DVD-/+ R Problems?

[Mickey Ptak]

I know a lot of us have our chase DVDs on the market now and most DVD's are probably either in DVD-R or DVD+R formats. On a few occasions some of my discs will not work on the customers DVD players. I knew about these conflicts of player’s vs. DVD formats prior to putting my DVD on the market and I have only had three out of many customers complain about the disc not working, but in my opinion that is three to many. I am just curious how many others, with their DVD out, are having these same problems and how frequently?

Depending on what 2005 brings, as far as marketable video, I am thinking about getting my DVD’s replicated rather that duplicated. That way I can skip the format maze and be 95% sure my disc is going to play on my customers player. Most replications are not cheap but they also include the disc, disc case, and all pintables.

Mick

 

[Bobby Eddins]

I know a lot of us have our chase DVDs on the market now and most DVD's are probably either in DVD-R or DVD+R formats. On a few occasions some of my discs will not work on the customers DVD players. I knew about these conflicts of player’s vs. DVD formats prior to putting my DVD on the market and I have only had three out of many customers complain about the disc not working, but in my opinion that is three to many. I am just curious how many others, with their DVD out, are having these same problems and how frequently?

Depending on what 2005 brings, as far as marketable video, I am thinking about getting my DVD’s replicated rather that duplicated. That way I can skip the format maze and be 95% sure my disc is going to play on my customers player. Most replications are not cheap but they also include the disc, disc case, and all pintables.

Mick

I think most playback problems are a result of the quality of the disc. My first blank DVD purchase was of 100 blank discs but none have ever made it to the public since the playback was horrible. Video stop-starts, etc. When I held the disc up to the light there were groups of pinholes. These come from letting dust particles get on the disc before the reflective coating is applied. No reflective surface means the laser doesn't reflect data back to be read. All blank DVD's have a few which most players can handle with error correction, etc. But too many means trouble. Quality control is the problem and can vary even within a brand name.

A good place to find info on where your blank disc was made and how compatible it is can be found at:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia

Lots of good info here.

I'm currently using Fujifilm 50 packs that are printable from Fry's and they have seemed to work great with only one bad disc reported which I re-shipped with no complaint.
Guess you can never be perfect :?

 

[John Diel]

Hey Mick,

I don't know how much this will help, but I've found the DVD-R is way more compatible with mordern DVD players that DVD+R. Even in older units the -R seems to be the way to go.

I use +R strictly for Data Storage. Commercial DVD usues a whole different compression routine and I believe a different format as well. That's why they can get 2 hours of movie, plus a small bonus features on their DVD's as oppsed to the 1 hour DVD Recordable is limited to. I just read up on this a couple of weeks ago.

I would think the replicating service of your choice, will be using whatever the current commercial standard is.

Something you may think about prior to completing a sale, is to inquire as to the puchaser has a compatible DVD player. Most players state right on the box as to what they support and what isn't supported.

Having wriiten all this, I'm probably dead wrong in how I interpreted the stuff I read. Someone will help me out here.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Something you may think about prior to completing a sale, is to inquire as to the puchaser has a compatible DVD player. Most players state right on the box as to what they support and what isn't supported.

I had this thought but re-thought it. I think if you put up anything about play back issues you will lose a customer or two. I'd rather just mail another dvd on those rare occasions, even though it drives me nuts. Most probably wouldn't have a problem if you inquire about their machine and make sure what it will play, but I imagine some will...especially if it is included pre-purchase on a site.

Whever someone has a playback problem with the -r I just send them a +r. It always fixes the problem. Perhaps their player accepted both and the -r just had a scratch on it. -r seems to be the best, I agree. My own dvd player can be very picky and it doesn't seem to be a -r or +r cause. It is more of a brand cause and perhaps the burner used could be a problem too. Some players need to be cleaned(mine) and maybe all the hollywood discs are just "burned brighter". I've had discs not start and I blew out the player and it would then play. Yet, some -r or +r burned the same way and the same brand will refuse to play in it, but play fine in any other player. I'd say 20-25% of the chase videos I have gotten this year will not play correctly in that player. Usually they just won't play at all. If I stick them in any other player though they will. As for how often I get a complaint, I'd say 1 out of 50(maybe 75). The last one I asked the lady to blow out her player and look at the disc and make sure nothing was on it. She came back later and said she showed it to her kid and it worked fine(I assume she did one or both of those suggestions). One I got mailed back to me had been completely soaked at some point as the insert was all smeared from being wet. I was like, well geee I wonder if whatever made it so wet didn't help. Others have come back all scratched up. AND.... a set of 100 I got was screwed up from the crap packaging they did. I tossed half of them out due to small scratches all over them. So, right now my setup is working well enough I don't dare change anything, lol.

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Hey Mick,


Something you may think about prior to completing a sale, is to inquire as to the puchaser has a compatible DVD player. Most players state right on the box as to what they support and what isn't supported.

Yes I have just updated my website with a compatibility notice on it. May be that will help also. I have also updated my site so the customer can buy +R or -R formats. Now I need to update my Ebay listings also.

I do agree with you also Bobby. The quality of the disc is very important. I have been using Ritek +R and now -R because they were suppose to be real good and they are cost effective. I just want my customers to be happy and if that means spending the extra $ then that's fine with me as long as the extra $ is for high quality discs. Thanks for the link that will help me and perhaps my customers a lot.

Mick

 

[cedwards]

I havn't noticed much difference in brands. I do notice a BIG difference between one copy and another burned on the same media on the came recorder. I have one DVD player that is very sensitive to errors. It even messes up on commercial DVDs at times. I test al my DVDs on this player in FF. If it makes it to the end of the DVD without freezing up, I keep the DVD, if not, the DVD goes in the trash. The only ones that people have complained about were ones I didn't test.

it takes a little longer to make a lot of copies and test them, but at only $0.30 per disk, it is no big deal to throw some away if they are not perfect.

 

[Mike Sharp]

As an end user who has a UK DVD player(PAL format), I would just like to say that I have purchased DVD's from the following and they all work perfectly:
Mike H -2
Amos
Mickey P
Bobby E
Jesse Bas/Mark Sudduth
Tim V/ Weather Graphics.-2

The only problem I had was with Amos' which needed a good clean using my CD Cleaning fluid. Has worked perfectly since.

All the DVDs have been played on my main home DVD player, a multi format portable unit, and both my PC DVD players

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Thanks for that info Mike.

I haven't noticed any real difference from burn to burn. Everytime I burn the file size is exactly the same. I never let the computer verify the burn as it takes twice as long to do one disc and it would verify that something was different and the discs would always be fine. I'm using an external HP +r/-r drive. Using Sonic's Record Now. On my player that plays both -r and +r the biggest factor was what brand. I thought it really hated +r for a while till I started testing various -r. There was a brand of maxell(I think they are ritek now....think ritek bought them or something) that were really iffy on playing. They flat out would not play in my one player. These were the yellow G04 ones I think. I have gotten the same disc brand and version from other chasers and they won't play on my player. Just an fyi for anyone buying those. I use http://www.supermediastore.com now to buy all mine. I believe the ones I buy now are prodisc which were the pioneer test certified ones. I'm having good luck with them so far.

An FYI for anyone reading this for info on burning. Stand alone burners only encode and burn so well. I'd avoid them all together. I've seen various videos from people using them and so far I've not seen one do a better job than the one I bought a couple years ago. The job it did/does is far from what you can do with a computer and more time then on the fly encoding. Then again a whole lot of the computer based jobbies suck even more at it.

http://www.tmpg-inc.com/ Best bang for the buck out there. Hell, if you have your clips edited at full size avi files already and have them ready to go you can do it for FREE with them and a 30 day trial ap.

 

[cedwards]

99% of the disks I burn were fine. All files were the same size... even the ones that I trashed would play on most players, Some may have just had a little dust or finger print on them. I just didn't want to take any chances.

I do have a standalone dvd recorder. It makes coasters out of about 80% of all disks it burns. I don't ever use it anymore. (anybody want to buy it really cheep? (It wouldn't even be worth the postage)

 

[fplowman]

-R are the most complaint for the time being.. Glass master is the real way to go.. But of course thats for folks doing probably a thousand or more to make it worth while financially

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I started with DVD+R disks and received a few comments by folks that their copies of my disk wouldn't work in their players. Since then, I have switched over to DVD-R and haven't had a single incompatible disk. I can still burn -R or +R, but, in my experience, DVD-R wins hands-down for compatibility...

 

[Mickey Ptak]

Thanks for that info Mike.
I use http://www.supermediastore.com now to buy all mine. I believe the ones I buy now are prodisc which were the pioneer test certified ones.

That is where I get my discs also because they have the best prices. I bought some DVD-R last week and the three orders I am shipping today are out of that set. I have tested them in both of my stand-alone players, two of my portable players, and my new laptop and they work fine. We shall see how they work. Thank you all for the input.

Mick

 

[Shane Adams]

I've been using DVD+R because the person who was helping me with the video project when I first started it told me it was the better way to go, because it was the newer format. Apparently that was bad advice, from what I've read on it since. I've had three reports of a disc not playing out of 53 thus far, and all three were compatability issues. All three were remedied by the customer trying the disc in a newer player. However, the third of these (just yesterday) also reported the disc skipped in a few spots once they got it to play - my first true "bad apple."

I have been considering offering both -R and +R, simply to avoid anymore problems. I don't have time to sit and watch every DVD, even on FF, but I do check every disc by inserting them into the player to see if they read all the data. I check to make sure the intro page loads, then I watch the first few seconds of each segment, skipping through to make sure it's all being seen. This method has worked almost flawlessly, save for the one disc yesterday (which I'm replacing as soon as the defective one arrives back here).

I'll most-likely start offering both formats in the next few weeks, as I hate standing in line at the Post Office - I don't need a reason to do it more often than I already do.

 

[Tony Laubach]

DVD-R is the way to go for me! I just purchased an external Sony DVD Burner that I'm using with my laptop and am FINALLY able to burn DVD-Rs. Thus far, only -R has been able to play on my home DVD player. I do know +R play in some, but it seems that -R works in more. I have a stash of both at home but mainly use the +R for data storage and -R for video stuff.

 

[Dan Cook]

Tony what burner did you buy?