LG LDA-830 media compatibility

[Magritte]

Hi,

I just picked up a LG LDA-830 since it was cheap and lots of people said it's pretty good at playing most Xvid videos, which is my primary purpose.

However, I generally get videos from my computer to the DVD player using Ridata 8x DVD+RW discs (these are the only 8x rewritable discs I've found).

I've had no problem with these discs on my old Philips DVP642 player. But on the LG after trying to load for a few seconds it always gives me a "Disk Error" message instead.

I've tried some other media on the LG (taiyo-yuden DVD-R, Maxell 4x DVD+RW, Verbatim 2x DVD+RW) and they all work okay. But it seems to have an issue with the Ridata 8x DVD+RW.

Anyone else have this player and experience on compatible media? I'm wondering if it's the model or if I just have a bad unit. Are there any firmware updates that might affect this? (I couldn't find any firmware on LG's site.)

Thanks!

[Krispy Kritter]

Typical media related issue. Players are often picky about the types/brands of media that they will accept. Some are more picky than others, just be glad you don't have a Sony.

[jman98]

Ridata media isn't very good. I would just use the discs that work OK and stop worrying about saving a few minutes of time by using the Ridata discs. Isn't it really better to burn twice as long with a disc that works? If you can't wait for a 4x or 2x burn to finish then you have psychological issues that we won't be able to help you with.

[Magritte]

Yes, I have psychological issues...

But beyond the burning time, I have a spindle of the Ridata discs which I hate to go to waste and I'll have to buy some new non-ridata rewritables since the ones I have are getting pretty beaten up at this point.

So I guess the question is is it worth buying new media or returning the LG and getting a different cheap player that's not so finicky about media. The other ones I've seen are RCA, Toshiba and Samsung. I'd have to look up the models, but they're all in the $50-ish range for the SD versions (I don't need upscaling). Do you think it's worth trading for one of those?

I guess the other option is trade the lda-830 for a lda-831, which looks like basically the same thing but has upscaling and a USB port so I could use a thumbdrive instead of discs. It's almost twice as much, but the thumbdrive would be convenient. I don't know how well that works, though...

Thanks.

[oldandinthe way]

I'd return the Ridata media. Most reputable merchants will take it back.

Many players are finicky about media but your decision to use RW and Ridata puts you out on the edge. If you were looking to find media which would give you problems, that combination increases the chance.

[Magritte]

I guess that's fair enough. I think I was surprised/disappointed at the finickiness since I never had any problem with my old Philips (or any of my computer drives). I just assumed at this stage any DVD drive should be able to handle pretty much anything thrown at it. But obviously I was wrong...

Otherwise, the LG seems like a pretty decent player. Most likely I'll keep it and pick up some new media later.

Now off to celebrate the new year with the usual amount of alcohol poisoning... See you all next year!

[Krispy Kritter]

You could take one of your burned discs to the store with you and test all of the available players.

[Hambone]

I've always been a fan of LG players since the LDA-530 and have never had problems with media. I now have the 830 and 831, with the 831 being a Boxing Day purchase, and have yet to find a disc (of mine) that they won't play. Either I buy good discs or just have been lucky. But I'm talking about newly burned discs. I have had errors with a few older cheaper discs that once played ok but no longer do (still play but have problems). I don't blame the player so much as the disc.

[Magritte]

I actually called LG support to ask and they confirmed what was said in this thread: Ridata RW suck and are not recommended for use in their players (they confirmed they can be problematic). In fact they suggested staying away from Ridata and Memorex rewriteables, although the Memorex DVD+RWs I have work fine in the LG... (They also admitted the Philips players probably have a better laser so they're more tolerant of bad media. I find it rather refreshing to hear such honesty from a company... )

Trying players in store isn't really that easy. These things are easiest to find in big box stores and they're rarely actually hooked up to TVs. I can't say for sure that if you asked they wouldn't hook them up for you, but I suspect that may be asking a bit much...

In any case, since I was otherwise happy with the LG and the price was good, I decided to just keep it and buy some new media. LG recommended Verbatim, so I ended up buying some Verbatim DVD+RW (with "videoguard", which they claim make them 40x more scratch resistant... who knows...) and they've been working just fine. 8x writing is better than 4x, but it's not that big a difference at the end of the day. It does look like Verbatim has come out with some 8x DVD+RWs, but they don't seem to be available anywhere yet.