Meritline 2X DVD-R. Better than other cheap media at 1X?

[Eug]

I won't buy any of the bottom level 1X media. Too unreliable in my view.

However, I'm considering getting the 2X certified meritline.com media at <$2 a pop for use at 1X. Whaddya think of this media?

[RAAGAAman]

Who makes it? TDK, MCC, Pioneer or Mitsui?

RG

[byrdmaniac69]

I use them all the time at 2x, I have had problems with about 3 out of 75 used. Pixelation was the problem.
I believe they are made by princo and sold under the name of dvd pro or meritline. I have never been able to get the dvd info tool to work so I cannot be sure. I had many pixelation issues with the dvd pro purple pioneer look alikes but these 2x dvds work fine for me.

[leebo]

Personally, I've had so so luck with them.
Play fine on my four players, but not on my moms (we both have the same model Sampo).

My current favorite low cost media is made by PrimeDisc, but in my experience, even Pioneer isn't perfect.

[Eug]

How many of you are using it at 1X? I am not as interested in 2X performance because my drive doesn't support 2X anyway.

I don't know who makes it. byrd says maybe Princo, but even if true I don't know if all are made by Princo. I know I still don't trust the 1X Princo that my local store sells.

[DigVidLab.com]

I use them all the time at 2x, I have had problems with about 3 out of 75 used. Pixelation was the problem.

Pixelation is a result of poor source, or encoding problem. There
is no link what so ever to the type of media used to burn a DVD
with, Id venture to say your problem will persist regardless of
the media you use. Check your encoder settings, and your
source.

This may also be of some help:
http://digvidlab.com/webpagearchive/tmpgencdvd/

The page is an archive from another site, it is not a result of
my work, I only pass it on.

Hope that helps, good luck!

[Dave B]

Pixelation is a result of poor source, or encoding problem. There
is no link what so ever to the type of media used to burn a DVD
with

"Pixelation" around moving objects (i.e. the mosquito effect) is indeed due to bitrate starvation brought on from a poor source or encoding method. However, poor media can result in moving objects suddenly "pixelating" and appearing corrupt. It can also produce random squares of colour appearing intermediatly on the video.

[Eug]

I use them all the time at 2x, I have had problems with about 3 out of 75 used. Pixelation was the problem.

Pixelation is a result of poor source, or encoding problem. There
is no link what so ever to the type of media used to burn a DVD
with, Id venture to say your problem will persist regardless of
the media you use. Check your encoder settings, and your
source.

This may also be of some help:
http://digvidlab.com/webpagearchive/tmpgencdvd/

The page is an archive from another site, it is not a result of
my work, I only pass it on.

Hope that helps, good luck!

You can get pixelation from poor encoding, etc.

However, like Dave said you can also something that looks like a sort of pixelation from an inadequate burn or poor media, but it's more like blockiness with huge "pixels", and it's inconsistent.

[byrdmaniac69]

The reason I referred to the media being the culprit on the three 2x dvds with pixelation issues is that I reburned the same files to a different disc and there were no issues on the new disc.
I don't know much about encoding. I almost always copy it straight from the original dvd and use ifoedit then burn to 1 or 2 dvds.
The reason I think they are princos is that they have a p before the serial code or whatever number is near the center of the dvd just like the princos do. That is the only reason I say they may be princos, I may be wrong.
By the way I just got a 50 pack of genuine princo 2x dvds for 75.00. Have used 8 so far and they work fine on my pioneer dvd players. Seven of these were under 3 gigs and one was 3.5 gigs. The pixelation errors from the 3 meritline discs were around the 4 gig mark. However if the tdks and verbatim prices continue to fall I will no longer buy princo.

[leebo]

If you go to www.dv.com (you have to log in), you can read Ralph LeBarge's report on recordable DVD media.

He give a lot of good advice about recording to DVD.

However, it does exclude most of the lessor known disc's, but the advice may still help improve your burns.

[VidGuy]

Whoa, dudes (or dudettes)..... Pixelation can also come from media issues. I've quite often burned an MPEg2 on 2 different brands of DVD, and one will pixelate while the other doesn't. It has to do with whether a sector of the DVD can be read fast enough.

So, don't say the pixelation is ONLY caused by a bad source. Put a greasy fingerprint on a DVD, then play through the fingerprint. It will badly pixelate on many players, even though the source was fine

You can still "copy" the DVD on a computer, because the computer can reread the sector until it gets it right. DVD players don't have that luxury - they have a very short amount of time to read the sector, and then it's too late - rereads don't help because they have to go on to the next sector.

You've seen it on your digital cable or satellite to, when bits drop because of a lightning flash....... That's just what MPeg does when it loses data.

So, there is more than 1 source for pixelation.......