-
Disc Media
I’ve seen recent post in which the topic of good media is mentioned and I wanted to add my 2 cents.
Like most people I presumed that TDK, Maxell, Fuji etc were all pretty much the same.Always thought that Marketing was not the way to make that determination. Until I did a good sized project and found that 20% of my burns either failed or completed the burning process only to fail in the DVD player. Unfortunately I had sent out DVD’S already and started getting calls that they wouldn’t play or would skip. I has spot checked them in three different systems and did get a couple of failures but this was ridiculous. These happened to be TDK so I called the manufacturer. Out of a stack of 100 almost 25 were failures….!!! They were all burned at a slow speed on the same system so as you can imagine I was not happy. TDK was no help at all. Hence I did some research and soon discovered the multitudes that were also having these issues but not limited to TDK. Verbatim was on the list and as I recall they had an issues with one of the two plants that had produced poor quality DVD’s and the word out was to avoid them. (Might have been Singapore…don’t recall) Not sure if they have remedied the issue to date. In my local stores Verbatim is always the cheapest so naturally I presumed the lowest quality, while Maxell is usually the most expensive. Mike and John recommend Taiyo-Yuden and Verbatim, the former of which is not sold locally. Is there an official site where the manufacturers are compared side by side? -
7 Replies
-
Joe it’s not even about the manufacturer. Take Fujifilm for example. They are sitting side-by-side on the shelf at the store. One is a cakebox and the other comes with DVD cases. I had used the cakebox before with great results but I though I’d try the ones in the DVD case figuring the case is the only difference. Boy was I wrong. The ones in the DVD case were Made in Taiwan. Avoid these like the plauge. Any project over 40 min would have issues with playback. I finally wound up using them for data backup. They were unfit for use in DVD players even though they were clearly labeled DVD-R Video Discs.
So the same manufacturer will have discs made at different locations and the location matters a lot. Never buy the “value” brand of any manufacturer. I buy all of my discs on-line. As I said I only use Taiyo Yuden TYG02 8x. I’ve used them for years.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
The Verbatim’s in my local store are always on sale so naturally I thought these were sub par. My research and conversations with some support people confirmed that even within the same stack of discs they can be mixed from different locations. How is that for confusion? It took me quite a while to figure this one out as I played with bitrates and the dreaded – and + debate. Some people..myself included still have a DVD player that will not play one or the other. Also what I found out is my kids portable DVD player will always play one that is problematic. Here is the worst case scenario and is true.
I filmed a concert and had it shown in a pre screening professional location in NM. My little voice told me to bring the data discs as backup. So here we are all seated in the recliners when the DVD starts to skip, lock etc. Now I had checked these discs numerous times in many machines and even my kids DVD player. Worked every time not a hitch. Whatever brand DVD player this studio had revealed some kind of compatibility problem. So now all my extra hard work in designing menu and such went to waste and we were relegated to watching via laptop connection. Not good…..turns out so many DVD players are parted out to different companies and as such they use older parts, outdated firmware etc. More nightmares…… but true.
That is a whole other topic. Thanks for the reply I presume I will be looking to but online from now on. -
Here is an interesting read about this….
https://www.best-dvd-burning-software-reviews.com/best-blank-dvd-media.asp
-
That’s a good article. Notice they recommend TAIYOYUDEN, TYG01, TYG02 as the best discs. This is what I use (TYG02) and I’ve been very happy with them.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Yes John I did notice and will purchase them online form now on. All the best
-
Most of the larger brand name disc blanks are purchased as a commodity item. In other words, your discs in a Verbatim box may well be made by TDK on week and JVC the next. You simply cannot depend on the label on the box. Use a free DVD Identifier program to verify just who made your blank media.
Ty is one of those OEM manufacturers, so you could easily find Ty discs in your JVC (or TDK or Sony) box.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
amazing isn’t it…would be nice to be able to purchase at the factory level. When I was in school we had a field trip to the local cannery. In this particular place they were canning fruits. Our teacher showed us the steps and at the end asked us if we knew that fruit were very intelligent. Of course we laughed,but then he said how else could all of those peaches know what can to go into. Yep…same peaches different labels….different companies…
Thanks for the reminder.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up