What Is The Best DVD Media To Use

[CaBLe_213]

i'm currently using princo's to burn dvd movies
it doesn't work on most dvd players
poeple have told me it could be the media
can anyone surggest a media that is widly compatible
with most standalone dvd players

[garryheather]

My Sony is very fussy when it comes to media, but the following all works perfectly:

Nan-ya
Ritek G03 & G04
Datawrite classic with the "fake" TDK003 dye (Princo ??)
e-Proformance (sic) - Prodisc
99% of DVD-RW

and:

Bulkpaq Turquoise if I don't go right to the edge.

[halcyon]

CaBLe_213,

"best media" depends on the burner and even the reader you have.

Some burn well on media X, while others fail on it.

Some readers read media X burned by Y well, but other readers fail on it.

There is no universally "best media" that burns better than anything in all burners and reads better than anything in all readers.

The quality is also often dependent on the burn speed used.

It's the same in CD-R discs.

If you want a bit more practical advice, take a look at these tests for example (based on what drive you have):


http://www.dvd-netti.com/dvd-media/index.html

Rough translation:

"Toimivaksi todettu media" = Media that has been known to work (well)

"Toimimattomaksi / Osittain virheelliseksi todettu media" = media that has been known to cause problems (or fail burns completely)

regards,
Halcyon

[LanEvo7]

If you live in the U.S., go to www.rima.com or www.meritline.com and get a sample pack. That way you can test which one works best with your burner and your standalone.

I've had great success with DupEZ's and Ritek seems to be compatible with many drives.

[indolikaa]

Taiyo Yuden, but they are not cheap.

[paulwill]

I've burned over 200 discs on my Cendyne 4x dvd-rw (Pioneer 105/A05). Princo white tops have been excellent. Maybe 1 coaster burned that wasn't my fault. However, I got a spindle of Princo's with the 'logo' on top, andy they were bad. After watching a movie for an hour and a half, the last part of the movie skips, pixelates, and ends up freezing

Also, many people talk about Princos deteriorating and becoming unplayable anywhere from 6 mos. to a year. I have princo dvd-r's that are 6 mos. old that still play.

However, since this is such a widely reported phenomenon, I will next time cough up the extra dough for Riteks, which are very well liked by most users. I want my dvd's to last!

[VinnySem]

IMHO, the BeAll disks offer the best price/quality/compatibility ratio. I hardly use any other brands. But order a sample pack, maybe order some single jewel cased disks, and test them with your burner and set top player. Your results may be very different than mine.

[thefox149]

I use riteks G04 for cutomers and a combination of princo whitetops and riteks...the white tops so far have not had 1 single bad one yet...burnt on an asus 0402p with the firmware update....

[dougry]

I don't know if it's the best, but I haven't made one coaster yet. I use the
DVD-R 4.7GB (General Purpose) Bulk by Leda at shop4tech

50 for $44.50. And i use freeware (DVDshrink to encode and burn4free to burn)

[zak_swan]

read the sticky

[lopht]

about princo media i have about 300 or 400 of that and a half of them are dead.. they are old about 2 & 1/2 month

[thayne]

2 months isn't old. Princo just sux. Use Ritek!

[paulwill]

2 months old an they are dead? How often are you playing them? Where are you storing them? What are you storing them in? I really believe if it was true that all Princos had some kind of 'deterioration' problem, it would be all people having problems, not some. Maybe it was just a bad batch that people got?

[handyguy]

The best media is Authoring media & the best dvd writer is a Panasonic Authoring drive & you can play 100% on all players with them.

[steve1173]

Been using Memorex DVD-R in my Panasonic DMR-E50 with great results so far.

[garryheather]

Recording speed should make NO difference to disc compatibility, whether it be DVD or CD's. If you are using media that is rated for that speed, of course. If you insist on say recording at 4x on 1x media using hacked firmware then you're asking for trouble, however.

[steve1173]

Recording speed should make NO difference to disc compatibility, whether it be DVD or CD's. If you are using media that is rated for that speed, of course. If you insist on say recording at 4x on 1x media using hacked firmware then you're asking for trouble, however.

I am using Memorex General version 2.0 disks & the box has no speed ratings 1x, 4x on it. On the back it shows the recording times in minutes 60, 120, 240 & 360.

[garryheather]

The recording time means nothing, as it depends on the bitrate. People with domestic recorders often get the choice between quality (short recording times) and a long duration (sh*te quality), and that's why they sometimes put times on them. In the real world, we encode our video to fit the disc, not the other way around.

If they don't say a speed it probably means 1x and one of two things:

They don't know for some reason (like they source from different suppliers, ala Memorex, as it happens), or

They're playing it safe and don't want returns from people saying "it says 4x on the box and it only records at 1x", which is out of their control due to hardware limitations and not the media.

[lgmayka]

Recording speed should make NO difference to disc compatibility, whether it be DVD or CD's. If you are using media that is rated for that speed, of course.

And if your media is not counterfeit. The counterfeit Maxell disks described here

http://www.maxell.co.jp/e/release/20030704.html

appear to burn at 2x, but fail readback verification. They do burn cleanly at 1x, though. This occurs with both a Pioneer DVR-103 drive and an LG GSA-4040B drive.