What's better, DVD-R or DVD+R? There is no correct answer here as both formats are extremely compatible and have many similarities. Although DVD-R has been around longer and is "statistically" sold around the world more then (DVD+R), that doesn't make it better. Both are compatible with the majority of the standalone players on the market and although the compatibility between the two formats (in terms of percentages) favors DVD-R, the difference is so infinitecimal, it has no bearing.
What causes pixelation or freezing/studdering issues towards the end of the movies? In almost all cases, the cause for this is inferior media. The true test of media is what it can do from the 4GB mark on up. Being able to consistently burn 4.3+ GB's of data or more on a particular type of media is what seperates the pretenders in media from the contenders.
My blank DVD-R/RW/+R/RW says I can burn 4.7 GB's of data. But I have heard that you can only burn up to 4.38 GB's of data. Which one of these facts is true? Actually, both of the facts are true. The confusion comes because the "real" world and the "computer" world have different mathematical computations for what comprises a byte. The real world says that a byte is 1000 kb's, while the computer world says a byte is 1024 kb's. When you see the 4.7 on DVD MEDIA it is referring to 4.7 billion bytes, which equates to approximately 4.37 GB's. To simplify, you will need to keep your project to 4.37 GB's or less.
You use ADVDINFO/DVDInfo but get errors or can't get the program to read the structure of your blank media, why? There are a few reasons why you may have this problem. First, ADVDINFO is an older program and the author had not updated it in quite some time. As a result, it will not read DVD+R/RW disks, nor will it read the structure of a DVD-R in a DVD-ROM. If you are using ADVDINFO, make sure you put the media you want to read in your DVD BURNER and select "OE" from the drop down box, and hit the "READ DVD STRUCT" button.
I personally reccomend nicw's DVDInfo which can be downloaded at
www.dvdrhelp.com .
Note: Some DVD Burners may NOT be able to read the media id's of "BLANK" DVD Media. Therefore, in some instances, you will need to burn your project onto the media, and then check the media ID. Two burners which will read blank media id's with the latest firmware are the Ricoh and Sony burners.
What's the Best media out there? Again, there is no such thing as Best media. No two people's computers are exactly alike, and different hardware as well as different software make this question impossible to answer. There are other reasons as to why you can't assume a BEST when it comes to DVD MEDIA as I will explain later.
Now for the Biggest Miconceptions and Fallacies of DVD MEDIA.
Just like with everything else in the world, I ALWAYS get what I pay for. If I pay extra money for expensive DVD MEDIA then i'm surely going to get the best quality, right? This is the ABSOLUTE BIGGEST FALLACY regarding DVD MEDIA. I have seen many posts where people think that they are getting the best quality media simply because they spent a few extra dollars. This couldn't be more false. Yes, MANY times in the real world, you get what you pay for. You won't get filet mignon for the price of salsbury steak, and you won't get a Ferrari for the price of a Ford. In many cases you do get what you pay for. But in the world of DVD MEDIA, you absolutely can NOT associate price with quality. I will give two strong examples. It was assumed for a long time that companies like Verbatim make some of the best media in the world. If you spend extra money for name brand "VERBATIM" disks...you were getting what you paid for, right? Wrong! Recently, Verbatim has been known to have allowed the production of countless inferior Verbatim disks from a variety of different production plants and manufacturers. CMC is the company primarily responsible for producing the MAJORITY OF Verbatim's crappy media, but other companies have been known to produce faulty, error-plagued Verbatim disks as well.
The point though is that you must first understand that the MAJORITY OF THE TIMES you are purchasing "name brand" media, the name on the top side of the disk, is not the name of the company that actually manufactured the disks. You also have to understand the DVD Production process a little. You can't just assume things. You can't just say for example, that because TDK is making excellent disks now that they will always continue to make excellent quality disks. Most of these DVD manufacturers have a wide erray of production plants around the WORLD. Companies like Verbatim have at least 7 different manufacturer's of their media! They also have manufacturing plants in different States as well as different countries!
For one reason or another, not only can one "brand" of disks be better manufactured then another..such as TAIYO YUDEN Verbatim disks being higher quality then say CMC...but in addition, the quality of the disks that come from a plant in Singapore, may be superior in quality to a plant in North Carolina. Quality control can also be more leniant at one plant then it is at another. It can also certainly be more stringent for a company like Taiyo Yuden, then it is for a company like CMC. For this reasons as well as many others, you can't just ASSUME because a disk is more expensive, it is absolutely better.
The reverse can also be said. Just because a disk is inexpensive, does not make it cheap or of inferior quality. As a matter of fact, there are NUMEROUS unbranded "generic" media being sold at many online sites which is superior in quality to alot of more expensive "NAME BRAND" disks such as Verbatim, Memorex, Fuji, etc. Just to name some of the highest quality disks I know the majority of people have had the most success with success with are as follows:
Ritek, (mainly G03 & G04), Ricoh, Lead Data/ Primarily sold under the name ACCU, DUPEZ, AND PIODATA. Prime disks - Manufacutred by Gigastorage. Samsung BeALL DVD-R (Not +R) Optodisks - The highest quality appears to be the Gold-Topped 4x disks from the majority of the people who have used them. This is a list of the most compatibile and highest quality inexpensive media which can in many cases be far superior in both quality AND compatibility to more expensive name brands. Which certainly is better for all of us. Last but not least, I want to mention that i've seen too many fallacies and assumptions from people who think because they got one bad batch of disks from a manufacturer, then surely, all that particular manufacturer's disks or brand of disks must be crappy. Again, this simply isn't true.
Case in point: CMC has been known to produce a high percentage of inferior disks which have some type of issue or another. In the Verbatim example listed above, they were known to be responsible for the majority of inferior Verbatim disks. However, CMC also manufacturers many other brands of disks. Philips DVD+R media for one is produced by CMC. And for one reason or another, the Philips media CMC produces is of a higher quality and superior to that of most other CMC Produced media. There can be a number of reasons for this. It could be the dye used for the Philips disks is of better quality...maybe it's because the Quality Control is more stringent for the Philips disks then it is other brands. Or maybe it's because the entire production process is just better for the Philips disks. Whatever the reason, one thing that is for sure is that I burned a successful 75 out of 75 with these CMC disks, and I've not read a single post to date from anyone saying that they've had issues with the Philips media. I have however, read many posts where people have had success with the Philips media. So as you can see, you can't just ASSUME that because CMC produced the media, that the media will absolutely be crappy. And the exact opposite is true. Memorex has had a lot of negative Feedback regarding their DVD MEDIA. Incidentally, the majority of their DVD-R media is CMC manufactured..and of POOR QUALITY.
So this means that everyone who has used Memorex media can say that Memorex sucks and they'd be correct, right? Once again...WRONG! Memorex also has DVD+R media and their DVD+R media happens to be produced by RICOH..one of the world leaders in DVD+R media and one of the companies at least at this point in time who people can rely on for high quality media. The point though is that just as poorly as the Memorex CMC DVD-R disks are...the Memorex DVD+R disks are some of the best out there.
The point is that you are only misinforming yourself by saying that all Memorex media is crap or all CMC media is crap, or ALL Verbatim media is the Best...because the facts prove otherwise. In order to continue to get the highest quality media possible, you have to keep up with the times. At any given time a company may contract with a media manufacturer and you woldn't even know there was a change. Today Memorex has CMC manufacturing its DVD-R media, but tomorrow they contract with Taiyo Yuden and cut CMC. The same can be said for ANY media company. Right now the TDK DVD-R disks are produced by Maxell and themselves (TDK)...tomorrow they may decide to cut costs and allow a lower quality product to be produced and they may contract CMC to produce their DVD-R media. What a nightmare that would be..lol...but it can happen.
As long as people understand these concepts and look a little deeper then just the obvious...
