Do you blame your media or your player?

[Timster]

A few days ago in another thread I was dissing the cheap media I bought from Compusa (Compusa brand DVD+R which dvdinfo reports as optodisk). I played them on my stand-alone Panasonic RV-32 which has no problems playing Memorex DVD+Rs but when playing the optodisk I'd get pixeltion and skipping all over the place etc.. Naturally i thought these things are junk. However I also have a cheapo AMW V101 player and it plays thes optodisks flawlessly. It also plays DVD+RW which the panasonic won't. I paid $32 for the AMW (which is one hell of a player btw) and a bit over $100 for the Panasonic, Go figure. This got me thinking. I went and picked up a couple of players that said they would play DVD+R, a RCA and a magnavox, and they both played the optodisks flawlessly. So my conclusion would be that stand alone players out there are getting better at reading more types of media. Older players such as my Pansasonic are going to be picky. I'd say n the next six months, all DVD players will be able to read both DVD+R/W and DVD-R/Wmedia including the cheapo Compusa brand. What's your conclusion?

[Gazorgan]

My $39 Apex will play anything but AVI/WMV. Any media.

My more expensive unit won't. To be specific it won't play 2x TDK -R's past the 3 GB mark reliably.

My friends very expensive unit (he can't tell me why it's expensize other than it's progressive) will play RITEK G04's, but not the TDK's. It won't play +R's, but will stutter through +RW's.

I usually blame the player, except for Princo's which can be shown to have bad spots p[ast the 4 GB spot.

[garryheather]

I always blame the media - a DVD player is supposed to be able to play pressed DVD's.

Recordable DVD's are supposed to appear to the player as a regular disc. So if they don't, go figure.

Sure, some players accept poor media better than others, my Sony says get stuffed but my Ronin plays anything. But if the media falls outside of the parameters expected from it, you can't blame the player for that.

[Hardcoreruss]

I always blame the media - a DVD player is supposed to be able to play pressed DVD's.

Ditto

[Bricktop]

Generaly media, but some players agree with certain media better than others.
Depends on my mood......its more cost effective to smash the disc into bits than it is to destroy the player.

[SatStorm]

I blame both

[vivisimonvi]

I blame both as well.

I blame my Apex for not playing a burned TDK disc over 1X

I blame my Opto's for skipping through my Samsung standalone on the outer layer portion, but praise the Apex on handling such a difficult disc.

I blame Apex (and PowerDVD) again for freezing on my CBR DVD's that fall below it's "constant" bitrate, but praise the Samsung for bypassing it with no freezes. (I could blame TMPGEnc for even allowing this to happen!!)

I blame the Samsung for being a tightass on proper 'DVD-Spec' disc, while my Apex is rather laid back, just plays the damn disc.

I go through rigorous and constantly changing methods just to get something that works on everything.

[instigator_008]

Yeah, both media and the standalone equipment can play a part. But if you use the best media your chances of success are that much greater.

Picky standalones respond much better to quality media.

[Bob W]

I have never had a problem playing the CompUSA DVD-R on the three players, two computers or two DVD recorders I have at home.

[indolikaa]

I blame the media. I have a degree in Gurmology with a specialty in Applied Defense, so I know better. :P