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Old 5th February 2011, 20:11   #52  |  Link
Ghitulescu
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Germany
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Anyone living on this planet and not being a complete idiot could easily notice a degradation in the build quality of the burners. As people continuously ask for cheaper things, the manufacturers use premium materials only for premium products or for start-of-life products (otherwise the new technology they want to launch on the market would be stilborn). As the prices drop, more and more B-products would be classified and sold as A, even defective products were sold (so the public would constitute the QC department).

I still have and use first generations DVD-burners (can one spell 1x?) and yes I own authoring burners and media, too, but I have also other generations, including BD burners. Medium quality media (like MCC from Verbatim or INFOMEDIAR or MBI) are burned by a 1x Matsushita at 1x at max 50 PI and extremely few PO. Similar values are obtained (higher PO though) with various LGs and even Pioneers, only the Plextors could burn them better. MBI and INFOMEDIAR were not existent at the time when the burner was in production, and I think that neither MCC. So a burner of 2000, relying on its default strategy would burn better than a 2008-2009 burner (which assumingly has been tested with new media).

Coming back to media:
Unlike most other magazines, that present the tests so that the sponsor would eventually win, there is a German magazine that also contain independent tests (along with the paid ones ). Once a year there are burning tests with the current burners and media. The results are assessed using professional tools, like AudioDev or CAT, while the tests are performed using the standards.

What confers quality to a DVD? Many issues, wherein the PI/PO is just only one item. Strangely enough, the quality of the DVD is given overwhelmingly by the glue - if the margins are not correctly sealed, water would eventually get in and destroy both the dye and the reflector (aluminium). Secondly in importance is the hard-coating, if any. The third most important factor is the jitter. Finally the PI/PO values. Very important was the even distribution of the dye, whis was tested very late, as at the beginning it wasn't needed. Now it is. The jitter is mainly caused by the burner.

Now, please have a look to a 6 years old DVDR and then to a brand new one. And draw your conclusions.
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