Sending out DVD check disc to clients-need a better solution

[Stephen Mann]

Define “glitchy”.

Recordable DVD’s are hardly an established science, and what plays on one DVD player is not necessarily going to play on another. In fact, if a DVD player is more than three years old, it’s not likely to play recorded DVD’s.

The $35 DVD players at WalMart will play anything that you can put into it.

There’s several posts here about how to deliver a reliable DVD. In my case, and I rarely have a return from a client, I use cheap DVD blanks, burn at the median speed and never more than 6MBPS. If my burner program says that the speed options are 2X to 8X, I burn at 4X. If my burner says 2X only, then it probably doesn’t recognise the manufacturer’s code and is defaulting to 2X. (You’re in untested waters then).

Steve M.

Stephen Mann,
MannMade Digital Video,
San Jose, CA

[Brian Sinks]

You gave no info on what you are using for your check disc (the media, the burner brand/model, the authoring program) but from my experience each link in the authoring chain is important.

If you’re using a good authoring program and burner but your media is from the local computer store you might have problems. Try going to one of the websites like Supermediastore.com and buy some Ritek or Prodisc (I’ve had 98% success with Ritek and previously I would have whole boxes of media from Maxell and Memorex that were bad that at the time I payed $3-5 a piece for). [Steve spoke of “cheap” which I’ll assume doesn’t mean store bought since you can usually buy Ritek for 30-40 cents a piece.] With Ritek and Prodisc your also buying from the maker and not like some brands that farm out their disc making to different places and then put their name on it.

If you’re using Sony DVDA 3 program to author it burns a DVD-ROM type disc which should be playable in most DVD players (I even could play them on my first generation DVD player). If DVDA 3 is having problems using your burner (especially when trying to burn a dual layer) you could always prepare with DVDA 3 and burn the disc with the prepared files using the included burning program that came with your burner – such as Nero (Nero also includes the ability to verify your disc for errors so you don’t have to watch the entire disc yourself to make sure.)

Also, you might want to take some “test” discs to try out on your client’s DVD player to verify it’s compatibility. Their’s might be one of the earlier DVD players that wasn’t designed to play DVD+or-R’s added to that the fact you’re giving them a dual layer DVD+or-R.

Brian Sinks
IN1ACCORD Productions
Tulsa, Oklahoma

[Bj Ahlen]

Riteks aren’t bad, but after getting less than 100% yield with them I switched to Taiyo Yuden and haven’t made a coaster since. Not with DVDA, nor with other programs.

https://www.cdrinfo.com has measured actual error rates on all the popular brands of CDs and DVDs, and Taiyo Yuden is well ahead of the rest.

The premium Taiyo Yudens regularly go for about 37-40 cents each for white inkjet printable, and they also have a Value Line that I haven’t tested.

[Nathan Smith]

Thanks for the replies everyone

I’m using a Sony dual layer burner. And yeah for the most part they work pretty good in cheap as toshibas I have around the office. I have just been grabing a stack of dual layer disc from staples. I think that is probably where I am going wrong.

I’ve tried several burning programs but none seem to help. Nero and Sonic.

I still use Spruce for authoring. Gonna be getting a Mac with DVD studio pro within a month. See how well it works. I’m sure it will have the ability to burn dual layer disc itself.

I’ll order some Riteks and see if things work a little better.

Thanks Nathan

true to the tri!

[Stephen Mann]

“[Steve spoke of “cheap” which I’ll assume doesn’t mean store bought since you can usually buy Ritek for 30-40 cents a piece.] With Ritek and Prodisc your also buying from the maker and not like some brands that farm out their disc making to different places and then put their name on it.”

Actually, I’ve had extremely good luck with the “GQ” brand of DVD-R discs at Fry’s. Tempting fate, I bought some Ritek discs for a recent project and I immediately had three returns from the clients. Up until then I could claim that I’ve never delivered a coaster to a customer. Bummer – there goes my bragging rights.

The consumer brands – Panasonic, TDK, Toshiba, etc, are a commodity item and the disc in the box is usually not made by the manufacturer whose name is on the label.

Steve M.

Stephen Mann,
MannMade Digital Video,
San Jose, CA

[Bj Ahlen]

I’ve also made coasters with Ritek. The problem with Ritek is that their quality has varied substantially from year to year, and that’s a game I don’t want to play anymore.

Stick with Taiyo Yuden, they have a measurably lower error rate and have been 100% reliable for me. About the same price as Ritek too.

The worst disks I ever bought were Linkyo brand. Cheap, not worth it even if they were free, about 25% of 2 large spindles failed for me.