Burns on Verbatim DVD but not Delkin DVD

[RTR1944]

I have been using VS10+ and burning to Verbatim DVD-R 16x Certified at 4.0x with virtually no problems since Dell replaced the burner. A speaker at a Nikon seminar suggested using Delkin Archival Gold DVD-R 4x because it supposed to last longer. I try to do exactly the same burn and it will not work.

I could burn the movie file through Roxio but I don't get the benefits of the authoring.

Any suggestions?

[sjj1805]

Possibly you have a bad batch of discs.
Also possible is that you need to update your burners firmware. New discs come out on the market on a regular basis and the DVD burner manufacturers update their firmware to take into account the new brands.

Does Roxio burn DVD's that have been created onto hard drive folders, or alternatively image files? If so you can also create your DVD with VideoStudio that way.

For further suggestions please view:
DVD burning/playback issues

[woodchuck]

I had a smiliar experience with some SONY DVD's I purchased. Updating the firmware solved the problem.

[RTR1944]

Thanks - I'll try the firmware suggestion.

I have a total of 5 DVD's that I want to keep forever (preferably on the Delkin). 4 of these were burned on the Delkin through VS10+ last September. The burner was replaced on November 1 so maybe the new burner's firmware needs to be updated. I will call Dell and check that out and let you know

[RTR1944]

There are no updates on the firmware to our current burner

Steve, I wasn't clear on your Roxio + ULead theory. Could you explain that further?

I did try burning a DVD through Roxio's LE Edition that comes with Dell and I had the same problem - worked OK with Verbatim but not with Delkin. The latter gave me a message "unknown error: 2131042562 -4

[heinz-oz]

I think your burner dislikes this particular media.

What Steve was referring to is this: You can finish your video creation and "burn" the result to either DVD folders on your HDD or to an ISO image file. I do that all the time because I do not want to have to copy a burned DVD if one of my relatives wants a copy too. I simply burn the image to another blank and get exactly the same every time. It's also my way of keeping another back up of my creations but not on an optical disk. I have a large external HDD to archive my photos and DVD videos.

These DVD folders or ISO images can be burned with any burning program which offers this facility. I often burn with NERO for instance but have also burned these with DVD MF 5+. Another advantage is this: I usually stay on the high side with my bitrate estimates to maximise quality. When I "burn" the resultant DVD folder and find it a bit too big for a standard SL DVD blank, I can run this through DVD Shrink to reduce it in size to fit the destination disk.

[2Dogs]

I agree with Heinz - your burner probably just doesn't "like" the media. I have 7 different burners, and they all have their favourite media types, and some types that they just can't write to.

I've also found that most burners tend to give better results to DVD+R media. People used to favour DVD-R, since it was more compatible with early standalone or set-top DVD players, but these days it's no longer an issue.

All my burners write far better to Verbatim 16x DVD+R than to Verbatim 16x DVD-R. Verbatim is pretty decent media, too, fairly consistent in quality. I'd suggest you could try TDK 16x DVD+R 9 (made in Malaysia) and Sony 16x DVD+R.

If the longevity really is critical, you're better off archiving to a hard drive, as Heinz described.

What is the make and model of your burner, incidentally?

[htchien]

All the comments on the lasting time of the media are just predictions. No one knows if those comments will be true or not. I don't think it's wise to change the media since Verbatim is working well with your burner.

Some speakers will recommend something to the audience because they have been sponsored by the manufacturer so they have to advertise the product in the speech and attack the competitors of the sponsor. Just take those comments as advertisement and you have to try it by yourself to know if their comments are true.

My oldest CD which is burned 10 years ago now is not working anymore. I remember several years ago CNet Lab had done some tests on the lasting time of the burned CD/DVD media and none of them would last more than 6 years even in the best conditions. For keeping the data on the media more secure you should reburn them to another disk/media periodically, not to replace the media brand.

For compatible media of the burner you have, you might want to check the burner list below:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters

Some people will list their experiences on burners and compatible media in that link.

Hope this helps.

H.T.