Bad Media Theory

[dafreak]

here's my theory on memorex disks...
THEY SUCK ARSE

I bought 2x 25 packs of 4x dvd-r memorex disks. both stacks were cmc.
Whenever they were able to burn at 4x, the movie would jerk, become pixelated, etc. The jerking and pixelation stopped when I burned at 1x or 2x, so I think, ok that's fine, I can spend more time than needed to burn dvd's. About half of the disks that I did try to burn at 2x errored out at 1% with pma update failures. Same results when trying to burn at 1x.

At first I thought it was nero, so I tried burning with ic8...error at 1%.
I tried creating an iso file and burning with dvddecrypter...error at 1%.

then I thought maybe it's because my burner is set as a slave. So i changed my burner to master...still the same results.

Then I thought maybe it's the firmware, updated my sony dru510a to 1.0f...same results.

I decide to write memorex and let them know how I felt about their disks. They tell me to send in the upc codes for the disks and they would send me replacements. I send in the upc codes and about 2 weeks later, I get my disks. throw them into the burner to check the media code. Turns out they are prodisc03's.

I try to burn on one at 4x...error at 1%, PMA update failure.
I try it again at 2x...error at 1%, PMA update failure.
I try it again at 1x...error at 98%, PMA update failure.

I try again with another disk from the same stack...
4x...error
2x...error
1x...finally it burned successfully and it only took 30-40 minutes to finish...yeehaw.

Well, since then I've gone through about half of the stack and none have burned successfully, even at 1x.

I just gave up and went back to my trusty riteks that don't ever give me problems. Gone through about 150 riteks without one coaster. I can handle that.

[fangstar]

I agree Memorex are crappier than Pine.

I use Pine alot, but my favourite is Maxell 4x.
They are a beauty.

[nick101181]

Yeah I've gotten some bad Ritek Printable G04's lately. Damn pisses me off cause After I burned a dvd they have uncorrectable errors and the disc cannot be recovered at all. You would expect that after using 250 ritek dvd-rs and never having a problem that these should be pretty topnotch also but nope. Also it sucks to watch a movie then get a damn disc error from the uncorrectable error and never know what happens in the movie. I'll never buy these riteks again. I recently bought a pack of prodisc, because the last batch of thermal printable prodisc were actually very good to me.

[Sabro]

RICOHJPN because JPN=Japan
But the DVD+R Ricoh are still 2nd class media.
The Taiwan=bad, Japan=Good is a general rule, not a absolute one.
Fulci, I'm sure you know that, just clarifyin for the other folks.

I've used tons of FujiFilm DVD+r 120/go discs that are marked on the top as "Made in Taiwan" but have a RICOJPN media code and never had any problems except for between different players, but the burn and disc quality was def GREAT.

I do agree with the cheap vs good media issue though cause when I first started burning dvds I picked up a 5 pack of WallyWorld branded DVD-r's...needless to say I think I got 1 decent burn out of the pack.

But even with very expensive media, I've noticed it tends to be a love/hate relationship with the dvd player. I can get a perfect burn, play it in my ps2 and it freezes halfway thru, put it in my laptop, desktop or set top Apex and plays excellent.

Alot of factors as everyone knows, but using quality media tends to cut down the realm of possibilities by atleast 1 factor.


Sabro

[ha13may]

Hi!

I would'nt say i'm an expert at burning dvds but here is my experience.

I have burnt approx 300-400 Ritek discs. About 100 G03 and the rest are all G04. 99% of the time I burn at X1 speed. I have a X4 speed dvd writer but still I only burn at X1 speed. Out of all these Ritek burns only 2 can't be read in my TOSHIBA 1612 drive (cant be ripped) they rip fine in my Pioneer 105. They play flawlessly. My recent batch of 50 inkjet printable G04s has given me quite a few problems even at X1 speed but I am sure it's just a bad batch.

I totally agree with:

[/quote]
Besides TDKG02 I've looked at RITEKG03 and G04. People rave about RITEKG04, but rarely say anything about G03. Based on a new Toshiba 3950 player which stuttered on any media burned over 1x and the fact that faster burns are supposedly more error prone (simply due to the higher speed and extra laser power needed), I tend to feel 1x or 2x burns are potentially more reliable than 4x. That may not be true, but it's been enough reason to steer toward G03 over G04 as speed is not an issue with me. I'll take reliability over speed any day.
[quote]

If I ever get sick of Riteks, I 'll go straight onto TDKs which I now have found are almost same price as riteks, here in the UK.

[jackbren]

The Ritek G04 DVD-Rs are the only media that I HAVEN'T been able to play on my standard DVD players, but they do play on my PlayStation 2.

[kisrum]

I have a firewire NEC ND1300A burner like the original poster, although mine is internal. It has never successfully burned a CMC disk (mostly Phillips brand). No shame there, I guess . It has had one problem with a Fuji +R (Taiyo Yuden). In a small sample size, I've had no problems with RICOHJPN +R.

I think NEC's have some reputation for having problems with cheap media. My particular sample size is not large enough to be scientific, but the burner seems to have something to do with it.

I also have, as mentioned above, a very touchy Panasonic stand-alone player. If I succeed in getting a burn past these two stern gatekeepers I feel pretty confident that I can send it out to my family without complaints.

[nic2k4]

People are talking about DVD brands and made in Japan and so on, but what it boils down to is, your burners manufacturer has a list of recommended media, they tuned the drives to those media.

It stands to reason that using media that's not recommended will bring unpredictable results. Go check the burn quality test for your drive, at CDRLabs. It's plain to see that not all media have the same quality burn. Obviously a burn with a high level of errors is not as good. Combine that with a player that has weak error correction and you get flacky playback.

So, when talking of bad media, you need to consider what works for your burner and what works for your player and stick with it. Someone else might have to deal with a different combination than yours.

Personnally, my Plextor 712 works really well with Maxells; according to the Plextools test, I get 0 PO and less than 75kb of PI at a level of less than 10. Those same discs don't work as good on my NEC 3500. That drive really likes ProdiscS03. I don't have any problem with playback, I have an Apex.

[Gurm]

Ok, let me recap what the original poster said, because you're all getting really sidetracked.

"I burned with bad media and my picky Toshiba wouldn't play it." (Here's a hint - some Toshiba's won't play ANY burned media!)

"Then I bought an uber-cheap not-picky uses a DVD-ROM drive DVD player and it read it!"

Yes, yes it did. DVD-ROMs are different from DVD players. They don't last as long, for one thing. Apex and other cheapie DVD players burn out MUCH quicker than good "real" DVD players.

Also you WILL find original discs that Apex, Cyberhome, and other cheap brands just ... won't ... read. Yeah, you heard right. Originals.

It's a trade-off.

[nick101181]

I still have my apex 660a from 2000 and it's still working fine. The only problem was when I flashed the firmware I was supposed to use the 8am firmware but I accidently used the 8mm firmware.Now it's region free/macrovision free ,but I can't flash the firmware anymore because I dead-ended it. It sucks cause now they got the rce firmware to kill rce and I can't apply it. I'm gonna wait until the next gen dvd player come out that support blu-ray or hd-dvd to buy one.