DV Magazine's DVD Compatability Test - July 2002 Issue

[leebo]

DV magazine did a test of different DVD recordable formats and disc brands. Vcdhelp.com was mentioned.
The article was written by Ralph LaBarge.

A very interesting article (may be avalable on-line, I haven't checked).
Some of what he discovered was already known on this site, but his results are very interesting (especially if you're selling to clients).

He used a DVD image his company authored, which has been replicated (like Hollywood movies) and sold, so he knows the image is good. The discs were sent out to 5 independant DVD testing facilities.

He tested DVD-R 4.7(Authoring and General)/ DVD-R 3.95/ DVD-RW/ +RW.

Here are some highlights:

Of 209 discs burned for the test, 14 failed before he even sent them out. Thats about a 7% failure rate!

DVD-R 3.95 was the most compatabile (i.e. played on almost every player w/o problems)

DVD-R authoring and general were about the same compatability wise (66%).

Consumer players built AFTER 2000 had very high compatability.
Overall, 90% of the players tested had some incompatability.

Media brands matter.
Maxell DVD-R's were the most compatable brand (80%), followed by TDK, Sony, then Apple (73%).

Pioneer brand had only a 58% compatability!!!

Ritek had only 51%. CD Recordable had 45%.

DVD-RW brands all were around 60%, and DVD+RW averaged 57%.

He gave these tips for greater compatablity:

Use low to moderate bit rates (less than 7Mbps).

Record at the lowest speed your burner can do.

Use a major brand of disc (he gave Apple branded disc a very good rating due to quality and price).

Try to use the newest DVD player possible.

[Anonymous65]

Very interesting data...

[Kusanagi]

Media brands matter.
Maxell DVD-R's were the most compatable brand (80%), followed by TDK, Sony, then Apple (73%).

Pioneer brand had only a 58% compatability!!!

That's odd.

I was under the impression that Apple-branded media was Pioneer media? If so, why don't they have the same % for compatibility? Or is Apple using a different manufacturer now for media?


Kusanagi

Anyone try Mitsui Gold or Silver DVD-R media? Wonder how they would fair in the compatibility tests...

[leebo]

The Apple/Pioneer thing is speculation, as far as I can see. No one has posted proof of it.

[Eug]

The Apple/Pioneer thing is speculation, as far as I can see. No one has posted proof of it.

Apple media was Pioneer media. However, somebody is now saying their new Apple media is getting recognized as TDK. Dunno how true this is.

[leebo]

Apple media was Pioneer media.

Well, there's your proof!

[Faustus]

I know that 2 months ago the apple and pioneer media had the same id codes when I checked it. Now? who knows... apple has worked great for me.