In case you were wondering what happens when you use cheap media

Living Room Bargain Basement
#1

you do what I’m doing right now and have to dig out all your originals and re-burn.

I’m kicking myself for not researching when I first started burning dvds. so far I’ve located 24 memorex (philips.C16) discs that no longer work from just a few months ago. I’m really hoping that i only had a spindle of 25 to start out with and I don’t have 26 more of these crappy backups hanging around.

i got the 100 pack of imation made in india (the media code slips my mind at the moment MBIPG101 yadda yadda) last week and a couple 50 packs of sony YUDEN000T02’s today so I should be all set. both seem to do well quality-wise.

I’m really hoping some of these memorex are still readable in my burner so I don’t have to dig my originals out from boxes of stuff (I recently moved).

moral of the story: quality media can be inexpensive with the right deals, but cheap media is just cheap media.

i know this is only very indirectly and loosely related to bargains, but I’m frustrated and I needed to rant.

#2

Right on

#3

Yo reasonsnotrules-

You are SO correct-

The great thing about the bargain basement forum is the members looking out for and posting good deals on a variety of medias and componants-

Mike

#4

Yea, I agree. This really is the place to discuss how good or bad a media is, what media codes certain brands and how well they work with certain brands. It’s a good reminder to stay away from crapy media that is on sale. People can find what media is on sale and find out how good it is all in one place. What could be beter?

#5

If the %$#@!@#$ NY Giants had won and the @#$%##%* Washington Redskins had lost… that’s what could have been better :wink:

#6

The Redskins DID lose, to Chrissy Simms no less :frowning: I don’t know how the Giants could lose at home to those Minnesota Assclowns though… :sad:

We aren’t getting off of the subject of this thread or forum, are we? :bigsmile:

#7

So, is the Taiyo Yuden brand still the most favored at this time?

#8

For me it is. Ritek were once good - but no more. Verbatim are good enough if Yuden can not be found. Also I would always take unbranded Taiyo Yuden over branded. I used to be happy with Fuji yudens until I tried unbranded and even though the price is 2 to 3 times greater than some I still think in the long run Yuden000 T02 are not expensive.

#9

Absolutely and positively YES. I also have a bunch of the Verb MCC004’s and they don’t even come close to my www.rima.com purchased T02’s. NOTHING does. The Verbs are great as, “Buddy disks,” but all my archives reside on TY.

[FOREST GUMP VOICE]

That’s all I got to say about that.

[/FOREST GUMP VOICE]

:smiley:

JD

#10

newsflash: i found 27 memorex discs. This means i have 23 more hiding somewhere :frowning:

I also have a couple verbs that none of my drives will even recognize. at least the memorex show up in the drive even if I can’t get the files off of them.

#11

Reminds me of a Ritek story not long ago, I feel for ya brother. I only use TY for archiving now days. Belive it or not, I have had good luck with CMC MAG E01 when it comes to longevity, which in my opinion is still second to MCC for short term use.

Once again, sorry to hear of your misfortune.

#12

*sister.

but there’s no way you could have known that haha.

yeah, this SUCKS. I’ve managed to round up all the memorex i can find. some of them are salvageable, but I’m re-backing them up anyway just in case.

#13

which could be because cmc and prodisc actually make most mcc media

#14

I am sorry about that. My bad!!! :bow:

#15

I’m not defending Memorex in the least, 75% of my backed up DVD’s are on Taiyo Yuden.

Question for reasonsnotrules, just curious on how these disks are stored and if that has any bearing on your high failure rate.

#16

that’s a valid question.

they’re in standard dvd boxes upright on the shelf above my computer. no stacking in spindles or strewn about my room. i print covers and put all of my backups in cases so they’re well taken care of. most of them were used only once to be sure they worked after i burned them.

one thing i did think of that may have been a contributing factor was the speed at which they were burned. maybe i was too hasty in saying that memorex media is crap (or at the very least PHILPS.C16 is crap), but it was enough of an experience for me to stay away from them in the future.

being new to burning, i thought to myself “i have a 16x burner, this is 16x media, so i’ll burn it at 16x.” not an illogical thought, but I’ve since found that even with TY media if i burn my 8x discs at 6x or even 4x sometimes i get the cleanest burns (well as far as i can tell from my transfer rate tests)

maybe i wouldn’t be in this mess had i burned them at 12x…but i tend to doubt it.

this could have been a result of me being new to burning and too eager to get started without really knowing what i was doing. it’s amazing how much i’ve learned and how fast i’ve learned it from this forum.

i still stand by the fact that philips.c16 is media that doesn’t cooperate with my burner and that memorex media in general is too much of a crap shoot to risk buying something that sucks when with minimal researching you can find sony or Fuji TYs in almost any store that also carries memorex, so why take the chance.

#17

Yo-

My Granddaddy - Sportfish - used to say - ‘Crap Media = Crap Burns - Good Media = Good Burns’

Mike

#18

@reasonsnotrules,

Just my opinion and nothing more.
I don’t think you were hasty in saying that Memorex is crap, many people before you and many after will make that statement. It’s a crap shoot and you’ll never know what your getting until you get it home and identify it. Then to return it, you have to drive back to the store wasting expensive fuel, and your time. Much easier to buy quality in the first place, you know what you’re getting and won’t have to burn a second time.

DVD media is sensitive to sunlight, heat, and humidity. I even read you should shield it from flourescent lighting since it transmits UV rays, I’m really not sure of that though but wanted to mention. I don’t think it’s wise to store them on a shelf above your computer, as we know computers expel heat and heat rises.

As far as burning speeds go, IMHO, I think it’s best to burn at the manufacturers rated maximum speed or 1 speed below for best results. Burning too slow may actually be worse. Yoo have to experiment since burners are different, some prefer + over - or reverse, some like particular media over others. Best advice is buy only quality see what gives you the best burns at a given speed, then stay with that recipe and you will spend less time and effort creating good backup copies.

#19

Here is something to think about. I have been following a few of the discusssions about disks deteriorating because I wonder why a disk that I have used will last a long time, yet the same disk with the same dye will not last at all for others. Substantial testing has been done with printer inks as far as what makes them deteriorate. I know very little about disk dyes, so I wouldn’t even begin to assume that the same principles apply. Still, what if they do (just therorizing here). The one thing that can make printer ink fade/deteriorate substantially faster than any other influence, is gas fading. Gas fading can make prints that should last years fade noticably in weeks. There is an entire science behind your beter photo papers to deal with the effects of gas (check out the diffrence between nanoporus and swellable polymere photo papers).
I had originally thought that it couldn’t be the case, because disks are sealed too well. Listening to recent discussions though, it would seem that disks are very suseptable to humidity. If they are suseptable to humidity, that means they are not sealed (the dye layer that is). While gas fading is not fully understood and cannot be recreated under scientific conditions (completlly that is), it is well known that it can kill prints very fast, and some aspects of it can be recreated. Anything that uses toner (laser printers, copy machines etc. have been established to contribute to gas fading). Could gas fading be an issue with dvd’s???
Here is a simple test. Burn two dvd’s with the same content, on the same burner, on the same day. scan both for errors and record the scans. Place one double sealed in clear zip lock bags, the other open to the air. Place both near a machine that uses toner (copy machine, laser printer), that is used continiouslly through out the day. Give it a week or two (when this was done with printed photos, a week or two showed very noticable diffrence), then error scan again. It would be interesting to see what happens. I unfortunatlly do not have access to a toner using device that is used constantlly like in an office or I would have tried myself. I wouldn’t think that a home laser printer would work as use might be limited. It might be interesting to see the results?

#20

I have cheep media that worked well and good media at a cheep price that worked just OK. Much depends on the burner, player and the media. I like TY media best but open for other options as I have had good burns from others. Most of my problems were with Memorex DVD+RWs and +Rs. Many others work fine for me: hp, CMC, Staples, Maxell…
If you get a good media use it. Just wish I could try a disc or 2 before making an order of 50 or more. The basic thing is will your backups play well on every DVD player you have other tests are of little value, after all backups are for your use.