Blank DVDs with decent quality?

[Kelemvor]

I've been making some backups of my DVDs before the kids trash the originals but I've ran into some problems. I've been using the cheapo 1x-2x DVDs from CompUSA because they were so cheap and I was brand new at this.

The main problem I have is that towards the end 1/4 of any given movie, it starts to get grainy and skip aroudn and freeze up a lot. I tried compressing and only writing up to the first 4300 Megs of the DVD but that didn't help much.

So, I'm assuming it's most likely the DVDs I'm using are crap. Anyhow, I have a $15 off thing at Best Buy and saw these in the weekly ad: (sold out online but available in some stores)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...&ref=10&loc=01

or these TDKs:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...&ref=10&loc=01
Anyone know if these would be better quality than I'm using and make the whole bad playback issues go away? Or are there any other brands that aren't overly expensive but generally product better results?

I always burn at 1x to make sure it doesn't mess up the burning process but I guess on crap media that just doesn't help as much...

Thanks.

 

[laurenlex]

I hear Taiyo Yuden (sp??) is the best. I have used those TDK's (4x) and they work fine for me. I have a NEC 3500a.

 

[0roo0roo]

tdk's have those armored ones

 

[dunkster]

I've never experienced faulty media branded as TDK or Verbatim or Fujifilm.

 

[arsbanned]

Using some Maxell 4X DVD-Rs here. Have used TDK too, no prob in either case. Could your problem be hardware related?

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: laurenlex
I hear Taiyo Yuden (sp??) is the best. I have used those TDK's (4x) and they work fine for me. I have a NEC 3500a.

Taiyo Yuden & Ritek are two of the best.

 

[Triforceofcourage]

I like Memorex media but I don't know what media code they use. Just never had any problems with their CD's or DVD's.

 

[Bozo Galora]

DVD±R sizes

Blank DVD-R 4,489MB 4,706,074,624 bytes 4.383GB
Blank DVD+R 4,483MB 4,700,372,992 bytes 4.377GB
4.7GB is on the label but it's really 4.37GB. Same as harddrives, false advertising.

 

[Thegonagle]

How does one figure out who makes a particular DVD±R?

For instance, I have a spindle of Verbatim DVD-R 8X discs, and there's a code imprinted on them that says (backwards) "ZC9742-DVR-I47A". Is that the media code? When I enter it in a search engine, I get no results.

 

[Kelemvor]

I have no idea who's behind the "CompUSA" brand DVDs. Can I check that somehow like the previous poster asked? THey are probably not the greatest. I'll pick up some name brand ones from BB and do some burn/playback tests...

 

[Bozo Galora]

DVDinfo application

 

[swatoke]

I have been using DVD Identifier it will give you the Media ID and is easy to use and free.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: swatoke
I have been using DVD Identifier it will give you the Media ID and is easy to use and free.

I don't know. . . Why would a seemingly simple app that only reads and reports a few bytes off the disc need to be 1,193 KB for download? That's without the $75 manufacturer database, too. I'm thinking there might be some spyware involved.

Any others?

 

[Mem]

Lite-On have SmartBurn,

SMART-BURN

It is LiteOn's official media identification tool, and it provides various useful data about your DVD or CD media including the maximum supported burn speed.

Link.

As to media,read
this,more info(mainly for Lite-On users but same rules apply in general to other drives) in the Lite-On forum here .

 

[NumbaJuan]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: swatoke
I have been using DVD Identifier it will give you the Media ID and is easy to use and free.

I don't know. . . Why would a seemingly simple app that only reads and reports a few bytes off the disc need to be 1,193 KB for download? That's without the $75 manufacturer database, too. I'm thinking there might be some spyware involved.

Any others?

DVD Decrypter

 

[Kelemvor]

Well, according to Smart Burn... THe Cheapo CompUSA discs are:

Drive Type = DVD DUAL
Disc Type = DVD-R (Single Layer)
Disc MID = 50 52 49 4E 43 4F (PRINCO)
Disc TID = 00 00 00 00 00 00 (......)
Nominal Capacity = 4.18GB
Manufacturer Maybe = Princo Corporation
SMART-BURN Speed Limit = 2.0X (Write)

 

[Texun]

I've heard Maxell media is good stuff. I've used Maxell and TDK and can't tell the difference.

 

[ZL1]

I say Fuji

and I say Nero has DriveInfo



D

 

[ts3433]

I recently backed up a ton of my parents' home movies using Target-brand 4x DVD+R discs. I burned about 18 DVDs at 8x and had only one coaster. I'm definitely pleased.

 

[moonsite]

Yup, Nero has systeminfo tools to check what media you have. Memorex DVD+R made in taiwan is either princo or Ritek. Ritek is better. They also have one made in India. Don't know the quality of that one. I have used Ridata with my NEC2500A too. They burned really well.
I also have some Infosmart DVD-R from computergeeks. These disks are not that great.

 

[Cerb]

IIRC (but do gooling to be sure), Fuji made in Japan are TY discs.
If the TDKs are real TDKs, a good deal. Otherwise, still not bad, as they tend to be Ricoh if not TDK. Ricoh is nothing special, but not bad.

Verbatims could now be anything. They used to be all MCC for Datalife Plus, and not crap for Datalife, but now it's all over the map .

TY, Acer, and Hitachi are good, with TY currently being the real best.
MCC DVDs aren't as good as CDs, and hard to find for sure to boot.
Acer are also tough to find.
Hitachi aren't terribly hard to find, but not all Maxell is Hitachi (like the Fuji).

For easy to find media that's also good quality, go with Ritek. Not top of the line like TY, but if you get bad burns with them or they die really soon, there's likely something else wrong. Don't be paranoid--TYs being top of the line means in 4-5 years, being scratched and stored in a car, the chances are still pretty good they'll read if it was a good burn--aside from shorter shelf-life, very similar to pressed discs.
Try to seriously avoid Princo, Prodisc, and CMC.

Thegonagle(sp): Nero and RecordNow! have info apps. I haven't used in a bit, but I *think* kprobe will also tell you.

Lastly, while I've never checked what they are, for cheap retail media, I've NEVER had a bad Office Depot branded disc. Not a bad burn, and none gone bad. I haven't used any in the last year, but if they (still?) turn out not to use CMC, they are worth a short if you need some in a pinch.

 

[dtboos]

>>>>>>>> DVD MEDIA GUIDE! <<<<<<<<

 

[calyco]

TDK, the only brand I never had a problem with.

 

[Mem]

Try to seriously avoid Princo, Prodisc, and CMC.

I have never had a bad burn with Prodisc media,more feedback at CDFreaks,

I think Prodisc has been a highly respected media manufacturer for at least a few years. Prodisc was not known well among end users but resellers and OEM buyers have used Prodisc media very often. The three top media manufacturers in Taiwan are Ritek, CMC Magnetics, and Prodisc. Prodisc is relatively smaller than the other two.

The rest of the Taiwanese media manufacturers are both smaller and poorer with less resources and less technologies and that includes Princo, Infodisc, Giga Storage, Lead Data, Nanya, and many others. Ritek was not very respected two years ago either. I've known Ritek and Princo among others since about late 1990s because I often talked to media importers and bought media directly from them, right in their warehouses and offices. I have heard of some rumor of Ritek controlling Prodisc now but don't quote me on that since it is not confirmed.

As to CMC,

CMC Magnetics
Like RiTEK, CMC media is also highly variable, especially their 4x media. With the help of strategy switches, CMC "plus" media can be made to work well at 8x on LiteOn drives. Brands that use CMC include Memorex, Imation, K-Hypermedia, HP, and Verbatim.

So you can see lots of the well known top companies use CMC etc...so lots of factors involved,I have used CMC as well and they seem to be fine to me,however I never buy cheapest brands and always stick with well known companies for my media,lots of people swear by Verbatim and you can see they do use CMC for some of their discs.

Also media companies change their dyes now and then for their discs,so you can get difference in quality and burning,other factors like what your burner works best on,so it`s really trial and error sometimes,even if you use same media all the time, don`t be surprised to see difference between batches etc...

 

[racefan]

I just got my NEC 3500 DVD burner for Christmas and got some cheap Teon DVD's for 3.50 for 50 to practice on and they are CMC disks and they burn very well for me and just ran Surface scan from Nero on a few burns and there were no errors at all and they play in every DVD player I have tried them in 5 different machines.