after burning a dvd the other day i noticed that the inner section (about 1/4 of an inch) was a lighter purple than the rest of the disk. i burned a similar dvd with similar files after that and it was a uniform color throughout. those were my last 2 Memorex dvds.. i then switched to Sony, and the same thing... 1 was fine, and 1 had the slightly faded ring in the middle. things seem to be going fine as far as reading those files, but i'm wondering if this will be a problem in a year or two..
the MIT Sony media is pretty good stuff Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim is better . have you tryed doing a nero quality scan on the disc to see where you are at?
The rings are an indication of speed changes and/or changes in laser power the drive made while recording the disc. Those changes may be part of the drive firmware defined for those particular discs or may be due to the drive correcting what it interprets as a deficiency in power at the speed at which it was writing. Those areas may be perfectly fine or they may have a spike in errors. A scan can help determine if the error rate is uniform (although it cannot determine jitter variations at that point.)
my drive doesn't support disc quality, so that's all i could do. does this tell me anything about the actual integrity of the data? other than verifying that my eyes work and i'm not imagining the discoloration? back in the 1-200mb range (where i saw the fading), it was 3% good 1%damaged 96% bad i'm visiting my parents (and my old desktop) this weekend, so i might get some disc quality tests then.. HISTORY of trials MEMOREX most were fine last 2 i used seem to work fine, but have the faded center SONY first 2 had the faded center, (seem to) work fine next one was fine in color next 2 were coasters found a MEMOREX that i never used, tried that and it burned fine (maybe a bit of tiny fading in the very very center) software? dying burner? ideas?
The scan is not encouraging. The "damaged" areas mean that the drive is encountering errors and difficulty in reading those sections. That could be a problem of the drive, the disc, the recording, or the compatibility of disc/drive for the recording. If a different DVD drive can read those sections without a problem, then the Matsushita drive has a problem. I suspect, however, that because some discs work and others do not, it is the recording function of the drive that is most suspect. Try updating the firmware from version 1.5 to a more recent version if one is available, and then check again. Since both brands are showing inconsistent results, the evidence points to the item that does not vary--the recording drive.
I rarely see anything encouraging coming from users with Matshita drives...it might be time to invest in a nice external burner as slimline burners aren't the greatest to begin with.
thanks alot guys! what do you think about this one? LG GP08 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8990648&type=product&id=1218007087415 what is your opinion on usb powered drives, are they reliable for quality burns, or should i stick to one with a ac adapter?
