DVR-R , DVD+R, DVD-RAM: What's the Difference? (page 3)

Authoring media is not a higher quality version of general media and uses a different laser wavelength (635nm, as compared to 650nm for general discs). You cannot burn authoring discs in drives meant for general media, and vice versa. Designed for professional use, authoring DVDs can hold information that general discs can't. For example, you can submit an authoring DVD with standardized Cutting Master Format (CMF) to a duplication house instead of a DLT (digital linear tape). Authoring burners are, of course, significantly more expensive than the general burners discussed in this article.

Why do home-burned DVDs have some compatibility problems, but Hollywood DVDs don't? The answer is that Hollywood doesn't burn DVDs, but instead stamps them out. While a burned DVD relies on changes in the color of a dye to record the digital 0s and 1s that define the disc, a stamped disc uses physical pits. Clearly, a stamped disc is the better way to go. There are even some questions about whether the dye used in burned DVDs will fade over time, although it is just speculation at this point.

In order to produce stamped discs, you'll need to contact a DVD duplication house and find out what they need. This may mean that you need to use a specific authoring application (e.g. Apple DVD Studio Pro 2.0) and output to a specific format (e.g. DLT). The DVD dupe house will then create a very expensive glass master and press out a large quantity of discs for you, perhaps a minimum of 1,000. At economies of this scale, the per disc cost is going to be very reasonable and you will get much greater compatibility than home burned discs. Besides, at the fastest burning speeds currently available, a full disc takes about 15 minutes to burn (times 1,000 discs).

The fastest drives now burn at 4X speeds (where 1X for DVD is 9X for CD, as far as data rate is concerned). Pragmatically, 4X means that you can burn a full DVD in under 15 minutes. But you'll need to use "4X Certified" media to hit these speeds.

Media quality is an important factor in determining compatibility with DVD players. Again, we must stress that the player itself is a much more important factor. A compatible player is likely to play both cheap discs and expensive ones, while an incompatible player will still not play even the best quality media. Media quality will make a difference with border-line players.

So, how do you find higher quality media? There are many brand names of media you can buy, from Apple to Verbatim, but in reality, there are only a very few original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Ritek is one example of a Taiwanese OEM that produces discs for the brand names you recognize. You can save money by buying OEM (generic) discs.

In most cases, these discs are not only of the same quality, but they are, in fact, exactly the same discs. Buying branded discs will give you piece of mind, however, and the additional price may be worth it. Verbatim, for example, has very high standards for the discs that it orders from Ritek, performs their own quality analysis and, perhaps most importantly for the consumer, has their phone number and guarantee on the package you buy.

One way you can identify higher quality media is by looking for the "4X Certified" guarantee. Besides giving you higher potential burning speeds with compatible burners, these discs are generally of higher quality.

The good news is that all of this really doesn't matter, because the format you use is transparent to the viewer. DVD burning technology is well past the first generation and prices are low. Since compatibility is determined by the player, this issue becomes less and less important with every year that passes and older players are replaced.

What are professional wedding and event videographers doing in the real world? One answer is to continue to offer your product on good old-fashioned VHS tape for clients who have an older DVD player or maybe don't have one at all. An even better solution is to give your clients a $50 DVD player that you know works with your discs. It's not as if you'll loose money doing this, just include it in your expenses.

DVD is here, now. Although we are still experiencing some minor growing pains, the worst is behind us. The future looks bright, and it is clearly dominated by shiny plastic discs.

Here is a survey of media costs from various sources. The lower price in the range is for OEM (generic) discs in quantities of 100, while the high price is what you might pay for one piece of branded media on the shelf at your local electronics store. Everything will have changed by the time you read this, but this should give you a rough idea of what is a reasonable price.

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