Bad Taiyo Yuden discs

[StrobeLightEpileptic]

The usual opinion on Taiyo Yuden discs is that they are the best. I hear claims that 1 out of maybe 300 discs go bad.

Well, I ordered a spindle of these:

http://www.cdrom2go.com/product/taiyo-yuden-value-dvd-r-white-inkjet-hub-printable-8x_525_14.htm

And I've had like 8 bad discs so far. 2 of them just wouldn't burn. The other discs will start pixelating and start skipping really bad. Two of them froze up the player.

From looking at the bottom of the discs I can't see anything wrong. But my experience is certainly different from what I usually hear.


EDIT: After I posted I couldn't get that link to work. Here's a TinyURL:

http://www.tiny.cc/PB6bb

[hech54]

You're in the states!!!! Just get them at Rima.com and stop playing with no-name ********. And stop trying to save a few pennies by buying the "value" TYs.
http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=DMRTY

[steptoe]

Not a hope they will be 'original' Taiyo Yudens at $34 for a 100, plus the VALUE sticker on the side should give it away

Your issues are down to very poor quality media, poor quality control and trying to get a bargain and wasting your money instead


Spend a bit more, buy better media and avoid 'value' media, the stuff I buy isn't the best, more mid-range branded and its very very rare I get a bad bunr, but then again I don't burn faster than x8 and use IMGBurn

I buy x16 media and burn at x8. My reasoning is if they pass quality control for x16 burn speeds, then x8 will be no problems at all, but I do burn a few at x16 when I forget and still have no issues

A LOT of burning software automatically sets the burn speed to maximum so try turning your burn speed down to x4 or x8 and see what happens


The vast majority of DVD burner reviews focus on how fast they can burn a DVD, NOT how good the burn quality is ... speed is not always the best

[budz]

You're in the states!!!! Just get them at Rima.com and stop playing with no-name ********. And stop trying to save a few pennies by buying the "value" TYs.
http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=R&Category_Code=DMRTY

just buy TY from Rima.com and you're set!

[lordsmurf]

There's nothing wrong with CDROM2GO, nor ValueLine TY media.

If this person has never burned TY discs before, the odds are good that his burner simply does not work well with TY discs. There are a number of burners out there that work badly with TY.

Mitsubishi/Verbatim discs are "better" in this regard.

Buying from Rima, buying Premium Line -- none of that will help.

Heck, the player itself could be at issue -- TY discs are not all that reflective. I believe c't found them lower than CMC discs, in that regard.

Troubleshoot some before jumping to advice of "go buy this".

[Habby]

I agree, Verbatim from sam's club are great. But on the other hand I never had an issue with ty's either. I just can't find ty's locally. So I buy 16x verbatim inkjet printable tops from sams. I actually sell DVD's (weddings) so I can't afford to play around with cheap media.

[victoriabears]

All sorts of issues can affect burning, too many other programs running, hard drives needing defragging, all the usual PC maintenance issues.

[aedipuss]

Heck, the player itself could be at issue -- TY discs are not all that reflective. I believe c't found them lower than CMC discs, in that regard.

i'll second that one, older dvd players, i my personal experience, can have a problem with t.y. media, especially if burned at their top rated speed or above. try half the max rated speed to burn at, it seems to help.

[StrobeLightEpileptic]

Heck, the player itself could be at issue -- TY discs are not all that reflective. I believe c't found them lower than CMC discs, in that regard.

i'll second that one, older dvd players, i my personal experience, can have a problem with t.y. media, especially if burned at their top rated speed or above. try half the max rated speed to burn at, it seems to help.

Well, I'm using a mini-tower duplicator of two pioneer burners. I've never had a problem before with them. I'm not even sure what the burn rate of them are - the tower is about 5 years old.

But I am using an Apex dvd player that is about 8.5 years old. So, maybe that is the problem.

[aedipuss]

the apex ad-1500 of mine doesn't much like them either.

[jman98]

But I am using an Apex dvd player that is about 8.5 years old. So, maybe that is the problem.

Are you trying to win some kind of award as being the cheapest guy ever? Man, Apex players are old! I've got 2 and they are boxed up and "for emergency use only". Apex players were great in their day, but they have long long since been surpassed by even the cheapest of modern players. My old Philips DVP-642, which for most people is nothing but a cheap piece of crap, is better than any Apex player. I can't believe your player has lasted that long. Both of mine started showing signs of going bad about 4 years ago, but I had gotten several years use of them by then. I've got an old CD player that is over 20 years old that still works, but it doesn't play 100% of discs I have and I don't use that much. It's in a room where as little use that it gets, the fact that it still turns on and works most of the time is good enough. But maybe you should consider getting a new DVD player. It's not like they all still cost $200 like when you bought your Apex.

Anyway, yes, those old Apex players were fussy as hell about media and some brands they liked and some they did not.

[aedipuss]

i'll use my apex players til they die, of which there is no sign yet. they're macrovision free, region free, and rce immune. play ntsc and pal in all dvd/cd disc formats.

[zenzen1]

I have a stack of TY's sitting in the cupboard. Have not burnt one for ages. DVDs are so last century !!

I have transferred all my DVDs onto my MediaPlayers. I have a Popcorn and a WDTV unit. Both have 2.0Tb HDDs connected to them via USB (as well as an additonal 1.5tb internal on the Popcorn). Some of my DVDs are in ISO format. Most of the rest are in Xvid format (doccos from cable TV, etc). Have just started playing and converting into MKV and am amazed at the vid quality compared to file size (typically one third of the original size, with no visual loss of quality on a 46" plasma). Not to mention the convenience of simply selecting something to watch from an on-screen menu list. No need to find the DVD disc, put it in the player, and remove it when the movie has finished. No more scratches. No more sticky disc labels. No need to shrink the movies so they fit on a 4.7gb blank disc. No macrovision or region problems....LOVE IT !!!!!!

Exactly the same with music. Do you still create and burn music on CDs (last century) or transfer your music to MP3 players ??
Most of today's media players will not only play video, but also your MP3 collection and your Jpeg photo collection.
What are you waiting for ??

[lordsmurf]

The Apex player is a very likely problem, yes.

[budz]

i'll use my apex players til they die, of which there is no sign yet. they're macrovision free, region free, and rce immune. play ntsc and pal in all dvd/cd disc formats.

APEX was the best player ever when it was in it's prime! I owned 3 of them myself. I'm down to one now since one up and died a few years ago & I sold the other one to a friend. I watch alot of movies from Japan, Hong Kong, China & Korea so that APEX fit the bill. As far as TY media goes my Apex players never had a problem playing them.


TO OP: Time for you to buy a new dvd player. There are a lot of cheap ones that are region free, ntsc and pal. If you're burning those TY at faster speeds on your PIONEER drives that are 5 years old that could be the problem.

[videobread]

I had some TY problems a while back and suspect that bad TY's have now moved to the fringe market. cdromtogo.com is the fringe market. You are having a "burning" problem. Your 5 year old burner that never had a problem before does not sound like the issue. Your Apex "player" is probably not relevant. Do the DVD's play the same on your PC?

I know bad TY's sound unlikely but:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic374192.html
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic375730.html

[jman98]

i'll use my apex players til they die, of which there is no sign yet. they're macrovision free, region free, and rce immune. play ntsc and pal in all dvd/cd disc formats.

They can't play Divx or other non-DVD, non-SVCD, non-VCD formats. Some/a lot of people might care about that. Macrovision free is completely overrated in my opinion unless for some reason you want to try to copy a DVD via the video output (shudder). And region free, which other players can do, makes RCE issues go away as well. It's OK if love Apex, but other than the dubious value of the Macrovision removal, it's not like there aren't other players that can do all that stuff too and more now.

Again, Apex players were incredibly fussy about media brands. It's been too many years since I used mine (I said previously that they are now boxed up), but when I did the player was extremely pick about either DVD-R or DVD+R brands. I don't remember which it was picky about. I just remember that it had problems with either -R or +R and with the other one it would essentially work with any brand.

[filmboss80]

Part of my business is involved in mass DVD duplication, and in my experience, the phrase "bad Taiyo Yuden discs" is an oxymoron. However, we always get the Premium line discs.

If the DVD player was manufactured prior to 2003, it may have issues with burned media (as opposed to replicated media).

Here is one odd quirk: While the Pioneer drives in the duplicators love TYs, I own a Pioneer DVD Recorder at home (presumably with a similar drive inside) that often refuses to record on TYs; working better with Verbatims. Go figure.

[Bix]

i'll use my apex players til they die, of which there is no sign yet. they're macrovision free, region free, and rce immune. play ntsc and pal in all dvd/cd disc formats.

They can't play Divx or other non-DVD, non-SVCD, non-VCD formats. Some/a lot of people might care about that. Macrovision free is completely overrated in my opinion unless for some reason you want to try to copy a DVD via the video output (shudder). And region free, which other players can do, makes RCE issues go away as well. It's OK if love Apex, but other than the dubious value of the Macrovision removal, it's not like there aren't other players that can do all that stuff too and more now.

Again, Apex players were incredibly fussy about media brands. It's been too many years since I used mine (I said previously that they are now boxed up), but when I did the player was extremely pick about either DVD-R or DVD+R brands. I don't remember which it was picky about. I just remember that it had problems with either -R or +R and with the other one it would essentially work with any brand.

I agree about everything. Apex players (I also had a AD-1500 and I have no idea how yours has lasted so long) were oddly picky with media (especially certain CD-Rs), had trouble with DVDs made in standalone recorders (the searching/Fast-forward and rewind would be badly broken), and couldn't play anamorphic PAL material properly (they would be stretched to fill the screen instead of being letterboxed). Just get the latest budget priced DivX certified Philips player and use the remote code hack listed on the site to remove. There's no reason to need a Macrovision-free DVD player in 2009, especially when the newer alternatives are inexpensive, have more features (like DivX and USB drive support) and work better.

His Apex may not have anything to do with the playback problems (the sign that mine died was when it stopped recognizing discs), but it's woefully obsolete at this point.

[johns0]

My AD-1500 played every disc i put in without problems,was a great dvd player back then(sniff)

[lordsmurf]

Apex players were temperamental -- some worked great, some not. My 1100 was a "not" after about 2 years.

[aedipuss]

I agree about everything. Apex players (I also had a AD-1500 and I have no idea how yours has lasted so long) were oddly picky with media (especially certain CD-Rs), had trouble with DVDs made in standalone recorders (the searching/Fast-forward and rewind would be badly broken), and couldn't play anamorphic PAL material properly (they would be stretched to fill the screen instead of being letterboxed). Just get the latest budget priced DivX certified Philips player and use the remote code hack listed on the site to remove. There's no reason to need a Macrovision-free DVD player in 2009, especially when the newer alternatives are inexpensive, have more features (like DivX and USB drive support) and work better.

hehe. my movie collection is all dvd, let's just say over a thousand and growing. maybe an svcd or two in the shelves still, but most have been replaced. i don't feel the need to rip to any inferior format like divx from dvd. my apex has played any and all media, even the cheapest free after rebate crap that staples used to peddle. i even used the macrovision free once, many years ago for a friend who wanted his kids dvds on vhs. i agree i could buy a new player with more features, but it wouldn't produce a better picture or sound(it has dts) and i wouldn't use the divx at all, nor the usb. i like dvds. jmo.

[Bix]

I'm not saying I rip my DVDs to DivX/Xvid or suggesting it, just that it removes the need to convert if you want to watch DivX/Xvid videos (There ARE legal ones, like every show on Revision3.com) in your DVD player. Also, while obviously re-encoding will cause some degree of quality loss, DivX/Xvid/MPEG-4 ASP is a far superior codec to MPEG-2 (though it's been surpassed by H.264/AVC/MPEG-4 Part 10).

I never had a DTS system so I didn't realize that the AD-1500 has DTS support. I don't see how the picture quality would be better than something like the Philips, especially with the iffy PAL playback.

At any rate, if you have a Apex AD-1500 that still works, it won't be working for long. They were not built well (to the point that they feel ridiculously fragile compared to any other DVD player that I've ever owned) and all I'm saying is that when the time comes to replace it as might be the case for the OP (or if someone wants the other features), the Philips players are ideal replacements.

[aedipuss]

if you like sound effects, then there isn't anything close to dts for dvd audio. it literally shakes the house with a decent sub and 5.1 amp.

dialogue on the other hand can be hard to hear at normal listening levels.

video playback is just that, playback, and pretty much all dvd standalones are the same, and it does all pal just fine. mine's flashed as an austrian model anyway.

[edit] i'll post about it in another 10 years if it's still working....

[Bix]

it does all pal just fine.

No, it doesn't. It doesn't display anamorphic PAL content properly, stretching it to fill the 4:3 frame instead of letterboxing. This was a widely known flaw when the player was available.

[aedipuss]

not the austrian bios flashed one here. it's not really a 1500 anymore. it plays 16/9 pal just fine exactly the same way it does ntsc 16.9 dvds.

[Bix]

Did that firmware come out after the 1500's "prime"? I frequented enough forums w/ Apex users back then that I figure I would've heard of it while the player was still popular.

[aedipuss]

no it was out shortly after the 1500 was introduced. it's listed here as the 1500 hack.

http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk/

[Bix]

I used got my firmware from that site, too. Maybe it varied by the serial number and the most common ones had the anamorphic PAL stretching?

A quick Googling gives several other reports of the issue:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/dvd-home-theater-gear/231529-pal-regular-tv.html
http://forums.dvdfile.com/standard-definition-software/15351-region-free-hee-hee-hee.html
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic212699.html#852536

Not AD-1500 specific:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/157351/question-about-apex-ad-500

There are a bunch more at DVD Talk. I'm very confused by this. I had the issue. Everyone I ever heard of having a AD-1500 and used it to play anamorphic PAL discs had the issue. What kept you from having it?

[JohnnyBob]

OP got a bad batch of discs, happens all the time. Throw them away, push them to the back of the shelf, or forget it, and buy something different next time. I used Taiyo Yuden for years with good results, but fact is that some standalone DVD players are temperamental about playing them. Also I recently discovered that by comparison the Verbatim DVD-R give better quality scans with DVD/CDSpeed, so have switched to them. You have to be careful about buying Verbatim's too, don't go for the cheapest, never buy anything with "Value" in the name, and only buy from a recognized and established reliable supplier. Pinching pennies only causes problems.

I've had no experience with Apex burners, but anything 8.5 years old is surely worn out and defective. I've been buying a new pair of burners every year, which makes sense to avoid such problems because they're so cheap nowadays. I've only tried LG and Lite-On models so far, and the Lite-On's are better at burning single layer discs. I also like the Lite-On's because they work with DVD/CDSpeed, which is an essential tool in everyone's burn arsenal.