How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media

(Last updated January 11th 2013)

Translations: Serbo-Croatian by Jovana Milutinovich

Ahh, I’ve been planning to write this one for awhile: an entire article on archival quality media. As I do professional software development as well as professional photography (what a weird combination), I need archival quality CD and DVD media to store my data on.

However, one of the hardest things to is actually find good media, or even understand why it is good media. This article focuses on the history of Compact Discs, writable CD/DVD media, and why DVD+R is superior to DVD-R. If you want to just know what media is worth buying, skip to the summary at the bottom.

Short history of the Compact Disc
The invention of the Compact Disc has had a large impact on both music and computing in the last 20 years. Invented in 1979 as a joint project between Sony and Philips to counter the self-destructive nature of consumer audio playback (such as tapes and records that could only be played so many times before the recording degraded significantly) by switching to a resilient digital format.

The CD was also designed to store standard computer data, as in 1985 the first CD drives for computers were released; massive, bulky, and expensive, it was not until the mid-90s that they really took off, driven almost solely by video games and large multimedia applications.

In 1990, Sony and Philips went back to the drawing table, and then came out with the CD-R, a record-once medium. Yet again, the first CD burners were large, expensive, and bulky, but by the late 90s having a CD burner was the new ‘in’.

The first few generations of CD media, designed by Taiyo Yuden (a company who I respect, and buy all my archival quality media from), actually kind of sucked; it wasn’t until around 2000 that companies started producing very high end media.

CDs and DVDs store individual bits (encoded in various ways depending on the media) with spots of reflective and non-reflective areas. This method is called ‘pits and lands’, where pits ‘absorb’ light (ie, are ‘off’ bits) and lands ‘reflect’ light (ie, are ‘on’ bits).

With pressed media, the pressing method causes pits to reflect the laser’s light away from the sensor, and the lands to reflect it back at the sensor. With burned media, a high energy laser causes spots of organic dye to go opaque and obscure the reflective surface for the pits, leaving the organic dye for lands alone.

Short history of the DVD
While burning was becoming popular in the late 90s, so was playing high quality video on DVDs. Storing almost 7 times the data of a 700MB CD (or almost 13 in the case of dual layer DVDs), allowed companies to store massive amounts of data on one disc, leading to the movie industry to drop VHS tapes and the video game industry to drop CDs.

In 1995, the first DVD specification was ratified by over a dozen companies including Sony and Philips, as well as Thompson, Pioneer, and Mitsubishi. By 2000, at least half the homes in the US and Japan had DVD players.

So, obviously, the next step was to produce burnable DVDs. Two separate, and incompatible, efforts took hold. The first one, Pioneer’s DVD-R (pronounced ‘DVD dash R’) was released in 1997, using different data storage methods than pressed DVDs (appearing to be more like CD-R than DVD), a poor error correction scheme, and the ‘wobble’ laser tracking system of DVD-R is inadequate for the job.

The second effort, lead by the DVD+RW Alliance (headed by Sony, Philips, Mitsubishi, and Thompson) was released in 2002, as an alternative to the poorly implemented DVD-R. DVD+R uses a superior ‘wobble’ laser tracking system, a far better error correction method, and the media quality itself is typically higher. (See the ‘Why DVD+R?’ section below for a more technical explanation)

Why archival media is hard to produce
Unlike pressed CDs/DVDs, ‘burnt’ CDs/DVDs can eventually ‘fade’, due to five things that effect the quality of CD media: Sealing method, reflective layer, organic dye makeup, where it was manufactured, and your storage practices (please keep all media out of direct sunlight, in a nice cool dry dark place, in acid-free plastic containers; this will triple the lifetime of any media).

The silver and aluminum alloys used in virtually all blank CD/DVD media has one major issue, requiring the manufacturer to lacquer a protective seal over the entire disc: silver and aluminum oxidize when they hit air, turning the normally reflective layer into silver or aluminum rust. Some (very expensive) media uses gold instead which doesn’t oxidize, however DVD media cannot use gold due to design issues (not true anymore, see update 1 below). Today, only the cheapest of the cheap media has severe issues with sealing practices (as such, avoid any media made outside of Japan and Taiwan; especially avoid media made in India).

Assuming that the protective seal and reflective layer are manufactured correctly, the next issue is the organic dye. The first organic dyes, designed by Taiyo Yuden, were Cyanine-based and, under normal conditions, had a shelf life of around ten years; simply, that was simply unacceptable for archive discs. Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Mitsui Co., and Ciba Specialty Chemicals spent the next ten years trying to produce the best organic dyes, eventually reaching archive-quality CD media.

Taiyo Yuden produced ‘Super Cyanine’, a chemically stabilized version of the original Cyanine dye designs, while TDK offers media that uses ‘metal-stabilized Cyanine’ dye, leading to similar shelf lives as Taiyo Yuden’s media. Taiyo Yuden states their Super Cyanine dye is chemically stable for at least 70 years, and TDK states their metal-stabilized Cyanine is also stable for 70 years.

On the other hand, Mitsubishi went in a different direction and produced what is called a Metal Azo dye, that they claim is stable for around 100 years. Azo dyes are chemically stable, however, the shelf life of media using Azo dyes typically does not exceed that of Super Cyanine and metal-stabilized Cyanine.

The third dye produced for CD media is called Phthalocyanine dye, with the majority of such dyes produced by Mitsui and Ciba. Typically marketed as more resistant to heat and UV radiation than Cyanine and Azo, modern Cyanine and Azo dyes last just as long in extreme conditions.

DVDs also use similar dyes, however manufacturers have intentionally kept what dyes they use a secret (instead of a feature in their marketing of the media), and all blank DVDs are intentionally the same color (as different dyes on CDs make blanks different colors, however, it is not indicative of what dye is used due to some manufacturers using different colored silver alloys and non-reactive additives in the dye).

Why Taiyo Yuden media, and how to buy in the US
The best discs in circulation tend to be Taiyo Yuden media. In Japan, you find their media under the brand That’s, which are wholly owned by Taiyo Yuden.

As of late 2009, Taiyo Yuden announced they were buying the JVC Advanced Media brand, and making it a wholly owned and operated brand for TY products. They did this to put Taiyo Yuden products on store shelves worldwide. See update 4 at the bottom for a full explanation.

Simply put, I have never had problems with any kind of Taiyo Yuden media. Ever. I have bought CDs and DVDs under a dozen different brands (including non-Taiyo Yuden manufactured TDK and Verbatim), and the only ones that have had a 100% success rate is Taiyo Yuden.

If you cannot find any company selling media under the Taiyo Yuden/JVC Advanced Media brand, I suggest buying from the SuperMediaStore.com, who offer a wide range of Taiyo Yuden CD media, DVD-R media, and DVD+R media. I tend to buy just from them, as they are the only company that guarantees that their media is actually from Taiyo Yuden and not a fake (see the above linked FAQ on information about fake Taiyo Yuden media).

Why DVD+R?
This is the most technical section of the article. If you don’t understand the basics of how CD/DVD media works, or find such technical discussions boring, skip to the next section.

As I said earlier, DVD-R sucks for data preservation for three reasons: inferior error correction, inferior ‘wobble’ tracking, and the fact its data writing methods look like an un-needed halfway point between CD-R and DVD+R. The wobble tracking I shall explain first, then the error corrections method, then the specifics of ATIP/pre-pit/ADIP optimum power settings.

For a CD/DVD burner to track where it is on the disc, it uses three things: the ‘wobble’ of the data track (where it actually wobbles back and forth instead of in a straight line) to tell where it is in the track, the position of the track to tell where it is on the disc, and some additional information on the disc to tell where the track (singular, as CDs and DVDs only have one track, and it is written in a concentric spiral) begins and ends.

This additional information on a CD-R is called the ATIP (Absolute Time In Pregroove), which contains how long the track is, where it begins, what the maximum and minimum writing speeds are, what formula dye it uses, who actually made it, optimum power control settings, and error correction data. The ATIP is stored as a frequency modulation in the wobble itself.

However, since the wobble changes subtly to encode data, it is impossible to use with the small size of tracks DVD requires, as electric noise in the laser pickup and wobbles introduced by the electric motor spinning the disc, these could easily be read as frequency changes in the real track itself.

On DVD-R, they tried to solve the problem with something called ‘pre-pits’ where spikes in the amplitude of the wobble appear due to pits fully out of phase with the rest of the track (ie, between two spirals of the track, where there is no data). This can be viewed as a simple improvement over CD-R as it makes it easier to track the wobble (since the wobble is constant except for the easy to detect and remove spikes).

Unfortunately, this method as one flaw: due to electric noise in the laser pickup, it would be very easy to miss the pre-pit (or read one that wasn’t actually there) if the disc were damaged or spun at fast speeds. The time to read a pre-pit is 1T (roughly .0000000038th of a second), which even for a computer can be easy to miss. DVD-R traded hard to track frequency changes for hard to read wobble-encoded data.

On a DVD+R, however, they came up with a much better method. Instead of changing the frequency of the wobble, or causing amplitude spikes in the wobble, they use complete phase changes. Where CD-R’s and DVD-R’s methods make you choose between either easy wobble tracking or easy ATIP reading, DVD+R’s method makes it very easy to track the wobble, and also very easy to encode data into the wobble. DVD+R’s method is called ADIP (ADdress In Pre-groove), which uses a phase change method.

With ADIPs’ phase changes, the direction of the wobble changes and continues on going in the exact opposite direction (ie, counter-clockwise to clockwise, or the reverse). For example, if the wobble was ‘going up’, the phase change causes it to instantly reverse direction start ‘going down’ no matter where it in the wobble cycle. The phase change is very easy to detect, and also continues for a set period (in this case, one 32T section of the track, or 32 times longer than the pre-pit method of DVD-R).

The state of the phase change (clockwise or counter-clockwise) encodes the individual bits in each block In essence, with the phase change method, not only do you have an easy way of tracking the wobble, but you now have an easy way of reading wobble-encoded data.

As I mentioned earlier, this wobble-encoded data includes error correction of wobble-encoded data itself. Error correction is the most important part of media, because if it does not work, then you’ve lost your data, even if there is nothing seriously wrong with the disc.

The DVD-R specification states that for every 192 bits, 64 of them are not protected under any scheme, 24 of them are protected by 24 bits of parity, and the last 56 bits are protected by another 24 bits of parity. This weird (to put it mildly) scheme allows you to easily scramble or lose 25% of the data that is required to read your disk! This information is almost more important than the actual data burned on the disc itself.

The DVD+R specification, however, states that for every 204 bits of information, it is split into four blocks of 52 bits containing 1 sync bit to prevent misreading because of phase changes, 31 bits of data, and a 20 bit parity (that protects all 32 bits of data). The sync bit is always the same value in all four blocks, and exists only to prevent phase inversions.

Now, the third item on the list: how DVD+R discs burn better. As I said earlier, ATIP/pre-pit/ADIP stores information about optimum power control settings. This information is basically formulas stating how much output power is needed, what the laser startup power should be, and other pieces of information you require to properly burn a DVD.

Optimum power control output is dependent on three things: burning speed, laser wavelength, and information given to the drive about the media. DVD-R basically fails on all three accounts because DVD+R simply includes far more information about the media in the ADIP data than DVD-R does in it’s pre-pit data.

DVD+R includes four optimum profiles, one for four major burning speeds (usually 2x, 4x, 6x, and 8x, though this can change as speeds increase). Each of these profiles include optimum power output based on laser wavelength, more precise laser power settings, and other additional information. With this information, any DVD+R burner can far more optimize it’s burning strategy to fit the media than it can with DVD-R, consistently providing better burns.

For comparison, DVD-R includes one profile, optimum power output based for that one profile only and uncalibrated towards what wavelength it is for, less precise laser power settings, and no other additional information. Typically, DVD-R burners have to already know how to burn a certain piece of media (and include this information in their firmwares) before they can properly burn to it. New media often is not properly supported.

In addition to the optimum power control profiles, DVD+R also gives four times more scratch space for the drive to calibrate the laser on; more space can only improve the calibration quality. So, in short, DVD+R media exists to simply produce better burns and protect your data better.

And finally, the end of the article…
Finally, after roughly three pages of technical discussion, we arrive at the end of my dissertation on archival quality CD/DVD media. So, you’re probably now wondering, in simple terms, what media do I recommend?

To begin with, I do not recommend CD-RW, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW media in any form for permanent storage. This is mostly a no-brainer, but those discs are meant to be able to be changed after burning, and they are simply unsuitable for long-term archival storage. I also do not recommend DVD-R media due to DVD+R’s superior error correction and burning control.

That said, I recommend Taiyo Yuden media across the board. Taiyo Yuden currently manufactures 52x CD-R, 16x DVD-R, and 16x DVD+R media in normal shiney silver, inkjet printable, and thermal printable forms. Taiyo Yuden may be one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive), but their media quality is unsurpassed. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I recommended buying from SuperMediaStore.com as they are the only online US distributor that guarantees that their Taiyo Yuden media is certified as coming from Taiyo Yuden.

So, what am I using? Due to Taiyo Yuden’s superior media quality, and DVD+R’s superior design, I use only Taiyo Yuden DVD+R media. I recommend this media to everyone who wishes to keep their data for a long, long time.

Update 1: It seems MAM-A and Kodak actually has managed to make a gold DVD, though no one else seems to be manufacturing them (Taiyo Yuden/JVC Advanced Media now makes an archival gold disc, see update 6). However, MAM-A’s gold archival media still doesn’t seem to exceed TY quality (although Mr 60,000 in the comments below puts TY second best to MAM-A). Due to the extreme cost of gold archival media ($2+ a disc) with very little increased protection (if any), I’ll still say TY media is better. I want to see more independent tests on this before I change my recommendation.

In addition, I’d like to mention that Verbatim has been relabeling other brands of disc as their own. If the box/spindle/cakebox the discs come in don’t say they’re manufactured with Verbatim’s proprietary Azo dye (sometimes called Advanced Azo, sometimes not, depending on the product) then they aren’t Verbatim media at all and should be avoided as they may not meet typical home archival standards.

Update 2: (Sept. 19th 2007) Its almost been a year since I first wrote this article. My recommendations for media have not changed, my recommendations for DVD burners have.

Samsung: Samsung is currently producing two drives worth owning, the
Samsung SH-S222AB
(SATA). They’re not considered archival grade, but they’re not bad.

TEAC: TEAC makes an archival drive that is ISO/IEC10995 compliant, and is very expensive. Comes in two forms, external USB DV-W5000U and internal SATA DV-W5000S. I’ve seen DV-W5000U drives for sale for $500, and refurbished DV-W5000S drives for $150-200. This is the elite of drives, and recommended if you’re very serious about 30+ year archival storage.

Update 3: (July 26th 2009) Its been awhile since I updated this article. Pioneer is no longer manufacturing drives worth using. Just buy a Samsung or TEAC drive like I link to above. I’m using two Samsung drives now after my PX-716 finally died after years of service.

My recommendation on TY and Verbatim hasn’t changed, and I imagine it will never change; DVD media will not change significantly from here on out. Bluray in my opinion is not worth switching over to unless you’re storing data that can be measured in hundreds of gigabytes, and at that point you might want to look into archival tape storage.

When Bluray is worth switching over to, I’ll write a follow up article to this one. High quality single layer media will have to drop below 50 cents a piece and Bluray burners will have to become ubiquitous (much like DVD burners are now) before that happens. I’m thinking 2011 or later.

Update 4: (August 3rd 2010) Taiyo Yuden has bought the JVC Media brand and is now operating under the JVC Advanced Media brand. You can now buy TY inside JVC boxes and get your usual TY quality. This site has the conversion of part numbers.

JVC has not bought Taiyo Yuden, and Taiyo Yuden is in full control of this new venture. They merely bought they name so they can put TY products on store shelves worldwide.

SuperMediaStore.com is selling almost all JVC Advanced Media branded TY products in place of the old TY branded ones.

Update 5: (September 27th 2011) A few people have asked about how PIE/PIF scans work.

DVD-R and DVD+R both employ two stage error correction.

PIE (Parity Inner Error) just means error correction was used, PIF (Parity Inner Failure) means the error was unrecoverable using the inner ECC block but still may be recovered using the outer ECC block . On tools that give avg/max/total, max PIE values above 140, or max PIF values above 4* means the disc needs to be replaced but the data most likely isn’t corrupted yet**.

For a burn to be considered still pristine you want max PIE below 20 and max PIF 3 or lower.

Discs will NOT be pristine after 5 years, but there is a fall off of PIF/PIE increasing after 6 months and doesn’t seem to start picking up again until 5-10 years depending on storage environment.

Totals for PIF can be as high as 100k yet have a max of 20, and total PIF can be as high as 1000 but have a max below 3. Max PIE is considered mostly fatal above 280 and can reach as high as 1664, and max PIF can reach as high as 208*.

DVD+R generally will maintain lower values for both due to superior error correction techniques.

* Some tools and/or drives won’t list above 4 for PIF.

** Some tools and/or drives also list PO (Parity Outer) uncorrectable errors. This is for any read that has a max PIF above 4. This indicates a mostly unrecoverable data corruption error, which would effect (if I’ve done my math right) 36k of data (although that doesn’t mean the whole 36k of data is corrupted, just that its corrupted inside of that 36k). This still does not indicate the disc is unreadable, some obsessive ripping tools will try multiple reads in an effort to get a valid read or different incorrect reads that can be merged into a valid read.

Update 6: (January 11th 2013) Taiyo Yuden announced last year that they are now producing an ISO/IEC10995 compliant archival grade gold alloy DVD-R. Sadly, its not DVD+R and I’m hoping they’ll consider making a DVD+R version as well. Not many vendors carry this disc yet.

Also, a few people have asked when I’m going to write that Bluray follow up article. I don’t think Bluray is viable for long term archival storage yet. I continue my recommendation that if you need to store hundreds of gigabytes of data or more, consider archival tape.

Written by
Open Source software architect and technologist. He's just this guy, you know? Follow him him on Google+.
Published in
Transmissions from the Little Blue Marble

Published October 30th, 2006

Comments

1,255 Responses

I have a light scribe drive which I’d like to use for archival purposes. Taiyo Yuden doesn’t seem to have a DVD+R Lightscribe variant though Lightscribe has it’s own DVD+R.

Do you have any insight on how it holds up or if there is a TY lightscribe media available.

Mitsubishi came out with the new Century Disc late last year. RMGProducts.com became the exclusive distributor for the Century Disc. In order for a disc to utilize the ‘scratch resistant coating’ it needs to start out as a very accurate disc otherwise as Patrick (comment #53) said, you have [scratch-free scrambled data].

The Century Disc starts with a very low BLER (block error rate) tested around 15 BLER or less and then adds a resin spin-coat protection just like the Blu-ray discs.

It is a truly Archival media as well. They were just at the WEVA Expo 08 in Orlando last week.

Thanks again.

Can you help us in finding out which company markets for Taiyo Yuden in Inida? Or from where do we find information whether its Taiyo Yuden? As i searched on CDFreaks.com but i couldn’t really find information on that? Thanks.

Thanks.

Most of these Scratch Guard technologies come from Bluray disc research (due to the fact Bluray discs have a very thin plastic layer on the data side), and they’re all similar technologies, though some just spray a coating on and others replace the plastic used with a much harder one.

That said, Scratch Guard, no matter what company is selling it, is ultimately a waste of money if your data rots…. in essence, you’d have scratch-free scrambled data.

As I’ve said in before, you should never handle archival discs after you’ve stored them away except to very infrequently use or check them; infrequently used discs don’t get scratched.

If you’re actually going to be handling discs constantly, look into disposing of discs after they’re too worn. I only pay about 30 cents per disc for Taiyo Yuden DVD+R in a large spindle, so its really not that big of a problem.

Hello,

I read your article. Thanks alot for teh information.

I have been looking for a good media for archives purpose. Somebody suggested Moserbare has come up with a ‘Scratch Gaurd’series and company itself is giving 200 years gauranty. As i read your comment on not to trust Moserbare specially from India, but somebody also pointed out its not the best option but also not bad option.. something like that. Please share your view points on this, which will help us in taking decision.

Which is the best option available in India? Thanks.

I think there lies the problem I have with their study. The only results that are valid are those where the discs are never put into harsh conditions, and TY and Verbatim AG score equally in that test.

The reason I have problems with hash condition tests, is that if I’m frequently using a disc, I’m not going to use the original disc. Its simple as that. You don’t frequently use archival discs, it defeats the purpose of archiving them in the first place.

Patrick McFarland;
they tested Taiyo Yuden DVD-R (media code: TYG03). The minimum life expectancy for TY was rated as 4.9-19.4 years based on burner and wear in harsh conditions and for Verbatim AG it was 18-73.5 years. The maximum rated life expectancy based on burner and wear in proper jewel-case storage was rated as 35.5-141.9 years for the TY and 31.8-127.4 years for the Verbatim AG. I would expect that with a good Samsung (or other good quality burner), that the TY would still offer a very long life but it’s *best* minimum life would still only reach the level of the Verbatim’s *worst* minimum life – which wouldn’t be much of an issue for non-critical data if you used a program such as dvdisaster to create ECC maps.

dvd-ram not discussed.

as it acts more like a hard drive with concentric ring tracks, has good error correction and defect management; surely its a candidate with 30 years archival life claimed. better than hard drive imo – less eggs in one basket! less compatible tho.
i use jvc brand – find very good, panasonic seem useful too.
a bit more expensive than wite0once discs. gives opportunity to re-use media

Thanks for the work you put into this info. I\’m checking back every week for more.

Although thats interesting, did they bother to test TY’s DVD+R media?

Also, yeah, I’m not surprised Kodak’s Gold failed, afiak they’re manufactured by MAM-A which has really low quality (and is riding off the MAM name which used to be the company to buy from for archival media). I rate Kodak Gold pretty much at the bottom.

The c’t magazine, one of the worlds most respected Computer Technology magazines, recently did a test involving a media you really shouldn’t have left out, the Verbatim Archival Grade gold-silver combo-DVDs that use a layer of silver for perfect refelction sealed with a layer of solid gold for perfect protection – they came to the conclusion that it beat the pants off every other brand, by far, and that they are so realiable that after the initial burning, you can safely wait 18 *YEARS* before the first time you should check the media for degrading-related errors. The Kodak gold DVDs were rated to last less than 2 years in ideal conditions and 6 months in harsh – with a final recommendation of simply, “Do not use.”.

enony: its not k3b (or rather, wodim) thats doing it, its your drive. Some drives use the fastest compatible speed and force it on DVD+R.

Also, do not burn discs at a slow speed. This does not improve quality, and on CDs can actually ruin the media if burned below 24x.

DVD media typically functions best at the two fastest burn profiles it. With k3b, Device -> Media info.

Note: some media includes burning profiles faster than what the media is typically rated for; the TY spindle on my desk has profiles for 12x and 8x, yet its an 8x spindle, so I only burn at 8x.

Bard Martin: I wouldn’t bother talking to their live chat. They’re minimum wage people with no technical knowledge.

I spent many frustrating minutes on the SuperMediaStore chat line trying to induce the guy on the other end to tell me which, if any, of the Taiyo Uden DVD+R’s might afford the greatest archivality. Finally, he informed me that their DVD-R’s give the greatest longevity. Yet you recommend the “+” DVD’s (for their writing properties). Archivality is my main concern. What should I do?

i found the article very informative and useful… one issue i found with dvd+r is that my burnsoftware (k3b) does not allow me to set the burn-speed for dvd+r discs, claiming that unlike dvd-r writers like to set their own write-speed for dvd+r media… i am not sure if this applies to other software and writers… i do like to set slow speeds to ensure accuracy of burn..

ps: my writer is a sony dru190a which i think is a liteon..

You are right there’s a lot I don’t know but that’s why I’m reading and I don’t think it’s beyond my capabilities to figure out how to do it the right way. Even if I don’t end up doing the peoject myself at least I have learned something. Thanks for the terminology lesson.

I am a real novice when it comes to video technology on the computer, this despite the fact that I was always one of those people who could program a VCR (a former test of Luddite versus techno-capable).

But I have a few questions with which I hope some expert here can help me–

1) My sister bought me a DVD recorder (DV-R, it says on the box) as a Christmas gift, one of those components that has a VCR built in. But it says something on the box about up-conversion or up-convertor (a term with which I am unfamiliar).

I had trouble figuring out exactly what was being implied, as those instructions (on the box as well as in the products’ accompanying manuals) are usually written by Chinese in phonetic English. But what I suspected was that since I do not have cable TV or satellite service that device would not record off-air programming for me with a mere analog signal and rabbit ears. I also doubt that this device will work even with one of those converter boxes necessary for obtaining digital broadcast signals after February 2009. I think I need to get an upgraded model of DVD recorder, but one of your posts here seems to indicate those devicres are not so good anyway.

Still, for a person, who is not a computer whiz, would these devices be acceptabel for transferrimng video programming from VHS to DVD, and would I then be able to use those discs to upload video files to websites on-line (such as You Tube), and how do i do so, simply? Is there some software necessary?

2) To download video off the Internet, I generally use a video downloading program called “vdownloader,” recommended me by a computer programmer friend, which usually works well with files on the You Tube and Daily Motion websites. But I often have trouble downloading files from Google Video, whether with Google’s downloading tool itself, the Real Media tool I have installed on my computer and with the vdownloader (even though vdownloader says it supports Google’s video site).

Quite often the Google video files stop after a few minutes or less of supposed downloading, using any of these methods. What to do?

Also, on vdownloader, and another recommended program I have used called “Media-Convert,” which Output Format is best to use, taking into consideration space saving on one’s drive and quality? Is .mpeg-2 or .wmv better, or perhaps another format?

I just recently got a DVD burner on my computer, but normally have made VCD’s on CD’s to watch video files from the Web on my stand-alone DVD player, using the aforementioned programs (vdownloader & Media-Convert). Some files will play on my DVD player (which I prefer to use, since it’s hooked up to my TV), but others won’t and it’s a mystery to me as to why, since I have always selected the VCD-NTSC output format on the vdownloader program, which I was instructed to do by the program’s author. Media-Convert has a two-step Output process, .wmv, .mpeg-2, etc., then VCD or DVD NTSC or PAL, etc.

Please, I hope somebody can help with these issues, as I am a disabled person who is rather housebound & really enjoy downloading classic TV video from the Web to watch. I am sure through helping me that your answers will also benefit others lacking the technological expertise.

Thank you,

Jim

Wow, I think this project of yours may be a little beyond your capability if you don’t know what encoding means in this context.

Encoding is what happens when you turn raw data into the MPEG-2 that DVDs need.

By the way I have been using Verbatim DVD+R for about 2 years and I’m happy to see that you also think they are the best. I had purchased a DVD software and in the fine print they recommended Verbatim. Now I know the technicals on why the + is better and also why Verbatim.

What did you mean when you said “A lot of companies screw up end codes. It’s rather difficult to do correctly”
What is an encode?

It is not the quality of the specification that defines the quality of the media… if that was true, everyone and their grandmother could produce TY quality media.

Good Article but I heard that the latest DVD-R (2.1 specification) has better or even quality to DVD+R

A lot of small time companies regularly screw up encodes. Its rather difficult to do correctly, and usually requires an actual professional (or learning to do it yourself).

PCI and PCI-E is the kind of slot that is on your motherboard. If you don’t know what this is, you may just wanna hire a professional instead.

That’s what I was thinking also but I called some local companies that do transfers and that’s the technique that they use. So I figured I could do it myself. I have a good Sony VCR Player that still works. Where can you get a good VHS deck in case it fails? What is a PCI or PCI-E?

One more thing. The software I found was called VHS to DVD by a company http://www.honestech.com.

Typically you don’t want to use an automated VHS->DVD device.

You want to hook a good VHS deck up to a real video capture card (not a USB, get a PCI or PCI-E Hauppauge with a video input) and then use a DVD building app (sorry, I can’t recommend any, I don’t use Windows) to author the DVD.

VHS is a very low quality format, and no matter what you do you won’t get great quality, but an automated VHS->DVD solution will only make it worse.

Leave a Reply to Patrick McFarland