Is it DVD media, writer or standalone player that define "coaster"

[alandla]

Hi all. I have been reading to the point of getting dizzy trying to find out which media is the best for me to burn and watch DVD's.

A few years ago, I started burning VCD's to CD to watch with my Samsung DVD S222. After I got a new computer with an LG 40404B DVD burner, I decided to move to burning DVD's

It took quite some time and money to figure the process out. I bought DVD-R, DVD+R, +RW, and -RW from Maxell, Memorex, and Mitsumi (never noticed the M theme ) from my local Future Shop, all at 4x. I finally found that on my stand alone DVD player, the Memorex DVD-R and DVD+RW were the only media that consistently played.

On other stand alone DVD players and on my PC DVD burner and DVD-ROM, the other media seemed to work fine. I have only found 1 DVD that I burned (the mitsumi) that would not play on anything. Is this the only "coaster" or would the others that play on other players but not my own also be considered "coasters".

I have really started to think about this more recently as my local Future Shop has been advertising 8x Memorex DVD-R for a lot less money (a lot less!) than the 4x but I don't know if I can use it.

I'm wondering since the cost of a DVD player, DVD burner, and a 100 DVD spindle are getting to be close to the same price, which of these would provide the most reliability if I were to buy it. I mean, upgrading my DVD burner or buying different media isn't worth much if my player doesn't play it. But with Hi Def DVD on the horizon, it might be worth waiting to buy a new player.

Also, it looks to me that I can't test if newer media will work or even find the Media ID Code without buying it and opening it and if it doesn't work or has an ID code that indicates bad manufacturing, I'm still out money as the store probably won't take it back after it has been opened and /or burned.

Anyway, I'm just trying to sort things out so this is more of a discussion than me actually looking for direct answers. Hope to hear from you all. Thanks for letting me rant

[ROF]

The only coaster is the one that does not playback the data burnt to it. It sounds like you might need to buy a new standalone player if you wish to watch burnt movies.

[SingSing]

I agreed with ROF. You should really go and get a better DVD player. Coaster is the disc can't play on any player/PC. It is mostly a burner/media issue.

[A_51]

I agree with ROF. Here are a couple of sugestions to help you on your situation.
1. you need to do is get the brand and model of your current player and look it up on this site dvd players list. https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers between other thing it will tell you witsh disk have been tryed and work with your unit. There is only a handfull of dvd manufacturers most of the brands buy disk from them. It is not uncommon to find that one particular brand actually buys DVD of different cuality from direrent manufacturers. To find out who actually made it look for the tool dvd identifier on this site. Also do a search on the dvd subject, there is a lot ot good info here.
2. Ones you find wish type of disk to use, do a little experiment. For instance I have 2 burners on my machine. The first one I got was a memorex and after a wile I noticed that if I burn my disk 6X or above I got problems toward the end of the movie or actually the edge of the disk. This was caused by vibration at high speed. If that is happening to you reduce the speed on your burns and always use verify feature. Verify will let you know if every thing went well and the info on the disk can be read and is the same as source.
3. DON'T PUT LABELS ON YOUR DVD. Sure you can make them prety. But they are more of a hassle that anything else. They throw of the disk balance and induce vibration, after a long time some begin to become unglued and even sometimes the glue eats away parts of the reflective part of the disk messing it up after some time. You are better off using a sharpie or any other permanent marker.
4. On the topic of buying a separate DVD recorder (DVR) or using a computer one. The issue is "What is that you whant to do?" Let me elaborate on that. To back up a dvd I use my pc. To record a good external source like cable or VHS I use my DVR. The DVR capture is same or better than my PC also it don't tye op its reasources you can be recording and doing other things on your computer because is a separate unit.Preatty much like a new kind of VCR. I use RW disk on my DVR because I can use them multiple times and any ways I like to reauthor new menus on the material that I recorded.

Look into this points. Get acquainted with your software and how to use it propertly and stay away from those cheap 100+ DVD for $5 and you will see that the coasters will go away.

[alandla]

It does look like I need a better stand alone player. I just checked the Media ID codes of all of my blank DVD media with DVD Identifier (I know, what took me so long) and the only media that I can play on my DVD player consistently is a Memorex DVD-R with CMC Magnetics as it's Media ID which according to Lord Smurf's reference www.nomorecoasters.com, is 4rth class.

All of my other media is at least 2nd class (even 1rst class and although it plays well on other players and on my PC, it will not play consistently on my stand alone player.

One interesting note though. The only true coaster that I have burned thus far was on DVD-R with an Optodiscr004 media ID with a 80-95% success rate. My CMC Mag DVD-R with a listing of 0-50% success rate burns every time (although I haven't burned enough to be statistically certain of its true success rate )