Flaystus' DVD-R brand report.

[Faustus]

[Edited to add more info]
Just got my DVD Burner (DVR-A04) and figured I'd post a message here stating the results I've had with various media. I have tried several brands of disk so far with widely varied results. I figured you guys could also toss in your two cents. The idea is to find the cheapest brand that WORKS, I don't personally care about the 1x 2x thing, but 2x would be nice.

ESbuy Generic Media: No problems SO far with these, they seem pretty good. Had 3 disk, fried 2 (my fault) , 3rd one is great. 1x Record speed on my DVR-104

Mertline.com Pro disk: Ick! Been through 3 disk and not one that works correctly, lots of video stutter near the end of the disk. 1x Speed

Pioneer: Came with the burner, worked fine, even burned at 2x, BUT we all know how much more expensive these things are.

cdrecordable.com disk: Haven't tried these yet but I hear they are fine, I have 5 on the way to test.

Anyway thats the result I've run into so far, I'm hoping to find a cheaper disk then the ESbuy disk at about $3.40 each right now... I'll update as I try new brands. If we work together at this we can make this alot easier on the next generation of DVD-R owners.

Also of note I have tried these disk on the Apex AD-1500 DVD player, and the esBuy disk has also been tested on My cousins player of unknown brand at this time (I think its a Sony)

[Faustus]

Tried apple's disk the weekend 5 pack for about 25$us at any apple retailer that carrys them. Burned at 2x just fine... worked in every set top player I've tested it in... very sweet media if a little pricey. Ok if you need some disk in a hurry and can't mail order though. Also might carry them at Compusa's since they are apple retailers.

[Eug]

Thanks that's very useful information. Now I know to avoid the Meritline crap.

How about Optodisc though? I need to buy some DVD-RAM and some DVD-R for my Panasonic DVD-RAM/-R drive.

Optodisc 9.4 GB DVD-RAM. It's supposedly Panasonic certified, whatever that means.

Optodisc DVD-R. $2.85 per disc.

[SLK001]

In my DVR-A04, I have tried the following:

CD-Recordable DVD-R (30 disks + 2 free double sided for $59.70) - recorded at 2X with no problems. Played on my Pioneer DV-343 okay.

Generic Princo DVD-R (bought 20 at $1.89 each) - could NOT record reliably at 1x to say its own ass.

Generic Princo DVD-RW (bought 10 at $2.00 each) - works fine at 1X and plays on my DV-343.

Pioneer DVD-R and DVD-RW (came with drive) - of course, both of these work to perfection (if you can afford them).

Verbatim DVD-R (bought 10 pack for $60 at CompUSA) - recorded fine at 2X and played in DV-343.

BEST DEAL? I like the CD-Recordable disks in the 30 + 2 DS deal for $59.70. Buy two of these and you will not incur any shipping costs (in US). They have other deals, but most are contaminated with $0.30 DVD cases that they sell for $0.45.

See their deals at:
http://www.cd-recordable.com

Anyone want to buy some generic Princos?

[Lamont Cranston]

cd-recordable.com shipping costs sem to be in error. In my case it is cheaper to ship 3 day than ground.

[odyssius98]

Hi SLK001,

I bought the same thing from cd-recordable.com, but I remember it's 25 + 2 double sided DVD-Rs.

Anyway, that doesn't matter.

However, my result is completely different from yours.

First, I saw there's "uneven dye coating" on EVERY discs. But I still give it a try.

I haven't tried Video yet. But I did try to back up my data with NERO 5.5.78 with "read back and check data" option on everytime I burn the disc.

For both 1X and 2X, the data written is OK. But the read back data from DVD-R and compare the one on your hard disk procedure took forever....(for 2X, it never ends...for 1X, so far it's 7 hours, still trying to read from the disc).

Then I take the DVD-R to my laptop DVD-ROM drive. Something can be read, but some cannot.

Well...I was thinking to return those DVD-Rs and maybe ask for replacement or refund.

[Faustus]

I just got 8 more media from esbuy.com in the mail today for further testing.... also today my 5 disk from cd-recordable.com showed up... so I'll give them a try sunday night sometime... between the 3 of us we'll have a good over all conclusion about them soon.

I know alot of people are saying the ESbuy disk give very pixilated video, but since my try was an old cartoon it very well could have problems and I just haven't noticed yet... but now that I have more we will see.

I'm interested to know what the media that did not work for everyone actually did. Did it make a nice drink coaster only? Did the video skip? Did it lock your set top player?

[Lamont Cranston]

I have burned meritline and cd-recordable generic DVRs with a Pioneer A03 and they play fine on both my Sony and Panasonic DVD Players. I also have burned Pioneer and Apple. With the generics I have not seen any variation in the dye layer or any other visual defects. In reading where people having had problems playing the DVDs, skips etc.. they usually were not playing them on one of the major brands like Sony, Panasonic etc. However, there is one drawaback with generics, you can only burn at 1x with the A03. Although I have been told that you can burn the cd-recordable DVDrs at 2x if you have upgraded the firmware to 1.68. I have not verified this.

[Faustus]

Actually the play issues I've been speaking about have turned up on all 4 dvd players Ihave access too. Apex's, cheap best buy brands, Panasonic's, and the like... anyway Like I said in the end I hope the track down the cheapest of the reliable media out there... burn speed matters little to me, cost is what counts.

[googlioboy]

I've used both the Pioneer DVD-r's and the DVD-R's from cd-recordable.com. I was suprised to find the latter played in more players than the former. The cd-recordable discs played in everything I tried them in...even took one of the recorded discs to Sears and played it on Apex, JVC, Sony, Pioneer, and GPX units. I figure, if it will play on a GPX, it will play on anything! I am even able to play the cd-recordable.com discs on my portable Panasonic and RCA units, which aren't supposed to play DVD-R's at all.

[mikerios]

My 2 cents on this issue,

My Burner the A03 with 1.68 firmware( with a 1394 firewire adapter from caloptic ). Nero 5.5.8.0 is used for all burns, DVD Workshop and DVD Movie Factory used for authoring to AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories. Media bought at Fry's and CompUSA and Computer Swapmeet.

3 DVD Players Tested, 2 Sony's 1 Pioneer.

Tested:

Pioneer DVD-R, burns at 2x, playback is flawless.

Pioneer DVD-RW, burns 1x, playback is flawless.

Verbatim DVD-RW - burns at 1x, playback is flawless.

GQ ( Great Quality )DVD-R, burns at 1x, iffy on burns and playback, I stopped buying them though they are a little cheaper than Apple.

Apple 5 Pak DVD-R ( my favorite ), Burns at 2x n/p, playsback flawless, this is the one I am sticking to for cost and reliability.

PrincoDVD-R - bunrs at 1x, also iffy ,some work ( playaback can hang at times , the Pioneer 434 seems to like it though), some coaster, paid 1.69 each at swapmeet.

TDK DVD-R - bunred ar 1x ( though it supossed to do 2x ), playback flawless.

CompUSA brand - burns at 1x, playback flawless.

still to test Memorix DVD-R and Verbatim DVD-R ( have them in my stockpile but not yet used )

[Faustus]

I think the problem we are running into with mixed reports on the various cheap brands and mixed reports has to do with their manufactuering process... I think some bad batches are coming out. I wonder if these companies will get their acts together anytime soon.

[odyssius98]

I just tried the apple DVD-R with 2X and as usual, read back the data and compare. Works perfectly. Readable by all my DVD-ROM drive.
$25 at Fry's.

I take a look again at all my 25 DVD-R from cd-recordable. There's clearly "uneven dye coating" on ALL of the discs. And all those uneven dye coating are of the same shape, at exactly the same place.

I think that batch do have some problem. No wonder none of them can be burned even at 1X

Maybe we shouldn't buy from cd-recordable for a while....

[Lamont Cranston]

I think that batch do have some problem. No wonder none of them can be burned even at 1X

ALL 25 DVDrs you purchased from cd-recordable were duds? That is incrediable. Send them back. They will take them even if they are burned.

I went back again and looked at the dye coating on my cd recordable DVDs and they looked fine. Then I looked at the dye coating on some of my commercial Movie DVDs and cdrs ...and the dye was uneven on a lot of them. Cosmetic variations are not always indicative of incipient failure.

[Faustus]

Though I have yet to burn on my cd-recordable.com disk I can say the dye coating seems even enough... and I agree, anyone who gets bad batches of disk should return them to whomever they purchased them from, if enough of them get returned then maybe they'll figure out we wont take disk that sucks...

I work such long hours and drive a while to get to work, therefore I only get a chance to mess with my computer on weekends (heck i'm at work right now) but I'm looking forward to some disk testing this weekend... good luck everyone.

[odyssius98]

I think that batch do have some problem. No wonder none of them can be burned even at 1X

ALL 25 DVDrs you purchased from cd-recordable were duds? That is incrediable. Send them back. They will take them even if they are burned.

I tried one at 2X, failed. So I tried another 3 discs at 1X, with different software. I didn't try ALL of the 25 discs. But I do take a look at all those discs, they all have a certain kind of uneven dye coating at the exact same place.

Well....I know it's unfair to say all 25 of them cannot be burned....but uh...what should I do? Burn all of them?

Anyway, I've decided to return them and ask for refund or replacement.

Thanks for you guys' suggestions.

[Lamont Cranston]

I just received a ValuePack from cd recordable and cosmetically they look fine.

[odyssius98]

Anybody returned to cd-recordable.com and got refund?

I returned the whole pack (I tried 4, they all failed) 20 days ago, and still haven't got any refund. (I am sure they received it since I have the tracking number)

Is there a phone number or something I can call? I just can't find any from their website.

Thanks

[thaiwoo]

I've had now my Pioneer A04 for about a month. I ordered 25 Primedisc DVD-R from www.shop4tech.com and received Primedisc media.

So far I burned about 15 of them with video and data and no problem with a single one. I found two of them which showed some imperfections in the dye but like I said no problems. They all played with no problems in my Pioneer 343.

When I record them with Prassi Primo DVD it says they are 2x but it ends up burning them 1x.

Also got 10 no name DVD-RW's which burn at 1x but they work like a charm even in my 343.

I like that shop4tech ships to Canada.

Anybody tried the 25 pack DVD-R' from www.rima.com for $34 ?

[IonNuke]

Isn't it possible that certain batches of DVD-Rs can be crap and certain can be good???

As mentioned above that meritline's DVDPro discs were crap. But I've walked through 20 of them so far and there isn't any video issues towards the end of the disc or whatnot. All my data is fine as well (towards the outer rim of the disc).

[Anonymous65]

It seems the DVD-R disks are getting better every month, or my DVD burner is burning better every month...

My guess it shouldn't take to long before the DVD-R's are like CD-R's, they all work most of the time.

[mikerios]

I wish I could say the same, if anything I am getting more coasters as time goes by, and only on the DVD-R part, and at the very end. My coaster rate is at 50%. I have moved my A03 to my other rig and installed Win2ksp2 stripped with very little installed, still get 50% coaster rate. I can only conclude that it not media ( I usually have no issue with Apple Media ), nor Nero ( worked great for burns for a long while say 100% burn, but a quick check shows that I get errors at the very tail end of the burn), so all I can think of is the drive is having issues with the alignment, as everyo ther issue has been addresses ( heat, memory ect.. ).

[Don2050]

Hi

Eug....I saw you listed Optodisc at $2.85 per disc, just to let you know
www.rima.com is selling them for $1.40 per disc in 10 packs.

[throwingks]

have you all tried the 2X dvd-r from www.firewiredirect.com? They seem like they could be a good deal.