Good/Bad media MUST READ

[Solarflair]

Im not quite sure if im just stating the obvious or not, but if not, then I think this is something everyone should definitely take a look at since it would be easy to easily misjudge a media.

To generalize people rate media by the output playability w/o skipping, distortions etc. Not to including the issues having to do directly w/ source video and encoding job.

However i came to learn that a media that has good output playability may not do well in other areas. Even the best rated ones ive tried, have had problems in other uses. For example a media might be a great output dvd for playabilty, but it straight up sucks at being a source disc. like if you wanted to decrypt it or do a disc to disc copy. It may also have problems being read if it was made for storage data. Other media are rated as poor for dvd-video but are rather reliable when it comes to storing data.

Other media are labelled 'poor' becuase sometimes it doesnt burn at the rate of the speed that it is advertised as. I got these 8x once that never really burned over 5x speed, it wasnt good at being dvd-video because towards the end it would do funny things, but as dvd-video source it had no problems being read.

I have had alot of problems with dvd-videos w/ excellent playability but make poor source discs. I found out that if you want a dvd-video to be a good souce disc, its best to burn it at 4x. When you burn 8x or faster the speed is not constant during the process, which means the writer actually changes speed during writing.

If you look at the data side of disc you can sometimes see where it changes speed, the pattern of the data looks like a disc has been written in many sessions. The better quality the media, the harder it is to distinguish the change in speed by looking at the data side. Also the more apparent it is (the worst the quality) , the more chances of getting errors when trying to decrypt/extract, or copy the dvd-video.

So before you deem that a media is a piece of you know what, try using that media for different uses, then you might have a different view on things. I try to use a different brand/manuf. each time i buy, and stock up on the ones i know are great.

[BJ_M]

all writers write data at a variable speed

[overloaded_ide]

Sorry solarflair, I disagree with most everything.

If a disk is writen well and playable then why can't you read the data to make another copy? Never had that problem myself, as a matter of fact easier to read the data it seems than to play it. I have made perfect copies from disks that did not play well. Mostly do to external problems like scratches.

like if you wanted to decrypt it or do a disc to disc copy.

Ok first as far as I know you never "DECRYPT" a burned disk since there is no way to encrypt it when you burned it.

And yes a disk is bad media if it only burns at 4x but is rated for 8x or faster. You CAN take some junk disks and make a decent burn at 4X or 2X, but if it was sold as 8X media and it cannot be writen at 8X then it is not good 8X media, so it's junk if you wanted 8X bought and paid for 8X!

it wasnt good at being dvd-video because towards the end it would do funny things, but as dvd-video source it had no problems being read.

Yep back to my first statement I geuss, sometimes you can read a junk disk to make a new copy.

A good disk is one that records well, plays well, reads well for a new copy, burns at correct speed, etc...
Nothing that misses those points is good media!

[rgs_uk]

I don't know why people have so many problems. I must have written at least 1000 cds and dvds since 1998 and can only remember losing data on one occasion due to a CD that became unreadable. I used all kinds of brands including white-top unbranded CDs and they are all still perfectly OK.

I have had a fair number that have messed up during writing and have been thrown away. But once written and checked, no future problems...