My only comment is that I would not be happy making backups that JUST play in my standalone players - cause one day that player is going to be a paperweight, drift anchor, or trash. You'd better hope your new player(s) play your old backups (in many cases this is hundreds of DVD's you've backed up). Yes you could pull your original DVD out of storage and make another copy, but what about all the money you paid for the blank media that no longer plays in your new player(s)?? I'd rather spend the money up front to guarantee my future is full of old backups that work!
Well, I'll just do the same thing I did when I bought this DVD player: I took a few DVD's to the store where I bought it, and asked if I could test if they worked... My other DVD-player strangely has problems with playing back original DVD's, so "let's go rent a movie" wasn't a good idea anymore.
im sorry to hear of your compatibility problems on your dvd player, that really sucks~ the few dvd player stand alones that can't read genuine TYs burned correctly, i wouldn't even bother with them. if it really can't play the best of the best, what good is it for future compatibility? it's not even worth trying the crappola media then... but, to have a stand alone dvd player not play ORIGINAL pressed dvds...that is a new one i have yet to experience...may i ask what kind it is? that is truly unusual. good luck in getting a more compatible one, have a good one.
That crappy player was a Welltech (not-so-well-tech if you ask me) 40954 / HTDVD02.. a very cheap, and portable one (came in handy a few times) about the size of a discman... My new Pioneer DV-470 doesn't have problems playing originals nor Taiyo Yudens. But it is a bit picky with my old Platinum's (they're full of PIE's and PIF's), where the Welltech was not as much... So now, I'm rewriting my Platinum's to TY. Those Platinums are so full of errors, I wonder how any stand-alone is able to read them. Appearantly the welltech could, so that makes it all even more confusing :s
I have seen with my own eyes a cheap ($50) player play crappy burns, where my better quality Sony players couldn't. That was a dark period in my life when I was using Memorex coasters. You see, I thought these were actually blank media - but they were nothing more than shiny plastic. Oh the money I wasted!! Since my eyes were opened last year and TY came into my life, these are all old scars - the healing is complete. I had a Toshiba that would not play many of the "newer" DVD's - I called Toshiba and they had me ship it to them and they fixed it and shipped it back for free. Recently I got a letter about a class action suit against Toshiba for producing players that did not meet the required standards. If you have a player that doesn't play new DVDs, try and get it fixed (for FREE of course) - you should not have to put up with that! I have three single stand-alones, two jukeboxes (200 and 400), three laptops, and three PC players, and two Xbox's that play my backups. And I just ordered a 140 hr TiVo DVR with DVD player and recorder. I wouldn't risk using anything but the best. Let's be clear here - the best does not mean the most expensive. I pay $.40 or less per disc for my TY's. The Sony 8x TY's are my 1st choice, but I can live with the silver coated TY's from Rima.com I'm rambling - sorry!
It's quite a shame so much crappy stuff is produced, people are thinking "let's take the cheap ones, they 'look' alright" but in the end these 'cheap' discs are more expensive. I bought about 1000 That's Write CDR's several years ago (not all at once off course), and now only about 5 of them (honestly, I think even less) still have a top layer that didn't peel itself off!! I had to rewrite them over and over again, and I lost a lot due to reading failures too. The first 50 I bought (philips branded TY's) are all still perfect!!! I also bought a lot of other brands of CDR's back in the days, but not one of those brands that didn't have a few discs dying on me. That's why I'm sticking with the TY's... And for the stand-alone players... if I were to be the head of a company making and selling these DVD players, I would be ashamed of selling ANY of the players that are currently available at the shops, they all suck!!! (I've done some research on the net) It just seems to have become impossible to produce anything of quality, cause everone seems to like it cheap. My Sanyo TV is 15 years old, never ever have I had a problem with it, and I use it about 4 hours a day, every day... my AKAI stereo... 12 years old, same story (except the laser is dying now... up to 5 hours of listening to music every day), but when I take a look at the newer crap my friends bought... I just get really sad: things that aren't even a full year in use and already having problems!! Had the unfontunate experience myself a few times (a portable mp3-player, lasting about 6 monts, 2 videos lasting just a bit longer than a year...) what is this world coming to... think I'll have to start my own electronic-whatchamightcallit-producing-thingy :s went a bit off-topic there, sorry... now THAT's rambling on
Remember when it was cool to buy a "reference standard" DVD player!? It was worth the bucks to buy a quality player - now they want all players to be around $100. I have a 200 DVD jukebox that is over six years old, it has all the bells and whistles and plays burned media. My new 400 jukebox plays them as well, but it is missing several important bells! The bells only come with the high-end model that has to be bought at specialty stores - almost twice the price! Now it looks like Sony might be making the same move with its 8x media supplier. The were using TY's (made in Japan) and now it appears more and more are the Sony version (made in Taiwan). If you like TY's and you like the smooth white (eggshell) coated discs sold by Sony - get as many as you can now! Fry's has them and so does CompUSA. Make sure they say "Made in Japan"!!!!!
CompUSA? yiiikes- 80+ cents a piece for DVDr's? When I started getting into DVDs more a few years back, ordering region 2 and 3 dvd's from overseas, I found out just how cool my newer JVC dvd player wasn't! Can't region hack it, doesen't convert PAL to NTSC, picky about which discs it will play... My life changed when I got hipped to the then-regularily $60.00 daewoo s150 model, which soon went on clearance at sam's club for $40.00... Imagine my suprise when it outperformed that $200 JVC from bestbuy. Region Free'd, plays PAL just fine, never mind everything else that you can throw at it... You all can KEEP your high end 'limited' models, thanks! lol
I was saying I didn't buy the high-end Sony, since it was twice the price. I like good stuff, but not that much. However, I may need to buy that one when I upgrade my media room. I use [bold]DVD Profiler[/bold] to manage my DVD collection and [bold]Movies![/bold] software to run the 200 DVD jukebox - I just click on the DVD Cover image of the movie I want and the program finds the movie and plays it. It uses a connection on the back of the player to issue the commands, but the 400 jukebox I have is missing that input. If you don't have DVD Profiler you should consider it!! I run two versions - one for each jukebox. http://www.intervocative.com/Downloads.aspx The Sony TY's at CompUSA go on sale about every 8 weeks (buy one get one free). That's the only time I buy them since they are $.40 a piece. Even at $.80 they would be worth it because every single last one is flawless. I could have tiled my theater with the Memorex coasters I created over the last two years. Happy burning!
i just came across this thread, and a couple others and felt moved to create my first post. When i started out burning i used what were touted as TY disks. How wrong i was - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/193298
Yes, I too have a so called JVC that was suppose to play everything. Shoot I went and bought a cheap Cyberhome at $36 and it out performs that JVC i say the same thing keep your high and mighty expensive playes give me a cheapy. LOL
i bought 2 cyberhome ch-400 (fairly) cheapy dvd players. can't get 'em for love nor money now, which p****es me off as they're absolutely brilliant machines.. I feel sorry for ppl who spend 100s of pounds/dollars for players that are no better/or worse than cheapy players
cheers but i'm in the UK. i'm happy enough as long as my 2 cyberhome's keep going (no mean feat as i use them every day)
Gotta throw my 2 cents in here. I am now working on my third 100 shrink rapped 'Value Pack' of TY01's from Supermedia.com. They all tested out the same when I tested on Nero. I now have two players. A relatively expensive player/burner: Zenith and a cheapie player: Kenwood. The first 100 pack of TY's burned and played almost flawlessly. I believe I had 2 'failures' which wouldn't play on my Zenith which was all I had at the time. These 'failures' did play on other people's stand-alones. Anyway, I started looking for a cheaper player because of all the feedback I read saying than in many cases, they were far less picky than expensive players. The Kenwood will play ANYTHING and I do mean ANYTHING. The second 100 pack of TY's sucked by comparison to the first one. I had to use the Kenwood to view at least 50% of them......same codes on these discs as the first 100. The more expensive player just would not play them. I am now well into the third 100 pack and have not had to use the Kenwood to view any of them...again same codes and 'value pack' on the wrapping. IMO, you can get a bad or no-so-good batch even from Taiyo Yuden, based on the above experience. I will continue with this brand and see how future back ups go. I would definitely recommend Supermedia.com to anyone. They are the best, IMO. Len
My TY's from Supermediastore.com are also working perfectly. I am in my second 50 pack of my first 100. I use these to back up movies I don't watch as often. I still like the Sony TY's for my favorite movies (just a personal thing). Circuit City has the Sony TY discs on sale this week for $17.88 per 50 pack. Make sure they say "Made in Japan". I stripped the shelves clean at my local store. Expensive players offer features that many inexpensive players do not - if you don't want these features, then buy the cheapest player that plays your media. In the past you had to buy more expensive versions if you wanted DTS decoding, MP3 playing, DVD+R/-R, DVD+RW/-RW, etc. Today cheaper players support many of these formats. Also consider - how many outputs do you need, what types of outputs do you need, do you want up-conversion, 3-2 pull-down, zoom, progressive scan, multi-brand control remote, and such. Can you live with artifacts? Many people don't care about these things, and many do. I guess that's why they make high-end, low-end, and everything in between.
I'm sure that's true, but that's still no reason certain more expensive players don't play some written DVD's that cheap ones WILL play.
