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About DVD compatability-again..
I used a Sony VRD MC1 to copy and burn a DVD copy of an 8mm tape. I played the tape in a Sony DRC TRV480 and connected to the recorder with composite cables. When I gave the DVD to a friend (it was her tape) she said that it would not play in her DVD palyer without stops and starts and digital breakups. She was using a relatively new (?) dual deck/tv combo – sorry I don’t know the brand. The DVD was a white printable -R Verbatim disc manufactured by Mitsubishi. The recorder can be adjusted to record the length of tape that you have and apparently adjusts the bit rate to do so. It was set to record 2 hours on the disc and used most of the disc.
When I brought the DVD home and played it on my cheap Cyberhome CH DVD300 it played flawlessly. When I played it on my Denon hi end DVD 3800 (older unit) it played perfectly but when I played it on my Sonic Blue GoVideo dual deck it played poorly, like on her unit. Since GoVideo does not make a DVD/TV combo unit I know they are not the same unit.
So I took the original DVD and made copies of it with 5-1 copier that used Pioneer burners.
1 on a ProDisc -R mfg by ProDisc
1 on a Verbatim +R mfg by Mitsubishi
1 on a Taiyo Yuden -R manufacured by TY
and 1 on a Verbatim -R (identical disc to the original)They all played flawlessly on all DVD players. I have not tried them on her player yet.
I would appreciate any comments on this and the question I have is….
What do you tell your clients about about DVD compatability so that you don’t look like an idiot when they can’t play them. I may decide to make copies of all DVDs for distribution as they appear to be more compatable??
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6 Replies
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She probably needs a DVD+R in her machine.
I tell clients that there are compatibility issues with burned DVDs. I master on DVD-Rs because I find they work best for about 98.5% of my clients. If the disc won’t play I copy it onto a DVD+R and I usually don’t hear from them again. I tell them they can look in the front of the manual of their DVD player if they want to be sure of what it will play. The manual will say which discs the machine will play.
Some clients don’t understand. Some clients don’t understand anything. Other clients remember that they need DVD+R’s and will remind me when I do another project for them.
Last Friday I had a client pick up a master and she was going out of town for an event and wouldn’t have a chance to test the disc. So I gave her one of each so she wouldn’t be stuck at the venue with a disc that wouldn’t play.
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I also tell clients about the problems they may experience with burned DVD’s. I’ve had various problems with every brand of blank DVD they sell in places like Staples and Best Buy.
However, all of that changed when I tried Taiyo Yuden blanks. I think I heard about them on this board, and they’ve been very reliable, both in my junky (and old) DVD player, and in my clients’ machines. I went through a stack of 100 with no bad experiences on my equipment, and no complaints from clients.
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I burn everything to Taiyo Yuden DVD+R disks. I include a little note stating that on a small number of players there may be compatibility problems due to there being slight differences in the format. If I ever (none yet) get a return, I’d burn onto a DVD-R disk and ask them to try that instead.
I use DVD+R as the first try due to it’s significant improvement over the DVD-R format, and with Taiyo Yuden, I have not yet had a compatibility problem.
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I had heard the same good word about Verbatum discs which is why I generally use them. I have never had a problem before in any DVD player. Just lucky I guess. I will be testing the discs I made in my friends DVD player and see if there are any differences. I’ll try to report back here.
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There seems to be a conflict of opinion. Some sources say that DVD-R are more compatable. I guess its whatever seems to work for you. Up until this time the Verbatum -R had been fine. Its strange that an exact duplicate of the disc (Verbatum-R) made on a duplicating tower seems to work fine. Doesn’t the duplication of a disc just create a clone with the same set ups and codes etc?
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[Terry Esslinger] “There seems to be a conflict of opinion. Some sources say that DVD-R are more compatable. I guess its whatever seems to work for you.”
You are right that DVD-R has a slightly higher compatibility rate that DVD+R, this is not particularly noticeable with newer media today, but it is an issue with RW media.
The reason I burn DVD+R is that the disk it self has far higher quality than a DVD-R disk, probably a much longer shelf life, and less chance of errors etc. So, the reason I use +R is not that it is more compatible, but that it is of significantly better quality. There are some good articles on the web that details the technical reasons for the +R quality superiority.
The compatibility issues I saw seems to have gone away with improved media. There is nothing in the +R burn process that would make it less compatible, but the material (dye etc) used in the +R media is different from the material used in the -R media. It seems once the process of producing the +R media improved, compatibility issues were significantly reduced.
Its strange that an exact duplicate of the disc (Verbatum-R) made on a duplicating tower seems to work fine.
Not that strange. Though the DVD copier creates an exact copy of the DVD data wise, it probably burns it differently. The quality of the end result depends on how well the laser in the burner is able to change the reflective properties in the dye of the DVD (extremely oversimplified). Different burners will do this with different quality. Also, the speed with which you burn the disk will have an impact, half the speed means the laser has more time to “make it’s mark” as it were.
So, the DVD coming out of your Pioneer burner may have exactly the same data, but the data may be burned “better” on the DVD it self. This means that the DVD player getting the disk will have fewer read errors, and therefore a better picture.
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