Best DVD format/brand/version of brand/color of surface?

[Mike Hollingshead]

Does anyone have a lot of experience on what the best/most playable dvd is, the format it is, the color of the bottom of it? Going off my own two players, my parents, and my sisters it doesn't seem that the -r or +r is as important as something else. My player will play both -r and +r but is picky about it. I had one brand it liked in -r until they changed the version of that brand of -r.....which it ended up not liking. I'm using prodisc dvd-r right now and am affriad to change to anything as it is has worked well enough. The problem is from time to time I still get the same problem, where the disc will start locking up towards the end. This same disc will play fine in most players, but in some players this will happen to it. It is like the disc isn't bad, but in some players something about it is just bad enough. It all gets incredibly annoying. I'm thinking of switching to another brand of -r but not sure which one. I also hear the color of the bottom of the disc is important as some color is more readable(though I don't get why they'd all not switch to this color if that was true).

Thoughts?

Thanks,


Oh and one interesting thing. EVERY time I've had this blocking up and freezing thing go on all it took to fix it was wiping the disc off, even though the disc looked free of dirt. Too bad this isn't always the case in others that have problems.

 

[John Diel]

In the players made in the last 3 years, both formats generally work out pretty good. Take a look at something called "Bitrate Setting" (Google for it) and see if you can't set your software to do a DVD-ROM setting. I believe you need DVD+R to do this properly.

I've also read about a lot of issues with labels. A plain DVD would play fine, then when labeled (with sticky labels) it wouldn't work at all, then when the label was removed, it worked out fine. This apparently is not an issue with Screen printed, ink printed or Thermal printed DVD's.

Also check to make sure your DVD Burner's firmware is up to date. I've found out the revisions happen more than we actually know about and certain funtions are changed to meet current needs. You will have to go to the DVD Burner manufacturers web site to do this.

What I've been doing lately, is using DVD+R format disc's and Nero Recode. When it burns, it automatically sets the Bitrate to DVD-ROM and I haven't heard of any issues as yet with players.

Try this web site. It has quite a bit of good information on this as well as supporting links: http://www.signvideo.com/btst-d.htm

 

[Jay Cazel]

DVD+R seems so far to work the best when using Nero to burn them. I have been told by some friends in the computer business that DVD-R is used more for data than video and the DVD+R is mostly used for video not data. But both will work either way. I have a few different DVD players one that is a old APEX that I got like 3 or 4 years ago and some newer ones we got 6 months ago and both will play the DVD+R format.

 

[Jerry Funfsinn]

Based on the thousands of DVDs that I've used to distribute video on. The brand I use to distibute on is Inkjet printable Tayo Yuden DVD-R. The brand I use to master on is Sony DVD+R only because I use a Sony burner. I always use a 6000 bitrate when encoding because its a medium rate between quality and quantity. I sometimes lower the bitrate to fit more on a disc when I need to. Tayo Yuden has a wide compatability rate with most players. I expect to get the usual 5% of people say the disc does not work until I tell them to try it on a newer player and most times it works fine. The disc you use should depend on the burner you use to master it on. If you use a pioneer burner you should use a disc that is most compatible with that burner. You can check for compatible discs on the manufacurers website.What it all boils down to is that it starts with the master(bitrate, disc brand, etc...), burner, duplicator if used, and then the player as the end result. BTW I use Verbatim in one duplicator and Tayo Yuden in the other two duplicators because they are the most compatible with the burners in the machine.
Jerry Funfsinn
http://www.creativejetstream.com

 

[Bill Tabor]

Brand I'm not sure. Dvd-r is supposed to be slightly more compatible than Dvd+r. Dvd-r I believe is slightly purple on the bottom whereas dvd+r is bluish. You should be aware of speed. 4x disks are supposed to be more compatible than faster 8x and 16x particularly with older players. The slower burn speed seems to work better too. I had a Pioneer that would flawlessly play +/- R disks until I started using 8x and it wouldn't work.

If you want to go complete compatibility I believe commercial is DVD-9 but may be very expensive except in large quantity.

 

[George Tincher]

I have had good luck with my Phillips and Pioneer players with all the stuff I have recorded on my Pioneer DVD recorder and all DVD's I have purchased. I chose the -R format for my use. So far I have had no compatibility issues with anything I have tried to play in any of them. I have also exclusively used 8x Imation DVD's that I buy in the 30 and 50 pack spindles from Wal-Mart. So far, I have yet to encounter a single bad disc.

BTW, all of my stuff has been purchased within the last year, so they may be the biggest factor in me not suffering any issues. It seems older players struggle more with the various formats than the newer ones.

Oh, and in regards to color, all of the DVD's I own, both the -R's I use myself and all of the commercial DVD's I have purchased have the pink/lavender/purlpe colored bottoms. I have no blue tinted discs.