I bought a lot of ativa DL DVD+R discs yesterday that were on clearance from Office Depot. The movie files record onto the discs on my laptop just fine using Nero 9 or NTI CD & DVD Maker 7. The problem is that these discs only play and are readable on DVD recordable drives, they don't work on stand alone DVD players. It is as if the discs haven't been finalized(but they have been as far as I can tell). I have no problems at all with recording on single layer DVDs and them playing on regular DVD players or drives. I am new to DL DVDs, is there anything I can do to get these DL DVDs to work or do DL DVDs just not work on standalone DVD players??? The MID code for the discs are CMCMAG D03. I tried recording on another laptop with a different OS using different burning software and got the same results btw. Thanks for any help!
The results of using subpar media are quite evident. Most AD members will only use Verbatim DL disks which are made in Singapore. Other members, including myself will also use Ritek or the Office Depot brand (also Ritek). CMC-Mag is not considered to be the best choice for DL media.
I think you are right. I asked the guy at Office Depot about quality and he said that they are all pretty much the same! After reading on here and another forum, it is apparent to me that this is just not the case. At only $5.88 for a pack of ten, I thought that I was getting a steal and a half and bought five packs total! I think that I am going to try to return the 4 unopened packs. Just to confirm, "quality" DL DVDs will typically work on stand alone players, right? Thanks for letting me know!
Hi, see if nero will allow you to booktype/bitset the disc to dvd-rom (will only work on an unrecorded disc). If not try Imgburn (a free program). Booktyping to dvd-rom helps with compatibility issues on stand alone dvd players. Hope this helps, Jo
Jo is right, perhaps booktyping may help if your burner supports it, but don't get too optomistic about your chances of success.
After researching booktyping I do see the potential here to get the discs to work. Unfortunately I have been unable to adjust the driver, this may be because the firmware needs to be updated. It is a Liteon slimtype SSM-8515S (GRS6) and the newest firmware is a "S09". I'll try to update that in the morning and proceed from there..
Always remember that retail chain-store sales folks usually have minimal knowledge, and a lot of them are considered "skilled" if they can simply operate the cash register. At best, they will spout off dogma, myth or their own narrow personal experiences as a Joe Blow consumer. In other words, they tend to know little more than you do, although many of them pretend otherwise. When it comes to DVD+R DL media, there's Verbatim (Mitsubishi), and then there's everything else (crap).
One more thought, try burning the disk as slow as possible, another attempt at grasping at straws but at least worth a shot eh?
Well I upgraded the firmware for my recorder and was able to change it to record in DVD-Rom mode but have had limited success with the discs working in regular drives. When they do work they take several seconds for the discs to be recognized and even when a disc loads, it often doesnt work well. I can't adjust the recording speed(already at 2.3x anyways) so unless anyone else has any recommendations, I'll try to return the unopened discs tomorrow. They were on clearance but there's nothing on the back of the receipt that says clearance items can't be returned.
The CMC DVD+R DL discs I have tested proved to be as good as Verbatim DVD+R DL media. These media, however, were: 1) test samples from CMC and may not have represented production quality; 2) acceptable in only two of thirty plus DL drives I tested; and 3) incompatible with all the other DL drives. Verbatim sources their discs through a plant in Singapore that provides the most consistent quality and highest compatibility of all DL discs (not surprising since Verbatim's parent company developed DL recording). Ritek is second in terms of compatibility and first in terms of production volume, a fact that lends itself to greater consistency in production if QC and QA standards are tightly applied--as they are in Ritek's plants. The issue of compatibility is critical. It is one reason why many brands have been reluctant to move to the inverse stack process despite its better yields, improved output figures, and lower costs. The whole compatibility issue is one reason Taiyo Yuden has not offered its DL discs on the world market--few DL drives will recognize those discs, and Taiyo Yuden fears the wrath of those who shout "crap" whenever a complex technical issue disappoints their expectations.
Truer words have never been spoken, nor have they ever been chiselled into stone. Thanks for the technical reason why some disks don't work Joe. Never knew about reverse stacking.
As well they should. Consumers and businesses alike are fed up with technology companies and manufactures forcing obsolescence on otherwise-excellent products currently in use. And in this economy, something of this nature is completely unacceptable. The potentially lower price of DL media to the consumers will be fully offset by the price of needing new burners and/or DVD recorders. The only people who benefit here are the manufacturers of media and drives -- not consumers. And with the price of media already set at the expected price-point of $1-2 per disc, prices would probably not fall anyway. Worse than that, many technology manufacturers try to be sneaky with their consumers, giving them zero preparation for the incompatibilities to come. There's something to be learned from the USA DTV transition, with big fat "this won't work after this date" stickers on old products. We don't expect products to last forever, but asking that a new purchase last at least 4-5 years, before becoming "obsolete", is not at all unreasonable. I'd rather pay 25 or 50 cents more per DL disc, than suddenly be told all of my hardware is now "too old" for the blank discs being sold.
I returned the unopened packages of discs. I went through 9 discs total trying different things in an attempt to get them to work, thankfully they were cheap. After this experience I think that I will stay with burning single layer DVD-Rs. They seem to be much more compatible than DL and the quality doesn't appear to be any different than the originals after compressing. Well thanks for the help everyone!
