DV MAGAZINE Compatibility DVD Article

[Jerry Jones]

Finally breaking its streak of dull issues, DV MAGAZINE finally published an interesting JULY issue.

DVD Compatibility Test was written by Ralph LaBarge.

He tested a decent range of players, disc brands, etc.

DISC BRANDS:

1. Maxell - 80% DVD-R pass rate

2. TDK - 76% DVD-R pass rate

3. Sony - 76% DVD-R pass rate

4. Mitsui - 73% DVD-R pass rate

5. Apple - 73% DVD-R pass rate

6. Imation - 71% DVD-R pass rate

7. Ridata - 69% DVD-R pass rate

8. Verbatim - 69% DVD-R pass rate

9. Panasonic - 69% DVD-R pass rate

10. Vivastar - 63% DVD-R pass rate

11. Memorex - 59% DVD-R pass rate

12. Pioneer - 58% DVD-R pass rate

12. Ritek - 51% DVD-R pass rate

"If you choose off-brand media, record them at the lowest speed possible - 1X for DVD-R and DVD-RW, and 2.4X for DVD+RW."

"Using slower recording speeds increases the overall compatibility rating of off-brand media."

COMPATIBILITY BY MEDIA TYPE:

1. DVD-R for authoring 3.95gb: 96%

2. DVD-R for authoring 4.7gb: 67%

3. DVD-R for general 4.7gb: 66%

4. DVD-RW 4.7gb: 58%

5. DVD+RW 4.7gb: 56%

"DVD-RW and DVD+RW are still the LEAST compatible of the media types."

But LaBarge explains the compatibility issues improve DRAMATICALLY when the range of players is expanded to include only 2001/2002 models:

COMPATIBILITY BY MEDIA ON NEWER PLAYERS

1. DVD-R for authoring 3.95gb: 100%

2. DVD-R for authoring 4.7gb: 94%

3. DVD-R for general 4.7gb: 93%

4. DVD-RW: 89%

5. DVD+RW: 80%

PERFECT PLAYERS:

1. Apex AD660

2. Microsoft XBox

3. Pioneer DV333

4. Pioneer DVDV7400

5. Pioneer PDVLC10

6. Sony DVPS330

7. Sony DVPS360

8. Toshiba SD4700

LaBarge goes on at length about how difficult and labor intensive it is to do a meaningful study of this issue.

He offered the following caveat:

"If I had the time, money, and staff to do a more complete test that included multiple copies of each media format and brand, as well as multiple units of each player make and model, I would consider publicizing the raw data-but as the raw data stands, it's prone to misinterpretation."

The article is very lengthy and it's definitely worth picking up a copy of DV MAGAZINE just to have the article for reference.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[KuroNeko]

Worthless test. The brands he mentions are 80% non-existant, as they don't manufacture themselves but rather buy from other OEM manufacturers (not just one but several) and stick their brand on the discs.

Maxell, TDK, Sony, Ridata, Apple, Panasonic, Vivastar, Memorex.. they all don't make DVD-R. The only ones I can confirm 100% as manufacturers are Mitsui, Verbatim and Ritek.

Imation - probably. Pioneer - some say they do, some say they don't. They probably did early on to get the format underway, but now?

Unless he can ID every disc manufacturer (reading the DVD info fields - like ATIP on CD-R - on each DVD-R) and then compare on that basis, the results are worthless since the tests are non-repeatable.

And for consumers going out to buy discs, they don't know what they will actually wind up with either.

-edit: just as an example: Apple used to rebrand Pioneer discs, back when nothing else was on the market. So either they have multiple providers or they changed, cause they have a vastly different score than Pioneer in this test. Yet for the common consumer, it's the same Apple disc.

Neko

[Brian Ellis]

Neko

Even before I'd worked my way down to your message, I'd more or less come to the same conclusion, especially as I imagine that all these discs were burnt on the same burner (subject to correction). I could well imagine that Pioneer discs burnt on a Pioneer burner would be better matched to each other than on, say, a Panasonic burner, or vice versa.

Furthermore, as a scientist, I believe that anyone who is sufficiently arrogant as to think that only he can interpret the raw data because, "as the raw data stands, it's prone to misinterpretation." must be on very thin ice, indeed. That statement is indicative of subjective interpretation of anecdotal evidence, which means, in simple language, "probably worthless".