Vertabim MCC004 = Variable crap quality :(

[Mastakilla]

Hi all,

A while ago I started this thread to find out which DVDs are currently a bit decent:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f33/most-reliable-dvd-buy-249194/

As a result I bought 400 Vertabim MCC004 DVD+r printable DVDs at Xmediatrade.com

After my first burn, I did some scans to verify the quality and it seemed fine (95% and no speeddrops)

But more recently I started watching some DVDs with my laptop and I noticed the DVDs often started skipping towards the end

It is so bad that I even have to copy the DVD to my HD to finish it...

Even my old crappy Ridisc crap DVDs don't do it that bad...

So I started doing some scans of the DVDs with issues and some others and I noticed that nowadays even f***ing Vertabim sells variable crap DVDs

Is this the end of the world? Is it impossible nowadays to have a DVD that simply works without f***ing skipping???

I'm f***ing pissed of since I now have 400 crap DVDs that are more useless then a big pile of shit...

here are some scans for those interested:

[Arachne]

At what speed did you burn the discs, and can you have a look at the packaging to see where they were made?

BTW, although I can understand your frustration, please watch your language

[Mastakilla]

12x, as I always do with 16x DVDr

the packaging (the plastic wrapped around the spindle) sais “Made in Taiwan”

is that a good or a bad thing “normally”?

[evo69]

MIT MCC004 is “normally” good (if not, excellent) media, at any speed and even when oversped.

Is it CMC (Serif OPEN<->LOCK font, tall lip) or Prodisc (Sans Serif OPEN<->LOCK font, short lip)?

Negritude has commented once that Prodisc quality has gone down the drain with its recently-manufactured media (just before the Prodisc slump), although if your 400 MCC004s are CMC… that’s a different story.

[Kerry56]

12x usually works just fine for MCC004, though I tend to burn everything at 8x.

Taiwanese made Verbatim single layer is also good, usually made by CMC these days, as the Prodisc varieties are becoming less common.

Are you burning these in the BenQ 1655?

[Mastakilla]

[QUOTE=evo69;2123312]MIT MCC004 is “normally” good (if not, excellent) media, at any speed and even when oversped.

Is it CMC (Serif OPEN<->LOCK font, tall lip) or Prodisc (Sans Serif OPEN<->LOCK font, short lip)?

Negritude has commented once that Prodisc quality has gone down the drain with its recently-manufactured media (just before the Prodisc slump), although if your 400 MCC004s are CMC… that’s a different story.

[/QUOTE]

“Is it CMC (Serif OPEN<->LOCK font, tall lip) or Prodisc (Sans Serif OPEN<->LOCK font, short lip)?”

i would love to answer this, but I have no clue what you mean

I found this:
“LOCK <-----> OPEN”

but i dont know what you mean with “lip”

[Kerry56]

He’s talking about the lip at the top of the cakebox. The raised plastic rim at the top is taller on CMC made disks.

Look at this: http://club.cdfreaks.com/1944324-post11.html

[evo69]

[QUOTE=Kerry56;2123326]He’s talking about the lip at the top of the cakebox. The raised plastic rim at the top is taller on CMC made disks.

Look at this: http://club.cdfreaks.com/1944324-post11.html[/QUOTE]

Yep, that’s exactly what I meant. Thanks for the link Kerry!

I’ve had no problems with any CMC Verbs (old or newly manufactured), but have seen that “variable” quality with recently-manufactured (late 2007) Mitsubishi MCC that are Prodisc-made. Branding aside, these (Mitsubishi) are similar discs with the Verbatims, and have clearly shown differences in scan quality but not in real-life use nor in TRTs - and I wouldn’t call it crap, just less than ideal.

I personally haven’t had any MCC that are as bad with PIF scans as you have, and I’m also surprised at how bad those discs turned out for you. As I said before, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a bad batch of Prodisc Verbatims due to the decline in their quality of manufacturing - although it’d be a different story if these results are from CMC spindles.

[CJ2]

I have yet to have [I]real life[/I] problems with Verbatim discs. Yesterday i got the branded AZO 03RG20 and printable (wide printable wtf) from svp which look like this when burned at 12x and scanned at 4x (with straight TRTs as well). First branded - second printable. All MIT by CMC…
What was your B[/B] burning drive? Your jitter is pretty high for Verbatim discs. Also by all means try the discs in various players. I wouldn’t necessarily trust the scans but they don’t indicate problems at the end

[Mastakilla]

seems like CMC then, no?

so now even CMC is variable crap?

[Mastakilla]

The burning drive was the same Benq DVDWriter

I do have “real-life-issues” with these discs, cause my movies start stuttering towards the end
and that is really << Fill in your most obscene word here >>

[Albert]

Do you have an alternate writing drive, or an alternate batch? If neither of those, does writing at 8x do any better?

Do you get any errors when WRITING the discs?

[Mastakilla]

I have no alternate writing drive (except for the dvdwriter in my laptop, but is that really an alternate? :p)
I just wrote the first disc of my 2nd spindel and that seems ok (will post scans in a few moments). but the first disc of the other batch was ok too, so that doesnt say much
I get no errors when writing the discs

[Mastakilla]

1st disc of 2th spindle (seems better, but in the first spindle were some ok ones too)

[CJ2]

Jitter is still a little high. I don’t remember the drive you use but i suggest you get another newer drive (or preferably 2). I recommend the drives i have in my sig as [I]writers[/I] but i’m sure LG, Optiarc and a few more have good writers. The Pioneer 215 is excellent and i think it’s under 20£ There can be other reasons for bad writes but after 3-4000 of consistent Verbatim’s i have pretty good faith in them. Only once i got 4x50 tubs MCC004 that were different in QS profiles from the other batches at the same time but discs hold up fine even if QS weren’t as prominent. I made the switch to 03RG20 then but i’m sure MCC004 are equally good

[Mastakilla]

just wrote the 2th disc of the 2th spindle and that one is good too (also 97% and no dips at all in the benchmark test)

it does still have the high jitter (can this be because the writer is getting a bit older?)

usually i write until it’s broke, but i’ll consider getting a new one if you think that can improve things a lot

the thing with new writers is: do they still make good writers? i thought my benq was the latest decent writer on the planet?

[larc919]

[quote=Mastakilla;2123391]just wrote the 2th disc of the 2th spindle and that one is good too (also 97% and no dips at all in the benchmark test)

it does still have the high jitter (can this be because the writer is getting a bit older?)

usually i write until it’s broke, but i’ll consider getting a new one if you think that can improve things a lot

the thing with new writers is: do they still make good writers? i thought my benq was the latest decent writer on the planet?[/quote]Don’t worry too much about those jitter numbers. IMHO anything under 12 is OK if everything else is good.

And don’t be in any hurry to replace your BenQ. I still have two 1650 burners I’m using. But I have found my BenQ burners are sometimes a little pickier about media than my Lite-Ons. It is often good to have more than one burner, though, if for no other reason than some burners like media occasionally that others don’t.

One thing about CMC-made Verbatim media I don’t think anybody has mentioned is manufacturing facility differences. There are some letters and numbers stamped on the clear inner circle of each disc that identify which facility it was made in. Codes starting with PAPA on +R and MAPA on -R tend to be better in my experience, while PAP6 on +R and MAP6 on -R often haven’t been nearly as good. But even that varies. I have two 100-pak PAP6 batches now. One batch produces scans about like your first one, but the other batch produces consistently great scans.

Verbatim is good media, but that doesn’t mean it’s 100% good 100% of the time.

[Mastakilla]

mine have PAPA on them

the problem is that these discs make my movies stutter on my laptop (with which i see most of them)

[cd_pirate]

Scans look fine mate. I’d be questioning the drive you are playing them in. Can you verify that other drives also skip badly etc when playing certain burns?

[dakhaas]

[QUOTE=cd pirate;2123627]Scans look fine mate. I’d be questioning the drive you are playing them in. Can you verify that other drives also skip badly etc when playing certain burns?[/QUOTE]

2408 POF errors is not fine !