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| EatOut Member  38 Posts 5/08 |  Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 12:41PMIf you don't mind, in this thread I'd like to take a little of the sting out of the word "stupid" if I can. I'm smart in some categories of life, and stupid in other areas. Aren't we all? To the point: even though my username is EatOut, in this thread, go right ahead and call me stupid. Call me stupid in order to make your point and to have a little fun, too, because this subject is very basic. My question is coming right up, but first a brief summary of my situation: I have two DVD burners. One writer is built into my Dell XPS 400 desk top. The write speed is 16X. The other writer is one that I purchased at Fry's Electronics. It's made by Memorex. It also has a write speed of 16X. I posted the link to it down below. Unfortunately, this particular Memorex does not have any user reviews at Amazon or anywhere else for that matter, so I can't tell if it's a Rolls Royce or if it's a junk yard special. My question: would I be stupid to use my desktop writer as opposed to the Memorex writer? Or would there be no difference in the quality of the burn? To help smart people out there answer that question I'll provide the following details: >last night I got schooled on DVD's. It appears that I'd be stupid to use a DVD other than the ones sold by TAIYO YUDEN and Verbatim, that's for sure. And maybe Sony, too. So I'll stick with those, for now >this subject came to a head when I decided to get serious about finding the best way to back up my data. That's the main reason why I 'm learning the basics about burning. I have much to learn and thus I'm still a little stupid on the subject of burning, writers, DVD's, and all that goes with it >i'm into photography big time. I'm not a pro, but I am a street photographer who lives to shoot, so I'll be backing up a lot of images to DVD's on a weekly basis >i've never burned a movie or a software program to a DVD, because I've never done the P2P (peer to peer sharing) thing. But please keep in mind that that is something that's just right around the corner from me, maybe only a week or two away. my writer: http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-drives/memorex-18x-multi-format/1995-3212_7-32339744.html  [Link] |
Hardware  All-Star Member Your other left 14595 Posts 3/02 | Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 2:19PM It's been a while but, as I recall, burning quality isn't affected by speed but by the strength of the laser. A stronger laser makes deeper pits in the material; deeper pits are easier for regular DVD players to read. I would suggest finding specs on each model's laser. Otherwise, bet that the more expensive model has the better laser.  [Link] |
| EatOut Member 38 Posts 5/08 | Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 2:42PM Would you happen to know how the industry rates lasers? Is it by speed, diameter, length, temperature, something else? [Link] |
| Robert Member My past is a foreign country. Most things are different there, including word usage. 503 Posts 12/06 | Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 3:56PM I've only been burning "back-ups" for about a year, so I'm not very experienced. Burned about 600 DVDs in that time. I've never produced a coaster from a burn that passes the Verify step. My two burners are rated at 16x, but I almost always set the burn rate on my burning program to 8x. That increases the chances of getting a Verified burn considerably, while not increasing the burn time very much, since for a 4.7 Gb blank, the blank is only spooled up to top speed for a short period of the over-all burn time (maybe 2 of 10 minutes). Having said all this, I strongle recommend you visit the CD Freaks web site and direct your questions, etc. to them. They really know what burning DVDs is all about. [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 4:07PM Edited by - Bill on 6/8/2008 4:15:49 PM [Link] |
| Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14595 Posts 3/02 | Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 7:02PM [Link] |
| EatOut Member 38 Posts 5/08 | Posted - Jun 8 2008 : 10:07PM Edited by - EatOut on 6/8/2008 10:11:06 PM [Link] |
| Robert Member My past is a foreign country. Most things are different there, including word usage. 503 Posts 12/06 | Posted - Jun 9 2008 : 12:22PM I've produced my share of coasters. I bought a 25 DVD pack (ativa) from Office Depot that produced 20 coasters. Office Products refunded my money and sold me a 50 pack of their store brand. Not a coaster in the pack. Since all manufacturers use basically the same process for the everyday DVD blank you can purchase (priced under $100/100) the quality of the DVD depends almost entirely on the quality control process. Verbatim, up until last fall, had the best quality control in their factory in, I believe, Singapore. That is how they established their reputation of being the best. The have moved their factory (cost problems vs competition) and it is my opinion that they are now probably equal in quality, which is still very good but they are no longer the only one. rather than buy a specific brand, my approach is to wait for sales, usually 60% off normal retail, and purchase DVD-R in packs of 100 for less than $25/pack. Sometimes less than $20/pack. Office Depot sells their store brand, Maxel and ativa. Best Buy sells Verbatim, as does Office Max and Staples. I've had good results (except for that bad batch of 25) with all and since I'm paying half price the occassional coaster doesn't cost me much. The most critical portion of the DVD is the outer edge. That's the surface that is moving the fastest and is also the area where the dye layer is most likely to be imperfect. BTW, that is usually where moisture gets in and clouds the dye layer also. I once had a pack of 50 blanks that would 'coaster' if I tried to burn more than 80% of the total capacity (4.7 GB). I marked that spindle and only used those blanks when I had a VIDEO_TS file that was less than 3.8 Gb. Problem solved. Took 3 coasters to find out that problem. :) So, it is my experience that the only thing an individual can really control is the speed of the burn. Hence, I optimize on 8x using a 16x burner. I store my 'back-ups' in a plain white DVD enevelope in a Vaultz Snap-N-Store CD Storage Box Office Depot - $6.27 Keep in mind that I'm not storing video files that are valuable or irreplacable. And I've only been doing it for about a year so I don't know how long they will last. If I had files (video, image or text) that I wanted to keep absolutely safe for a long time I would put those files on magnetic tape. The problem with any method of 'storage' is the changing technology. At the current rate of change, the chances of being able to 'read' those stored files in the future are slim. I have a box full 5 1/2" floppy disks that I am sure still contain the magnetic bits I wrote on them, but I know longer have a reader nor do I even know the format. [xx)]  [Link] |
| Robert Member My past is a foreign country. Most things are different there, including word usage. 503 Posts 12/06 | Posted - Jun 9 2008 : 12:56PM I've found Office Depot to be the best in that regard. Be sure to read this info ==>http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm (from a link supplied by void in another thread) [Link] |
| Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Jun 9 2008 : 9:34PM From my experience, Rima.com is the best place for buying Taiyo Yuden discs. [Link] |
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