Are TDK DvD's really this bad?

[fzf5bl]

Ive been burning movies for about 4 years now and for the first 2-3 years I was using TDK DvD-r and now there getting a couple years old and none of them play real well on any of my players.Im using Taiyo Yuden white printable and have not had a problem yet.I hope this doent happen to the Taiyo Yuden.

[lordsmurf]

How old are your players? Lasers die far, far faster than any disc will. Most people get sidetracked blaming the disc when it's other factors at play.

[fzf5bl]

Thanks for the comment.I have tried to retieve data from these dvd's (Plextor Drive) and they fail me there to I have 3 dvd players that play all other dvd's just fine.By By to TDK

[oldandinthe way]

TDK has used many vendors to make the disks they labeled even TY for some of their earlier disks.

Even if all of the the TDK disks you've burned fail, the problem could still be your writer. And if the problem is your writer anything you burn today is at risk of failing at some time in the future.

It might be interesting to see which mediaIDs are on your failed TDK disks, but if it were me, I'd dump my four-year-old writer as well as the media.

[sammie]

Kind of seconding what Lord Smurf said, I often find that even slight aging of disks starts making them unplayable on some players. And some players are worse than other about not playing marginal disks (not at all related to price of the player in my experience!) The good news is I've yet to find one that couldn't be "rescued", by just copying to a fresh disk.

Some things I've found that help are:

1) Stay up with which brand is best. TYs are the best bulks in my experience right now, but others certainly will have their opinions.

2) Make sure you have a good burner. Surprising how many "name" burners really aren't all that good. Read the reviews here.

3) Find out what speed does the best burns for your disk/burner combo. Just look up the utilities or disk trials here. Don't exceed that speed. I've yet to find one where "Max" is a good idea.

4) The edge effect is very real in many brands and I think I've found it at least some in almost every brand I've ever tried. Again there are lots of opinions on how much (do some searching here for ideas), but setting your re-size to a bit smaller than a full disk is definitely a good idea.

It's a highly debated topic (again search the archives), but I think that most people feel that burned DVDs will have a definite shorter life time than burned CDs and both are shorter than pressed. I have quite a few DVDs hitting that 4 - 5 year life right now. I've had to re-do a couple of back-ups, but so far I've only had to go back to the original when I've been unhappy with the original re-size/re-encode so I'd say I've had close to zero problems following the rules above.

Oh, and never ever expose the burned DVDs to light for extended periods of time.

[fzf5bl]

Thanks guys for the comments I appreciate them.I would really like to know what is a top notch DvD Burner I dont mind spending the$$$ because the time I have invested in these thing is huge.Any pointers Would be great.

Thanks Chris

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer 111

[oldandinthe way]

A lot of the decision on what you buy for a burner depends on you and how you relate to burning.

I am adverse to ordering premium prices media on the Internet. I like being able to purchase whatever media is on sale and burning it without great fear of coasters. I burn thousands of DVDs a year. I'm impatient and burn 16x media at 16x.

I have 3 LG DVD burners based on the Renassa chipset, all different models. I get 99% succesful burns on just about any media I buy. Other posters have pointed out that LG drives are not "good rippers". I find that my drive requires a wipe borrowed and dirty dvds with a cleaning wipe, and occaisionally run into a disk which my oldest drive, an LG4163b can't read. Usually I can read it on one of my other drives - unless there is obvious terrible damage. DVD Fab or DVDdecryptor can usually handle minor damage.

The LG4163 is about 15months old and showing signs that it will soon die. (principally intermittant operation). It owes me nothing.

I claim no great insignt in selecting LG drives, Gateway selected it for me as a replacement part in a desktop system, and Lenovo used a LG drive in my notebook. I purchased an H10N from newegg which I am currently using in an external USB case in a variety of systems.

You will find strong adherants to other brands of drive. Many will advocate for their drive even though it cannot burn reliably at full speed, and requires scarce brands of media. They see advantages to their drives which I do not. But you may find the same advantages have appeal to you, for example, media scanning.

[nic2k4]

Pioneer and NEC would be my low cost favorites, but Plextor with plextools is tops. I have a 712 and 716, both worked flawlessly with TDK TTG02 (8x), but with TTH02 (16x) the PIE and PIF numbers were doubled and I noticed the 716 was using autostrategy instead of pulling the strategy from the firmware, so I have to assume the 712 didn't recognize it either.

I switched to Verbatim 16x and on the 716 I'm getting average PIF of .0009 with less than 4 errors over 4. Not surprising considering they're the recommended discs. On the 712 I get similar results with Taiyo Yuden TYG02 (8x). It seems it doesn't like the 16x media, the burns are still good, but they have twice as many errors.

As far as media goes stick to the manufacturer's own brand, I got some Dataware branded TYG02 that didn't burn anything like the real Taiyo Yuden. They get a PIE of 104 where the original never exceeded 23. In the end, disc will degrade over time, actually it's more like they naturally change until they stabilize, then depending on your storage condition they may degrade. So, it's best to start with the best possible burn. That means use the recommended media for your drive, burn at slower speed (4x) and don't burn a bunch of discs in one go.

Like Lord Smurf said lasers die, how fast depends on how you use the drive. Burning 10 discs in a row will kill a laser faster than doing it over 5 days. These things aren't industrial grade, judging by the $30 price tag, they're made to be disposable. So, give the laser a chance to cool down.

All these things affect a burn, even if you get the "bestest" drive out there, you may still have discs go bad in two years.

[bbanderic]

Pioneer or NEC burner + premium TY or Verbatim media = Success

I could be wrong but aren't the Plextor burners rebadged Ben Q's? If so, you're going to WAY overpay for the Plextor.

[nic2k4]

No your not totally:
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070124PD213.html

In fact, their first DVD burner was based on a NEC design or is it that both companies used Sanyo's reference design? Anyway, it seems more and more companies are just rebadging drives. Must be the pressures of economics, how can all these manufacturers build drives for $30? Still, in this digital age the hardware is less relevent, what matters is the software and in that department Plextor is in the top tier.

[lordsmurf]

0? Still, in this digital age the hardware is less relevent, what matters is the software and in that department Plextor is in the top tier.

This makes zero sense. You use third-party burning software, not something that comes with the drive. I fail to see how Plextools (or any other software) would do anything for you when it comes to actually burning your data.

Most people just assume Plextor is better simply because it costs more.

[dadrab]

This makes zero sense. You use third-party burning software, not something that comes with the drive. I fail to see how Plextools (or any other software) would do anything for you when it comes to actually burning your data.

I have to agree.

Think about it for a minute. The best software in the world is not going to have a positive effect on a sorry burner. The laws of physics still apply.

[nic2k4]

The firmware is the software that makes the burner do what it does.

[bbanderic]

The firmware is the software that makes the burner do what it does.

A BenQ drive is a BenQ drive , is a BenQ drive, no matter no matter which badge they put on it, in this case Plextor.

[AlanHK]

I went to a computer mall this week and saw some new TDK DVDRs labelled "Scratchproof: 100x more scratch resistant", and some samples you could try to scratch with your nails -- and they did seem more resistant than normal discs. Cost about double normal discs.

Of course, optical and chemical stability is another issue, but it seems like a nice idea. I bought a DVDRW (HK$12= USD1.50) to give it a try, as I use these a lot for testing and they get scratched and unusable after a month or so of normal abuse.

There's some bumpf on the box :

TDK's proprietary Durabis technology...
Scratch resistance: 100 times more scratch reistant than conventional discs
Smudge resistance: Superior resistance to fingerprint smudges
Dust resistance: Substantially lesser static charges and dust attraction

[budz]

The firmware is the software that makes the burner do what it does.

A BenQ drive is a BenQ drive , is a BenQ drive, no matter no matter which badge they put on it, in this case Plextor.

It was only the PLEXTOR 740A drive that was a rebadged BENQ 1640. That was the one and only model that used a BENQ 1640 drive.

PLEXTOR will no longer manufacture their own drives. My guess it'll be LITEON manufacturing drives for PLEXTOR.

[dadrab]

PLEXTOR will no longer manufacture their own drives. My guess it'll be LITEON manufacturing drives for PLEXTOR.

...or NEC.