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More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: benn600 on January 01, 2008, 02:49:55 am

Title: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: benn600 on January 01, 2008, 02:49:55 am
It seems almost a guarantee that the DVD menu will skip when viewing it.  It essentially just stutters--shows hesitation, delay, or whatever is the opposite of playing smoothly and consistently.

Is there a reason for this?  Even on my fastest computers I see it.  Is there a way I can fix it?  Do other people have the same problem?
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: StFeder on January 02, 2008, 06:05:46 am
I actually have no problems like this. Maybe a codec problem?! Are all decoders set to automatic (Tools -> Options -> Playback - DVD playback settings)?
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: benn600 on January 02, 2008, 08:24:35 am
It seems to vary a bit.  I guess I'll wait and see if anyone else has the problem.  It could be the codec I'm using.  I'm trying to switch all our computers to CCCP and that may fix it.  At this point: is anyone else noticing skipping menus?
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: rjm on January 02, 2008, 10:44:50 am
Are you compressing your dvd's with Shrink or Recode? Often the menus are compressed much more highly than the main movie which can cause poor quality playback of the menus.
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: benn600 on January 02, 2008, 10:58:10 am
Nope.  Direct rips with DVD Decrypter.  Yep, they take a ton of space.  But I like 100% quality.
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: rjm on January 02, 2008, 02:33:23 pm
I like 100% quality too but I cannot detect any difference from the original using Shrink/Recode. Glynor disagrees with me but my eyes cannot see a difference.
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: glynor on January 02, 2008, 02:37:40 pm
I don't disagree... I just don't recode to higher-compressed MPEG-2 (MPEG-2 does best at high bitrates).  I'd rather use a better codec and even smaller sizes.  I recode all my stuff to x264 MKV files.  At about 1GB per 100 minutes of source footage, I can't see any difference in quality from the original source.

The skipping certainly could be a filter problem, benn, though it could be network/disk throughput.  I'd need to know a lot more about the setup.  Are these stored on a network drive?

If so, I'd guess that's the culprit right there.  If not, could you describe where the disc images live and how they're being mounted?
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: rjm on January 02, 2008, 02:43:18 pm
I also love x264 quality. Unfortuntaley no dvd players that I am aware of support it yet. Will switch as soon as players become ubiquitous.
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: glynor on January 02, 2008, 03:43:16 pm
I also love x264 quality. Unfortuntaley no dvd players that I am aware of support it yet. Will switch as soon as players become ubiquitous.

Ahhh.... Set-top Hardware support.  Yeah.... I decided a long time ago that I didn't care about that.   It was right around the time I first connected my video card to my TV in my living room. ;)
Title: Re: Why do DVD menus always skip?
Post by: benn600 on January 02, 2008, 05:34:08 pm
I'm trying to eliminate DVD players here and replace them with HTPCs with DVD player.  The problem is that some family members still have certain reasons to use the DVDs.  It is a bit upsetting when I look at the cost and effort required to get our entire movie collection available through a remote.

I was using different codecs during my testing phase and I had 7 computers working simultaneously to convert our (at that time) 300 DVD collection.  I converted our entire library three full times plus a few partial times.  I could never get a satisfactory conversion.  The incompatibilities due to the DVD format aren't pleasant but the entire original disc saved is quite nice.