DISTURBING media reports

[dcsos]

I came across this link on the internet where many people are having good DVD's die on them..
http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/Forum6/HTML/002546-2.html
I took a look at the earliest BUDGET discs I bought (since then I've switched to name brand media only) but, VOILA,
these burns from late 2001 would no longer play on a settop, and in fact only worked on the
drive that burned it!
I know that the disc used to play in my settop fine,
and I'd like to think that my newer DVD ROM players would have wider compatibility, not less!
So what a surprise when thes budget discs ALTERA BRANDED ..would no longer work in the players..
Now I am trying to read the files from the original burn in an attempt to RE-BACK UP the data

[mkelley]

Umm -- it doesn't worry me.

In the first place (there's always a first place :>) no DVD you create should be anything more than a backup of your original material. Whether the source is DV, old VHS tape, or commercial DVD, you're not creating something for which you can't recreate it. We never get rid of source material here at the studio -- because technology changes all the time (I remember some of my employees thinking we could switch everything over to DV tape and get rid of the SVHS and SuperBeta source... wrong!)

Secondly, there isn't *any* material, tape, film or DVD, that might not deteriorate over time. Some is guaranteed to do so -- other material might not degrade but change otherwise. The best you can do is continue to back stuff up on the latest technology.

Thirdly, when people are worried about DVDR not working on a particular machine (or in your case, only working on that original drive) I am reminded of the many times we ended up with tapes that wouldn't track anymore except on the machine that recorded them. Granted, the heads of those machines had gotten misaligned (so it was our fault) but we still ended up with media that could only be played on a specific device. So it happens everywhere.

I've been recording DVDR for two years now and media I used at first seems to continue to play just fine, on a wide variety of machines. It gets played a lot (will happen with grandkids around) so my confidence it its durability is pretty high. But do I think it will last forever? Of course not. I once shattered a CDR by just trying to remove it from a case it was in. Had I not had the original material I would have been out of luck -- as it was I just burned another in a few minutes and all was well.

Nothing, except diamonds, is forever.

[indolikaa]

Regarding media longevity...

Is RW always a better risk? I thought all R media was based on organic dyes while all RW media was based on the phase change of inorganic materials.

[TBoneit]

I came across this link on the internet where many people are having good DVD's die on them..
http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/Forum6/HTML/002546-2.html
I took a look at the earliest BUDGET discs I bought (since then I've switched to name brand media only) but, VOILA,
these burns from late 2001 would no longer play on a settop, and in fact only worked on the
drive that burned it!
I know that the disc used to play in my settop fine,
and I'd like to think that my newer DVD ROM players would have wider compatibility, not less!
So what a surprise when thes budget discs ALTERA BRANDED ..would no longer work in the players..
Now I am trying to read the files from the original burn in an attempt to RE-BACK UP the data

Hi, Alterra or Aterra?

Aterra Solid White top are actually Princo brand disks.

Cheers

[zanos]

Wow, that's something I didn't need to see. One guy even had 8 out of 40 Apple dvds not play after a while. It makes you wonder about the viability of dvds as a storage medium. What would be the point of putting something on dvd if it there's a likely possibility it won't play in the future on your current or future machine? That's absolutely nuts.

[dcsos]

YOU ARE RIGHT I MIS POSTED THE NAME
but no white top...
ATERRA media which i never had a tool to identify who made it before they failed..completely..I can't even get at the files in a computer..what a pity...as this had five ozbourne episodes on one 4.7 disc

but as I was posting on the other media faileure thread
2 outta 8-900 sofar so good

found it!! edit..
I found a disc I used as a data folders burn..it works! this ATERRA hasn't deterioated
heres the info

[Faustus]

If that many apple disc stopped working over time then there is something seriously wrong that does not include just the media. I have apple disc that I purchased in my first few weeks with my burner and they all still work perfectly. I've never had a single disc that worked stop working short of a scratches.

[DrJeepney]

so according to that article, the cause of skipping may have something to do with the media detoriating.

i thought my dvd player was broken, due to overuse of the rewind button. when i'm watching a movie, and i happen to unclearly hear what the person said, i would rewind back a few seconds so that that i can get what that person said. i did that a lot.

i thought i abused the dvd player by doing that, and finally it just gave up on me when my dvd-r's were skipping.

the article has some good points, the real dvd movies i have are still being played flawlessly by my player, and the dvd-r are now skipping, something that never happened when they were freshly made.

[ZenZen]

Is the DVD-R media any more or less fragile than CDR ??
In other words, is the dye used for DVD-R manufacture the same dye that is used to make CDRs ???

[poopyhead]

i haven't had DVD-Rs that old..but w/ my nearly 3 year old cheapo, generic, made in taiwan, silver-topped CD-Rs (SVCDs) work fine on my dvd player (pioneer dv333) of course, i kept those very well maintained.....keep in CD sleeves/binders and rarely taken out.

however, i've had CompUSA brand CD-Rs that i've abused...left in sunlight and collecting dust.....been over 2 years and it still works...even with scratches everywhere.....

[Bob W]

Wow, that's something I didn't need to see. One guy even had 8 out of 40 Apple dvds not play after a while. It makes you wonder about the viability of dvds as a storage medium. What would be the point of putting something on dvd if it there's a likely possibility it won't play in the future on your current or future machine? That's absolutely nuts.

When I bought my first DVD drive I also picked up ten Apple 4xDVD-R discs and guess what I made ten coasters. So now Apple and Verbatim (that's another story) are off my list of media to buy.

[ZenZen]

Poopyhead (Strange Name...Nice Body) wrote
" haven't had DVD-Rs that old..but w/ my nearly 3 year old cheapo, generic, made in taiwan, silver-topped CD-Rs (SVCDs) work fine on my dvd player (pioneer dv333) of course, i kept those very well maintained.....keep in CD sleeves/binders and rarely taken out.

however, i've had CompUSA brand CD-Rs that i've abused...left in sunlight and collecting dust.....been over 2 years and it still works...even with scratches everywhere....."

Yep, my experiences too. It would be interesting to know if the same dye used on CDRs is also used on DVD-Rs. Then the only reason CDRs and SVCDs would last longer is less dense track layout, and therefore more forgiving when being read by a laser beam?

[poopyhead]

Then the only reason CDRs and SVCDs would last longer is less dense track layout, and therefore more forgiving when being read by a laser beam?

my sentiments exactly....imperfections would be amplified by DVD-R vs. CD-R...but perhaps, DVD-R has better error correction than CD-R??

[txpharoah]

I toss out source if I have created a better-than-source final product (thanks to digital restoration techniques). But... I ALSO make at least 3 copies of it, and at least one goes into a media safe. Three discs is still less space than a bulky tape.

As far as those "reports", I'd not pay any attention. Too many variables, and none of them are known from the few ramblings I read there. Cheap media is their fault anyway. They got what they paid for. Almost all of my discs still work, only one ever died of mysterious causes, and it was a gold-topped Ritek that had no label, no ink, nothing. Was in a case, but I'm guessing it was just a bad burn I never caught.

[Faustus]

TX if by gold topped Ritek you mean the Gold topped ones that had the slightly almost redish color to the bottom and burned at 1x (I think they were G01) then yeah those disc were pretty rock solid when I used them, and I used them a bunch. Actually if they were out there for say $1 or less each I'd use them at 1x and be happy.

[kenmo]

Probably a plant by the movie industry to turn people off to backing up their movies...I always take info like this with an huge pinch of salt....