How do you test how good a DVD-R is?

[w00tski]

I was wondering how people come to conclude how good/bad a DVD burn is. I mean ive burnt dvd's, they burn ok, but how do people go about verifying these burns?

Nero verification?
Nero DVDSpeed Transfer test? (perfect graph)

how do people come to conclude certain discs are good/bad?

I ask this because i have myself some Ritek Silver/Purple Media which is suppose to be good stuff, however after testing out a piece of media last night, im not so sure now. My burner is the Sony DRU500A 1.0g.
With my DVDROM drive, (Liteon 16x), it basically reads perfectly with the Nero DVDSpeed transfer test up until the 4gig mark then it becomes a little difficult reading and it begins to stutter till the end of the read 4.3gb mark. Using the sony drive to read it back, it reads the disc back fine w/o any problems. Which drive do i take to be the correct one? Disc was burnt at 2x.

What ways do you tell a good burn from a bad burn? I am a little unsure as to what procedure people take to determine whether certain brands of media are good/bad. My understanding is that if the dvdrom drive has difficulty reading during the transfer test, that the playback on say a dvd player may not be so good, or the readability on a console such as ps2/xbox may not be so good either.

[Super Warrior]

The best possible way to see which brand of disc burns good or not.Is to auctually burn one and see for yourself how great it plays afterwards.

[LanEvo7]

Its really the same things you look for in a CDR.

Usually the first thing most people look for is compatibility of two items. One of course it their DVD burner, if it doesn't even burn correctly then its worthless. The other is usually compatibility with their dvd player or ps2 or xbox, etc. This has to do with the reflectivity of the dye used in the DVD.

Quality is the second item. Do not mistake this for compatibility though, a dvd can have excellent compatibility and poor quality. Quality consists of a couple factors. First is how many discs produce coasters. Second, is how much of the disc can be burned before creating errors. Low-quality discs sometimes do not burn all 4.3gigs without errors. Third the physical quality of the disc. Is it thin, is it thick, does the top of the disc provide some quality protection, or does it get scratched the first time something touches it. Last but not least, degration. The organic dye that is used to make dvd recordables will degrade over time. How long it takes to degrade before it is unreadable determines how high quality the disc is. Good quality DVDs under normal conditions(you not leaving it in the sun, etc) should start becomming unreadable in about 50-100 years. Poor quality DVDs can be unreadable within days.

Personally I use the Riteks myself. Their compatibility factor is good, but I have doubts about the quality factor. But time will tell.

[spiderman2k1]

I use a Pioneer A04 and if I can burn the full DVD-R to 4.3 it's a good Blank cheep disc have problem's and will crach almost at the end

[boden11]

wootski:

i had the same problem with some supposed 'accus' i bought from cdrdvdrmedia, they read as 'sony' and all 3 discs i burned had the same problems past 4 gigs on my liteon 16x (bumpy graph, read from 3x-7x). i decided to return the discs and stick with higher quality media...

[Seraphic]

The best possible way to see which brand of disc burns good or not.Is to auctually burn one and see for yourself how great it plays afterwards.

Agreed

If every disc from a spindle or pack burns up to 4.3gb of video without errors then plays in my Set top player without a glitch from beginning to end. then thats all I need to know. I don't need technical software to give me analysis and graphs.

[tomclary]

With video DVD's, the media only seems to be the tip of the iceburg. The data format is a big factor as well. I have had disks that would play in my GE DVD player and not my Pioneer. I have had disks that played in my Pioneer fine that didn't play in any other DVD player. This was all with the same media. Which is a problem if you have original content you want to sell on DVD-R. The only thing we have been able to do is to try the disks on a number of DVD players.

[LanEvo7]

Usually high quality media is excellent in both compatibility and quality areas. This is the type of media you should use for treasured video or video that you want for a video library. Unfortually, this type usually costs between $4-$8 per disc. They use a high quality dye that does not degrade and has a high level of reflectivity.

Inexpensive media(not neccessarily low quality) usually cost between $0.50 and $3. These are usually trial and error.
Sometimes(inexpensive and low quality media) they have great compatibility and play on almost everything, but the data skips near the end of the disc or it becomes unreadable within two years.

Unfortunally, there are no sites that do a full indepth review of inexpensive media because there are so many. You are limited to users experiences forums such as the kind in DVD-R.