Compressor mpeg2 compatibility

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody has been having compatibility problems with DVDs encoded from MPEG2 files created in Compressor. Specifically I am having issues with European region 2 Pioneer DVD Players. I have material encoded in Compressor 2.02 (and built using DVD SP 1.5) as NTSC 24p and 29.97 MPEG2 (both 16:9 and 4:3) files on a disc set as Region free.

I haven't been able to conduct tests on a large number of Players, but Compressor seems to have broken compatibility with at least my European Pionneer DV-737 (a higher end 2001 model) and a DV-515 (an old mid-range 1998 model). The same material encoded as NTSC with the DVD SP 1.5 MPEG2 codec works fine. With Compressor the 515 stumbles through decoding and often hangs whereas the 737 returns to the menu after failing to read the track (it is however possible to get the track to work by holding the forward search button as it is selected). I have tested the disc also with European region 2 and American region 1 Playstation 2 machines without problems and a couple of low-end American region 1 Players (Sony & Apex) and a low-end European region 2 Pioneer, also without fault.

There are so many varibles at play here, that I'm sure it could be problems with just these specific Pioneers - I was just wondering if people have found wider compatibility issues with Compressor encoded material on DVD Players.

Thanks

Daniel

There have been reported problems with DVD SP2 and Pioneer players. According to several people on the Apple forums these are addressed in the latest upgrade. I know that you are using 1.5.

What is the bitrate that you encoded? How did you handle the audio? A total bitrate above 7.5 is just asking for problems, throw in converting on the fly and this could be it. Are there any other differences in how you put together your project besides the encoder?

thanks for the note. Apart from the encoders, the projects are the same - the Compressor one doesn't work and the DVD SP 1.5 MPEG2 encoder one does. The audio is Dolby Digital (at either 192Kbps or 448Kbps depending on the material) encoded using A-Pack from DVD SP 1.5. My main track has a bitrate (Compressor 2-pass VBR 24p best settings) that averages around 7.5 but goes over very often. In fact I think it it has peaks that get to 9mbps, which I guess is asking for trouble (the footage originated on grainy 16mm - it doesn't look pretty at lower bitrates!). However other material on the disc, again encoded using Compressor 2-pass VBR at 24p and additionally at 29.97 has a max peak at about 5.9mbps and also fails to playback the Players (again it doesn't even get started on one of them). Compressor CBR fails too. Maybe these Pioneer players don't like the combination of Compressor and DVD SP 1.5.

Thanks again,

Daniel