Media code and media quality

[JackRipper]

Hi all,

I live in Australia and have bought a few TDK DVD-Rs and a generic brand called Laser DVR-Rs both rated x2. Of course, the Laser brand costs $1 (Australian) less than TDK. (Laser about $2.5 and TDK $3.5). Now, the thing is that both have the same media code MXL RG01. But the TDK burns beautifully everytime on my Pioneer 106D and Panasonic (can't remember the model but it's a DVD-R/W and DVD-RAM multi writer in a USB2 external enclosure), whereas the Laser brand wont even burn on the Panasonic at x1 speed. The Pioneer burns it OK but it wont play on any stand-alone or in the PC DVD-ROM drive past half way mark).

Is there more than just media codes??? because 2 apparently same discs have vastly different behaviours. Is it safe just to stick to brand-names (are they really all good or there are also bad batches in brand name media as well)? So far it's been a bit of Russian Roulette for me when it comes to choosing a good and affordable media.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

[gooki]

Which program did you use to determine the media code??? Most work fine, but there is the od one that reports wrong codes.

Also some of the lesser quality manufacturers are known to fake codes to get their media to burn at higher speeds.

[JackRipper]

I didnt think about that :D - I use DVD Decrypter to read the media code, but from what I can tell from the list in dvdrhelp.com, it seems to be the same code as ppl there who use DVDInfoPro, etc., for these disks

[jsl]

The Laser media is most likely fake MXL RG01 media (http://www.maxell.co.jp/e/release/20030704.html).

[JackRipper]

:angry: :angry: :angry: Outrageous! (comment aimed at the manufacturers of fake discs).
Thanks for the infos - looks like it's a case of live and learn eh!

Cheers

[gooki]

Or the bought some of riteks B grade stock, and slapped their name on it.

[Mr.Bitey]

Im from AU too...

I have had extremily poor results with the LASER brand DVD-r 2x media in a pioneer a04. From memory over 40% failed in some manner, either totally unplayable on standalones or pixelating heavily at around the 3.7gb mark..

I switched to the Shintaro brand 4X DVD-r media (which shows as Princo with advdinfo).. I know all the bad princo reviews etc but im yet to have a failure burning (over 100 so far) with a pioneer a04 and more recently a06 and they play in my denon standalone that specifically states in the manual 'does not play DVD-R media'..

Im still not game to try the 4X 'princo' branded media maybe next spindle ;-)

I must admit the 1X shintaro DVD-R media did cause me some grief (I solved by buying a newer, cheaper ($100au) standalone which plays them fine :)

Im still trying to find someone that sells riteks in adelaide!

Cheers,
MrBitey

[JackRipper]

Hi m8,

I have had good success with Shintaro x1 in spindles of 50 - it seems the first 25 are usually Ritek sourced and the last 25 (in same spindle!) are actually Princo. They play well in a Nontaus (Chinese) player as well as in my Toshiba SAs. I have much less luck with the x2 Shintaro discs - about 10% are unusable. And I have had no luck with Laser branded - they wont even burn in the Matshita (Panasonic)DVD-Ram/-R burner, and in the Pioneer A06, I managed to burn them but no able to play them back - even in the PC DVD-ROM drive.

Have you tried TDK DVD-Rs at JB-HiFi? - they are avail in Melbourne for about 3.5$AU a piece (rated at x2) if bought in box of 10's. They seem to be high quality media.
Adelaide City
Rundle Mall Plaza, Shop LG7a
(08) 8231 9399
Marion
Westfield Shopping Town Marion, Shop 14M (Next to David Jones)

I have recently purchased Riteks (rated at x4) at a store called Computers & Part Land (www.cpl.net.au) and they cost about 2.4$ a piece if bought in bundles of 25 (60$AU)

BTW have u been following Steve Croc Dundee's fiasco with his kid and the croc in the same cage? Shocking eh! :)

Cheers

[Mr.Bitey]

I havent tried the TDK's as ive had good results with the sintaro 4X... Ive used pioneers (-r and -rw), laser 2x -r's (crap), shintaro 1x (fairly good results on an a04 maybe 90% and those failures probably attributed to some guys at work messing with the firmware/machine) and 4x (100% sucess so far) on a04 and a06.

I ran some tests lastnight with my pioneer 106 over two different batches (with different printed media-id) of shintaro 4x (both showed as princo w/advdinfo), laser 2X (ritek g01's from the look), pioneer 1x media, with nero cd-speed - all looked ok with only very very minor dips in the graph at around the 1.3gb mark.. mind you - I threw away all the bad burns.. Ive got the graphs, advdinfo media-id, and the printed media code from the hub of the two batches of shintaro's if your interested.

Interestingly, another post mentions the shintaro's with differing printed media-codes (hub).. Id be interested to see what code is on the Princo 'brand :)' media hubs perhaps the shintaro buy a different grade princo media? - I cant imagine anyone faking princo's :D

Ive got a Shintaro 1X burnt in a a04 over a year ago - still playable on a cheapo standalone - I'll try reading it back in the 106 tonight to see if there are any read errors.. - this particular disc is my best 'test' disc for standalone dvd-r compatability as its shockingly bad (has been since day 1) for pixelating/freezing etc on some standalone players with poor dvd-r compatability.

Cheers,
MrBitey.

[JackRipper]

Hi again Mr. Bitey,

Yes please if you could forwards those graphs - Shintaro discs are very easily obtainable here in VIC and quite cheap as well. I would be interested in the x4 rated ones (if you also have media code).

Cheers

[Mr.Bitey]

Here is: These shintaro's are a shiny white back, and centre hub and inner ring are shiny silver on the dye side - which are consistent with the Princo 4X Grade A media (if there is such a thing ;)

Shintaro 4X Media Code: 4XB340052492 (Printed on hub)
00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 F7 0E 0B .L...@....R.....
77 88 70 00 03 50 52 49 4E 43 4F 00 04 00 00 00 W.P..PRINCO.....
00 00 00 00 05 AA A2 22 22 20 01 00 06 0B 0F 12 ......."" ......

Burner: Pioneer A04
Compatability: Work 100% in Denon DVD3000 (very picky)

Burner: Pioneer 106d fw 1.07hacked
Compatability: Work 100% in Denon DVD3000 (very picky)
Nero CD Speed Graph:
http://users.chariot.net.au/~woo/SHINTARO4XB340052492.jpg


Shintaro 4X Media Code: 4XM2U40146892-01902 (Printed on hub)
00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 F7 0E 0B .L...@....R.....
77 88 70 00 03 50 52 49 4E 43 4F 00 04 00 00 00 W.P..PRINCO.....
00 00 00 00 05 AA A2 22 22 20 01 00 06 0B 0F 12 ......."" ......

Burner: Pioneer 106d fw 1.07hacked
Compatability: Work 100% in Denon DVD3000 (very picky)
Nero CD Speed Graph:
http://users.chariot.net.au/~woo/SHINTARO4XM2U40146892-01902.jpg

Laser Brand 2X

00 42 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 58 0E 11 .B...@....P..X..
98 99 80 00 03 4D 58 4C 20 52 47 00 04 30 31 00 .....MXL RG..01.
00 00 00 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Burner: Pioneer A04
Sucessful 55%
(Note I havent included the graph for this disc - but it was similar to above)..

Pioneer Brand 1X
00 42 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 89 0E 13 .B...@....P.....
87 88 80 00 03 50 56 43 30 30 31 00 04 30 30 31 .....PVC001..001
20 20 20 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 .............

[Mr.Bitey]

Just out of interest, heres the info/graph from a Shintaro 1X media I burnt sometime in November 2002.. it plays as good as it did (shittfully on all but the newer cheap players :). Exhibits no read errors when re-ripping via dvddecrypter..

Shintaro 1X has a shiny white top, the dye side hub and center ring are transparent (so you can see the back of the white surface on the other side) and has the Media Code: P360209830402 printed on the hub of the dye side - seem to be fake TDK's

00 42 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 7A 0C 15 .B...@....P..Z..
77 78 90 00 03 54 44 4B 47 30 31 00 04 30 30 30 WX...TDKG01..000
30 64 39 00 05 CC C0 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 0D9.............

Burner: Pioneer A04
Sucessful 80%
Burnt Sometime around November 2002
No Read Errors as at 7/1/2004 in Pioneer 106
Nero CD Speed Graph:
http://users.chariot.net.au/~woo/Shintaro1XP3602098360402.jpg

Cheers,
MrBitey

[JackRipper]

Thanks for the infos -
However, can I be a real pain and ask for this?
I noticed that you use your burner to obtain the result. The burner is too accurate in reading disks I find so may not be give a representative graph. For example - these results are obtained from the same disk (Shintaro x1 speed) but using different drives:

Liteon JLMS XJ-HD165H (DVD-ROM drive):
http://users.bigpond.net.au/cossackstechdepot/Shintarox1_2.gif

And this is from the same disk using the Pioneer 106 burner:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/cossackstechdepot/Shintarox1_1.gif

As you can see, the burner gives a straight line linear response whereas the DVD-Rom drive showed a definite drop in the outer rim. This corresponds with the pixelations on a SA. If you have a DVD-Rom drive, can u please run the test with that instead?

Many thanks in advance and sorry to be such a pain in the a**.

Cheers

[Mr.Bitey]

Sorry - I dont have a DVD-ROM yet :( so unfortunatly I cant run the tests again... I'll see if I can borrow someones machine thats equipped with a dvd-rom at work and see what the results are - although that may take some time!

Interesting result!.. I do notice an unusual pattern to these graphs - at around the 1.23gb mark there is a slight dip in the curve - I noticed this on all the disc's I tested on my 106..

Cheers,
Mr.Bitey