Hey--

Has anyone else had trouble with clients not being able to view a DVD that you send to them? I heard that some DVD players struggle with certain brands of DVDs. Does anyone know what brand(s) would be most compatible with the most DVD players?

Also, what DVD brands do you all like best for archiving images?

Thanks!

Melissa,

I don't think it's the brands so much as the format. There are competing formats of DVD ie: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW etc... (The latest apple DVD burners support all of these) I use the Apple DVDs (media) exclusively and have had no issues so far but it really depends on how old the customer's DVD player is sometimes.

Some of the cheaper DVD players may be more prone to compatibility issues than others.

I just put a disclaimer on my packages that the DVD will work in most DVD players.

Bottom line is you can't guarantee compatibilty yet.

Hope this helps.

How old were the clients' DVD player? If it's older than two years, there is no guarantee it will read all formats. I also heard from a tech geek friend that some generic (cheap brand) blank DVDs are such low quality that they will not burn properly - especially ones made in Taiwan - he suggested buying DVDs made in Japan like Fuji brand. Another question could be: how old is the DVD burner?

I would like to respectfully elaborate on Bumatay’s point. I agree that it’s important not to buy just any cheap generic brand. However, I think the location of where they are made can be misleading.

10-20 years ago, it would probably be a fair statement to say that high tech goods made in Taiwan are lacking in quality. However, over the years (with lots of monetary and technical investment from countries such as Japan and the US), Taiwan has become one of the main producers of high tech goods in the world today. For example, my old Apple Titanium was made in Taiwan. My current G4 Powerbook is made in China (don’t confuse the two countries). If we take a look at most of our computers or electronic products, you’ll notice that most are made in Taiwan or China (I am not referring to the generic ones, I am referring to big names such as Apple, Dell, Nikon, Sony, ect).

One of the main reasons is because the labor is so expensive in Japan that they were forced to build factories elsewhere to handle the demand. Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore (so called the Four Tigers) were the countries that Japan taped into for cheap/skilled/disciplined labor. The Four Tigers helped the Japanese companies produce goods that were too expensive to produce in Japan, using Japanese technology.

Now let’s fast forward to today. Taiwan has assumed many of the high tech roles that traditionally were only available in Japan. For example, Taiwan is now facing the same dilemma that Japan faced 10-20 years ago. The cost of labor and the standard of living is now so high that Taiwan and Japan are now building factories in China to tap into their cheap/skilled/disciplined labor (see a pattern here).

So in summary, I think it is more important to purchase DVD products from a reputable company (and don’t worry about where they may have their factories because reputable companies won’t compromise their reputation by simply going where the labor is cheap. They will set a standard wherever they go).

So if you stick to the major brands like Bumatay had suggested, then I am confident that you’ll be fine.

Hope that helps,
Regis

Ooh sorry if anyone was offended by what I had said - I was just stating what a friend told me and I made an assumption about DVDs (not everything else) coming from Taiwan. It's true many of my electronic/computer items are made there and they are great.

The issue may not even be the brand of DVD, but plainly the quality (regardless where it came from). Thanks for the elaboration Regis.

I appreciate your response Bumatay. Just a friendly discussion.

Take care
Regis

Bumatay - just admit that you are a racist! - just kidding!

I don't think anyone was offended - you both are cool and I'm stoked that you're being sensitive to how easy it is to misread people though!

Cheers!
DJ

Thanks for all your responses. I'm not sure how old the clients' DVD players are but my burners are both less than a year old.

I bought a burner that burns 8x DVD-R discs and that's what I've been using mostly since my apple burner doesn't do 8x. It also does the double sided DVD+R discs, which would be great except those DVDs are still super-expensive--like $17 for a three pack!

So, I'm hearing that the brand isn't as important. Let me know if any of you would have a preference between the following brands or if they all would be equally good:

Prodisc
Ritek
Taiyo Yuden
Trudisc
Verbatim

For some reason Verbatim is twice as expensive as others so I'd rather go with another.

Thanks!

I've heard that burning in the DVD-R format is the most compatible and do not put a stick-on label on the disc because it messes up the balance of the disc.

QUOTE (Melissa Jill @ May 13 2005, 11:17 AM)

I bought a burner that burns 8x DVD-R discs and that's what I've been using mostly since my apple burner doesn't do 8x. It also does the double sided DVD+R discs, which would be great except those DVDs are still super-expensive--like $17 for a three pack! Prodisc Ritek Taiyo Yuden Trudisc Verbatim For some reason Verbatim is twice as expensive as others so I'd rather go with another. Thanks!

Unless you are running 10.4 (Tiger) I don't think OS X supports dual-layer DVDs.

Again I would highly recommend the Apple DVD-Rs. Apple has a 25-pack spindle of 8x DVD-Rs in addition to the 5-pack.

Taiyo Yuden gets most of the good comments on the nerd boards. Between TY and Ritek I've had pretty good luck. Try meritline.com for your media needs.

Thanks for all your help everyone! There are really good deals on that site--thanks for passing it along Floyd!