Long term study

[k2]

I want to collect everyones experience with how long a DVDR lasts.
I will post the results for all to use.

Please post a reply - tell me your good as well as your bad.

Brand name:
Mfg:
burn speed:
date recorded:
date last tested good:
date failed to read:

[pmc]

Brand name: Fortis DVD-R
Manufacturer: Auvistar
Manufacturer ID = 41 75 76 69 73 74 00 00 FFFFFFA4 FFFFFFFA 12 00
Smart-Burn Speed Limit = Wrt(2.0X),Rd(4.0X)
date recorded: 3/27/2003
date last tested good:
date failed to read: 10/23/2003

This is just one example of the Fortis that have failed on me

---

Brand name: Princo 4xDVD-R
Manufacturer: Princo Corporation
Manufacturer ID = 50 52 49 4E 43 4F 00 00 64 00 00 00
Smart-Burn Speed Limit = Wrt(4.0X),Rd(4.0X)
date recorded: 9/14/2003
date last tested good: Worked fine a couple of weeks after
date failed to read: 23/10/2003 stoped working today, get read error on both burner and Liteon Combo.

[k2]

Thanks for the info

I have several bad Princo discs my self.
I am checking the dates created.

[atreides93]

I made this thread a sticky one. It may be interesting/useful to collect some data from everyone.

Its a good thing that when you look at the VOB files on a disk, they have dates on them showing when you created them..so it gives you a good guess as to when you burned that disk.
(in case you didn't write the date on the disk)

[Espen]

I burnt a coupel of prodisc over a year ago. Most of them have playback errors or don't even work today!

[atreides93]

Could you use DVDDecryptor or Nero CD SPeed to tell us what the media info is for that disk?

[Espen]

Originally posted by atreides93
Could you use DVDDecryptor or Nero CD SPeed to tell us what the media info is for that disk?

Well the Media ID Code is PRODISC R01 if that what you ask for?

[k2]

Well I am closing this short. Simply not enough activity in this forum to get a broad base of information.

I have written a summary report of what I do have.

Report HERE

The charts inside are also worth a quick view.

TDK was not in the data.
Ritek G03 are the best
Princo are the worst

Life can be as short as few weeks or as long a few years.

[pmc]

Im not sure anymore if Princo and Fortis are degrading over time as much as I though when I did my first post in this thread. The reason for this is that ive noticed that labels have a big impact on reading quality. Ive done some testings by actually removing labels on older DVDs that I had problems with and in all cases so far I could actually read the discs again after I removed the labels.

Have any of you noticed this ? if not then remove the label on the disc you have read errors on and se if you can actually read it again without the label. I have also done some testings and it seems that different brand of labels causes more problems then others.

[zande]

Interesting thread!

Though I might share some of my experiences as well.

I burnt 20 "Prico 4X DVD-R (white top)" in the period between June and July 2003.
The recorder is a Pioneer DVR-105, full speed (4x) for all discs, firmware 1.33.

Funny enough, all of them still reads perfect today in my PC. Nero CD/DVD-speed shows a straight curve with no speed downs during read.

Putting these in my Philips DVD-722 give tiny problems. The picture might get small amounts of macroblocks now and then, but it's not a big problem. Happens let's say about 2-3 times for a full-lenght movie, so it isn't that bad.

After I went out of Princo's and been reading this forum (thanks), I bough myself 25 pcs of Ritek G03 (branded as 3T Pro), and burned them at 2x.
All of them read perfect on my PC AND Philips as well.

Next up was 25 pcs of Mitsubishi's (Mediacode: MCC00RG200).
Same thing goes here. I get perfect reads on both PC and set top.

Then I gave Ritek G04 a try. 50 pcs without a single coaster!


Conclusion: I'm a very lucky guy!
120 DVD-R's burnt since i got my Pioneer 9 month's ago. Not a single coaster with the 4 different brands of media I've tried.
No corrupted discs or read problems (exept for some tiny macroblocks on the Princos on the set top).
Keep in mind that my Philips is not a "miracle" player. It have spitted out a few discs my friends have burned on cheap media.

Oh, don't know if it plays an important role, but I keep ALL my DVD-R's in those real DVD covers (black plastic thingys), away from sunlight, and a temperature of 25 Celcius.
No labels and no writing with pens on the top side!

Kind Regards / Zande

[Hells Delight]

Hello!

What's your suggestions about Platinum DVD+-R Medias?
Anyone tried?

Is there any Quality Difference between DVD+R and DVD-R, except the DVD-Player compatibility? Maybe DVD+R are better for Data Backups?

[k2]

DVD+R may take over in the long run but DVD-R have the largest installed base and usage today. Your choice is more academic than anything. As long as you can play it on your stand alone DVD player, does it matter. Future DVD players will read both formats.

It's hard to say if DVD+R or DVD-R is more long term reliable. I will have to stay with my assumptions. As the products improve over time so will the reliability, unless it is Obsoleted, then jump quickly. The actual manufacturer process control is a greater factor than the technology.

On technology alone, DVD+R is better.

I have not tried the Platinum DVDR's.

[Zavo]

Could you suggest a program for testing DVD's? Just if they are still completely readeable or not, for the purpose of your data collection.
I've got TEAC as dvd writer, so forget about kprobe...
Stomp RecordNowMax has got in the "Disc Explorere And Drive Properties" the feature "Data Extraction Speed Test"...maybe enough for the verifing purpose?

Tnx

[atreides93]

A common approach if you can't use kprobe is to use cd speed. it has a nice data transfer test, that can give you an idea of how good your dvd is doing.

Anyway, I recently came across a bad dvd-r. Its a double sided Ritek G03 that I burned august 31, 2002 so its nearly 2 years old. Only one side can even start playing on my dvd players. The other side is not readable anymore. On top of that, the readable side doesn't play beyond 2 or 3 gigs...

so basicaly its ruined.
I had it stored in a cd-wallet type case...I rarely used that wallet, it holds up to 96 cd's. I recently watched some single sided dvd-r's from that same case, and they were fine.

That really scares me...I'm not going to be using any more double sides disks if they don't last 2 years.

[mordant]

I have started noticing DVD-R's I burnt awhile back can not be re-ripped as I get CIRC Unrecoverd Errors.

What software will tell me the brand info on burned dvd-r's? I've got DVDdecrypter and can find the info on a blank DVD-R, but I don't see it on one already burned. I'd like to go through my discs and record which still work and which no longer do, so I can avoid buying that media in future. In general I buy DVD-Rs that are blank on top so there is no printed info on the disc itself.

Thanks.

[Eron]

It would be wise to be able to indicate if at the time you used data verification.

Because with cheap media, if you are not using verification then it could be bad right from the get go..

[BassPig]

I have noticed a sudden burst of messages on a private mailing list for VX2000 video camera users about disc failures this month. It seems that a variety of DVD media are being discovered unreadable. Users are posting that several discs have become unreadable--even on the burners that wrote them.
Maxell was mentioned as one of the major brands that had some discs fail to read, but there were a bunch of 'economy' brands that subsequent posters listed.
The problem seems somewhat widespread and has a few people concerned. And all of these discs were readable when first burned.
One user brought up possible legal repercussions that might result from customers' wedding DVDs going bad after 3 years. And that seems to be a frequently-mentioned number.
Needless to say, I think this study is a good idea and may help to determine whether this problem is confined to certain brands and manufacture runs, or whether the entire DVD recordable world is about to be rocked with a flood of unreadable discs..

[Ghitulescu]

Originally Posted by BassPig

I have noticed a sudden burst of messages on a private mailing list for VX2000 video camera users about disc failures this month. It seems that a variety of DVD media are being discovered unreadable. Users are posting that several discs have become unreadable--even on the burners that wrote them.
Maxell was mentioned as one of the major brands that had some discs fail to read, but there were a bunch of 'economy' brands that subsequent posters listed.
The problem seems somewhat widespread and has a few people concerned. And all of these discs were readable when first burned.
One user brought up possible legal repercussions that might result from customers' wedding DVDs going bad after 3 years. And that seems to be a frequently-mentioned number.
Needless to say, I think this study is a good idea and may help to determine whether this problem is confined to certain brands and manufacture runs, or whether the entire DVD recordable world is about to be rocked with a flood of unreadable discs..

I don't even remember the times when Maxell manufactured its own DVDs. For about 5 years Maxell relabels Riteks. At least here in Germany.

[gizzin]

Ya, I don't remember exactly when I burned them (Probably like 5 - 7 years ago). I burned them with a pioneer 104d. I've hadn't have any fail entirely, but some ritek g03,g04 have problems with freezing, and playback problems towards the end. Also some yudens have been freezing...

[BassPig]

I got burned this week on the DVD-R goes bad arena.

This was a pair of silver inkjet printable DVD-R from Meritline that I must have bought about 4 years ago. It was their generic brand, which have a slight purple color to the dye.

I burned UDF format, probably at 2 or 4X burn speed. Each disc was filled to capacity with audio files and verified readable after the burn then stored in jewel cases on the shelf in a climate-controlled studio.

Today, I tried to read two of these discs and the drive would not read them. I tried four different PCs and drives, including the one that wrote these two discs. Not one of them could read it. I just get a blank Explorer window in XP.

This has seriously shaken my trust in optical media now. Thankfully the data was not crucial to my business-it was personal files only.

I am currently trying to recover data with DVDisaster 0.72. It's reporting media ID of BeAll G40001.