[lehill]

I'm burning more and more DVD's of travel videos and soccer games and the like. I'm becoming very curious about why some of my DVD's play fine for some people and not for others. It's not just about media quality and PIE's and POE's

Searching the internet for answers finds some facsinating stuff about DVD manufacturing, formats and burning. For example - every manufacturer has their own dye formulation that requires your burner to produce a customized laser pulse(s) ("write strategy") to produce a proper burn. If your burner can't recognize who made the DVD (and thus the type of dye) it reverts to a generic laser pulse that may not produce a playable DVD - this is why disk compatibility lists and firmware updates are so important for DVD burners.

Here are some of the better links I've found. All are somewhat on the technical side but I found them readable.

Lance
*****

Memorex White Papers
http://memorex.com/h...ne.php?WP_SID=1

Reference Guide for Optical Media (1.8 MB)
Reference Guide Double Layer Media (0.3 MB)
Reference Guide Blue Lasers and HD DVD (0.2 MB)
White Paper: Lifetime Expectations of Optical Discs (0.1 MB)

best16Xburn.com (Verbatim-sponsored)
http://www.best16xburn.com/

I found this one interesting:
How do DVD writers recognize different types or brands of media?

Write Strategies for high performance DVD+R/RW (Phillips, pdf file download)
http://www.licensing.philips.com/includes/...lename=4288.pdf

More on Manufacturer ID codes and ADIP

Pioneer R&D Technical Guide
http://www.pioneer.c...ch/index-e.html

Chapter 1 DVD Overview
Chapter 2 Physical Format of Read-Only Discs
Chapter 3 Read-Only Disc File Format
Chapter 4 Video Format
Chapter 5 Audio Format
Chapter 6 DVD-R and DVD-RW
Chapter 7 DVD-RAM

[rich86]

Another resource is the videohelp.com website and forum.
You will find a section there where you can enter your burner make/model and inquire about actual user experiences using specific media. I find it especially helpful to find out what speed folks are actually burning the media successfully. Frequently, burning optical media at its highest rated speed leads to marginal or failed burns.
You can also inquire against standalone dvd players and learn users experiences playing specific burned media.
Be sure to identify the actual internal manufacturer id of the media you are considering, as it usually has little to do with the brand name stamped on the outside of the package. Memorex does not make optical media - they buy it from oem suppliers (generally CMC in Taiwan, from what I've seen) and slap their package/name on it.

[Merv]

I addition to the site rich86 pointed out, here is another site that identifies the quality of media by manufacturer and then by brand. I have found it quite helpful when selecting a brand of DVD media.

http://www.digitalfa...ia/dvdmedia.htm