maggie~hamilton
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2006
- Messages
- 711
(This was forwarded to me -- seems like good info to know.)
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ARE ALL DVD BLANK MEDIA CREATED EQUAL?
I'll answer my own question: Absolutely not.
Over the last year or so, I have bought varying brands of blank media (from Memorex to Maxell to Verbatim to Sony to Taiyo Yuden).
In fact, I bought three different packages of Memorex and noticed that some burned beautifully -- others were sluggish on data verification -- and others were filled with disk read errors during data verification (particularly after the 50% mark).
So what is going on?
HERE'S THE "DIRTY LITTLE SECRET" ABOUT DVD BLANKS.....
[See http://www.digitalfaq.com for a complete discussion of this.]
None of these "name brands" makes their own DVD blanks. It's much like other industries where a sub-contractor provides the product and the "name brand" goes on the finished packaged product. [I could get into a rant about outsourcing -- and the numerous Chinese products that we are slowly learning are dangerous -- but I'll desist.] All DVD blanks are made at just a handful of factories -- the bigger ones are located in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Japan. The quality of blanks depends upon the manufacturer.
Blanks made in Japan appear to be the best (and most reliable). Taiwan blanks are 50/50 (some OK, some bad). China and Hong Kong blanks are junk.
So when you buy DVD blanks, how do you know what you're buying??? How do you know the manufacturer??? YOU DON'T -- UNTIL YOU OPEN THE PACKAGE (and by then, you can't return the media).
It's a BUYER-BEWARE situation -- you need information to be able to buy blanks that don't give you problems (i.e., bad burns at higher speeds, bad sectors over 3GB, etc.) -- but you can't get that information until after you've "broken the seal on the package".
Here's how to tell what you've bought (after you've opened the package):
Once you get the package open, you can determine (rather easily) who manufactured the blanks. Hidden in the code on the blank is a Media ID#. A number of small (free) programs will read the Media ID# off the
blank -- DVD Info, DVD Identifier.
NOT ALL DVD BLANKS ARE CREATED EQUAL (and my experience bears out this information; those 3 packages of Memorex I bought were made by three different manufacturers!!). The above website has ranked the media (based on Media ID#s) from best to worst:
1) 1st Class Media -- almost flawless burns, very reliable. Media made by Mitsubishi Chemicals, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, and TDK. I have had blanks with code "MCC004" and "YUDEN000T03" that fit this category.
2) 2nd Class Media -- OK, but not as good as (1). Again, the code is most important. Codes such as "RICOHJPNR03" are in this category.
3) 3rd Class Media -- Questionable. Codes such as "CMCMAGM01" (made by CMC Magnetics in Taiwan). From personal experience, many blanks sold by Memorex have this code.
4) 4th Class Media -- Landfill material.
One personal anecdote: About 3 months ago, I bought some Memorex DVD+R Printable blanks. They turned out to be "MCC004" blanks and burned beautifully. This weekend, I bought another package of the very same "looking" blanks. Unfortunately, they turned out to be "CMCMAGM01" blanks and are questionable. The Return Dept. at Fry's looked at me with great puzzlement when I started to tell them about DVD Media ID#s -- and refused to give me my money back.
We have labeling on many items (thanks to regulation) that tells us what we're buying (even "Nutritional Information" on food), BUT to date, there is no such labeling on DVD blanks; you just don't know what you're buying. This situation should change.
From now on, I'm buying only Taiyo Yuden blanks (the only company that puts the Media ID# on the OUTER packaging); they're only available by mail-order.
-----------------
Christopher Dirks
RAND Corporation
-------
ARE ALL DVD BLANK MEDIA CREATED EQUAL?
I'll answer my own question: Absolutely not.
Over the last year or so, I have bought varying brands of blank media (from Memorex to Maxell to Verbatim to Sony to Taiyo Yuden).
In fact, I bought three different packages of Memorex and noticed that some burned beautifully -- others were sluggish on data verification -- and others were filled with disk read errors during data verification (particularly after the 50% mark).
So what is going on?
HERE'S THE "DIRTY LITTLE SECRET" ABOUT DVD BLANKS.....
[See http://www.digitalfaq.com for a complete discussion of this.]
None of these "name brands" makes their own DVD blanks. It's much like other industries where a sub-contractor provides the product and the "name brand" goes on the finished packaged product. [I could get into a rant about outsourcing -- and the numerous Chinese products that we are slowly learning are dangerous -- but I'll desist.] All DVD blanks are made at just a handful of factories -- the bigger ones are located in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Japan. The quality of blanks depends upon the manufacturer.
Blanks made in Japan appear to be the best (and most reliable). Taiwan blanks are 50/50 (some OK, some bad). China and Hong Kong blanks are junk.
So when you buy DVD blanks, how do you know what you're buying??? How do you know the manufacturer??? YOU DON'T -- UNTIL YOU OPEN THE PACKAGE (and by then, you can't return the media).
It's a BUYER-BEWARE situation -- you need information to be able to buy blanks that don't give you problems (i.e., bad burns at higher speeds, bad sectors over 3GB, etc.) -- but you can't get that information until after you've "broken the seal on the package".
Here's how to tell what you've bought (after you've opened the package):
Once you get the package open, you can determine (rather easily) who manufactured the blanks. Hidden in the code on the blank is a Media ID#. A number of small (free) programs will read the Media ID# off the
blank -- DVD Info, DVD Identifier.
NOT ALL DVD BLANKS ARE CREATED EQUAL (and my experience bears out this information; those 3 packages of Memorex I bought were made by three different manufacturers!!). The above website has ranked the media (based on Media ID#s) from best to worst:
1) 1st Class Media -- almost flawless burns, very reliable. Media made by Mitsubishi Chemicals, Taiyo Yuden, Sony, and TDK. I have had blanks with code "MCC004" and "YUDEN000T03" that fit this category.
2) 2nd Class Media -- OK, but not as good as (1). Again, the code is most important. Codes such as "RICOHJPNR03" are in this category.
3) 3rd Class Media -- Questionable. Codes such as "CMCMAGM01" (made by CMC Magnetics in Taiwan). From personal experience, many blanks sold by Memorex have this code.
4) 4th Class Media -- Landfill material.
One personal anecdote: About 3 months ago, I bought some Memorex DVD+R Printable blanks. They turned out to be "MCC004" blanks and burned beautifully. This weekend, I bought another package of the very same "looking" blanks. Unfortunately, they turned out to be "CMCMAGM01" blanks and are questionable. The Return Dept. at Fry's looked at me with great puzzlement when I started to tell them about DVD Media ID#s -- and refused to give me my money back.
We have labeling on many items (thanks to regulation) that tells us what we're buying (even "Nutritional Information" on food), BUT to date, there is no such labeling on DVD blanks; you just don't know what you're buying. This situation should change.
From now on, I'm buying only Taiyo Yuden blanks (the only company that puts the Media ID# on the OUTER packaging); they're only available by mail-order.
-----------------
Christopher Dirks
RAND Corporation
