John for what it's worth my media supplier has one of those VERY expensive units that measures jitter rates on CDs. From his tests with his media slower burn speeds produce higher jitter and hence more risk of errors. This makes sense, disk spinning faster will wobble less and so laser will track better.
Beyond around 20x there's no gain, in fact as he said at beyond around 24x there's almost zero gain in burn time either.

I'd been having major odd behavior with my DVD dupicator and in the process tried changing the burn speed to 4x, that wasn't the problem, the HDD was dying. Replaced that and machine worked much better but still not 100%, some disks from the same batch would write a lead out right to the end of the media.

Well a few days ago I had a batch of DVDs to run off and in frustration I changed the setting back to 8x. All burnt with no problems.

So again another example of how burning at a slower speed can screw things up.

Bob.

When I try to use the Nero CD-DVD speed I get a "Drive does not support this function" message. What's up with this? Is this possiblr because of the firmware being not up to date?
And yes, from now on all media will be checked upon arrival!!!

Thanks
Dave P.

I won't buy from Supermedia store anymore. We as videographers are not important customers to them. You can read through this thread and see that the nonsense continues with misrepresenting the media they sell.

After I threatened to expose them on these forums they changed the TYG01 statement in their Taiyo Yuden 4X media ad to TYG01,TYG02,orTYG03; but they STILL falsely advertise it as Taiyo Yuden 4X media which absolutely no one is getting shipped to them. I sent back three hundred discs and haven't made a purchase from them since.

Their market is geared toward flix-rippers not videographers.

John

disk spinning faster will wobble less and so laser will track better.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Actually, vibration and flutter usually increase with speed. Yes, there is some gyroscopic and inertial rigidity that may stabilize things, but more than counteracting this is the fact that no disc is perfectly round, and the faster it spins, the more those imperfections will lead to vibration. Also, no disc is perfectly flat, and that can be even more of a problem as it spins. In fact, most discs are far from a perfect, stable surface as they spin, and the laser pickup has to counteract this.

"Drive does not support this function" message

There are lots of functions in the testing programs that are, unfortunately, not supported by many drives. My Pioneer doesn't support ANY of them, so I have to do my testing on my Sony DVD reader (i.e., it doesn't write). Even that doesn't support jitter measurements. If you are buying a new burner and want to make sure it supports these testing functions, go over to dvdrhelp.com or afterdawn.com or burnworld.com or any of the other sites and get advice there on which are the best burners that support these functions.

My NEC 3550a works well with the Nero tool. Newegg still carries them at $37 including shipping. I get very nice burns with the NEC drive and TYG02 blanks, according to the Nero tool.

When I first switched over to the TYG02 media a few months ago, I called the official importer and was told that both Meritline and Supermediastore carry the real thing.

What you really need to test DVDs and CDs is a CATS tester.
But you don't want to know what they cost.

Although I did stumble accross an article on how to measure jitter with a CRO, need to get into the internals of a drive though.

Bob.

When I first switched over to the TYG02 media a few months ago, I called the official importer and was told that both Meritline and Supermediastore carry the real thing.
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That's true.
But only if you order this.

Here is Supermediastore's dishonest ad.

This was the one that used to say TYG01 which is the correct ID for the 4X media they claim it is. Then after I threatened to expose them on these forums as I mentioned above they changed the ad to read TYG01, TYG02, or TYG03 because you never knew what they were going to send. I sent back 300 TYG03 discs thinking I was getting the TYG01 they were falsely advertising.
Now, they have brazenly changed the ad once again I see. Now it reads TYG02 for what is being advertised as 4X media (TYG01)which no one will receive anyway.
People are still receiving either TYG02 or TYG03 instead. In the case of the TYG02 that's good media. In the case of the TYG03 it is not.

In either case they could care less about us as videographers because their average customer reacts to getting 16X media when they ordered 4X media in the following way:

"Dude....... LOL ...I ordurded 4X medya and I scored 16X media. Me gonna be wun happie Netflix ripppoff untromanure........!!

John

Maybe if some others wrote to them besides me and complained about this ad they "might" change it to be more honest. Maybe.

I just noticed something. Now Supermediastore has taken their dishonesty one step further:

Here is their ad for the Value Line of 8X media. Notice that this doesn't even mention a media ID code. My guess is that it is EXACTLY the same media as the ad I just mentioned above only with a different price and a crap shoot as to what they are going to send you.

John

John and Anyone else,
If not from Supermedia where do you get your media? I have had good luck with the TYG01 (4x) and would like to keep using as long as possible.
I will say that at least Supermedia does handle it's customers nicely when they need to return the wrong media. I guess they have a lot of practice at it!

Dave P.
P.S. Is Supermedia "Brazen" or just plain incompetent when putting their ads together?

If not from Supermedia where do you get your media? I have had good luck with the TYG01 (4x) and would like to keep using as long as possible.
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TYG01 is unavailable anywhere. Anyone advertising it is doing so falsely or has very old stock (unlikely).
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P.S. Is Supermedia "Brazen" or just plain incompetent when putting their ads together?
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Brazen. They advertise "genuine" media and put ID codes in their ads so they know what they are doing. They are packaging Value Line media and selling it in two ads for two different prices using phony or no guaranteed media ID code to justify the difference. They aren't incompetent. They know their target customer and it is not us. Read the customer reviews for the media and you will see what I mean.

Since Meritline is pulling the exact same garbage as Supermediastore I have switched over to Rima for plain TYG02.
I also buy my inkjet printable media from Newegg. It is very reliable, the printing surface is very nice, and the media has an ID code of MCC 02RG20

John

The confusion never ends on this one!

Some time ago I bought a cake box of RiData 16x DVD+R discs. Using my Asus 1608P2S drive (one of the few burners that works in 64 bit XP) and Nero, I can only use it at 4x speed (Nero offers no other speeds).

Not sure if it's the media or the drive or the software that's causing such a low speed on an allegedly "16x" disc.

Are you guys getting consistently better speeds on the Taiyo Yuden discs? According to the original post, the TYG03 discs don't really achieve 16x speed, but maybe the TYG02 discs really do achieve 8x speed?

Also, does it make any difference whether I use DVD-R or DVD+R?

I have had nothing but good experiences with Meritline. Very fast delivery. I did have a problem with a rebate, which is handled by an "affiliate" company that is actually in the same building. I actually managed to get a customer support rep on the phone and was offered a store credit equal to the rebate that hadn't arrived. A few days later the rebate DID arrive, and I emailed back to cancel my store credit. In over two dozen transactions, that's the only problem I've had.

I certainly have read lots of stories about problems with Meritline, but have not had them myself.

As for where to buy, I've usually found this guy's recommendations to be useful:

DigitalFAQ Media Retailer Recommendations

although I don't always agree with everything he says. In this case, he is actually recommending Supermediastore, so go figure. I'm not saying that he's right and John's wrong, or vice versa. He does recommend Newegg, so if you're looking for a common denominator, perhaps that is it. I have ordered 4-5 things from them in the past three years and didn't have any problems, although I haven't ordered media (actually maybe my bogus Maxell media came from them ... but I can't remember).

In this case, he is actually recommending Supermediastore, so go figure. I'm not saying that he's right and John's wrong, or vice versa. He does recommend Newegg, so if you're looking for a common denominator, perhaps that is it. I have ordered 4-5 things from them in the past three years and didn't have any problems, although I haven't ordered media (actually maybe my bogus Maxell media came from them ... but I can't remember).
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Let's be clear. Up until this fiasco with the Taiyo Yuden media (and Ritek G04 as well by the way.) I was VERY happy with both Meritline and Supermediastore. Lordsmurf is generally right in his recommendations and I have read his website many times. They aren't going to rip people off in terms of the shady things some other vendors (particularly NYC vendors) do. I just don't feel that they should get my business any longer if they are going to put false ads up on their websites and their alias websites. Especially when there have been complaints from legitimate videographers regarding getting exactly what they advertise. Maybe Lordsmurf doesn't order that particular advertised media or maybe he is unaware of those ads. His main concern has always been with fake ID or bad customer service. Neither Supermediastore nor Meritline have notoriously bad customer service, but regardless of whether most customers think they are getting a bargain if they are sent faster media when they ordered slower media it is still dishonest and that's enough for them to lose my business. Notice that Rima is Lordsmurf's second choice after Supermediastore.


His website is also not exactly geared toward videographers either. On his website you can find instructions on how to make exact copies of commercially produced DVD covers so the stolen versions look more professional. So it would appear that the "Dude I ordered 4X media and scored 16X media" crowd are who Lordsmurf is mostly catering to although he has some really useful stuff on his website for videographers as well.

I just got off the phone with Supermediastore after a 15 minute discussion with Customer Service. I was very polite about the matter by the way. The CSR was told by management after another customer complained that they can't advertise that line as 8X or higher media because.....get this....."It will only burn at 4X". I politely explained why that was BS and why videographers want to know exactly what they are going to get when they order media.

Let's see what they do.

John