DiscSpeed quality scans of bad Verbatim DL's

[JohnnyBob]

DiscSpeed quality scans of bad Verbatim DL's

Verbatim DVD+R DL is the best, but some are bad. So how bad is bad? When won't they play? When will they freeze and skip on playback? How does this relate to scans with Nero DiscSpeed, if at all? I've run hundreds of scans but didn't have any handle on these questions til recently.

I've got two 95310 spindles of MKM001 made in India. They're obviously from different batches because their scans are quite different:

One batch gives PIE totals around 600,000 and PIF totals around 7,000 and have playability problems in two different standalone DVD players. They're not recognized in one of the players (refuse to play), and play with skips and freezes in the other player.


The other batch gives PIE totals around 200,000 and PIF totals of about 700. These play OK in both of the standalone DVD players tested.


So this gives a general idea of what might be playable. I'm not sure but suspect the main difference in playability is due to the PIF totals. My best guestimate is that PIF totals over 2,500 are likely to have some playability problems.

The two standalone DVD players tested were Magnavox MWR10D6 and Durabrand DVD-1002. Imgburn was used to burn the discs at 4x speed. One disc was burnt on a Lite-On (model number and firmware shown in the graphs above), the other on a LG GSA-H55N 1.06. Various other burns and tests showed that these Lite-On and LG burners produce about the same quality scans, i.e. is not the cause of the great difference in the scans above.

[bendixG15]

I have read a few posts about staying away from Verbatim blanks made in India.

The one cakebox that I purchased, made in India, had so many bad disks that I stopped using them for important stuff.

[JohnnyBob]

I was a little too hasty in pronouncing what plays OK, and what doesn't...

There was also a playback problem with the following disc in my Durabrand DVD-1002 standalone DVD player. It played the menu introduction and movie OK, but then froze at the end of the movie rather than recycling back to the introductory menu offerings. I had to do a hard reset of the DVD player (unplug it) to restore proper functioning, then it played OK the second time. So this DVD player just doesn't like these MKM001 made in India discs very well, although some of them play without problems. I'm not sure why this disc didn't play perfectly unless it's the few spikes over PIF=2, or possibly the jitter which goes slightly above 10.0%, both/either indicating possible problems.

[wtsinnc]

As far as dual-layer blanks are concerned, Verbatim remains the only game in town.
Even with that, I have twice had big problems with the 2.4x 95310s, most recently last month with 18 of a 20 disc spindle being unplayable following burning.
The packaging listed they were manufactured in Singapore.

The Verbatim 95166 (2.4x-6x), also listed as manufactured in Singapore were also purchased last month from the same vendor and to-date, using the exact same software and burners used with the 95310s, 9 of 9 have burned and played without any problem.