DVD- media quality

[jimfarn916]

How important is the media quality of a blank DVD when it comes to burning a disc?

Is there a difference in the playback in regards to image quality?

[transporterfan]

No difference in playback. A DVD is a DVD. Longevity is the important thing to consider, especially if authoring for archiving.

[usually_quiet]

How important is the media quality of a blank DVD when it comes to burning a disc?

Is there a difference in the playback in regards to image quality?

Because DVD uses digital video, as long as the DVD is fully readable (meaning there are no unrecoverable errors), it isn't possible for there to be differences in image quality between individual DVDs containing the exact same thing.

Low-quality media is not recommended because low-quality media produces more coasters during burning and tends to become unreadable more quickly than good media even when the burn is successful.

[hech54]

Is there a difference in the playback in regards to image quality?

No.

[Cornucopia]

Not quite true...

Yes, optical data discs use multiple levels of error correction and so would hopefully be fully recovered. However, there is always the possibility of errors, and if you have errors, dvd players are usually designed to mask those errors during playback. More errors = more masking. YOU may not notice those errors, but they could be there. And those errors become obvious when you try to copy/backup the disc.
Brand A might have 1 error out of a billion and brand B might have 5 out of a billion. Let them sit, wear, get scratched, then the errors will mount. Both might still "play" at that point, but brand A could still copy (and be fully recovered) while brand B can't. And error concealment can only do so much, especially with heavily compressed media. At some point if the errors keep mounting, compression decoding will be incomplete and you will see blocking or garbled images/sounds. More on B than A.

Scott

[johnmeyer]

Bad media will have more errors. The error correction built into the DVD player may or may not be able to correct them all, depending on how bad the media is.

Over time, all media degrades. This will cause more errors. At some point, the disc will have problems playing certain sections. I have seen this happen myself with some really awful quality media I bought back in the late 1990s, just after the DVD standard was introduced. If you use good media, you won't get to this point for, perhaps, 100 years. If you use bad media, it may only take a few years (again, I have had this happen, so I can tell you from experience that bad media will cause problems within a few years, not a few decades).

Another aspect is that not every DVD player (including those in your computer) will handle bad discs equally. This is well-known, and you will find lots of advice in this forum, given to people who are trying to read a defective disc, that sometimes a different DVD drive will have better luck playing sections of the disc.

BTW, the difference between good media and bad media is ENORMOUS. Go to DigitalFAQ.com and read some of the excellent media advice given there.

[transporterfan]

Another problem is some players won't play certain brands or types. Rewritable media is hit-and-miss as to whether or not it will play in a particular player.
They either play or they don't. If they don't, change disc brands. You can test them for errors, but it is still no guarantee they will work or last.
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-cd-or-dvd-readability-by-running-surface-scan-and-file-test/

[jimfarn916]

thanks for all of the reply's. it all makes sense and was useful information.