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Hi h-bomb, Welcome to the Club :-)
You should be OK with Imitation brand RW discs, I like either Sony RW's or Memorex RW's myself, never ever had any trouble with them. I only use RW's to experiment with tough burns or to store backups on. The problem with RW media is that allot of standalone players won't play them. Standalones like the single write media, it's also allot cheaper. As Veblin told you, DVDINFOPro is an excellent (and FREE) program that has a good eraser with it.
Also, try your OS's format tool. RW's are just too expensive to toss :-(
Now my new little friend, about your DVD backup media, Memorex is a good example as media goes, figures as high as 50% coasters have been reported (One member bought a stack of 50 and got 23 good burns.), not what I would call an impressive record. 4 different companies manufacture Memorex BTW and the quality varies widely as you might imagine. Easy to see now why the quality of a big-named company can't be trusted - "Who's making your Memorex tonight ?"
1. * Cheap media freezes, skips, pixelats and may refuse to be recognized :-(
Besides "Freezing", "skips" and pixelations, many times you?ll get a ?Cyclic Redundancy error? or an "I/O error". This message can mean that your discs are scratched or dirty, it can also mean that your burner won?t accept your ?cheap? media :-(
Another problem which ?pops up? is a ?*Power Calibration Error?. This can stop you right in your tracks and most often is caused by, Yep, you guessed it, inexpensive media.
*A ?Power Calibration Error? can also be attributed to the Optical Components of a DVD Writer, though this isn?t usually the case. Trying to shut down your software and ejecting your DVD then restarting your program and re-inserting the same media recently cleaned has been known to help.
Inexpensive media or even average media is great for text, Data, Spreadsheets, .Jpg and .Gif pictures and is good even for MP3 music BUT for DVD backups - BLAaaaaaT! It SUCKTH in an extremely Big-th way !
2. A good grade media is needed for DVD reproduction !
?Branded? Ritek G04's or Branded Verbatim are what we?re looking for OR any media boasting ?Advanced Metal AZO.?, this indicates a superior dye application, while they are sometimes a bit ?pricey? they are acceptable.
Prices online from Meritline.com have gotten Ritek G04 starting at about a 1/2 dollar($ .50 USD) a disc -
Question - If you make coasters out of 3 cheap or even average discs and good copies from 3 Branded Verbatim discs or 3 ?Branded? Ritek G04 discs - which ones then will you say are too expensive ? The 3 ?Cheapo?s with no movie backup OR, the 3 recommended discs with a perfect backup on each disc ?
Bear in mind, Memorex, Fuji, Sony, TDK, Orange Pack and others are quite good for your MP3 music, picture archives, Spread sheets, Data and your text backups and archives, they just don?t work well for DVD backups. Even DataSafe G04?s made by Ritek have been reported as inferior quality and are evoking that ?Oh no, I shouldn?t have gotten those.?
Remember, for DVD backups, purchasing inexpensive media or even average media is a gamble, some people win, the majority of people lose, varying amounts but, they still lose :-(
Let's try the right media for the job - just buy a 5 pack of what we recommend that will settle it once and for all - Don?t cheat though, buy the EXACT media we recommended -
Using good grade media can guarantee you one thing to an absolute certainty; it surely cannot hurt.
BTW, In an effort to clear the air, when I speak of "Cheap" or "Inexpensive" media, I'm not referring to the price you pay at the counter - I'm referring to the way the manufacturer?s cut the corners during the manufacture of the discs and the quality control used during manufacturing. And when I say ?Branded? that means that when you pick up a disc in your hand, it says ?Ritek? or ?Verbatim? on the disc itself. The cost of the media we recommend many times is cheaper than that you are buying now.
cheers,
Pete
PS You can reduce the numbers of errors while burning cheapo media by burning at a reduced speed. It takes longer but what the heck, you?re saving money. Since you?re compressing more it might be wise to burn just the movie, the less you burn the better the quality sooo, [I]Movie only, please[/I].
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. July 2004 @ 12:17
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