Can bad media actually produce a worse looking picture?

[IAmNotAPirate]

I'm not talking about skipping or stuff like that.

I backed up Aliens on 2 DVD5's with zero compression on my Spin X DVD-R. Then I compressed the Aliens DVD and put it on a Ritek G05 DVD-R.

I watched the split DVD (Spin X) and noticed the picture to be grainier and had some artifacts compared to the compressed (Ritek) and the original.

Or is my head just playing with me. It is basically a digital transfer of 0 and 1's so not sure if it is even possible.

[johns0]

The only time bad media will affect picture quality is when the player cant read the dvd properly and displays blocks,it wont produce grainy pictures,just loss of information replaced with blocks.Graininess and artifacts such as crows feet and are caused by too much compression or the dvd player itself..

[Fandim]

IAmNotAPirate...a good way to tell, would be to simply play this file on your computer, and go to an exact point in the movie using both discs, and do a frame capture.. (like with Intervideo's winDVD).

Then compare them...that should be easier for you.