dvd convertors and media id tools

[EVAN772]

I was using nero and did not like the way my disc were coming out - so today after some searching and so on I found these few good sites & freeware I would like to share. If there is already info on this I apologize ahead of time.

conversion for my dvd formats
1. - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/WinFF

nice tool along with this one
2. - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/DVD_Flick

after using these my dvds are much better, not waisting dvds. also had something to do with my Denon player and Nero not working so good with pal, so I just converted everything to NTSC first and burned with DVD_flick.

As for my DVD's themselves I found this tool - freeware
http://www.dvd-recordable.org/wwwimg...opro/index.htm - it tells you what type of media you have among other things

i can now tell what media I really have - as compared to this chart-
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm - very informative

It seems that Memorex - at least mine is a Rytek grade3 DVD and my Sony is actually a Yuden made DVD. so that thread on what to buy was good, but you can check your stuff out using these tools. You already have a Yuden dvd by not spending the money. Not sure how true that will work out. Anyway this should - IMHO -practically guarantee a good burn.

P.S. - I know these are a lot of places to check out, but if you have multiple tabs it shouldn't be a problem, and well worth it.

the following is a post where I found it- hats off to lightning uk- author of imgburn for info. - http://imgburn.com/

____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

Which DVD-R media should I buy?

Answer:
Well it's kinda hard to give you a straight answer to this question. Some drives just work better with some media than others.

It's often difficult to actually find the media you're after. This is because a 'brand' name can often use discs from various manufacturers.
Therefore it's important when buying discs that you look at what's known as the 'Media ID' and not who puts their name on the label.

Look at the following link:

http://www.svp.co.uk/

(Then select 'Blank DVDs' from the menu on the left)

You can see lots of 'brands' being sold (Datasafe, Verbatim, Datawrite, Bulkpaq etc) but if you look at what they have down for the ADVDINFO text, many have the same 'Media ID'.

Common ones are:

MCC
TY
YUDEN
RITEK
CMC
Prodisc

Personally I'd steer clear of everything except MCC, TY and YUDEN for single layer discs. For double layer, you want to be buying discs using the MKM dye - normally branded by Verbatim.
TY and YUDEN are both from the same people (Taiyo Yuden). The TY discs are - (minus) format, the YUDEN ones are + (plus) format.
I wouldn't say they're any (much?) more expensive, but they're decent quality and unlike many other makes, you can trust them to be 'readable' in the future! lol

The Media ID of your discs can be seen in the information panel on the right within ImgBurn and you have the blank media in your DVD Writer. It'll either show under 'Media ID', 'Disc ID' or 'Manufacturer ID'.

Incase you'd like to learn more about good and bad discs, here's a link to someone elses site:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

[randytravis]

the media forums at cdfreaks are another great resource. certain drives perform better with certain discs, and with a little reading you can find the discs that work optimally with your specific drive.

[AAR.oner]

Originally Posted by EVAN772

\so I just converted everything to NTSC first and burned with DVD_flick.

\

just a quick note for everyone, converting from PAL > NTSC or vice versa is fine for your own personal viewing copy...but it should never then be traded...the reason is that almost all format converters do so lossy-ly

you should always make a data back up of the original for trading/seeding in the future...

[Festafarian]

If you have nero, there is an option called "info tool".
I dont use nero for burning but I've found this to be invaluable. It will tell you what brand disk you have, playing time, whether it's pal or ntsc and all kinds of other good info

[EVAN772]

Originally Posted by Festafarian

If you have nero, there is an option called "info tool".
I dont use nero for burning but I've found this to be invaluable. It will tell you what brand disk you have, playing time, whether it's pal or ntsc and all kinds of other good info

Thanks for reminding me ,I forgot, but it is seems to be missing the actual cd code that dvdinfopro has. It helps me to cross reference. To each his own. Both are really good tools.
lol

[pawel]

Originally Posted by AAR.oner

the reason is that almost all format converters do so lossy-ly

Not almost but ALL, there is no lossless conversion between PAL<->NTSC

[AAR.oner]

Originally Posted by pawel

Not almost but ALL, there is no lossless conversion between PAL<->NTSC

very true...i sometimes forget to specify between the technical world and the trading world

what i was getting at was: a conversion done with pro-grade gear is not going to lead to the lossy degradation of quality that a typical collector doing the conversion at home on his/her PC

and what we typically see around here is freeware/consumer-level converters which cause *obvious* quality loss...that is the issue we have with format conversion in re: to collecting/seeding at the Den...because just about everything related to the video world is lossy