) by admin Staff    

(24314 Posts)

I posted a message last year when I had DVD problems. I got some helpful responses but
I eventually solved my problem by uninstalling
the DVD software that came with my Gateway G6-350
( Cinemaster) and installing Windvd R 1.2.

My new problem is in the audio. I get an occasional jitter when playing a DVD. I have tried
many different movies and it seems to happen on all of them. There is nothing consistant about the problem and there is no other applications that are active when it occurs.

You could be watching The Matrix and all of a sudden you get the jitter, it lasts of a second or three and goes away and it may not happen again in that movie.

Does anyone have any ideas.
Thanks Ed


10/15/2000 (7:54 am) by admin Staff    

(24314 Posts)

Is there any place to download codecs? or any place that can offer advice about them?