Re: UPDATE!!!! VOBU length & number of sectors disagree

Alright, Alexander, here's the short version,

Lucas is wrong on all counts.

I was first correct that Alan's VOBU Length and number of sectors disagree error was most likely due to a problem reading the Image, and not a DVD Studio Pro problem. In fact, Alan's Image was cut off at the 2 gig mark, with the settings he finally said he used in Toast. Definitely hard to read an Image that's partly not there, wouldn't you say? :-) DVD Studio Pro did not cause Alan's issue.

You nailed it Alexander (you know, I am hiring :-).

FACT: This 'VOBU Length and number of sectors disagree' error has never been proved to be an authoring system issue with DVD Studio Pro or any other authoring system on any single image. Not one.

Even the few I've been involved in helping clients with over the years, I can't say for sure if it was the changes we made, or some momentary or permanent improvement in the client's computer I/O or other unknown parameter allowed all the sectors to finally get where they were supposed to be placed by the authoring system. I've heard of folks on the lists saying they thought this error was caused by assets that were not linked to, and once they removed them the error went away. But what else could it have been? More details were needed. But I do know you can do a simple copy of a file from one hard drive to another, or over the network and something can wrong where sectors end up missing. What if these examples of folks, including me, "doing something" is really more to do with it being time to replace the old system hard drive on the Authoring computer? I always use checksums when moving my clients' Images around - and just retired an older Firewire drive that began to fail these compares.

FACT: There have been probably tens of thousands of cases of this error documented due to have been caused by Image submission on DVD-R. I've got a bunch of these documented instances, myself.

Apple has been inundated with these VOBU Length errors at their tech support center over the last couple of years, and they will tell you it's not their issue. They blame it on the Image "Carrier". I just so happen to have arrived at the same conclusion independently myself, several years ago: DVD Studio Pro does not output Images with this error. I've never seen it on any of the hundreds of DLT submissions I've been involved with. My clients submit Images to me strictly on hard drive, from every conceivable configuration . And you know me, if there was a problem with Apple's output, I'd be all over it.

Sad part of it is, most replicators are staring right at the results, and don't know what they're looking at. You should know the true failure rate of DVD-R submissions at replication facilities.

There's a real slaughter going on out there on this issue, but don't blame DVD Studio Pro for it.

Take care,

Trai

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Trai Forrester
TFDVD Research Labs
DVDVerification.com