Authoring a DVD from MP4 Files - Keeps Sticking/Jittering when Screen goes White

[FONT=Georgia]Hello.

I’m going batty, right now.

I’m trying to author a DVD for a client. We have about twelve MP4 files we made which add up to about eleven minutes of footage. All of the MP4 files play perfectly.

After authoring the DVD together using DVD Flick however, I’ve found the most irritating problem. At a few points throughout the movie we have the screen fading to white, and at each of those points, during the fade, playback would ‘jitter’. I don’t know what other word to use; It sort of st-ic-ks wh-il-e pla-yin-g those parts.

I’ve been researching it all day and trying different things. I tried variable vs. constant bit rates (at lower and higher qualities). I tried converting the MP4 files to other formats, including AVI. I tried playing back with the video player window smaller (just to test if it was the playback that was the trouble or the actual authored DVD). I tried NTSC and ‘NTSC-film’ formats. I tried reducing the number of video files to just one.

Each time, the same thing happens. At those points where the screen goes white, it- st-art-s to fr-ee-ze- up.

I’m baffled. I have no clue what the trouble could be.

Could anyone out there lend me a few more suggestions to try?[/FONT]

This is a bit of a “shot in the dark” but, have you tried playing any of these on different hardware? Another computer?

[FONT=Georgia]No, my second computer went down earlier this year. Wish I could test, you could well be right.

Some googling also lead me to something called ‘muxing’ that could be the culprit. It might be an issue with DVD Flick’s ‘muxing’.

I’m trying a different authoring software to see if I have better luck with that one.[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia]Success!

Using DVDStyler to author the DVD instead of DVD Flick solved it.

Nice program too. And it was able to set chapters at specific points, unlike DVD Flick.[/FONT]

I am very happy to see you solved the problem.
I hope this thread will help someone else, sometime in the future.

For now, in order to not attract too much fluff, this thread is closed.

[FONT=Georgia]Wait! One more thing!

So, as it turned out, DVDStyler was still choppy. I didn’t notice because I played back in VLC Player and didn’t test on regular, old Windows Media Player. So I only discovered it, slightly embarrassingly, when showing someone else to get his opinion. Subsequently testing on a Mac and two PCs, we found that Quicktime and Windows Media Player showed a similar jittery effect as what was happening before, only all throughout the video (not just at the fades) and more subtle so it was hard to detect at first. You just feel uneasy and motion-sick watching it and only realise after awhile that it’s sort of speeding up and slowing down slightly all through the playback.

So here’s the lesson; Test, test, test!

And here’s an updated solution.

After experimenting with various combinations of bitrates and audio bitrates in DVDStyler, I downloaded and tried yet another freeware authoring software, this one called ‘Free Videos to DVD’.

Free Videos to DVD is a tiny program with no features and no customisation. But, as it turned out, the files it authored played back smoothly and beautifully! So my workflow became, run my original MP4 files through Free Videos to DVD to generate those smooth VOB files.

Then run those VOB files through DVDStyler to add menus and add chapters, being sure to check the box in the video properties, “do not remultiplex/transcode,” which is only clickable for VOB files.

Let DVDStyler burn the final disc.

I’m not sure but my suspicion is it was still that “muxing” (aka. remultiplexing) that was causing the choppy / jittery / jerky playback.

So Free Videos to DVD was (I assume) better at muxing than DVDStyler and DVD Flick, which is why turning off DVDStyler’s multiplex/transcode checkbox on Free Videos to DVD’s generated VOB files worked.

Of course, I’m not going to settle for this until testing, testing, testing!

Leaving here in a minute to try on a friend’s TV / DVD Player.

I hope that wasn’t too wordy to understand.

And I hope it helps someone else googling for a solution to a similar, baffling problem as I’d been having.[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia]Links, as of 24th December, 2013

Careful when installing Free Videos to DVD though, because the installation bundles other software and toolbars which you may not want on your machine.[/FONT]