Do the hardware companies prefer bad media?

[kevs]

Someone suggested, and this was fascinating, that maybe the hardware companies test more with bad media, or "high volume" media, and this is why a higher end disc like TY is not doing well for me. anyone else heard of that?

[oldandinthe way]

Lets try this again.

I said the drive makers are testing with high volume media to avoid support costs.

This is not a preference for any brand, its just business sense.

I also suggested that when the bulk of DVDwriters were made in Japan, TY received greater attention than it does now. And that may in part account for its superior preformance at that time.

A look at the media reports shows a pattern of problems. Complaints about bad media are more frequent from owners of older Japanese drives, and certain vendors who are not in Japan. If one were to eliminate all complaints from posters whose firmware hasn't been updated (either due to manufacturer neglect or user sloth) much of the poor performance would be eliminated.

Almost all of the issues about bad media come under the category of folklore. Except for reports based on visible defects (which some manufacturers fail to catch).

Drive scanning is not a test of media - it is a test of the performance of media on a specific drive.

I can't find any systematic study of media quality based on calibrated test equipment, although all media manufacturers test samples of their product.

If you have problems on your drive with TY - don;t use it. Its not like its the most convenient option available or the only option. It might be the drive, it might be the media, it might be gremlins.

[SingSing]

Since DVDR has a formal specification, the burner can be designed to better the specification and released. The design can be done without extensive test of burner vs media at all.

The read/write laser and head assembly can be designed and produced in-house or from an OEM supplier. It is often the head assembly design teams figure out the head/media compatibility issue. This is how the harddrive bussiness model worked.

[oldandinthe way]

DVDR has a "loose" specification. The firmware must be capable of performing an appropriate "write strategy" for the media it burns. And these write strategies differ significantly.

If the drive maker does not implement ADIP they must provide a "write stategy" for each MediaID they support. This requires building and testing the firmware. Failure to provide a write strategy for a particular mediaID leads to the use of a default write-strategy which is almost always wrong!

This is why firmware updates are important and maufacturer's lists of media supported are significant.

Optical media are not comparable to hard disks.

By the way a question I posted recently as to whether anyone could identify a drive which implements ADIP (actually reading the write strategy from the media) went unanswered.

[kevs]

Great info Old.
so would it be fair to say that this site should really be ignored for all intents and purposes:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm