T42 DVD Reliability Issue

[fritz_the_blank]

Hello and thank you for reading my post.

I have a T42 with a DVD burner (Matshita UJ 812). It plays movies just fine, burns CD's without a hitch and etc.

My problem is that if I burn a DVD, and it doesn't matter whether it is a movie or a data disk, it works fine at first, but after a year or so, the disk becomes unreadable in any machine.

Is this likely a DVD burner issue or a media problem? I am using the FujiFilm DVD-R 8x write speed 4.7gig media made in Taiwan.

Any thoughts?

[christopher_wolf]

Hello and thank you for reading my post.

I have a T42 with a DVD burner (Matshita UJ 812). It plays movies just fine, burns CD's without a hitch and etc.

My problem is that if I burn a DVD, and it doesn't matter whether it is a movie or a data disk, it works fine at first, but after a year or so, the disk becomes unreadable in any machine.

Is this likely a DVD burner issue or a media problem? I am using the FujiFilm DVD-R 8x write speed 4.7gig media made in Taiwan.

Any thoughts?

Sounds to me like a media problem; and I have heard of things like this happening to DVD media. It can happen to CDs too, given enough time.

Have you tried other brands of media?

[fritz_the_blank]

I don't burn DVD's that often, so I haven't gone through my original bunch. Given that the CDs work fine (different media) perhaps this sugggests that it is a DVD media issue.

It is something of a bummer--I would rather media fail immediately rather than later....

[Nick Y]

Two thoughts;

a) In my opinion, it appears that quality of DVD media is very important -far more so than with CDs. (I have had a lot problems with some low-grade, supermarket, DVDs. Bought some more expensive ones that were recommended by several seemingly independant review, and all has been OK since.)

b) Fingerprints/ dirt. If 'a' above is correct, then fingerprints and dirt must degrade the DVDs. There are cheap DVD/CD cleaners around, although I have yet to try one, or even look for reviews. (Perhaps others have comments wrt these devices?) If your DVDs are in need of cleaning then the content/data may be intact.

[fritz_the_blank]

Thanks for the thoughts.

I tend to be very careful, so there is no dust, smears and etc. Moreover, this has happened to every DVD. They work fine when I burn them, but if I go to use them a few months later, they don't work on any machine.

I should mention also that I keep my media in a closet that does not receive direct sunlight, and the tempature is cool, usually between 69-80 degrees F.

[christopher_wolf]

Fingerprints and dirt make little difference to the degredation rate, no more than the normal environ would to the plastic underside. The really data-carrier layer is protected in that sense. Rather, it is more of a problem with the media, RW discs used to have this problem as well and are generally less robust than R only disks.

See; http://www.osta.org/technology/dvdqa/dvdqa13.htm

Some DVD media, especially dual layer, are more prone to degredation and the rate of degredation increases as time goes by.

This doesn't have much to do with the DVD burner optical drive itself; the better quality the media, the better the drive works is generally the case.

[smids]

Stick with Verbatim disks - whilst more expensive, they use the best dyes e.g. MCC004 on their 16x 100 pack cakebox. I have those. Steer well clear of any media that uses the CMC MAG dyes - they are generally poo.

So just buy Verbatims and do not worry. If you want the best, look for Taiyo Yuden dyes but there are many fakes out there so it is much easier to buy a set of Verbs and trust them.

[GomJabbar]

I like Verbatim disks myself for CD's and DVD's. That's what I look for in the store. I did have a problem with one batch of Verbatim CD's I bought. It turned out that they were made in India, and used a different dye than the one made in Taiwan. When I went to Plextor's website, plextor listed the Taiwanese CD's as compatible, but the Indian CD's were not listed. Note that both CD's had the same speed rating.

[smids]

I like Verbatim disks myself for CD's and DVD's. That's what I look for in the store. I did have a problem with one batch of Verbatim CD's I bought. It turned out that they were made in India, and used a different dye than the one made in Taiwan. When I went to Plextor's website, plextor listed the Taiwanese CD's as compatible, but the Indian CD's were not listed. Note that both CD's had the same speed rating.

Yeah, the only thing to watch out for is country of manufacture - easily spotted on the box.

You want either Singapore, Taiwan or Japan - the Indian manufactured ones can be of lesser quality.

[Nick Y]

I went for Taiyo Yuden, from an authorised distributor, as the result of looking at reviews. (Verbatim were the alternative.)

[fritz_the_blank]

Thank you for all of the replies.

Upon examination of the problematic DVDs, I observed a difference in color of the burned meda (on both) sides to unused media. This leads me to believe that something instrinsic to the disks is causing the problems. Moreover, I have yet to have any problems with CDs that I have burned on TDK media.

I plan to discard my remaining Fuji DVDs and purchase one of the options suggested above.