Accu 4x, BeAll 4x report

[disturbed1]

I had a chance to try some of the above new 4x media.

Panasonic LF-D311 for 1x
Pioneer A03 for 2x
Pioneer A05 for 4x.
All have the newest unhacked firmware.

Accu media ID
00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 87 0D 11 .L...@....R.....
66 78 80 00 03 4C 45 41 44 44 41 00 04 54 41 30 FX...LEADDA..TA0
31 00 00 00 05 A8 82 00 20 00 02 00 06 09 11 11 1....... .......
87 78 90 00 07 A8 82 00 20 00 00 00 08 05 16 0D .X...... .......
10 0A 09 00 09 97 07 0E 0B 58 88 00 0A C0 00 00 .........X......
00 00 10 00 0B 07 1C 13 A8 89 65 00 0C B6 89 88 ..........E.....
80 00 00 00 0D 00 00 D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Burns fine at 4x, does not do 2x on Pioneer A03 (invalid address for write), this A03 burns Verbatium 2x and Ritek G04 just fine at 2x, so it is a media problem, not drive, of course 1x is fine.
Zero playback problems on the test players. The disc is all silver with a grey speckeled hub. No overglue or cosmetic uglies. The burning dye is the same color as the 1x discs, light purple. The disc is not see through, so there is a top coating. The top surface almost looks buffed, it's real shiney.

Samsung 4x media ID
00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 56 0E 12 .L...@....R..V..
87 88 80 00 03 42 65 41 6C 6C 20 00 04 47 34 30 .....BEALL ..G40
30 30 31 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 01 00 06 0B 10 14 001.............
87 88 80 00 07 CC C0 00 00 00 00 00 08 06 17 0F ................
12 0B 0B 00 09 98 08 0F 0B 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 ................
00 00 10 00 0B 04 1E 0E B8 88 55 00 0C 97 89 88 ..........U.....
80 00 00 00 0D 00 00 D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Does 2x on an A03! 4x and 1x were just fine.
The disc is silver topped, with a silver hub. There are small glue spots on the hub. The dye color is different. Dark blue would be the best description I guess, once burnt, changes to an orange brown color, much like Gigastorage media. Nice to see that these discs are higher quality than the original BeAll silver top. The original was thin and flimsy, real quality in these 4x discs.

I tested each media with image sizes between 4,400,000,000 bytes and 4,650,000,000 bytes. All played flawless on 4 Apex models, 2 Philips, 2 Sony including PS2 version 4. All were burnt with DVD Decrypter. No differences between 1x,2x,4x for Samsung, and 1x,4x for Accu. Disc access was fast for both media. I test disc access by turning off PBC, browsing the disc to title 57 (last title on my test disc), then doing a DVD digest that displays thumbnails of each chapter.

I don't have too much to say about either media. The Accu disc not doing 2x on my A03 kinda worries me, but at 1.30 each, not bad. Just would like it to burn at 2x!

The Samsung media is of course great, IMO better than the Accu because it can burn 2x on my A03. Just $1+ extra for each disc is steep. If these drop to $1.50-$1.75 great deal. $2.50 each is a bit rich for my blood. I would even go as high as $2.00.


Overall I would choose the Samsung over the Accu, but when factoring in the price, Accu could be the better buy if your doing only 4x or 1x burning.

[defense]

@Disturbed...what's up bro? I hope everything's cool....do you think you could specify how many of the ACCU's you've burned @4x? I know your concerned with them not burning at 2x, because of your other drive, I guess not being compatible with 4x...but if you could post your ratio of success with the ACCU's @4x, it would be appreciated. If you can get 50 out of 50 or 49 out of 50, those will be my next big purchase. Thanks

[LanEvo7]

Yea, I might just use Real 4x media from now on instead of hacking my drive and buring everything at 2x.

[disturbed1]

I only had a small sample of 5 discs from each brand. So it's hardly all inclusive.

BeAll: 3 @ 4x, 1 @ 2x, 1 @ 1x.
Accu: 3 @ 4x, 0 @ 2x, 2 @ 1x. (1x with Panasonic and Pioneer A03).

I tried to burn all 5 Accu at 2x, all failed to start.

[defense]

@disturbed, if memory serves, you use NERO and Primo, right? If so, did you try 2x with another burn program such as RNM to see if by chance there may be a conflict with the particular burn proggy you were using and that type of media?

[VinnySem]

Heyas Disturbed, Defense,

I am thinking about getting either an A05 or going back to Sony and getting a DRU510, so that I can start burning @ 4X with quality, inexpensive media. I'm a huge fan of the original BeAlls, and while the price on the 4X stuff is expensive, I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for. However these Accus intrigue me. I know Defense is a fan of the older white topped ones that had Sony IDs, and that the LD silver tops were garbage after 4 gig. I tend to burn within 85 meg of full capacity. Now disturbed says these Accus play flawlessly over 4 gig, this is great news. Those disks are near the same price as the 2X BeAlls! One other media I am interested in, are the Ritek G04s. In your experience, how would you compare the 3? And between the 2 burners, multi-format issue aside, which do you feel is the better piece of hardware? I had a external Sony a month or so ago which I had traded for my A04, and I swapped back cuz the Sony gave me acida. Did I just get a bad unit, or has the 510 other improvements in manufacture and component quality, other than new firmware?

One more thing, have either of you ever used the no-wobble labels from Americal? I need to either start labelling or get printable media, if I can find labels that wont give me grief I'll use those so I dont have to buy a new printer, I had tried Neatos and they caused the media to skip after 90% of the way through the disk. But these super-thin labels look promising, was wondering if either of you had any use experience.

Thanks for all your insight.

[defense]

@VinnieSem, Disturbed will certainly be able to answer the media questions in more detail regarding Ritek, etc...but I will say this. He only tested 5 of those 4x ACCU and I would be careful to reserve judgment on only 5 disks, especially LD, ACCU media. The reason I say this is because not only did I have issues with the last 8-10 in a 50 pack spindle, but I read at least 5 other people on this very forum, had the same issues! That's why when it happened to me towards the last disks in the spindle, it didn't even surprise me...because I "expected" it and was looking for it. Basically, I blew 3 of those disks away on tests, and just kept the other 5 or so for movies which were under 4 GB's....I am anxious to hear other people who burn 50 or so with the 4x ACCU, @ 4X and see what they say.

As far as those "no wobble" labels go...I saw the post from someone about these, but my personal preference is to use "no label." Just a permanent DVD marker. When you think about it, how much time are you gonna spend looking at the label on the disk? The movie will look the same in the DVD PLAYER with a label or without one, and that is what I care about. But I know some people want labels and they don't care about the time or the cost...they want their DVD's to "look" great.....and that's their personal preference. That's just my two cents on this...but just make sure you read enough posts before you decide on media.

[LanEvo7]

I don't know about ACCU "LDs", but the DupEZ "LD" from Rima have been working great for me. I've used over 20 discs @ 2x and they've all performed flawlessly.

[disturbed1]

The reading past 4 gig with the Accu's depends primarily on your DVD Player. At first I gave the 1x LD's a thumbs up, then I noticed some playback problems on Emerison DVD/VHS combo and 2 Philips DVD/VHS combos. But no problems on my 4 Apex models, Philips FWD5, and PS2. Far better than any Princo, which failed past 4 gig on all my players except the Apex 5131.

The Samsung is great media, I'm just a tight wad :P I prob. will buy some more, because right now I've been using Verbatims which are just slighty cheaper. The surface of the 4x Accu's is perfect for thermal printing, it's just so damn shiny! I even polished one up after I printed it, looks good enough for Mr. Lucas. Yes I'm torn between the 2. Shiny 4x on A05, 1x on A03, cheap. 4x on A05, 2x on A03, ~2x on the wallet I might spring for some of each before I make a final decsion.

Ritek G04 is just another option in between the Samsung and Accu. I'd find a 4x sample pack that has 2 or more of each 4x generic brand (Ritek, Samsung, Accu, Optodisc, Princo) to see which one suits you best. Unless you need/want the +R support of the Sony, there isn't any reason to pay a premium for the drive. A05s can be had everywhere for $210 or less. But the local stores tend to have better deals on +R media, just something you'll have to think about.

I've never had problems with any labels. But alot of people do. I've been using my Casio CW-50s for awhile now, and haven't used a label in months. It is ~$100 upfront, I get 60 or so discs per ribbon with a simple title on the top, and some logos on the bottom. Not as good as full disc silkscreener, or an inkjet disc printer, but a heck of alot cheaper. And blows any paper label out of the water. Just hit up some free font sites to jazz up your creation. Ribbons are $24 in 3 packs, and come in black, blue, red, green, and silver. Black and Red look the best, the blue is a little light. Just keep in mind that it's a disc title printer, not a picture printer.

[LanEvo7]

I've tried the DupEZ "LD" on my apex 1500 and my friend's PS2 and they both work great. I don't know about other players though.

[defense]

Disturbed said:

The reading past 4 gig with the Accu's depends primarily on your DVD Player. At first I gave the 1x LD's a thumbs up, then I noticed some playback problems on Emerison DVD/VHS combo and 2 Philips DVD/VHS combos. But no problems on my 4 Apex models, Philips FWD5, and PS2. Far better than any Princo, which failed past 4 gig on all my players except the Apex 5131.

humm..that is interesting...the problems I encountered were related solely to those "LD" ACCU's, and one way I figured that out was because no DVD PLAYER would read them towards the end..without skipping and freezing, studdering, pausing..etc.....my DVD ROM wouldn't even read them.

So I decided to re-rip the disks and sure enough....towards 75% or greater...the disks would NOT rip further....the data on the disk was damaged! Have you tried to fully re-rip any of those problem disks Disturbed? Just curious if you have...if not..i'd be willing to be you'll see that you won't be able to re-rip them fully. Interesting that some players seem to be able to compensate for the problem disks though.

[disturbed1]

They all re-rip just fine, DVD Decrypter, and on the fly copies. Did you burn at 2x with your Sony? All mine were only burnt at 1x.


The reason why most Apex units don't have a problem, is that they use computer DVD-Roms. If you take apart the case, it even has an IDE connector, and standard power plug for the drive. Not all Apex are this way, but many are. The one's that do have problems are probaly because of cheap lasers, and over all poor construction.

BTW, the LD's ripped at 5.7 speed. Every DVD-R I've tried, except Princo(4.x), rips at about the same speed. They start at 2.5-3x and hit 5.7 by half way and vary between 5.5 and 5.9 til the end.


Could also be your reader.

@LanEvo7,
How about yours? Since you burn at 2x with a hacked firmware?
(Gotta love them Apex's, with enough mustard on a piece of boligna, it'll belt out Oscar Myer )

[VinnySem]

Hey gents, thanks for all your insight.

I'm starting a media conversion company, and I want to find a quality disk that has broad player compatibility. The BeAll's are just the ticket, and I'm a tightwad like disturbed. I want to make the disks I give my customers a professional look, which is why I am looking into labelling or printable media. I think I'm going to order a pack of those no wobble disks and give them a try. That will save me having to go buy a new printer, I'm really happy with my HP DJ952.

I'm going to order some samples of the Ritek and BeAll 4X disks, and a pack of those labels. I'll report back my findings in detail.

[defense]

@Disturbed, yea, I burn ALL my disks at 2x! Screw that 1x crap...that's just me though.....I THOROUGHLY test all my disks so I know right away what the deal is. Since that time I'm about 80 out of 80 on the SONY disks....I'm just waitin' to see one screw up...but it hasn't happened yet...one thing I will say is that while I was testing the "third" LD ACCU on the Perfect Storm...I did INTENTIONALLY put that speed in RNM @ 1x, and the issue was still there, so in my parituclar case, burn speed wasn't a factor. It hasn't been a factor in hundreds of burns, so I think i'll stay @ 2x...until more people comment on the 4x ACCU disks that is.

[LanEvo7]

@LanEvo7,
How about yours? Since you burn at 2x with a hacked firmware?
(Gotta love them Apex's, with enough mustard on a piece of boligna, it'll belt out Oscar Myer )

Yep, I burn all my DupEZ (LD) with my trusty dvr-105 using the 2x hacked firmware. Sometimes I help friends burn some things and they haven't found any issues with it yet either. I've burned about twenty five maybe and they all performed flawlessly. I tested it on my Pioneer DVD-Rom drive, my Apex 1500 and my friend uses his PS2 and his computer DVD-Rom drive(its by HP so i don't know who made the drive).

I've ordered another 50 batch of Dup-EZ's from Rima and they should be comming in tomorrow. These are the inkjet printable ones so I'll see if they are SONY or LD. I really don't mind if they are LDs and they still perform the same way they've always did.

[LanEvo7]

Well just got my batch of Dup EZ inkjet printables from Rima today. Ran DVDinfo on it and turned out to be LDs. I'm not really surprised about it since I knew there was a chance. Anyway, I took one disc and burned a movie on it all the way to the end(4.27 i think). Tested it on the Apex, no freezes, no breakups, etc.

[VinnySem]

Well just got my batch of Dup EZ inkjet printables from Rima today. Ran DVDinfo on it and turned out to be LDs. I'm not really surprised about it since I knew there was a chance. Anyway, I took one disc and burned a movie on it all the way to the end(4.27 i think). Tested it on the Apex, no freezes, no breakups, etc.

Yeah, after they got them in I emailed and asked for a sample to check the media ID, they did it for me and told me it was LD. I was hoping they were gonna be Sony, woulda jumped all over 200.

[LanEvo7]

I could care less if it were Sony or LD. I haven't had a single problem with either yet.