DVD DL disk burn issues

[OpticAl_Yankee]

Hi,

Probably some three years ago I purchased a lot of Ridata 8x DVD+r DL blanks. In the past year I have had an increasing number of burn failures on these disk. Now, the drives that I have been attempting to burn on are also aged and have seen lots of burns.

So my question is two fold.

Is it possible that these blanks have gone bad in storage? I do not see how that could be - so thought I would post to the experts here.

Conversely, is it possible that the drives have worked past their useful life? I do not run head cleaning as often as the cleaner manufacturers would have me do. Rather, my practice has been to clean heads after a burn failure, then reburn. That practice has worked well in the past - now a clean seems to be ineffectual.

Part of the reason I wonder about the media itself is that I have experienced essentially the same burn issue on a brand new Blu-Ray burner. So what should I conclude?

Thanks!

[Kerry56]

Welcome to the forums Optical Yankee.

The Ridata DL discs are not well regarded in these forums. We’ve seen many failures from double layer discs over the years, and the only ones that we recommend are the ones using Mitsubishi dyes and the 2P manufacturing process. These are most commonly found under the [B]Verbatim[/B] brand. There are two varieties, the slower ones commonly rated at 2.4-6x using the MKM 001 mid code, and the faster ones rated 8x which use the MKM 003 mid code.

Your Ridata discs are made using the inverse stack method. Some will argue that this method is not inherently inferior, but real world results over the course of the last seven or eight years don’t support that.

So it is entirely possible that these discs have slipped from barely useable to unwriteable, even though they were not burned.

My advice is to examine all of the Ridata discs that you have burned and run a TRT scan on them using Nero CD/DVD Speed. If you see a jagged drop in the reading speed graph, you’ll know that they are not holding up well.

If you wish to burn more DL discs, I strongly advise using Verbatim discs. But even using the very best available, they are still too inconsistent for me. I have switched to blu ray for larger files.

And that opens a new can of worms…reliable blu ray discs. Smart-blu discs made by FTI and sold at mediamegamall are one good choice. Panasonic discs are another if you can afford them.

[OpticAl_Yankee]

Thanks for the thoughts Kerry. At the time that I bought these there were not a lot of options for DL disks out there if memory serves. I was beginning to wonder if it would be the disks themselves or - - - It seems to me that the disks would be the issue from your observations.

Am I correct when I assume that material that I have already burned to Ridata are at risk for data loss? Or is it only the recording process that fails on this media?

Just getting my feet wet with Blu-Ray burning so appreciate your comments there as well. All of this conversation brings to mind very early discussions about optical media of any kind. At that time the argument was that there was no way that any data recorded to optical media would have the life that manufacturers were promoting. I would have no problem reburning material at some period since burning if that was the way to ensure continuing access. Then - how long is the data safe; or when do I need to reburn to ensure data survival?

[Kerry56]

The Ridata discs are not worth the risk of burning any more of them. So you really should just discard them.

And yes, the data on the ones you have already burned are at risk. Which is why I advised testing them with CD/DVD Speed using the TRT scan that any.dvd burner can run. With a DL disc, you should see a smooth graph like this one:

You might see a slight drop in reading speed at the top of the arc in these TRT scans, which is not unusual as this is the layer break position.

There is no way to tell how long individual discs will last for you. I have some cds that are well over a decade old with no deterioration. And I have some single layer dvds that are close to that age as well. Part of longevity depends on how well the media matches up with the firmware of the burner. Part depends on burning speed (I advise something less than top speed). And the last part of the equation is storage away from heat, sunlight and humidity.

But I haven’t always had such good results with DL media. Most of us around here do not recommend them for archival use.

And you need to be careful with blu ray also. I had some Memorex single layer BD-R discs that went completely unreadable in three years. They were made by Ritek (who also make Ridata discs). My oldest blu ray discs were sold under the Verbatim brand, and show no deterioration yet. But I would still recommend the FTI Falcon discs sold under the Smart-Blu brand or the Panasonic blu ray over most anything else.