DVD Media Report

[Savant]

As noted in another thread, Baldrick is working on this:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdmedia.php

I thought I would start a new thread with my thoughts...

Hi Baldrick,

Looks good so far, but could use a bit of tweaking in the DVD Mdeia section.


DVD Type: Remove DVD-R and replace with two entries. "DVD-R (general)" and "DVD-RA (authoring)" That way you can have people who use both types put in reviews. The reason I say to use DVD-RA for authoring is so people don't confuse it with general DVD-R media.

Price: If you want to keep this section you'll need to attach the current date to the entry, or ask the person to enter the date when the items were bought. This is because the prices will vary over time. What would be good would be to have a place to enter the quantity and the price. So a person could say they bought 50 and paid X number of dollars for them.

Successfully burns content at: A new section would be handly to show what level of bandwidth the media can support. For example, I use cheap generic discs and burn content at a bandwidth of about 3mbps. However if I want to burn at 8mbps I will get errors. The level of bandwidth a disc can support seems to increase with the disc quality (and the disc price)


DVD MEDIA: What would be better here would be to remove the 1x, 2x from the product descriptions and give it its own little selection window. (which you can add to as new types become available) You may want to have TWO "DVD recording speed" windows. One window could be "DVD recording speed (advertised)" and the other could be "DVD recording speed (sucessfully burned at)" Many times a 1X disc can be burned at 2X, and occasionally a 2X disc won't burn at 2X. So this way we can see what the discs are advertised at, and what they WORK at.

Also nice to have would be DVD Manufacturer (if known) so that people who can inspect the disc can see if they made it or someone else.

What would be good would be a way to add generic discs. Right now there are piles of generic media, and they all have different manufacturers. Having a single 'generic' line will be misleading...

So, I would suggest that you split this up. First in DVD Media you have "Media name" and ONLY have names like Pioneer, Apple, Verbatim, etc. This would be the actual name on the product package/disc.

Then have a box below to add the media identifier, which would be the part number or other marking on the package.

I would suggest you have a special secton for Generic discs since they are a big part of the market right now. For generics you could have the following:

DVD Media identifier: Which would be what the package is marked as. Like DVDPRO etc.

DVD Media manufacturer: This would be for people who have the DVD Media Utility program and have inspected the disc to see who makes it. No guessing allowed here, you have to tell them to only input what the utility says, and if they don't know to leave it blank.

Other boxes that would be nice options would be:

Inkjet printable?: Yes/no
Thermal printable?: Yes/no
Case?: Bulk (no case)/Jewel case/Black keep case

Anyway, great start on that form, it looks good!

Regards,

Savant

[Baldrick]

I will begin with dvd-r generic only..will add others later.

So for dvdr generic media you would like

Media name: Pioneer
Media identifier: dvdpro
Media manufacturer: using advdinfo to get that info right???
Advertised max media burn speed: 2x

it would be nice to include a image of a dvdr box with example what to include.


I will have a burn speed that you actually used under the dvd writer used.

I think you can add under author comments if it only works with low bitrates/bandwidth

www.vcdhelp.com/dvdrmediaform.php

[LanceSteel]

The form looks pretty good.

I think savant already said this but I guess it would be nice if you could type in the dvd media name (like what you have for the dvd players) rather than getting it from a pull down list. You could have the manufacturers selectable from a pull-down list. Some of the companies out there claim to have a "brand" yet after running ADVD we find out its just the same manufacturer as some other company's "brand." Maybe you could have a price per disk (for the price) or have it calculated when someone inputs the total price (minus shipping) and the quantity.

Anyway, like I said, it looks good.

[Baldrick]

you will be able to add new names, manufacturer, identifier also but I will verify all those reports. I hope everyone can calculate the price for one disc but isnt not that important to begin with.

[DigitalGreg]

He also started a pretty detailed thread on prices--
http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=96460

[thaiwoo]

I found following site which has tons of media related info.

http://www.cdr-forum.de/index.php

Unfortunatly it is only in German but maybe it can inspire. The CD-R/W database is huge while I guess they just started working on the DVD media and it is rather small.

If you go on the Links page you can choose English language but it only works for the links. The rest is as mentioned in "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

[fand]

I'm sorry but it's very uneloquent (not to mention sloppy on the creator's part) to have a selection defined as "crap". Be creative if you're going to be unprofessional at least. Otherwise, why don't you include more than Verbatim and Pioneer? Or better yet, why don't you just have a input text box for all three fields and let people fill it in themselves. I, for example, have used Ritek's for the past 85 DVDs and have not had one bad burn (tested on over 7 DVD players including a PS2). To try and keep up with every new brand that appears on the market would be very time consuming. Just change it from a dropdown box to a text field so people can enter what brand they have. It will only help people in the end, instead of categorizing everything as "crap". We KNOW that Pioneer's and Verbatims will work on almost any player that supports DVD-Rs in the first place. What 99% of the people are looking for is the media that is 1/6th of the cost that does the exact same thing.

my .02 cents,

k.

[Baldrick]

The report form is only a beta so far, to get your comments about the general layout. I will add so everyone will be able to add new brands and manufacturer(as I said earlier in this topic) and ignore the brand "crap"...it won't be there in the final version. I have been a bit occupied with some other stuff so it will take some more time to fix this list.

thaiwoo: thanks for the link...they had several dvdr brands...maybe I also should include ean and upc codes.

[fand]

I found following site which has tons of media related info.

http://www.cdr-forum.de/index.php

Unfortunatly it is only in German but maybe it can inspire. The CD-R/W database is huge while I guess they just started working on the DVD media and it is rather small.

If you go on the Links page you can choose English language but it only works for the links. The rest is as mentioned in "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

try: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=www.cdr-forum.de

and click on the "translate" button. it does a nice job of going to english.

cheers,

k

[hech54]

Like member "fand"....I have had ZERO bad burns using Ritek DVD+R's.

[aya]

what do you think of a link section in your compatibility table to point to some online media reseller ?




i have it in other forum that only apple DVD-R and maxell DVD-R are 99% reliable to be played on DVD home players, though they tried some DVD-RW brands with more encouraging results...
...quoting another thread above me: i'd like anyone to suggest a good cheap brand of DVD-Rs to burn and be played back on DVD home players without falt.
...should i buy DVD-RWs instead ? are they more reliable even if less compatible with DVD home players compared to DVD-Rs ?



i need to buy a bunch of them; please help me out here, i don't want to pay 5$ a piece when i could spend say 2$ and have the same results...

thx a lot,
a.

[/b]

[Baldrick]

www.vcdhelp.com/dvdmedia.php

remember that the list is still a beta so any new ideas and comments are welcom

[Baldrick]

advdinfo works with both dvd-r and dvd-rw right?

but advdinfo does not work with dvd+r or dvd+rw? what else can you use to get a unique manufacture id from them?

[tumbar]

where does one aquire advdinfo ?

thanks

[Baldrick]

http://firmware-flash.com/pioneerdvd/ADVDInfo.zip

you need aspi installed

read here how to use advdinfo

http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdmedia?advdinfo=1#advdinfo

[AceYu]

The media report is great but I think that there needs to be a way of searching on the disk ID info, it will help avoid accidential reports on the wrong type of media. ie cut and paste from ADVinfo to search for a media type.

Later BRETT

[GaryStebbins]

This site has been very valuable to me. Thanks!!

Any idea when we might see DVD+R/+RW media information?

Gary

[Wooody]

Hi,

I would really appreciate a column giving a rating of the different DVD media i.e. a rating showing which one that is the best buy.

As it is now I haven't got a clue which one to buy.

Regards Wooody

[Baldrick]

I will add dvd+r/w when there is someway to identify the media using some tool. The name is not enough.

Maybe I will addddd a rating later.

[ebina]

I want to report a problem with the DVD-R media section.
I wanted to add Apple Media which ADVDInfo lists as 'MCC 00 RG2'
but I can't because the list already shows Pengo Technologies Media as
having that ID.

I bought Pengo Technologies media, and it has the ID 'RITEKG 03'

[Baldrick]

It is a problem when user posts media...I dont know what is correct or not. I'm note sure if I will continue with the dvdr media list....too much seems to be wrong.

[arcorob]

Hi,

when will there be a DVD+R media section or is that TABOO !! LOL

Don't want to start the media wars, just want to know my options as I seem to find my burner (AOPEN really RICOH ) listed in a particular brand...But don't know if there are other brands !!! Thanks

[jens_daabeck]

Looks good. A filter on 'DVD-writer used' would be useful.

[arcorob]

Only problem with omitting the DVD writer is then you don't know if it works for your brand....

I have the AOPEN(RICOH) DVD+RW/+R and thus far, the only brand I tried was purchased on EBAY as COMPATIBLE with my unit. I have had VERY much luck with this supplier in the past on DIAMOND CD-R's so gave them a shot.

Problem is, I don't know the brand and what I can experiment with.

I REFUSE TO OWN COASTERS !!! LOL

What would be nice is to get samples from the manuafacturers sent to different folks for test. I will happily test media on my machine.

RA

[kitty]

I will happily test all media types on my Sony if you want to mail me discs

Yes the Media ID / Brand thing is getting dicey. My Accu media does not have the same ID as the Accu media listed (similar problem as above). Some companies are switching discs, rebranding discs, and using other peoples identifiers me thinks. What to do?

[jens_daabeck]

Sorry, I didn't suggest to hide the 'DVD-writer used' information. What I meant was for the reader to have a way of selecting only the reports that are relevant for his/her writer.

Only problem with omitting the DVD writer is then you don't know if it works for your brand....

I have the AOPEN(RICOH) DVD+RW/+R and thus far, the only brand I tried was purchased on EBAY as COMPATIBLE with my unit. I have had VERY much luck with this supplier in the past on DIAMOND CD-R's so gave them a shot.

Problem is, I don't know the brand and what I can experiment with.

I REFUSE TO OWN COASTERS !!! LOL

What would be nice is to get samples from the manuafacturers sent to different folks for test. I will happily test media on my machine.

RA

[motster]

I second the vote for a ratings system/column, so us cheapies can sort by best rating and work our way down till we find a price we like Would need perhaps 1 each for -r/+r to keep things clean (or separate lists)...

Suggest: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Undecided still, Don't Recommend, Highly not recommended.

[pcexpress-guy]

Baldrick,

Just curious what burner and what media do you use?

Thanks!