Why is CD underside more durable than the same on DVD+-R

[jtoolman2000]

jtoolman: You are absolutely spot-on, CD blank media are more durable than DVD blank media, regardless of the some opinions expressed in this post. The slightest mark, fingerprint or the like can make a back-up unplayable, they are extremely fragile. I have never experienced this with CD media. Most responses to your question have been negative, it would seem no-one has any idea .... there are many who simply delude themselves into thinking there is no difference.

I guess, to really get an answer, we need some-one working in a blank media plant to provide the information.

Actually My complain / rant has more to do with the physical fragility of DVD-R . Playability after damage is another topic. I sure wish, and like I said, I would pay more for them , if they would be at least as durable as pressed diks. Meaning that the undersuface in a pressed disk is a LOT tougher than that on burnable disks. It MUST be a diferent plastic. It is stiffer and less suceptable to flutter. It is simply better material.
Remember, I am NOT discussing DYE or any other component that makes up a disk. SImply the plastic that it's used to produce them.
In my oppinion it really sucks and has huge room for improvement.
This is an exageration of course but I don;t wish to have to handle them in CLEAN ROOM environment to insure that nothing happens to them doring normal handling.

[vitualis]

As I stated before, there is only one plastic used and that is polycarbonate. Any alternative material must have the same optical qualities as polycarbonate and that is no easy task.

I'm almost a hundred percent sure that the substrate material is the same and unless you can find a reputable reference otherwise, I'm inclined to believe that there are "other" issues here.

For example, perhaps the scratches just "look" more pronounced on casual inspection.

@ blinky: Please go back a few years and read the appropriate posts on CD-R media and VCDs and SVCDs. Same problem.

The issue with flaky playback has nothing to do with the "fragility" of the media. It has everything to do with the compatibility between your burner, media and reader. Many players out there still don't read some brands of media well, and some brands of media are of rather poor quality, especially when written on some burners.

If you get a player with a drive mechanism with good DVD-/+R compatibility and use good quality media, your discs will work in general just as well as pressed discs. Getting a few fingerprints and a few scratches should be no trouble at all.

Regards.

[blinky88]

jtoolman: Commercial DVD's are made of 2 layers of metal and the digital information is imbedded in one of the surfaces. Then a protective coating is applied to the surface containing the digital information. I recently hired a movie and it was very badly damaged and would not play through even after I cleaned it several times. When I returned it and said it wouldn't play through, the video store attendant said if you wait a minute I will clean it for you. I explained I had cleaned it several times to no avail, she replied they use a different process. A coup[le of minutes later she handed me the disc and it appeared to be new, not a single mark on the disc. The process she used was to cut the protection coating off the disc and the disc played through to the end, no problems at all. I wouldn't think that this process could be applied more than once as the scratches on the surface in the first instance were very bad and I would think a second application would be cutting into the embedded digital information. That said, if I hadn't seen this with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it possible. Because of the process of commercial disc's I do not believe it will be possible for any-one to create blank media to the quality of commercial DVD's. One thing for sure, if it was possible, it would be extemely expensive.

What I would like to happen is for some manufacturer to introduce a safe protective liquid that can be applied after a disc is burned without damaging the digital information thereon .... now that would be a step in the right direction.

[vitualis]

There is no protective coating...

You can buy disc repair kits from many places. They fill in scratches (even quite deep ones) with a clear adhesive polymer so that scratches "disappears". If you got the disc at a rental store, they would have probably done this before already (they have automated machines to do this).

As for a "clear coating" that can be put on discs, these things do exist (e.g., TDK Armour discs) but they are definitely not put onto discs as standard practice.

Regards.

[jtoolman2000]

Ok, this is getting a bit away from my original complaint. That was the lousy, very prone to scratched, damage, from the simmingly slightest contact to the under side of DVD-R media. Since I work with these making a living from it, I simply just wish they could just be a bit less suseptible to damage. I you simply take then out of their case and say watch the same disk a couple of times, you will be able to see a few new scratches just about every time you haldel the disk. Heaven forbid you stick them into a slot fed DVD player. I guess what I would like to see is to see them made of tought scratch resistant, OK, bullet proof plastic.