Bests DVD's for recording Wedding videos onto?

[thete]

Hi

My friend record wedding videos, and has eventually decided that he really needs to put them onto DVD as well now! I will be the one who handles that side of things though! I have been buring cd's for years, but this will be the first time I birn DVD's! Due to this, I don;t know what the best media is. I think we will be getting the Pioneer A05 burner, as it seems to most compatable with stand alone DVD players, but I am not sure which media to buy! The disks need to last (stay playable) for a long time (ie years), and be reliable in virtually all DVD players, old and new! I have to admit, from what I have read Verbatium seems the best for this, but I would like to get some real advice on this, if possible! The cost of the DVD's is not a problem, I would reather pay a few pounds extra per disk, and not have complaints after a few months from people! I also live in the UK, so it would be great if soemon coudl tell me where the best place to get these discs are, as I can only gte datasafe discs where I am (as well as unbranded), and I know that (the unbranded espeiacally) so not last particually long (well the CD-R's at least)!

Thank you all again for all your help in this matter!

[fatbloke]

Visit this site for discs : www.blankdiscshop.co.uk
it also explains what disc are compatible with what
and the prices are good. The best type you can buy in my
opinion is the ones with g4 ritek dye, slightly more expensive
but very good.

[Karate Media]

I do some video work, and am expanding into DVD; I also have a friend who is interested in getting into DVD work, and have been consulting him (basically I'm always two steps ahead of him, so the info just goes from source to me to him!)

Before I get to discs:
There are a lot of super-pro professionals on this board who may have far more experience than I, but I've been recommending the Sony 500 A/UL/AX/ULX burners (or other multi-format burner) to anyone interested in producing DVDs on the scale I believe you are thinking of.

Yes, most professionals say that +Rs and -Rs will work in most any drives equally nowadays, but I think it's worth the extra few $$ to buy a burner that will do +/- R instead of just one format -- the people you will be producing DVDs for won't necessarily be tech-savy, and don't care about, "Well, your DVD player happens to be one of the few that won't play DVD-R." You should just be able to say, "Sorry 'bout that. Here's a new copy," and hand them a DVD+R to replace the -R that won't play in their standalone. Just my opinion, but one I'm using professionally.

As for media, I think Verbatim has been the most reliable for me. I feel confident that my 4X Verbatim DVD+Rs will last me for years, BUT I don't have 10-year-old burned Verbatim DVD+Rs to back up any claims of longevity.

I have used Mitsui audio CDRs for regional bands with great success, but have yet to try their DVDs. They are pricey, but I plan to try them soon and expect them to maintain Mitsui's high standards.

I am also waiting on a shipment of Samsung BeAlls from meritline -- they claim to guarantee a lifespan of 100 years, and many people on this board have recommended them. I'll let you know what I think (and I know you'll be holding your breath in anticipation! )

[thete]

Thank you for all the adice you have given me, very comproiehensive! I did like the idea of the Sony 500AX due to it's multi format abaility (I have mentioned it in a similar post I have put in the DVD writers section), but the reviews of it where quite bad on here, I thought maybe it would be best to get the Pioneer, but I like what you have said about the sony! Do you have personal expeirnece of the sony tiself working on well on most players (ie is it the one you, and your friend use)?

As for the media, yeah, the verbatium does look very goiod, and promising, but I would be very very pleased with any information you can give me on the other DVD media, would be very very helpful. I also agree with what you say abotu a few extra pounds is worth it! #

Thanks for the info on the blankdiskshop, I've had a look at their website, and it looks very good. They do seems ot have a very qide selection of disks, so thank you for that advice!

Look forward to any more information people have!

[firetoad]

Never used them myself, but I have heard good things about Samsung BeAll media. I have always burnt Princo and recently purchased some Ritek too. However, I have some baby videos that I will be compiling and putting to disc over the next year and I went ahead and purchased the Samsung BeAll media to try out for that.

[Faustus]

Important stuff like that? Apple disk, ALWAYS apple disk.

[thxkid]

make about 4-5 DVD-R's and 4-5 DVD+R's and just go try them, I have taken mine to Best buy, Circuit City, Frys Electronics and sams club, so far all my +R's from my HP has played in any DVD player I have tried, only my -R's from my DMR-E20 failed to play in one funky named frys brand of DVD player, even though it said fight on it that it would play -R's, my brother had problems with -R's in a multi disc DVD player by Panasonic even though it claimed to play -R's also and he burned his on a Sony 500UL, my +R's from my HP played fine on the same DVD player, so it goed to show you you may always find someone out there that one or none of the formats may play on, even though I have not found one yet that can not play a +R burned from my HP, guess just lucky.

[jowel13]

I can relate with THX in this case. Burned 2 DVDRs one a DVD+R (Maxell Media) and the other DVD-R (TDK Media). Tried both on a Toshiba SD-1600 and only the DVD+R played. I have yet to have a DVD Player fail being read with a DVD+R disc. I think a lot of the comparisons are still unfair though. Sometimes even the WAY you burnt the disc affects if it will be read by the DVD Player or not. Even at times burning a DVD with Record Now Max plays instead of one that burned with Nero.

It's hard to actually get all the compatability numbers straight with soooo many options of burning the disc.

Go figure.

[disturbed1]

Most customers are repeat customers, or friends/family of them.

I offer a $10 demo DVD which can be bought to perform playback tests. It offers some promotional material, cheesey 3D animations, and other material. Along with a printed checklist for the customer to complete and send back. This has to be pruchased, or no warranty.

The customer is then given $10 off when they order.

Using a dual format burner will in long run cause headaches. Find a reputable company that stands behind it's products, get those burners, then sample some media to find what works the best for you. I started with a Pioneer A03, added a Panasonic LF-D3xx, then a Toshiba SD-5002, I'm looking to purchase 4 new Panasonic 2x burners in the next month or so. I can't live without the DVD-RAM feature. Perfect for stock footage, and client back ups.

For customers I recomend only Mitsui media, but I offer Ritek at a lower price, shorter warranty.

Out of 1,000+ discs so far this year, 5 have been returned. 4 were due to poor user care of the disc. I think they used 'em as skateboards. 4 Riteks, and 1 badly scratched Mitsui.

The number one compatibility problem I've seen is with under sized DVDs. Older Philips players (and a few other brands) won't load the disc if it's under 2,000 sectors, or about 4,000,000 bits in size. I use a dummyfile to pad the image if necc.

Don't lable the discs for your customers. I have a library of 500+ for myself, and all work, but that's with my players. Go either with an Epson inkjet printer, or a Rimage unit. The Rimage is more, but well worth it.

I now use the Casio-CW50 for the lower priced Riteks.

[txpharoah]

This is valuable data. So buy the best. APPLE DISCS.

APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE - APPLE

Other may be cheaper or whatever, but I consider weddings to be important, and spending an extra $2 on a disc is worth the extra years you'll be able to get out of it. I also put weddings on Apple DVD when I freelance my talents to friends. Edit the footage on the computer, and then use good software and make a good disc. The Pioneer A05/105 drive is great.

In all case avoid cheap discs like Princo, Ritek. Maxell and TDK and some others are okay, but APPLE (and PIONEER) have proven themselves to be THE BENCHMARK on DVD-R quality in numerous industry tests.

You can buy a 5-pack of Apple DVD-R for $15 at outpost.com or your local Fry's Electronics.

[SLICK RICK]

I agree with Karate Media, I think Verbatim DVD-R are the way to go. I use them all the time and never have had any problems.


SLICK RICK

[KTH]

According to a compatibility test done by DV Magazine (http://www.dv.com) the Maxell brand of DVD-R media was the most compatible at 80% with TDK & Sony a close second at 76%. These test results were posted in July of 2002 so the results have probably changed since then. Also on the chart below you will notice theres no listing for DVD+R, because at the time of the test DVD+R's were not as readily available as they are now. My suggestion in terms of what disc's will last the longest and is most compatible is to stick with name brands (TDK, Maxell, Verbatim, Pioneer, etc.) You may also want to make backups of the videos using several different brands of media. That way it's less likely that both brands of media will go bad at the same time. Also do not use sticky labels on disc's or perhaps you may be better off not using labeling your DVD's at all. People have reported that their disc'c played fine until they put a sticky label on their disc, then soon after the disc would tend to skip, get stuck at certain scenes or pixelate. I myself have experienced these exact problems after labeling disc's. There are of course printers like the Epson Stylus Photo 960 ink jet or the Casio CW-50 Thermal printers available, but even Casio recommends printing on your CD or DVD before writing to the disc at all. This kind of makes you think if you should be labeling a disc at all. I have never tried labeling a disc with a sticky label before writing to it before, but I was thinking of running a test soon. One more thing I should mention is that heat (like from inside a DVD player) can also cause recordable DVD's to go bad especially DVD players that run extra hot. My Sony DVP-NS400D is one of these players. In my test I would burn two same brand media from the same package using the exact same configuration. I would then play both disc's through once to verify that they burned OK. I then put one disc in My Sony DVD player that runs very hot & the other in my Pioneer that runs very cool in comparison. I then let both disc sit in the players with the power on for several days (without playing the disc's) to simulate disc use over time. I then tried playing the disc and had problems with the disc that was in the Sony. I repeated this experiment over time with various brand of disc's and found if a disc went bad during the test it was always the disc that was in the Sony. This seems to prove my heat theory. The disc's that so far have held out during my heat tests are the Maxell & TDK brands. All the generic brands I have tried went bad. Please note that because of the limited availability of different brands of media in my area and of course the problem of media cost I cannot say that the Maxell & TDK are the only brands that are less susceptable to heat damage. I'm sure there are many other brands that work as well. It's just that these are the brands that I have tried so far that have worked. Also below are the test results of the DV.Com media tests. I hope this helps!

[Faustus]

I've seen this chart before, its been around unless its a new one. I seriously think that perhaps the personal experiances of many on this board could put a huge dent in their finding. Forexample they list the Vivistar media as great according to the chart, I've seen maybe one person have good luck with it, and at least 10 who purchased trash.

Also I've used at least 3 different batches of cd-recordable.com when they were around and even was in email contact with them the entire time. Not one good disk, yet by their rating at least some should have worked right?

[Darr1960]

I agree use the best 4x DVD media you can afford, Remember these are couples memmories. I disagree with getting a DVD-R drive Only.. I already have done a couple of Weddings and Out of 100 DVDs I had 10 couples say the some of there guest home set top player couldn't play the DVD-R disc. So I had to redo theres on DVD+R media..I think you should get the Sony 500 series dual format.. While its true most people will be able to view the DVD-R as you can see 10 out of 100 no disc messages is 10 to many..

[KTH]

Flaystus if you read my post carefully it says in the third line down that the test results were printed in July of 2002 & if you take into account that magazines usually prepare for an issue one or two months in advance then the results are almost a year old. In fact I stated that the results have probably changed since then. You also mention that you had bad experiences with the CD-Recordable.com media. Well the chart shows it to be the worst listed media in the DVD-R category. When you look at these results you have to take into account that they don't usually just run these test on one system or even one unit of a certain model drive. The better tests will usually try to get several of the same model drives from different lots (if possible) as well as use as many different model drives as possible to get a more accurate result. I agree with you that comments from people who have actually used the various types of media can help, but unless you have the exact same system and use the same software to burn your DVD's as the person you are trying to help you still cannot guarantee that a certain media will work better than any other. Even if you did have the exact same system there still could be problems (It's just less likely). The main reason I posted the test result chart was to give people a starting point. I figured others could use these results as well as other user comments to make an informed decision for himself/herself.