Got my first DVD burner several days ago (Pioneer DVR-109) and a few TDK DVD+R DL from Fry's to try it out. After a great deal of research on several web sites and a few failed trials, I was finally able to make a successful DL backup using only DVD Decryptor and ISO read/write modes that played on both of my DVD players. The copy was perfect as far as I could tell except for what I assume from reading another thread was a "skip" or pause for a second or two at what I assume to be the "layer break". At about $5 a disk, I was hoping for a perfect 1:1 copy. Is this skip to be expected and accepted ? Is there a way to make a DL backup without this "skip"? P.S. I would like to thank the administrators of this website and contributors for the wealth of information found here. The guides are incredibly well written, too.
You used the right programme, DVD Decryptor in ISO read/write modes, to avoid getting the pause at the layer break. So I doubt that it is a problem with that. Could be ccompatibility with the disc. The most reliable DL disc so far has been the Verbatim. What speed did you burn at?
Hi marmot, welcome to aD, papabois is correct. Issues have been noted with Memorex and TDK, both made by Ritek with their G01 dye and app. I have had a perfect 33 and 1/3% failure rate across the board with that mfgred disc and always at approx the 47% to 49% of the way through the disc where one would expect the layer break to be. I've had excellent results with Verbatim and a 98% success rate with the RiData DL discs. (FYI, the RiData DL disc is also a Ritek G01 dye / app as well. Go Figure ?) Dual-layered (DL) discs have been out for just over a year and, the cost has gone way down from $18.00ea (USD) to slightly less than $5.00ea. (USD) still, because of the cost, many of us haven't used that many different DL's to be able to form an opinion Recently however I was given 2, 3-packs of Memorex DL discs so I thought I'd try them out ~ ~ (Why, Ooohhh why, do pple always buy Memorex for gifts ?) Ooohhh well, I can hear it now, "WoW, ScubaPete is going on a Memorex bashing kick again." With the cost of dual-layered discs today I wish I had something positive to add, and then again, most everyone was expecting something negative, Imagine that ? I'm sorry to tell you this BUT, you're correct-a-mundo, . . . . . Well, I fired up my trusty Pioneer 109 and prepared to do battle, my brand new DL Memorex in one hand along with my favorite Verbatim DL in the other, just in case a comparison was needed. What are the rules ? Easy enough, all DVD's were in a VOB format, on my HD in a VIDEO_TS folder, ready to go. Using my trusty DVD Shrink with the Target DVD Size set to DVD-9 or 8124MB the backup set to burn with Nero. (For those taking notes, I recommend setting your "DVD Target Size" for DVD-9's at "Custom" and type in 7890MB. I'm ready, let's do it, . . . . . First on deck in the starting position: The Exorcist, ~ The Beginning (Which was burned without gremlin to be found giving me a perfect 1:1 copy) Pearl Harbor ~ (Again, no bombs or anti-disc devices to stop me from getting another 1:1 copy - 2 in a row, should I should buy a lotto ticket ? Alien Vs. Predator ~ (Run for the hills, I'm the man with the golden arm, Memorex delivered another good backup, God is in his Heaven and all is right with the world.) My next project was to burn was the full (flipper) version of that classic, Goodfellows. About 14GB plus a bit between both sides. Could I have gone too far ? ~ at approx 47% my Pioneer spit out "Goodfellows" about the same point as the bartender was shot dead during a Wise-guy poker party. Could it be a problem burning violence ? I put both halves on my HD and then joined them together using DVD2One ~ it should work, right ? I tried the exact same task with a trusty Verbatim DL in hand and clicked, "OK". it burned flawlessly. Perhaps a fluke ? (No. not the fishy kind, the kind that seems more quirky Let's do one I had on my shelf for awhile, Steven King's, Rose Red, a 2-disc TV Special presentation. Again, close to the same size as Goodfellows. Once again, Memorex shut down about where I would expect the second layer transition to begin. So, once again, I inserted a Verbatim and once more, I was rewarded with a picture perfect burn from beginning to end. What's up with this ? What is the problem with Memorex ? Again, let's go back to the non-compression, 1:1 backups. For my last Memorex I chose to backup National Treasure, again from my HD. Finally, Memorex went from start to finish without a burp. Could it be it has trouble with a compressed backup ? No, that's ridiculous, coincidence at the most. Memorex is merely demonstrating its well-deserved reputation, its inconsistent quality. Out of the 2, 3-packs, I got 4 good burns and 2, yes 2, very, very expensive coasters. Just for the record, both DL discs failed at the 47% - 49% mark of burning process. Both quit around the layer break transition. (What's up with that ?) . A 3-pack of Memorex DL discs costs about $15.99 (USD) including 6% sales tax) Man am I glad it wasn't my $$$$. Though the prices have dropped in the year since DL became available, this stuff is still too expensive to gamble with OR to suffer that high a failure rate. In case you didn't do the math, though the discs are less $5.00ea. (USD), it still comes out to be a 33% failure rate costing about $10.60 (USD) for both discs. One word for that, it's UNACCEPTABLE ! Yes, it's only 6-discs ~ not much of a test but then, I'm not made of money. How many $10.00 bills can you afford to waste ? As I said, this is more of my opinion than a test of any substance However, I would like to state that I've burned over 70 DL discs to date. Not counting the past 2 evenings. My 2-cents, forget Memorex for either regular OR DL discs. They just can't seem to get the media thing right. Sorry, but IMHO, they just aren't worth it !! Others I've used are: Verbatim ~ I've used about 70 so far and I think they're excellent !! RiData ~ They've burned well also, though I have gone through less than 25, I haven't had a dud to date and they read the same as the Memorex. Go Figure, Huh ? and That's my 2-cents Some recent updates ~ Since the post above, I have gone through 3 additional packs of Memorex, from the same person no less, I truly LOVE this guy and appreciate his generosity, BUT his taste, or lack thereof, in media gifts is incredulous ! ~ Continuing on, ~ Even with this "re-supply" of virgin Memorex, I've still had exactly the same results. Only 6 out of 9 have presented me with bouncing baby backups. My DL coaster stack has grown to a total of 5 Memorex. 5 Memorex ? You have GOT to be kidding ! That's more than $25.00 (USD). That is a 33 and 1/3% failure rate ! I don't know anybody that can afford to piss that much away, not me, that's for sure. That's a whole week of super-sized lunches at Mickie "D's"! To be perfectly honest, I did have 1 coaster from the RiData I used but Verbatim hasn't presented me with any at all. In all fairness to Memorex, when it comes to single-sided Memorex and other such discs of inferior quality, I council pple to reduce their burn speed down to 2.4X. I haven't attempted to reduce the burn speed of Memorex to 1X BUT it sure can't hurt to try iffin' you're stuck with some of those "scum-suckin'," "bottom-feeding" Memorex DL DVD's. (I don't reckon I have to further spell out my personal opinion of Memorex. Lo[) What have I learned ? I found a nice way to tell my friend to not buy me Memorex anymore. I told him my PC didn't like them. They broke the drive tray because of their excessive weight. (I always blame the bad things on my PC, . . . . unfortunately, my brain doesn't always keep up with my imagination.) (Ooopps, Lol) To date, I have honestly lost count of the number of Verbatim's I've used BUT it has been well over the 150 mark and not a bad one in the bunch. The RiData, much, much less, maybe 30 to 35 of them with just the 1 disc that came up dry. That's an unofficial 98% success rate, plenty good enough for me. As for me ? I'll stick to my Verbatims and ask that any Memorex be returned. It's just not worth it to me. I've heard pple say they like the way Memorex burns and they haven't had a problem. Well, it would seem to me, that I've had enough problems for several pple and when I stop burning them, watch out ! Them's that are buying'em now will now be getting the coasters I've been getting for them all along. "Eat your own bad discs." I say, I'm tired of getting all the coasters that other pple deserve. I just got the "LightScribe" thing running and pple like the way they look. They like it to the extent that the DL discs aren't what they want their discs backed up on. "Hey ScubaPete, what are those cool discs I sea there ? Can you backup my kid's movies on those ?" They ask. "Tis no problemo`," I'll reply. They're made by Verbatim so I know how they'll burn. But then, "LightScribe meets the ScubaPete", well, that's another story . . . . On a related topic I was asked, "I've got this neato DVD DL burner BUT the DL discs are so expensive, what should I use them to burn ?" And my answer to this was; I suggest using DL discs for "flippers" OR 2-disc DVD's. With the excellent programs we have today, it makes the job of putting a DVD-9 onto a DVD-5 not only possible but easy. It allows us to do it without any discernable loss of quality. I have also put over 6 hours of DVD quality movies on a DL disc without a hitch. Yes, I know, it was advertised as being able to do that BUT I don't trust advertisements, they lie ! So, for Dual Layered DVD recordings, on those $5.00 + a piece DL DVD's, I suggest you use them for your 2-disc "Flipper" DVD's, and your multi-DVD discs for those long car trips. It's just so much easier to run movie after movie rather than shift through a stack of DVD's in a moving vehicle, all the while trying to keep them from becoming scratched. Among my other trials, I've placed 6, 2-hour + movies on a single DL disc and I must say, yet again, I was delighted with the results. The first time I did it, I used DVD2One in the "Join", Non-Seamless - Put in the next titleset Mode. The second time, I used my trusty Nero Recode2. I did not use DVD Shrink as I was adding movies together and wanted to keep the menus. Other than that, DVD Shrink X2 could be used without a problem. Again, as always, I suggest the Deep Analysis and Maximum Sharpness - with Recode2 I used the Advanced Analysis and Recodes "High quality Mode" (slow encoding) for the best results. Again, my results were nothing short of outstanding. My final thought, I don't know why, other than out of just plain habit, BUT I set my DVD-9 Size to "Custom", 7890MB will it protect the edge of the disc ? I honestly don't know. Of course setting your burn speed to 4X or lower is now automatically taken care of for you so, for some things I'm thankful. At least I won't have to preach to all those Newbies, to whom speed is the only thing, errors be damned, the benefits of burning at a reasonable speed. Thank you Burning Gods, wherever you are. . . . ) Again, that's my 2-cents ~ Cheers, Pete
Thank you for the fast responce. I hadn't known for certain that the pause or skip was not an expected result. Sounds like write speed or media might be an issue. I had left DVD Decryptor set to the default which is MAX, so I don't really know which speed it used for certain (maybe 4 ?). But I will hard set it to the media description of 2.4 or lower to be safe with this next burn. I also hadn't realized that the TDK media was frowned on (really glad I didn't grab the memorex crap at $3.33 each), so I will switch to verbatim, which I found at newegg for $5 each and Rima.com for $4.40 each. Will let you know how the next burn goes . . .
Reduced burning speeds to 4x for DVD-R and 2x for the DL and now get perfect burns. Have some Verbatim on order. Have found that good material for the original is also important and cleaning the disks first is very worthwhile. Tried my first DVD with Widescreen on one side and Full screen on the other - the kind you can flip over and play either side. Took a few tries before the PC drives would recognize this disk, but I was eventually successful. Thanks for the help.
