Media speed? Does it matter?

[drwhok9]

I apologize in advance as I'm a big time newbie in this realm but I have a few questions.

I purchased a Sony DRU-510A DVD burner as I am hoping to transfer all of my current home movies (from VHS) and my new footage off of my digital camcorder to DVD. Along with this I have 3 children with a nasty habit of scratching our movie DVD's so I've been making backup copies of the ones they use most.

The DRU-510A can burn at 4X and supports all the major burning formats (-R, +r, -RW, +RW). Therefore, I've really been struggling to try and figure out which blank media to use and for what purpose.

1st question: Does it really matter what speed is listed on the blank media I burn to. For example I went to pickup some -R's today and only found one on the shelf that specifically listed 4X on it (Memorex). The Sony's (which I figured would probably be most compatible with my burner) didn't have any speed listed. Others, such as the +RW's I looked at listed 1 to 2.4X?? Sorry, I realize this is probably a stupd question but will this have any impact?

2nd question: I've read a lot of post on which media formats are most compatible with regular DVD players. If I understand things correctly the -R's are the most compatible (89%) write-once while the +RW's are the most compatible rewritable. As I mentioned above I have tried making backups of my DVD's but have met with limited succes on making ones that were compatible with my other DVD players. Every copy I've made has worked great on my Panasonic progressive scan player (a few glitches but nothing major). However, I have yet to find a format/media brand that seems to work well on my Samsung player and the DVD player in my van. They will recognize the -R's but it struggles and is VERY choppy (to the point of being unwatchable). The brand of blank DVD's I used was Hypermedia...might this have anything to do with it? How about the speed question I asked above? Could either of these contribute to it? I was thinking that if the DVD players simply weren't compatible with the -r or +r then it wouldn't see it at all instead of being so choppy.

Any opionions, thoughts, smart remarks would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Vejita-sama]

1) Yes, just like when 4-12x CDR drives first came on the market the organic dye used makes a difference. Do not try to burn 1x media at 4x. Given time we'll most likely end up like CDRs where everything is rated so high that it doesn't matter.

2) Matter of much debate and personal opinion. If it works for you then it works. My personal experience is that -R plays on more players then +R. But that both work on all new players that _I'VE_ tested

[SLICK RICK]

An off topic question, but what method are you using to burn your dvd's.

SLICK RICK

PS. I have not heard to many good things about Memorex DVD's. Maybe you should try another brand. Target has TDK 20 pack for 30$ +&-. I bought 3 packs today. I think that may be the problem with the play back in your other 2 DVD players.

Good luck.

[drwhok9]

I'm using DVD X Copy to burn the movie DVD's (and since we are a bit off topic if any DVD X Copy users can tell me how to set the burn speed on that I'd love to hear it...I don't see it in the cinfiguration anywhere).

As far as the home movie editing goes I tried the package that came with the burner and hated it (Sonic MYDVD) but I tried the trial version of Pinnacle 8 and it's a huge improvement thus far. Haven't burned an actual DVD with it yet because the trial won't let you but right now I think that's the direction I'm heading.

Anyway, thanks for the TDK suggestion. We have a Target right down the road so I think I'll give that a shot.

[j1d10t]

drwhok9, I'd do a search on this site for info about Studio 8 before you buy it - I've heard a lot of bad things about it. I use it, and I've only run in to a few bugs, but I've read a number of topics about people having problems with it.

Just a heads up.

[drwhok9]

Thanks for the advice. I had a friend that said he had seen similar things but that his experience didn't match the bad press so I went ahead and took the plunge.

I burned my first family DVD with menus, transitions, titles, etc, etc last night using Pinnacle 8.5 and I think it turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Definitely a lot more user friendly to work with than that MyDVD garbage was! It took a little longer to render the DVD than I would like but so far I'm pretty pleased with the final product (and I think I'm barely scratching the surface at this point).

Anyway, back to the media discussion. I did try the TDK's and had a much better result. I haven't had an opportunity to try in our van player yet but it works 100% better in my Samsung player. Looks like the media brand is important after all!

Thanks again for the advice. This is definitely a good place to come for info. Hopefully I'll be able to reciprocate after I learn more.