Manufactured DVDs

thatrobguy wrote on 2/20/2004, 11:26 PM
I know compatibility is an oft discussed issue here. It seems like there's plenty of blame to go around between various brands of media, burners, and players.

I'm going to have some DVDs manufactured at Discmakers, using pro-level replication (not just mass-producing a bunch of DVD+ or -R's). If I give them a master disc for replication that was burned on a certain brand of media, will the compatibility problems associated with that brand of media remain once the discs are replicated? Or, alternatively, does the fact that the discs are being pressed remove those issues?

I remember reading somewhere that it had to do with the reflectivity of the disc. If this is the case, than I'm hoping the latter scenario I describe is accurate. Any help will be appreciated.

Regards,
Rob Wolf
OyBaby LLC

Comments

RBartlett wrote on 2/21/2004, 12:05 AM
Replicated discs, and replicated images of DVDR are the about the best you'll get.

The only BEST beyond that is to author using (Maestro or) Scenarist. Especially with the latter. Cheaper DVD decks are designed to playback "hollywood" discs first and anything else they play may have room for a wrong interpretation. Such is the nature of standards. You get a fair idea from your homebrew DVDRs just not where the media is in the way at the first hurdle.

What I am trying to say is that you and/or the replicator have to be sure that your final disc has been made and can be imaged to glass with the best signal possible (all discs can have some errors on them, but you want the least).

Your replicator will probably recommend a DVDR brand. The disc tends to be sector transferred to the glass cutter. It might be adjusted if you add CSS, but otherwise will be a slightly more error prone transfer than DLT. Your hard disc or an external firewire HD might be of more use to him?

Last time I read/studied, although the contract tends to be for 1000 discs, the break even point compared with duplicating (DVDR) is about 300 discs (c. US$600 for that first run). Was that what ou found this time around? I figure that DVDR media is getting cheaper, but so are the manufacturing overheads too?

I'm sure DVDA discs are viable, just watch your step. Having the replicator author your disc just like you already did in DVDA - just might not cost more and if there is any feature issue, it'll be there problem to sort.

I wish you every success.