On a computer, the slower the burn the less chance of errors so I guess also somewhat better quality. But I just don't know that much about quality on stand alone recorders. I would use a RW disc and do some tests at different speeds and see if there is much difference in actual quality. Jerry
Jerry, I'm a part-time wedding videographer and one of my client's mother has a Toshiba that isn't properly playing back anything I've sent her yet (2 sets so far and working on my 3rd, but this time burning at 1x). The DVDs worked fine on the couple's DVD player, but not her mother's Toshiba (can't recall model # or what the problems were). I forgot to tell her the other day about the class action lawsuit against Toshiba although I;m not sure that would make a difference. I might be forced to by her one of those cheap Apex DVD players. Tom H.
Are you sending her -R burned discs? If not that may help. Older Toshibas were almost all -R players and don't stick a label on it to make it pretty. The stick on labels make the playback problem happen more. Just mark it with a sharpie. Jerry
i have a toshiba from 2001 and i emailed toshiba to see if its compatable with dvd+r...they said its not....if its not than why does it play them? Granted when i had the labels on them 3/4 the way through it skipped and pixelized and froze...but i have been testing and i havent had a problem yet since i took all the labels off my 6 dvds.....
I am aware of a wedding video on DVD-R I delivered to the parents of the bride last fall. It wouldn't play back on their Toshiba. I checked their manual and it said it would not play back DVD-RWs. The father copied the DVD-Rs over to a DVD+R (obtained from his son) using his dual DVD burner. He got the DVD+R to play back. I assume the DVD player was purchased before DVD+Rs came out since there was no mention of DVD+R compatibility mentioned in the manual. To me, it's a roll of the dice and I take a chance every time I send out a DVD to a potential client. I was mainly concerned early before I produced wedding videos on DVD as to whether or not a potential client's player was either a DVD-R or +R. I may lose a client if I send out a demo wedding video on the wrong format. Now I'm concerned whether or not a DVD will skip or freeze or not play back chapters. I've tried changing the bitrate from 6 to 4 when converting from AVI to MPEG-2. I've tried changing DVD brands and have also resorted to buying a Lite-On drive to handle booktyping or bitsetting (i.e., convert a DVD+R to a DVD-ROM so it will play on a player that's compatible with +R or -R or both). I encountered a problem with Ritek DVD+R disks (sold at Office Depot in the store's packaging) when I added a 2nd movie to a DVD. That 2nd movie didn't play back properly at all (pixeled on me big time) and I ended up using Fuji DVD+R and DVD-Rs and the problem went away. Go figure... Tom H.
Jerry, I can't deliver videos using a sharpie since that would look unprofessional for a wedding video to be delivered that way. I'm now using an Epson R200 (bought it cheap at Sam's for about $90). The only problem I have now is with buying more ink. I didn't like the labels since I didn't trust the emulsion on the labels. I found out sometime ago in this forum or somewhere else about labels possibly causing playback problems due to disk inbalance as you implied. Now I'm wondering if inkjet printing on the DVDs themselves could throw off the balance (i.e., more ink on one part of the disk than the other maybe?). Tom H.
The ink from the Epson printer should not hurt the playback of the burned dvd. That is the best way to go in your type of business. As you said it is a guessing game on how or if a burned dvd will play. Way too many variables in players, burners and blank media. I completely understand what you must be going through when it is part of your business. Most of us burn dvds for our own use and if it doesn't work right it only matters to us. Having customers that expect perfect results on burned dvds which for the most part is still very much trial and error could drive you crazy. I wish you the best in your work. Jerry
Jerry, I started editing video on an Amiga/Video Toaster/Flyer set up and sent my videos to tape for several years. DVDs come along and I felt I had to update my equipment and get with the times. I thought I only had DVD-R and DVD+R compatibility issues to deal with and was I ever wrong and surprised. I came across this site, http://www.skylarkdvd.com/compatibility.html, which addresses some of my problems. Someone I know recommended I cut the bitrate from 6 to 4 to avoid some problems (equates to more compression) so the DVD players can keep up better I guess and I still ran into problems. I might have to put a clause in my agreements stating that if a client's DVD player is older than 2 years then the player may not be able to play back burned DVDs properly and that the client accepts responsibility for ensuring DVD player(s) are current to avoid any compatibility issues. I am sure there are others out there who have the same problem. By the way, my Panasonic works great so I wish all clients had a Panasonic DVD player - but that won't ever happen of course. I could go out and up my price to cover a new DVD player, like an Apex, which I understand plays back practically everything. Unfortunately, I can't purchase DVD players for both parents... Thanks for the feedback. Tom H.
Jerry, I started editing video on an Amiga/Video Toaster/Flyer set up and sent my videos to tape for several years. DVDs come along and I felt I had to update my equipment and get with the times. I thought I only had DVD-R and DVD+R compatibility issues to deal with and was I ever wrong and surprised. I came across this site, http://www.skylarkdvd.com/compatibility.html, which addresses some of my problems. Someone I know recommended I cut the bitrate from 6 to 4 to avoid some problems (equates to more compression) so the DVD players can keep up better I guess and I still ran into problems. I might have to put a clause in my agreements stating that if a client's DVD player is older than 2 years then the player may not be able to play back burned DVDs properly and that the client accepts responsibility for ensuring DVD player(s) are current to avoid any compatibility issues. I am sure there are others out there who have the same problem. By the way, my Panasonic works great so I wish all clients had a Panasonic DVD player - but that won't ever happen of course. I could go out and up my price to cover a new DVD player, like an Apex, which I understand plays back practically everything. Unfortunately, I can't purchase DVD players for both parents... Thanks for the feedback. Tom H.
I am very interested in seeing what happens when the label is removed from these dvds. I have the same problem with my own. I have a 2x Lite-On DVD +/- R/RW recorder. I use the ATI TV program to capture my video directly to mp2 and I use Sonic MyDVD to burn the disks. They all have full labels on them. They played well at first, but lately they play then stop. Even on my laptop it is difficult to coax the dvd all of the way through a chapter. Is it possible that the encoding of this dvd is flawed due to craptastic software? I am left scratching my head on this one.
Have the labels started coming off? The DVDs could now be warped for whatever reason. I recommend you copy a DVD over to a better quality one such as Verbatim, Pioneer, Imation or Taiyo Yuden. I recommend you download KProbe2 and check out a DVD with a label on your Lite-On drive. After you copy that DVD over to a better quality DVD (use DVD Shrink or similar), I recommend running KProbe2 on the new DVD and compare its transfer rate with the old DVD's transfer rate. Tom H.
I used to use labels until I found out that was the root of most of the problems that I was having. Experimentally, I burned a disc and ran K Probe on it. Then I put a label on it and ran K Probe again. The PI errors were probably 4 or 5 times as high. I haven't used a label since. I now use printable DVDs and print on them with an Epson R300. The ink doesn't seem to cause any problem that I can detect. The only reason I selected an R300 over an R200 was that the R300 was all there was then. I have used the R200 since and it works identically to the R300. Incidentally, the R200 is just under $80 at Sam's Club now.
