With so many people asking "what media do I use" I thought I would do a little comparison test between the Dye types. I have been using the Nero DvD Quality test on a Liteon 811s writer to gather the data, and an NEC2500a writer to burn the disks (or my new BenQ/NEC3500 writers when stated). To understand the results you must compare the graphs in the following ways. Disregard any spikes and look for general continuous areas of colour.
Pale blue PI errors 400+ will certainly skip on movies, below 100 is very good. (I find PI values of less than 250 will play without skipping on anything)
Yellow PI failures 10+ is a fail, chuck disks that do this in the bin. (I find PI failures of over 10 may not copy in a PC)
You will notice ALL these scans produce perfect read test lines so evey disk has passed the Nero Dvd speed test with flying colours.

The best media, Datawrite TITANIUM/Yellow/Datasafe/Datawrite 8x printable CMC MAG AE1 with PI errors of under 50 and PI failures of 3 MAX, this is easily my favourite disk, will play in anything and is given a
Average Quality rating of 92/100 (93,90,90,90)
The Datasafe 8x printable branded version is particularly good, and a cracking price from SVP


Ridisc Xtreme Red/ Datawrite Blue 8x G05 is second mainly because it only burns well at 8x on my NEC3500
(but beats all previous Quality Scans I have done in almost every area)


A New third place to Verbatim 8x hub printable MCC 003 (burnt at 12x on my NEC3500a) I can't believe Titaniums/Yellows are better than these!



In forth place comes Verbatim 4x hub printable MCC 002, these disks cost me £1 each and should be far better than this PI errors of 125 with PI failures of 3 MAX.
Quality rating of 88/100,


Fifth is the original Datasafe/Ridata Ritek G04 that everyone loved so much, but have not been sold for 9 months now (what you are currently buying as G04 media is far different and appears much lower in the test) This disk had a PI error approaching 175 with a PI failure of 5 MAX. The clumping of the PI failures seems to indicate an unevenly spread dye layer, but still a good result with a
Quality rating of 77/100


Sixth, Datasafe 4x prodiscS03 hub printable, quite a surprise but with P1 errors of less than 100 and PI failures of 2 MAX, this is a great disk. A bit variable in quality. (maybe I shouldn't have burnt them at 8x)
Average Quality rating 70/100 (95,30,77)



Seventh place is Datawrite Hub Printable/Bulqpaq Orange/Datawrite Grey 8x FUJIFILM03 that has been heavily penalised for it's rising PI errors of 400 near the end of the disk (may skip on movies for the last 1 gig) but still an "OK" result with a PI failure of 3 MAX.
Average Quality Rating 39/100 (38,30,50)


DO NOT USE MEDIA BELOW THIS MARK FOR MOVIES, LIKELY TO SKIP
Eigth place, Ritek 4x Orange Grade A (or not). This is where Ritek started dropping down that slippery slope in spring of this year. A PI error rate of 500 and a PI failure 4 MAX. They still seemed good value for money at this point.
Quality rating 33


Ninth place goes to Ritek G05 Orange, many people on the forum have given this disk a right slating, and from the results here, deservedly so. PI errors of upto 500 and a PI failure of a 5 MAX give this a
Quality Rating of 18/100


And in last place RITEK G04, this is what you are all demanding that trades are done on, the worst disk you can buy at the moment (out of this test anyway). A consistant PI error rating of 1400, and PI failure of 50. Quite frankly, I'm amazed that this disk gives a smooth speed test, it skips like crazy in all my Dvd players and has a
Quality rating of 0/100 I was mad enough to pay for 100 of these
(who wants to trade with me on Ritek then?)


This comparison I have done is in no way definative, as I made no attempt to test multiple disks. The disks that got tested were the first of each type that I managed to pull out of my movie collection. I have made no attempt to cherry pick the disks. I thought the moden Ritek dyes would be bad, but never imagined that bad. I was very surprised that all the speed scans showed perfect results, so much for speed tests!
Please feel free to pick fault with my results. I have been saying for a couple of weeks that the Datasafe/Datawrite 8x printable CMC MAG AE1 were good but hardly thought they would beat the pants off Verbatim disks. (you can add the Datawrite Titanium CMC MAG AE1 to this group)

I had my hands on a BenQ/Philips dvdwriter for a couple of days and did some quality scans on the blank media I had lying around. Best quality is indicated by the lowest, smoothest lines, says BenQ
Purple = Tracking error, Blue = focus error

Best


Second Best


Third


Fourth


And Oh Dear! Not suitable for burning at this speed


I think The Datawrite Titanium/Yellows come first again, but if anyone wants to argue the case for the MCC disks, I can see their point. It's certainly a bit freaky that the two 8x disks come at the top, especially when you consider they were scanned for 12x burns.

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quote:

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Originally posted by LoneGun:
also worth pointing out that different writers will give different results.

Nice post pj keep it up

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Good info but I have 107's and 108's and find the fuji's give a perfect graph,rising all the way to 15\16x.
As LoneGun said different writers will give different results.
I do agree 100% that people stillask for riteks(not as much) I would prefer a bulkbaq fuji(FR02 code of course!) to ritek any day.

My toshiba will read these perfectly and if I burn them at 12x the graph goes off the chart(17x is the max I have gotten with these).

I did a trade recently where ritek was prefered,did a speed graph and they barely rose over 5-6x,still if thats what people want....
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every disk in my test gives a perfect graph to 14x, my whole point is to sort out the best of the best. I am looking a little bit deeper than the standard speed graph. A perfect graph doesn't mean the worst disk in the test will play a movie smoothly though. What started me off was the fact my graphs were great, but the bad ritek G04s wouldn't play smoothly in anything. The only true indication of movie playability is the PI error chart (pale blue). My PS2 won't play any movie that hits over 250 in the error chart and is my most picky player. My philips dvdr75 starts to skip at over 400.
I've now tested a few more of the grey fujifilm03 disks, these were written by Pioneer writers, and are no better than my original test disk, all show the similar PI errors curve.

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Superb work PJ... it's great to see those graphs explained.. I love the CMC disk, never skips in my player.


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In the graphs above
the very bad Ritek G04 was sold as "Ritek G04 printable" last summer (3-9 months ago)
the much better Ritek G04 was sold as "Ritek G04 printable" last winter (12-18 months ago)

both purchased from the same forum sponsers,

But I also have some
Datasafe Ritek G04, with the stripe, and they gave very similar results purchased at the same time periods (approx) I suspect most of the different brands come out of the same factory with merely a different silk screen top printed on at the end of the process.

Also
I am using a Liteon 811s dvd writer for my scans, this was one of the first reliable writers able to perform this type of scan. Whether it is a good reader or not, doesn't really matter, as the scans are only a way to give a RELATIVE quality position. Experienced people should do their own testing with their own writers. My tests are done on media I am using at the moment and pretty much all my burning is currently done using, CMC MAG + ProdiscS03. I would not advise anyone to use media that I would not happily use myself.

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some excellent work m8, must have taken you ages.
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added Verbatim super azo MCC 003

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added New Ridisc Xtreme G05 red

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PJ why do you blackout the quality score on some of the tests ?

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They get blacked out cos I don't agree with em, so all my newer scans I black em out (if I remember)

For example
If you look at the Ridisc G05 red scan it was reading a score of 98 until the little 2 PI fail at 1.6 gig when it reduced the score to 95. Do you think that really reflects a difference between a score of 98 and 95?

Average PI errors is what counts most for me in a scan, and the Quality Score takes no account of this at all. I'm not sure that PI fails are really significant, as none of them in my scans has ever indicated any influence in the playability of a movie. PI errors do seem to give a good indication of where a movie is likely to skip though.

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I'm using the ones at the top

I mainly like to use printables for my movies
Mostly Datasafe/Datawrite 8x printable CMC MAG AE1 (burnt @ 12x)
Verbatim 8x Hub Printables MCC 003 (burnt @ 12x) or Datasafe Hub 4x printables ProdiscS03 (burnt @ 8x)
(hub printable get used when dvd picture goes to hub, very scientific)

If I don't need to print then
Datawrite Yellows/Titaniums CMC MAG AE1 (burnt @ 12x)

I always do a speed scan on all the media I burn, about 5 out of 100 of the Datasafe Hub printables get chucked for having dips (but they are a really good price) NO rejects at all with any of my other favs so far (touch wood) Can't really say much about the new G05 disks yet, they only arrived yesterday, they look like good quality (but they ain't printable)

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I've just bought some Traxdata hub printables that are G05's and am amazed at the results compared to other branded media.
It would be great if this was a regularly updated thread or even made sticky.

Tez
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The traxdata full face printables are absolute the dogs danglies.

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Just got a wagon load more of the Datasafe 8x printables CMC MAG AE1
and they are every bit as good as the ones I had before xmas. £4 for 25 from SVP ......... unbeatable!

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