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My DVD burner arrived yesterday, woohoo.

On examination, I decided to wait until the new lenses are in my glasses to do the installation, new lenses arrived today. Woohoo. Installation tonight.

Decide to buy some DVDs. Go to JB. Buy 4 CDs accidentally (very cheap) then get to the DVD R section. Holy decision making batman, what the hell is going on? So many variables.

So, in the interests of testing, I bought

Shintaro 4x -R ($1-05)
Shintaro 8x +R ($1-45)
TDK 1-8x -R ($2-75)
TDK 1-8x +R ($2-75)

Can anyone tell me whether -R or +R is preferable? My burner can cope with either, and dual layer too but I didn't see any of those.



I love new stuff. Thanks Birdy.

Hi Greg, Well i dont really see a big differance here but depends on what is cheaper if you get + or - but i have been using Laser -r for a long time now and have never had any fail what so ever even in the normal cdr range i use these a lot i go through something like a 100 CDRs a month so i have been a high user of these after using princo's which i use to go to Melbourne to buy at the comper markets in my ealier days of burning when it was all new to the scene.
I get my cdr's and dvd -r's from Perth as great price and freight was still a big saving from getting them here in Mt Gambier. There is about 4 of us who now buy in bulk and would bike like 500 dvds and 700+ cdrs.
But choice is yours and well i never had any probs with these media.

LASER CD-R (100 PACK) SPINDLE 52X -$25
LASER 4.7GB DVD+R GENERAL 8XSPD (50 PK) -$27.50
LASER 4.7GB DVD-R GENERAL 8XSPD (50 PK) -$27.50
Just a few prices to compare
Cheers
John
BBJ

Greg B.

I have been using Princo -R 4x ink jet printable for about 12 months with no problems in my Sony DVD +/- R. I get these on ebay in 50 or 100 lots for around 50c per disk including freight. Just be patient. Some people bid too high.

I'v also had great success with Laser DVD +R ink jet printable & "plain". Agin you'll get them below 50c per DVD incl freight. I generally buy -R since they're usually cheaper, but have some friends whose home DVD player will only play +Rs so if I do a DVD for them I use a +R disc (doh). Hope this helps. you might also like to look at http://www.abcd.com.au, http://www.eyo.com.au and http://www.pcx.com.au. Hope this helps

do you just load it into your printer???

How well does that work??

yep...just load it in your printer. Only certain printers can print straight onto CD/DVD's...Epson R210

Also...major thing I don't like is the ink on the CD comes off when I touch it with my sweaty hands. I still prefer the labelling method

MHD wrote:do you just load it into your printer???

How well does that work??

"You talkin' to ME"

I have a Canon Pixma IP8500 which has a special tray and matching slot. You put the DVD in the tray and insert it into the slot then the printer pulls the whole thing in and prints on the disc. Spits it out when done. canon provide matching software that lets you set up the disc label. Once printed they look just like a bought one. Other (cheaper) printers in the Canon Pixma range (eg the IP4000) also have this feature as do some from either Epson or HP

FWIW the 8500 replaced my old Canon S820. The new one has 8 colour cartridges and prints superbly

shutterbug wrote:the ink on the CD comes off when I touch it with my sweaty hands

I don't have that problem - maybe my hands don't sweat enough
Cheers

Greg, I realise this may be more in-depth than you care to know, but I was pondering the same thing and came across this -

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/113

The article above addresses why in theory a +R burn is more reliable and less likely to cause problems in the long term than a -R burn. However, the main killer of any media is not the writing strategy, it's the storage conditions.

The article was written in June 03, however what it outlines is still true today. Additionally, the "Mt Rainier" standard for hardware initiated error/defect management, available on certain drives (check if yours does) is strictly a +R standard (the -R standard of error detection relies upon software).

At 4x-8x (today's mainstream media speeds), the difference is negligeble. However once new media are released, supporting faster writing speeds - I believe the edge will be towards +R standard. PS. Verbatim just recently released +R 16x media, its availability is akin to hen's teeth.

shutterbug wrote:Also...major thing I don't like is the ink on the CD comes off when I touch it with my sweaty hands. I still prefer the labelling method

I've heard that you can purchase a spray can of clear sealant which works well.. just apply a flat coat to the whole top of the cd and you're done..

I must say I've never tried it though..

Thank you all for the information, very helpful.

Thanks to stubbsy and onyx for the links too, some interesting reading.

I know I will do much better pricewise when I buy a spindle rather than a few singles, just want to know which spindle to buy before I actually buy one.

FYI - my Canon i965 inkjet also prints directly to CD/DVDs, haven't tried it yet.

OK, the DVD burner is installed and ready to go. Might do a couple of test burns tonight

cheers

Greg,

I use Ritek or Piodata dvds that I get from http://www.umart.net here in Sydney. Not the cheapest but they are handy for me as I'm often driving past them. I've never had problems with either of these brands. I used to use Princo's till I got a bodgey batch

I'm sure umart do mail order.

Cheers
John.

Or go pick up a 50 spindle of TDK discs that are on special virtually everywhere for $34.86.

Wile_E mentioned to me via PM that the +R he had purchased only detected as 4x on his drive (they're rated 8x), so on that I went the -R. They overburn to 12x on my drive nicely. But I have now discovered the same issue Leigh had with his Pioneer DVR-108 drive: burning a disc at 12x is slower than 8x!

And you thought the D70 cloudy/flash white balance was idiosyncratic!

I use Princo cheap printables for all of my crap stuff that I don't care about too much. For my pictures, I put them onto 2 disks - one cheaper one and one TDK armor plated that I got from Birddog ages ago. The Armor plated ones go into a file and don't get touched (basically as my master copy) and the cheap ones are the ones I use to access the pictures. (My aim is to get a hard drive as well, but that's another story). I am quite nervous putting anything valuable on DVD as you never know how long it will last!

Hi Onyx

You say that your media burns at 12x slower than 8x. How many minutes does it take to burn a full DVD?

I find good quality +Rs burn around 30secs faster than -Rs on my Pioneer 108, but I am currently using the TDK -Rs because they are reasonable quality (if a little slower), inkjet printable and relatively cheap - I got 50 8x for $34 or so at Big W, but the cheapest good quality 8 x +Rs I could find were $58 for 50 Verbatim at Harris Technology.

I Have an old 4x burner had it for long time now pioneer, never missed a beat and well i dont care it is slow and has burnt many cds.
princo cds at moment in Perth.
PRINCO 4.7GB DVD-R GENERAL 4XSPD (50 PK) $20
Anyhow i get a lot of stuff from this shop at times here is the link.
http://www.ple.com.au/
cheers
John
BBJ

ru32day wrote:Hi Onyx

You say that your media burns at 12x slower than 8x. How many minutes does it take to burn a full DVD?

I find good quality +Rs burn around 30secs faster than -Rs on my Pioneer 108, but I am currently using the TDK -Rs because they are reasonable quality (if a little slower), inkjet printable and relatively cheap - I got 50 8x for $34 or so at Big W, but the cheapest good quality 8 x +Rs I could find were $58 for 50 Verbatim at Harris Technology.

Hi ru, I think it has largely to do with the zone constant velocity writing scheme of the drive. At 8x, it takes approx 6 mins to write ~4.1Gb. Closer to 7:30 to write a similar amount at 12x. I noticed with a 12x burn, the pregnant pauses when it shifts zones at pre-specified areas of the disc are longer. Plus when the last 15% or so are being written, the drive spin speed is audibly slower for some reason. I have latest official firmware (v1.18). It does not affect the data in any way AFAIK, it's just peculiar behaviour on the drive's behalf.

Both 8x and 12x comparative burns were made on TTG02 media (TDK -R 8x, same as you mentioned from a 50 spindle). I also have a 10 pack of MCC003 (Vebatim 8x +R) which I find are fantastic with this drive. I haven't tried overburning these as yet, as they're reserve for 'good data'. Also a batch of TYG02 (Taiyo Yuden -R 8x) that I don't dare overburn, as I'm not prepared to coaster them.

Another question, Onyx.

I've been having a few problems with the latest batch of TDK 8x -Rs I got this week, with skipping at the end of the DVD. Have you had any similar issues of late? Perhaps I just have a bum batch.

As a result of this, I tried burning them at 8x. This is still a minute slower than 16x for me - ie for 8x Nero says it will take 7 min, it actually takes 7:54, whereas for 16x Nero says it will take 6 or so min and it actually takes just below 7.

The 8x burn seems not to suffer from the skipping, but the significant pause you note occurs much earlier in the burn - I thought it should be eliminated.

Was looking at the Pioneer site to see if there was any new firmware. Read the note that said to burn at 16x you have to have an 80 wire IDE cable. Do you know if yours is without looking? I assume I would have used one on mine, but I've not definitely checked this recently and can't remember for sure. No firmware since 1.18 I note.

Perhaps will just have to ditch this cake and go back to Verbatim.

There ought to be a separate thread highlighting the intricacies of this drive. As far as failures go - I'd have a DVDshrink'ed *ahem*backup of a movie created on the TDK -R that won't reliably read beyond the title menu in the Pioneer. Disc capacity was maximised on this occasion, and burned seemingly successfully at its rated 8x.

If I manually selected the movie files they played fine. I tried the disc on the Teac DVD/CDRW combo drive of my laptop and it functioned flawlessly. Toshiba SD1200 home player too.

I don't have an 80 pin IDE cable on this drive. In fact it shares the same channel as my ancient AOpen CDRW 32x12x10x, and I think I read somewhere Pioneer mentioned to have the drive set as master of a dedicated IDE channel.

So Verbatim worked well for you? Do you know the media ID you've had success with? I've had great success with MCC003 and I'd like to find them in larger quantities than a 10 pack for $16.

Onyx wrote:So Verbatim worked well for you? Do you know the media ID you've had success with? I've had great success with MCC003 and I'd like to find them in larger quantities than a 10 pack for $16.

The Verbatim media that worked well for me were 8x -R inkjet printable - MCC02RG20. Harris Technology (http://www.ht.com.au) currently have these for $58 for a cake of 50 and I'm really kicking myself for trying to economise with the TDKs. As Harris also have the +R version of the Verbatim at the same price, I intend to buy these next time, but I don't know whether they are the same media code as you mention above - you'd assume they would be.

Might even spash out for the 16x +R as these are not all that much more - $34 for 25.

Have a look at the computer markets,
the DVDs are usually cheaper there.

Cheers
CD

I stay away from PRINCO media, I have some XBOX,movies and after 12month or so stuff is unreadable.

All burnt with a pioneer 4x -R burner.

-R discs seem to be able to be read by a wider range of drives.

The laser stuff was terrible.

I know use Ritek G04's, there is a heap of info on the net.and alot of people have differing opions on media.Try this link to an aussie site Austech.info
http://www.austech.info/forumdisplay.php?f=18

I also burn back ups of pics at 1x, seem to get a better burn.(especialy with movies) and time is realy no object.

I get my discs from here
http://www.JPLdisplays.com.au

They are very helpfull and fast delivery times.

MATT