Best DVD Burner & Media for playback on Home DVD players?

[wenospeak]

I'm planning to burn a DVD Slideshow primarily for use on Home DVD Players. The Software will most likely be the Vegas+DVD as I want really high quality images and super high quality audio (As close to PRO without spending 25,000.00).

I will probably be using TDK DVD-R "Printable" discs and make my own labels.

I've used a Sony 710A (with Nero 7 at lower than Max speed) in the past and found that nearly 75% of the discs I burned wouldn't play in most peoples home DVD player (or PC). So, I purchased a Plextor 740A burner and that seemed to help.

My question is: Which burner will make the most reliable discs that can be played in most home DVD players. In addition, is there a better quality "Printable" media besides the TDK?

Many thanks for your input.

P.S. I don't know enough about reading hardware specs to understand which unit would serve my purpose and I'm not looking for the cheapest I can buy. I'm looking for the best and willing to pay up to $500.00.

Thanks again,

Rick

[ZippyP.]

The disks make a bigger difference than the burner. Read on: http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

[wenospeak]

Very interesting reading. TDK seems to be a hit or miss "brand". I've been buying them from Costco.

However, looking at the online store they recommend and the price of Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R Media White Inkjet Hub Printable 100 Pack in Tape Wrap - Free Ground, the cost is about the same and much less risky.

I'll probably end up with at least one 100pack. Thanks.

Any comments on the Plextor 740A? Is there a SIGNIFICANTLY better burner I should look into?

thanks again,

Rick

[Grain]

Pretty sure the 740 is just a rebranded BenQ 1640, a very good drive.

[budz]

Pretty sure the 740 is just a rebranded BenQ 1640, a very good drive.

Yup the SONY 740 is a rebadged BENQ 1640 which is a good drive! I'd suggest you crossflash your SONY 740 to the OFFICIAL BENQ FIRMWARE. With the latest firmware BSOB it burns DVD-R very well. BENQ does fav the DVD+R media but it also has done well with BSOB for DVD-R. To crossflash your drive you would need either BQFLASHER or WINDWFLASHER program and firmwares in the form of CVT files. Such as BSMB & BSOB firmwares. Check out the BENQ FORUM at Cdfreaks.com for more info on crossflashing the SONY 740 to BENQ 1640 drive. The benefit of crossflashing is you get better firmware support with official firmware upgrades from BENQ. Also you can use QSUITE which learns the write strategy of known and unknown dvd media. QSUITE is a program created by BENQ.

Use better dvd media than TDK. I gave up using TDK long ago because it only created coasters with all of my dvd burners and standalone dvd recorder. Use TAIYO YUDEN DVD-R PRINTABLE DISC's from www.rima.com.

[hech54]

I'm planning to burn a DVD Slideshow primarily for use on Home DVD Players. The Software will most likely be the Vegas+DVD as I want really high quality images and super high quality audio (As close to PRO without spending 25,000.00).

Even the super-est of the super high quality audio will still need to be brought to within the specifications of a DVD...aka DVD Specs.

[wenospeak]

Ok, I'm officially confused on two issues:

1) I do happen to own a Sony drive, but it's the 710A and I was asking about the Plextor 740A. I own both (mainly because I thought the Sony was giving me grief, when it was probably the TDK media all along). So, the question still remains - is there a significantly better drive than the Plextor 740A (Assuming the Plextor is better than the Sony)?

2) Could you please elaborate on the DVD audio quality? Please understand that I'm limited by the source material because it would be coming from two channel stereo Cdr's of original music recorded directly to my hard drive and exported down to a two channel stereo .wav file for archiving to cdr at 44/16. Therefore, I wouldn't be able to do a 5.1 or DTS mix. Plus, I've heard that the 5.1 simulation software sucks and isn't worth the effort or space required. So, without starting from scratch and creating new material, the soundtrack would have to be plain old LPCM or Dolby 2.0 if I'm not mistaken.

Whew - I told you I was confused....

Thanks,

Rick

[budz]

I thought you had the SONY 740 drive.
The PLEXTOR 740 drive is also a REBADGED BENQ 1640. Crossflash your PLEXTOR 740 drive to the official BENQ 1640 firmware and you'll have a great burner. In my other post I explained the advantage of crossflashing your drive to official BENQ 1640 firmware.

SONY has poor firmware support for their drives. BENQ has frequent firmware upgrades to support newer dvd media that is released by different manufacturers.

[hech54]

Ok, I'm officially confused on two issues:
2) Could you please elaborate on the DVD audio quality? Please understand that I'm limited by the source material because it would be coming from two channel stereo Cdr's of original music recorded directly to my hard drive and exported down to a two channel stereo .wav file for archiving to cdr at 44/16. Therefore, I wouldn't be able to do a 5.1 or DTS mix. Plus, I've heard that the 5.1 simulation software sucks and isn't worth the effort or space required. So, without starting from scratch and creating new material, the soundtrack would have to be plain old LPCM or Dolby 2.0 if I'm not mistaken.

Whew - I told you I was confused....

Thanks,

Rick

The best sounding quality you can hope to achieve will be LPCM which will be converted to 48/16(instead of PCM 44.1/16) by the authoring software.
Also if you think of DVD's AC3 Audio as the video-version of MP3 Audio...I think you'll be less confused.
LPCM will take up the most amount of space on the DVD(just like comparing a .wav file size to an MP3 file size of the same song)...thus cutting into your valuable video quality space on the DVD that you create.
Me?...DVD's are for VIDEO...I use AC3 as much as possible in order to preserve video quality.
I also personally don't give a hoot about 5.1...my TV only has two speakers and my home stereo is seperate from my TV....I'm "old school"...

[wenospeak]

Thanks much for all your help. I'll have to study the flashing procedure carefully for the Plextor drive, but it sounds like it's worth it.

Regarding the audio - yeah, it is less confusing knowing that AC3 is lossy. LPCM should be fine.

BTW - I was old school for a long time, now I wouldn't watch a movie without my surround. Plus, I love the way my NEO6 DTS simulates surround with a stereo cd. My front end speakers are Vienna Acoustic Mozart's and they are pretty awesome (they better be for 2500.00).

thanks again,

Rick

[hech54]

Regarding the audio - yeah, it is less confusing knowing that AC3 is lossy. LPCM should be fine.


Rick

And you'd be surprised how many pics you can get in a slideshow. I had 5 slideshows with music on my last DVD that I sent to my family back home. Each slideshow had 90 pics(on average) and almost all of those pics came from a Nikon D70 and were 1504x1000 in size.
I started throwing in the kitchen sink as far as photos were concerned just to fill up the DVD....AND I put the original .jpeg files on the disc as well.

[wenospeak]

he, he...

I'm probably looking at around 400 images with multiple soundtracks (mostly 1280 X 1024 jpegs). I haven't decided yet whether to break up the slideshow with options for individual chapters (maybe 4 - 6) with an option to "view all" or simply have one large show.

I'd also like to include a PC screensaver version (w/o a soundtrack) on the same disc, but somehow I don't think I can do all that without going to dual layer discs, and I'd like to avoid that.

It's definitely going to be a time killer of a project, especially since I don't know anything about the software yet. The extent of my slideshow experience is with the very simple and very crappy Nero Vision. Actually, Nero did a great job with the images, but the audio options were pretty anemic.


From what I've gathered so far, the Vegas6+DVD is the closest to Pro software for doing everything from scratch without the need for 2 or 3 other programs to complete and burn a project. Most of what I've seen have great image options, but lack one, two or all of the other options needed to produce a quality finished project that includes strong audio flexibility, extensive Menu authoring, and reliable burning software.