4300, 4360, 4400, or edge of disc burns-HELP?

Hello, I'm using quality Taiyo Yuden 8X+R discs burned at 4X on LG 4167B drive using AnyDVD, Shrink, VOBBlanker, Decrypter combinations with success. I've always had my burn output target size default to 4465 and discs seem to be OK. But I've read around here that it's a good idea not to burn to edge of disc. With my TY's what would you recommend I custom size the target to(4300-4400)and WHY that size? Thanks for any info...

 

I custom size mine to 4300. There isnt gonna be much diffrent in compression changing it to it and its always better to be safe then sorry on burning to close to the edge.

 

I've always customized all my backups when using genuine Taiyo Yuden to 4400MB with no playback problems whatsoever. I like less compression, so with top notch media like Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim "Advanced Azo" and Maxell (Hitachi - made in japan), you should be fine with anywhere from 4360MB - 4400MB. I've burned over a thousand backups and they all plays flawlessly.

It is good that you only burned at 4X -- yes, that is the best, safest and most recommended speeds for burning. with 4X, it will produces the best quality and it is "unlikely" to get any coaster, especially if your burner is up to date with the latest firmware.

 

As for the speed, I normally burn 4X to be on the safe side. Sometimes I forget to set the speed. To date I've had no problems with the resulting 8X burns. With quality media and a good drive, most often problems don't arise. However, the chances of errors increase with speed... The jury is still out on that one for me.

Friends say they're burning at 8X without problems. I'm starting to think the best plan is to try some burns at 8X and if it works, go with it. If there are problems, then back off. A 40 cent disc isn't much of a loss with the DVD5s. I'd tend to be more careful with the higher priced DL media though. Like most things with PCs, settings shouldn't be "set in stone" as things change, both software and hardware. It may be time to start rethinking the 4X max for burning situation.

As for setting the burn space with Shrink or another app, I've always left them set to default. To date I've had no problems. If the laminate surface gets damaged into the media edge to effect the dye surface, you've got a bad disc whether you wrote near the edge or not. I assume the author of the software knew enough about media so the app doesn't make coasters. Some of those manual settings were put in there to appease the hardliners that want as much control as possible. I would consider making a setting adjustment if I ran into a problem, but as I said, I haven't. I wonder how many people actually had a problem before making those size adjustments. I suspect many just took it as good advice and went ahead and changed the settings. If the media is poor enough that the complete surface isn't usable, then I suspect it shouldn't be used for video purposes to begin with.

Just looking at the numbers, 4400MB converts to 4.297GB. The space on a 4.7 is 4.377GB. That's leaving .08GB or 81.92MB of usable space if the setting is 4400MB. Many of my backups come to about 4434MB, near 4.33 GB. I don't worry if some come out slightly larger, as long as there's some sort of reasonable zone below the max of 4.377GB or 4482MB.

 

The "buffer craze" started a while back when media issues were rampant and has held on through time. Most people don't realize that Shrink already gives you a buffer with it's 4465MB output size. Yes it's a slim margin, but it is sufficient for quality DVD Video recordable media. It's not going to give you a file that writes all the way out to the very edge.

 

LOL Pretty much as I suspected... Thanks for the input zippyd. I still think they would have been well served to use better quality media. If poor quality to start with, I wonder what the shelf life and playability is going to be as time passes. I guess to be really safe, some users probably set the burn to 4000MB. I think I can live with the 17MB buffer from the default. If I have media with that much bad space, I'd prefer to see the burn go south than have to worry about the longevity of the backup.

 

Couldn't have said it better.....

I mean, if the quality of the discs is that bad to have dye distributed that poorly, then the quality of the dye itself can't be any better. So lifespan of the dye can't be too long.

 

Creaky
No problem with your methodology. Hope you give those newbies a short explanation on why the fixed setting lower than default. The lower settings don't hurt anything.

Me, I'm more from the school of "lazy", most often I fix a problem when it comes along. To date, no problem with sizing. I ran into it once with RB, but manually sizing didn't help. The app was building files larger than the target. It was a corrupted program. Reloading the app fixed it, and that was leaving the default sizing. Interestingly enough, all the time I've been on the forums and being involved in different threads, to date I've not run into a person needing help that manually setting the size on Shrink solved the problem.

Don't get me wrong, I often take preemptive action; firmware upgrades, software updates, AV ware and the like. I just don't go tweaking the apps until they need it.

I guess we'll have varying opinions as long as there's a setting to adjust. No foul unless someone is messing another up. My opinion is those small changes make little difference. Until someone shows me, I'll just leave Shrink sizing at default. If someone could legitimately show me where it makes a difference, I'd promote it. But if it boils down to trying to write to crappy media, then I'd just suggest the newb get off the dime; he's looking at more problems than just sizing.

It would make an interesting experiment if you set your Shrink settings back to default and then came back to report when you had a problem with file sizing.