Are We/I Taking This Too Seriously?

Blank Media
#1

With out going into much detail if that’s possible; I wonder if I should really be concerned about poor scans with the following listed media if the media is consistently playable on multiple machines. For example: I have three burners. One I have issues with and haven’t had the time to figure it out. The other two like Verbatim very, very much. They’re also crazy about Maxall print-to-the-hub CMC MAG M01’s. This according to NeroDisc Speed. The last stack of Verbatims I got scan very well when burned @ 16x (and slower speeds, too). Next are the Maxall CMC’s @ 6x. Then it’s TYG02’s @ 4x. Last but not least is TYG03’s (Watershields) @ 6 or 8x But, only one of drives likes the Watershields. Let’s start with the Watershield’s. Compared to the Verbatims they score poorly on one drive and fail miserably on the other. To keep it simple; the Verbatims score a consistent 93 to 95. Same with the Maxall CMC’s. The Watershields are in the low to mid 70’s on the one drive. Sometimes they’ll surprise me and hit as high as 90 now and again. I don’t even use them anymore in the other drive. The TYG02’s are better than the Watershields, but not much. ALL, discs play perfectly in my cheap Coby player and my finicky Samsung set top player/recorder. And, when I share with friends and family they report no problems either. I want to keep it simple. I love printing on Watershields. The Verbatims are not printable, but they make real pretty scans. (Just a side note: I’ve never had printable Verbatims scan as pretty as these.) Oh yeah, I forgot. I have Maxall print-to-the-hub MIJ’s, too. They score a lot like the TYG02’s.

Ok. So here’s the deal; I’d just as soon use the Watershields for printing and that’s it! And, keep the Verb’s around when I want to save a few quarters. This dilemma is not easy for me since I’m obsessive/compulsive. Any, thoughts you might share will be welcome and appreciated.

#2

If it plays on your standalones with no problems, TRTs well on your drives, and has good longevity then you’re golden. :smiley: Scans are to be taken with a grain of salt, and results from different burners/scanners vary greatly. The other gurus may help you with the low disc quality score if you provide them with your drive details.

I’d trust any media that’s MIJ, and any Verbatim (MIJ/MIT/MII) everytime (provided that I’ve checked which writer it’s most compatible with). If Maxell M01s work well for you then that’s terrific. Homemade scans are somewhat inaccurate when used with some writers but provide a good benchmark for a disc’s state at a certain time (burned on a certain drive) and as comparison for a disc’s degradation over time. I’ve used thousands of Verbs (mostly MIT if it matters - best availability for me), and hundreds of M01s (though some writers don’t like it much, it plays well nevertheless), but no TY DVDs (but many can attest to its quality here in the forum). There’s more to life than scanning discs, don’t sweat the small stuff. :wink: I’d rather be enjoying what I’ve burned (or making money out of it) than waste time checking every disc after burning – that’s the beauty of quality media, it makes you enjoy more out of life. :bigsmile:

If it’ll make you sleep better at night, find a buddy with a good scanning drive to check if it’s just a scanning issue (and it’s all your drive’s fault for causing the low quality score – bad, bad drive :cop:). I’m pretty sure BenQ and LiteOn drives will do a good job at that. :slight_smile:

#3

Scans are not for determining absolute quality, they are for determining relative quality. As long as the scans aren’t completely out of whack, most media should work fine. The only people who take it too seriously are newbies who don’t understand how to properly contextualize and evaluate overall media quality, which also includes things like bonding, reflectivity, readability, and playability.

#4

Scans are not for determining absolute quality, they are for determining relative quality. As long as the scans aren’t completely out of whack, most media should work fine. The only people who take it too seriously are newbies who don’t understand how to properly contextualize and evaluate overall media quality, which also includes things like bonding, reflectivity, readability, and playability.

very nice explanation negritude :smiley:

The only people who take it too seriously are newbies

or those of us who just take it too seriously :doh:

i wasn’t around for the G05 debacle but i’ve read plenty about it. :bigsmile: this was definitely one situation where initial scans were no indication of quality. :wink:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f33/my-ritek-g05-scans-very-bad-deterioration-143715/

#5

[QUOTE=negritude;2122067]The only people who take it too seriously are newbies who don’t understand how to properly contextualize and evaluate overall media quality…[/QUOTE]
Ouch! I’ll be back.

#6

I’ve had burnt DVD’s that still play fairly well on my stand alone player even after their scans have very significantly degraded. So for me playability is not that good of a test.

I use scans for two main reasons.

  1. I often scan newly burnt discs to get an idea of how well my burner likes the media. It also helps keep track of whether the quality of the new batches of media I’m buying is staying consistent or declining etc.

2 I like to do scan old media from time to time (often a kind of random sample from my collection) to see if they’re staying good or degrading. This was very valuable in helping me avert disaster when for example all my Ritek G05’s started turning to crap. For some reason my stand-alone player just loved those riteks and it continued to play them well even when their PIE/PIF levels were going through the roof. Eventually though they did stop playing and by the time they did there was no way to re-copy them without the dreaded CRC errors. So yeah, finding the degrading batches early from doing scan saved me from losing lots of material.