DVD +R disks

Bimbing · Post by **Bimbing** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 3:25 pm

I seemed to have problems with Memorex DVD +R disks (4x - 8x). For example, the DVD burned on the disk played well the first time, then on the second viewing, it quit in the middle. Unlike magnetic disk, I thought that once a project is burned on a DVD disk, it could not get errors anymore. Could it be due to the burning software not doing a good job?

Before using Memorex disks, I used HP DVD+R's but I found that an average of 1 or 2 for every 10 disk, I got burning errors.
Could anyone give me recommendations as to what brand DVD +R disk I would have better results with?

Thanks,
HTan

raygo · Post by **raygo** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 3:31 pm

been using Verbatim dvd+R for past year and have backed up over 200 dvd's with never a probem..
Always plays fine in set top dvd players..
I have a 16x Plextor so I switch between 8x and 16x disks...
Also use Taiyo Yuden (DVD+R47ZZSB8) 8X DVD+R which is cream of the crop for Plextors and maybe your burner also..

TDK1044 · Post by **TDK1044** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 4:58 pm

I'm a big fan of Pioneer Burners and Verbatim Disks. I've owned 4 Pioneer Burners and I've yet to have a problem. Same goes for Verbatim Disks.

Helge · Post by **Helge** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:14 pm

I had good experiances with Verbatim 8x printable and cheap 4x media (Ricoh) nonprintable from Aldi / Lidl burned with my 2 and a half year old pioneer burner. But as I recently wanted to buy new printable media only 16x Verbatim and 8x TDK had been available. Since pioneer does no longer support this burner with firmware the results where very bad. I did a lot of tests and trew away ten dvds. (10 * 2.5€ !)
So I decided to buy a new burner. After checking the test reports at www.cdrlabs.com , www.cdrinfo.com , www.cdfreaks.com I bought benq 1655. I can really recomend this burner. Good burner, good software, good utilities (for testing ...). You can even measure the quality of a dvd before burning

You can destroy cds and dvds using stubid software (my worst experiances are with roxio) but I had never any problems with ulead or nero.

I recomment to test the quality of a burned dvd before deleting your video (or dvd folder) from disk. For this I use the newest version of cdspeed, which is freely available from www.cdspeed2000.com. Not every drive (burner or reader) does support test output.

So try with all drives you have. The results even for the same dvd are also different. (also the test sampling rates, the speeds used for testing...) In general results from burners are better as from read only drives. But this is also an important hint, since you probably want that your dvd is playable in a standalone (readonly) player.
E.g. for good dvds I get a quality index of about 98% when testing with my new benq and about 45% with my sony read only drive. The disks I threw away had quality index zero % with both drives (also the error rate was lower with benq).

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:57 pm

...the disk played well the first time, then on the second viewing, it quit in the middle... I thought that once a project is burned on a DVD disk, it could not get errors anymore.

Right! The disc should be OK as long as you don't scratch or otherwise physically damage it.

It's probably the player. Does it play in your computer, on the drive you burned it on? Some players can't play "burned" DVDs at all. Some players have trouble with some formats Try a DVD-R. For more than you want to know about DVD compatibility, take a look at Digital FAQ.com.

If you want to read about DVD quality / brand issues, take a look at this other Digital FAQ.com page.

Bimbing · Post by **Bimbing** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:15 pm

Thanks Raygo, TDK1044. and Helge for your replies. From now on I will get Verbatim disks. Yesterday, I purchased JVC +R's and I will exchange them with Verbatims.
My burners are HP DVD/VD writer combo (came with my HP system) and a Plextor 16x. I am using also Nero, that came with the Plextor drive, as well as Copy-to-DVD softwares.

As recommended by Helge, I downloaded Nero DVD-CD Speed and try to run this. Do you check the disk with "Disk Quality" or "Scan Disk"?
HTan

Mike-Mat · Post by **Mike-Mat** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:27 pm

I've been using RiData DVD blanks. I just got some from http://www.newegg.com 16x - 100 pkg $36 . I thought that was a good deal. I have TDK 440n and Panasonic 16X and NEC 3550 drives. Rarely make a bad DVD any more.

Some players willonly play Factory DVD's or only 1 style ( -R or +R ).

Mike Mattera

Helge · Post by **Helge** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:35 pm

I most often use disk quality and disk info. (Disk info tells you more details when used with a burner. E.g. you get information about the "true" manufacturer - at least about who pretended he to be.

)
I find quality acceptable if PI-failures/PO-errors dont exceed 7 with my sony drive. Its also ok for me if there is one large peek and all other are below 4, since this happens nearly allways at the same location and independent of the disk and of with which burner I had burned the disk. So its likely a failure of the sony drive, not of the disk. (For playback I can use other drives, but I dont have so much which support testing.)

I can also recomment taiyo yuden media.

Helge · Post by **Helge** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:46 pm

Look at the sites I mentioned above, if they had tested your burner or a similar model. They test the burners usually with about 6 different media. So you can eventually see which worked good and which not. Media which worked fine with one burner might be totaly bad with some other, because it depends on the fimware. If the firmware "knews" the media than its good otherwise not.

Mike-Mat · Post by **Mike-Mat** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:40 pm

I guess I dont see it

. What site did you mention above?

NEVERMIND: I see it, Wayyy above. I need to look past the end of my nose

. Thanks

Mike Mattera

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:39 pm

FWIW, I have four DVD burners (an LG, two Pioneers and an ASUS, all but one Pioneer being dual layer, and the ASUS being only 8x). I use Ritek discs almost exclusively, and these work perfectly on all four burners. Had a small number of rejects, but they were all due to human error...

But regardless of the discs I use (I also sometimes use Princo with great success, but they don't seem to have full face discs) or their rated speed, I never burn my DVDs at anything faster than 4x. This seems to seat the laser signal of the burner better. And it thus also IMHO allows a wider variety of stand-alone players to have a chance of playing the discs correctly.

In this regard, I fully endorse DVDDoug's comments about looking at your player as being one of the culprits. As has been said a million times on this Board and elsewhere, the more expensive brand name players seem to be the worst in refusing certain types of discs, while the el cheapo Chinese varieties seem to play anything round and silver quite happily...

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:56 pm

I wholeheartedly endorse Ken's comments re burning speed. I use all manner of cheap DVD+R media, and have yet to experience any major problems. Some 8x Sony disks needed to be burned at 4x max recently.

I wonder if you are a smoker? If you ever clean a smoker's pc, it's just amazing how much nicotine condenses on all surfaces. You might be able to clean the problem drive/burner if it turns out to be the culprit, as opposed to the media.

Bimbing · Post by **Bimbing** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:07 pm

Thanks to DVDDoug I know now how to check the manufacturer of the disks. The information found on the site "Digital FAQ.com" is really helpful. There is one problem however, to see the manufacturer of the disk, I have to open the sealed disk package (spindle) and check it with Nero CD-DVDSpeed. If it shows that the manufacturer is one that produces low quality disks, I have to return the package and hope that the store will give me a refund or an exchange. I wish there is a means to determine the manufacturer by inspecting the package or label.
Thanks again to all who responded. All your comments are very hekofulk to me. HTan

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:18 am

I have a 16x DVD writer. I use 8x DVD -R discs which I purchase in bulk at a computer fair. They never seem to have the same brand twice so every trip to a computer fair often means a change of brand.

From my experience I have discovered that discs burned faster than 4x are not playable in some of the several DVD players at my disposal, some even refuse to play at all.

Discs burned at 4x produce no problems and play in all of the standalone DVD players available to myself, friends and family.

Care of DVD discs is also important, you need to avoid scratching the surface, getting fingermarks or other dirt on them.

Helge · Post by **Helge** » Sat Apr 29, 2006 10:32 am

Having bought a new burner I wanted it to know. So I burned the same type of media (100 spindel taiyo yuden 8x -R) at 8x, 4x and 2.4x with same content. I would also had burned it at 1x, but the disk does not allow this. (This are true taiyo yuden, not disks just saying that they would be...)
When compared with cdspeed the difference in quality between 4x and 8x was very small (4x was a little better), about as large as burning two disks identical. But the disk burned with 2.4x was quite bad.
I think this has something to do with overexposure. The high speed media is very sensitiv, so the burner has to lower the power of the laser. (Its a little bit as if you use a 1000 ASA film in your foto camera.) Eighter it is not able to lower it so much, or the precision at this lower level is no longer so good (quantisation). Til now I did not try 16x media, but I expect similar effects: 8x buring might give better results than 4x burning.
The advantage of the higher precision due to lower speed might be compensated from the disadvantage of the lower precision due to reduced power of the laser.