dbminter

Blu-Rays come in 3 layer formats: single layer BD-R, double layer BD-R DL, and triple layer BD-R XL. BD-R are 25 GB. BD-R DL are 50 GB. And to confuse matters, BD-R XL are 100 GB and not 75! Not all Blu-Ray drive support BD-R XL so far, though. And, they are working on a quad layer BD that will support 125 GB. The desingers of Blu-Ray claim it's scratch resistant. I don't buy that. If you tasked me with a Blu-Ray and a pair of scissors, I'm pretty sure I could scratch it. However, I do believe Blu-Ray is more scratch RESISTANT than CD's and DVD's. They have a special kind of coating on them that the others don't.

No update should be needed. An mDisc capable drive should, I would think, detect an mDisc has been inserted and perform the appropriate burning operation for the inserted disc. Like how the drive can determine if a CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray has been inserted simply by reading the various ID strings from the disc. In other words, the effective upshot of this is that any write operation sent by any software would be burned to the mDisc by the drive itself. In fact, this comes directly from the mDisc FAQ site: "The software you use will not make a diffierence in the lifetime of your data. Data lifetime comes from a properly-working drive engraving data on an M-Disc. The drive engraving function should not be affected by the software you use on the PC. We find it difficult to recommend any one software package because individual needs vary and there are so many options. Mac OSX and Windows provide some basic capability. We work with Nero and CyberLink and they both have some excellent software for archiving data. We also use a number of shareware/freeware packages such as ImgBurn and Ashampoo in our lab work. We suggest you use the resources and information available on the web to checkout reviews of the software packages you are most interested in and use that information to help you make your choice. The software you use will not make a diffierence in the lifetime of your data. Data lifetime comes from a properly-working drive engraving data on an M-Disc. The drive engraving function should not be affected by the software you use on the PC." As you can see, it directly mentions they used ImgBurn. As for if Blu-Ray recordable media doesn't use dyes, I asked in the Chat forum and never got an answer. So, I Googled. Found this: "Write-once BD-R media is primarily based on inorganic dyes, found in HTL discs. Rather than re-type everything right now, I'm just going to quote from a TDK document available on their English-version Japanese site: Quote: The BD-R write-once type utilizes a recording layer of inorganic material. Since it is unaffected by exposure to light, it boasts outstanding archivability. Previous types of write-once type discs such as the CD-R, DVD-R and others utilized organic dye for their recording layer. The BD-R write-once type is based on a completely new concept for the recording layer utilizing a two-layer structure composed of silicon (Si) and copper alloy (Cu) inorganic materials. When heated by the recording laser beam, these melt and the Si and Cu alloy become a composite forming recording marks. Because the material is inorganic, it is not affected by light, thus realizing a disc with outstandingly high reliability in terms of archivability. (Fig. 6) Mitsubishi (Verbatim/MCC/MKM) has attempted to recycle old CD/DVD line manufacturing equipment to create a new type of organic Azo-based LTH BD-R, although results on those discs has been less than desired. Even second-tier HTL BD-R from the likes of Ritek or CMC has been known to perform better than Verbatim LTH BD-R. Much of this depends on the drive, so future burners could well perform better. The jury is still out on this one. I really do hope MKM suceeds with LTH, because it could lower costs long-term, and keep media profitable for that industry." So, good thing I switched from DVD+R DL for archiving double layer DVD's to BD-R's. They write faster than DVD+R DL in terms of writing the amount of data versus the time it takes. For instance, it takes 15 minutes to fill a DVD+R DL and about that time to fill a BD-R. However, with the BD-R, you can have multiple copies of the image on the disc instead of just the one copy on a DVD+R DL. And since they appear to last longer archivally, I'm glad I switched. I did some more reading in the replies to that FAQ. Seems that LTH DOES use dye. Hence why Low To High BD-R has continually failed to last more than a year after burning. I NEVER use LTH, always High To Low. And, I read even further: "Based on the user feedback we read, we also originally thought that LTH had very poor results. It turns out, however, that the very large majority of negative reviews on LTH are due to users who did not realize that their burners needed to be LTH-compatible, or did not check before purchasing LTH media. When you take out incompatibility issues, LTH media actually scores higher than the best HTL media. We rated it archival grade IF your burners are compatible. I cannot publish the link the our LTH data, as the article is not published yet (it will publish in the next 2 weeks), but it is a part of the ConsumerPla.net Blu Ray Blank Media Guide which is ongoing for another month or so. As a note, while we feel that LTH media is appropriate for data archival, it is not clear to us that it is so for audio or video, since, despite the LTH hype, many audio or video players are still not LTH-compatible. On the other hand, almost all modern data players (i.e. for computer use) are LTH-compatible today. So, in my view, at this time, data storage/ archival is a perfect use for LTH, but don't put your music or video on it if you want to take it to a friend's:-)" So, it seems the LTH media might only be problematic if you're trying to play a Blu-Ray video disc burned to LTH on players made before LTH was introduced. That site claims LTH is perfectly fine for archival. I'll stick with my HTL for now.

I don't know for sure but mDisc should not be affected nearly anywhere near as much by heat and humidity. However, of course, the actual test of an mDisc won't be until one reaches the supposed 100 year life span. Of course, CD's and DVD's were also rated at 100 years and proved not to be that long lived. The analogy of burning into rock is a good one for mDisc. So, while heat and humidity would affect the surface of an mDisc like it would affect any surface, it won't break down because they're not "organic" in the sense that dyes are. mDisc is essentially a hard surface that the laser burns depressions into. Like I said, the idea of a laser burning pits in rock is an effective one. So, heat and humidity will wear away rocks, too, but we're talking on a magnitude where you'd need far more of each to affect the writing surface of an mDisc versus an organic dye CD or DVD. Supposedly, Blu-Ray recordable discs also don't use dye. I've only read this once online and couldn't get any kind of follow up on what they do use. But, if they do not use dyes, they should, theoretically, last longer than organo-dye discs.

My next USB drive I'm going to try is an Asus Blu-Ray. I'm holding on to my LiteOn USB because it has LightScribe capability. Once I exhaust my supply of LightScribe CD-R's (CMC's, of course, so they're only for non-essential use.) I'll replace it with this Asus from Amazon.com I have bookmarked. I'll try to remember when I get it to forward my experience with it. I've never used mDisc. I have an mDisc capable drive in the form of my LG, but I've never found any discs in store to try it out with. All I know about mDisc is you need a DVD+R capable reader and that mDisc DVD's are about 10 times as expensive as DVD-R is. $5 for an mDisc versus about 50 cents for a Verbatim DVD-R. Oh, and I do know they don't use dyes. They burn pits into the recordable surface. This is why mDisc lasts much longer. It's essentially like using the drive's laser to burn into a solid surface. Pioneer was rated as one of the best manufacturers by some website I read it on a few months back. My experience with them is 99% positive. Only the inkjet dual layer DVD+R issue. Oh, and one weird minor issue where when doing something, I forget what, to CD-R, the percent done counter counts backwards from 99% to 0% instead of 0% to 100%. Like I said, it's weird. As I said, if you're getting Verbatim CD or DVD, be sure it says DataLifePlus on the label. And you will probably not be able to find them in a brick and mortar store. You'll most likely have to find them online. Of course, that's the same story with Taiyo Yuden. Unfortunately, brick and mortar stores want to sell you the cheapest material at the highest price. They don't really care about the quality of the product. The only way to get generally get quality media is online.

Memorex farms out to Mitsubishi, CMC, and Ritek. As far as I know, the only Memorex Mitsubishi media is their 24x CD-RW. I've no idea why. Maybe, 24x CD-RW simply just isn't made by CMC, the normal manufacturer of their CD-R's. The only brand I know of that uses Mitsubishi otherwise is Verbatim. However, Verbatim also farms out to CMC! Unfortunately, there's never a straight answer. The company that puts their name on the package will decide to use one manufacturer for one product and a different one for another. For Verbatim, they have cheaper media lines like the Life series so they use CMC since they're cheap, and their product reflects that. Unfortunately, without an item number to go by on those Ridata, I can't compare them to anything on Amazon.com. And even if I had an item number, what is available in the Brazilian market may not necessarily be the same thing that is available in the US market. I have seen that type of packaging before, but I've never used them, so I can't comment on their quality.

You should definitely avoid Memorex burners. Memorex, generally, makes a poor product. They used to make a good CD-RW and their 24x CD-RW are good because Mitsubishi made them. And they used to make a good DVD+R. However, now, they farm out most of their CD and DVD products to, yes, you guessed, CMC! It was their DVD+R's made by CMC that weren't recognized by a, get this, MEMOREX DVD PLAYER! If you're looking for a USB drive, you should also avoid the slim model burners from any manufacturer. They're very low quality in general. And if you do get a USB drive, be sure to test a burn with it with a rewritable media. You'll be looking for Semaphore Timeout issues when trying to burn. This is a fairly common issue with USB drives caused by a conflict between the USB bridge chip in the drive and your drive controller on your PC's motherboard. I encountered one USB drive that had this issue and returned it because there's relatively no chance of fixing the issue as it's hardware based.

I've never heard of Sony's Archival Disc. However, as you know from my personal opinion of Sony, I'd say it's probably not worth it. I had a Sony BD-RE that died before its 5th write. I've had 2 Sony PS3 remotes that died within a year. Sony took over NEC/Optiarc and their drives went downhill. One Optiarc I had needed replacing after 6 months before just touching the ejected tray caused it to close. I had a PS2 in 2002 that need its entire drive assembly replaced within a year. Then, one day, I turned it on and it just booted to a black screen. Top loading was always the main cause of issues with the PS1. So, Sony used a tray loading system in the PS2. Then towards the end of the PS2's life span, Sony put a top loader BACK into the PS2 to save money on production costs! Sony did the same thing with their PS3. Needless to say, I will NEVER buy another Sony product. Which is a shame because Sony used to make a good product. The PS1, despite its top loading flaws, was a good product. Early model PS2's were a good product. Early DRU dual format burners were good. They were the first dual format burners on the market. Granted my first one had its own problem in that eventually it stopped writing at 4x to 4x rated media; only wrote at 2x. But, that was about the time Sony products started going to As for dye specifics, I only know a few things. Like CMC makes the worst. Plus, the reflectivity of the media appears to be the primary problem with compatibility with players and burners. As for the best kind of drives, it's rather subjective. LiteOn used to make a good DVD drive but they're on my shit list now. LiteOn's have a random problem with DVD+R DL's and DVD Video discs. They randomly introduced skips in playback that are not layer breaks. As for burners, I've only specifically used Blu-Ray for a few years so I can only comment on them. For a Blu-Ray, you'll want an LG or a Pioneer. However, neither one is perfect. The LG doesn't properly write Ricoh 8x DVD+RW. Any LG formatted and written one of these DVD+RW's will die within 20 writes. Plus, the LG is a very slow reading drive. The Pioneer is almost perfect. It's lasted a year so far. That's fairly rare in this day and age. However, the Pioneer has one rather idiotic failure. It will not properly write inkjet printable Verbatim MKM DVD+R DL. It WILL write branded Verbatim MKM DVD+R DL of the SAME MID as the inkjet. It's just that the inkjet versions, which are identical except for the inkjet printable surface, will always fail at the layer break, either in the burn or the verify. My LG is the BH16NS40. My Pioneer is the BDR-209M. I doubt I'd go with the LG over the Pioneer. I had another LG before this one and it still worked perfectly fine except it stopped writing DVD+R DL's. It still read and wrote DVD single layer and Blu-Rays. In fact, I only have an LG now because it's all I could find in a local brick and mortar store at Best Buy. I'd try another Pioneer before I tried another LG. I'd hope this niggling issue with inkjet DVD+R DL wouldn't carry over. HOWEVER, the LG DID carry over the DVD+RW problem from the previous version I had.

I should also point out that in the past, CMC made some decent products. Their DVD+R and CD's used to be of decent quality. Their DVD+R now, though, last ones I had, they burned but no DVD player recognized them for playing. And from ianmaty's linked site http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm about Verbatim "Production outsourced to MBI, CMC, Prodisc and FTI. Not an issue." I consider it an issue though. BUT, I've had some of CMC's BD-RE's and they formatted, wrote, verified, and data was reliably readable from them. However, I haven't tried them for only about 6 months. So, CMC may make a decent BD-RE. However, the quality control issues of the past give CMC a bad name. Plus, so many people here on the ImgBurn forums report issues with burning and their discs are CMC's. I know from experience with Optodisc. Optodiscs I burned in 2002 are still readable. But around 2004, Optodisc switched to CMC and half of those discs wouldn't burn. I didn't know about CMC at the time so I wasted about $1,000 on media and new burners before I stumbled across a post, er, somewhere else that mentioned CMC. So, I checked the MID on these Optodiscs and, sure enough, they were CMC. So, 10 years ago, CMC went on my list and stays there because I trust the quality of the product to last in the long term about as far as I can through CMC's corporate headquarters building!

Well, I can't really say if your Ridata is good. Ridata is essentially the same as Ritek in the United States. In the United States, Ritek is a good 2nd tier quality media. However, in Europe, the reports from users are that Ritek is a lower quality brand. Plus, it depends on the MID in your area of the world. Ridata may use Ritek in the US, but for what you get in Brazil, there's no way of knowing without actually buying it and checking the MID in ImgBurn. As for the world's best dye for either media, that's a subjective question. I won't use anything other than non CMC Verbatim, e.g. Mitsubishi MCC/MKM MID or Taiyo Yuden for my CD and DVD needs. For Blu-Ray, I will only use actual Verbatim, not CMC Verbatim, and Ritek from Memorex. However, some people are perfectly fine with using CMC. As for the scientific aspects of media, I don't know that. I don't know the particular tolerances of humidity and heat for my media. I just go by the MID and what I know from experience. If burns finish, if verifies finish, if DVD players read the burned media fine, and how long they've lasted after burning.

I've been burning DVD's since 2002. I have years of experience, so it helps. Well, in the US, it's all Ritek media from your list if they haven't changed dyes since I last used them. Ridata is essentially Ritek. So, any one of those choices is good. I'd choose Ridata last if I were to choose. I'd choose Maxell IF they're still Ritek and not CMC or some other junk dye manufacturer now. I'd hold off on Sony simply because I hate Sony. They used to make a good quality product, but have produced mostly nothing but junk since 2002. However, last time I used their DVD-R's, they were Ritek and were fine for my uses. It is generally accepted that Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden make some of the best media in the world, if not the best. However, Verbatim does sully its good name by getting in bed with CMC on about 1/4 of its products. If you can't find Taiyo Yuden in Brazil, try searching for JVC. I believe JVC bought up TY and may have labeled its media as JVC in other parts of the world. However, I have no direct experience with JVC media so I'm only going by what I remember that JVC might have bought TY.

Well, CMC can say shit. Because that's what they make. Besides, the projected lifespan on media by its own creators is wrong. Why would MCC make the dye to send to CMC to make the discs? CMC would also just be a dye manufacturer if MCC was one. It makes more sense that the manufacturer of the dye also makes the disc. Why would they lose the profits from making the discs by farming out their dye to someone else? I'm pretty sure CMC also makes the media that their dye goes in. Again, I had never heard of gold Verbatim as a brand before so I've never used them and can't comment on them. However, from what I've heard of other gold brands, you're just wasting your money spending more for the so called gold branding of discs. That you don't gain anything from a quality standpoint by using them. Unfortunately, what you find in Brazil from one manufacturer may not be the same kind of media you get elsewhere in the world. For instance, Ritek media in Europe seems to be of very low quality. My experience with Ritek media in the US is that they're a very good 2nd tier brand. So, I can only comment on my American experience with the brands you mentioned. Of the brands you listed, I've only had experience with Ridata, Maxell, and Sony. Ridata aka Ritek makes a very good 2nd tier product. However, their BD-R and BD-RE are not well liked by the Playstation 3. Memorex, who normally uses CMC, went with Ritek for their BD media. Maxell made a very good 2nd tier DVD product around 2006, the last time I used them. Back in 2006, RITEKF1 was the MID, so Ritek made them. I just played some recently burned in 2006 and they were fine. Sony used to make their own brand which was a good 2nd tier choice. They swtiched to Ritek, though, in continual cost cutting moves. However, Sony actually switched to another good quality 2nd tier manufacturer when they switched to Ritek. Now, this was a few years ago when I last used Sony DVD-R, so, I wouldn't be surprised if Sony switched to CMC. They keep lowering the quality of their products and have made mostly junk since 2002. I get my Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden supplies from Amazon.com in the US. I'm not sure there's an official website for Mitsubishi Verbatim DVD. There would be official sites for Verbatim and for Mitsubishi. When searching for Mitsubishi, you'll probably want to search specifically for the terms Mitsubishi Kagaku Media.

IF a CMC DVD burns, verifies, and plays correctly, I've no idea what its shelf life would be. I can't say they'd last 10 years, though, given the general quality of CMC. The only DVD I have that are over 10 years old were made by Panasonic and Optodisc. BEFORE Optodisc switched to CMC, which was how I learned of their evil. Once Optodisc switched to CMC, half of a 200 disc spindle wouldn't even complete burns. MCC/MKM may only make the dye. I don't know anything about the physical manufacturing process of optical media. However, I'd have to say MCC makes them since the Manufacturer ID string is called the Manufacturer ID string. Plus, why would one company make the dye only to send it to another company to actually make the discs? I don't anything about any gold Verbatim media, sorry. As for the shelf life of DataLifePlus, I can only relate that a DataLifePlus DVD+R DL I burned in 2009 still played on Halloween last year.

The Life series DVD's are made by CMC Magnetics, the worst manufacturer of optical media out there. Their DVD's fail to burn half the time. The other half fail to verify or if they do half are not recognized as playable DVD's by players. DataLifePlus series are made by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, one of the best manufacturers of optical media out there. As for which is best, I already told you. But, as you can see from above, avoid the Life series and anything made by CMC. And not all Verbatim media is labeled as Life or DataLifePlus. Some media, like their brick and mortar store CD-R's are just labeled Verbatim. However, they, too, are CMC. Pretty much you'll only find DataLifePlus online, like Amazon.com here in the US. Avoid anything CMC. If I get something that says CMC, I return it. There have been a few times where I had to keep CMC, like BD-RE, which is pretty much all you'll find from anyone else except Memorex. Unfortunately, you can only tell by inserting a disc into a drive and using ImgBurn in Write mode to check the MID string in the right hand pane. Unless you're lucky and find guys like me who post the MID in reviews on online sites like Amazon.com.

Also with mDisc, your player must play DVD+R to be able to play DVD Video content on mDisc. Most modern players support both DVD-R and DVD+R but an older player might not be able to read them.

If you're going to get Verbatim, do not get the Life series you find in brick and mortar stores. You'll want the DataLifePlus series you will probably have to find online. Verbatim also makes a good CD IF you get the DataLifePlus brand you find online. NOT the kind you find in stores.

Well, the LG will write directories to Live System discs formatted in my Pioneer but that's it. When trying to copy files to the LG that was formatted in the Pioneer, it returns the idiotic message that the file cannot be copied because it's been modified. I'm seriously thinking of Asus for my next Blu-Ray. Definitely no more LG's, even though they're all you can find in brick and mortar stores. I may try a different Pioneer and see if it repeats its failure to write to inkjet DVD+R DL's that it writes fine for branded DVD+R DL's with the same MID and speed. My Pioneer would be perfect and a definite must get again if it properly wrote to inkjet DVD+R DL's. Why can't these idiots make things that don't do idiotic things?!

However, the format failed in the LG! File Explorer returned the helpful message that it could not complete the format. REALLY useful! Yet another reason to add LG to my shit list. Both LG's I've had read super slow, doesn't properly write to DVD+RW, and this LG doesn't properly format Live File System for BD-R.

It returned after I rebooted. It had disappeared from my Pioneer, too, so I figured a reboot would restore it to my Pioneer. I thought it might also restore it for my LG, which it also did!

I've got an odd issue. I've got 2 Blu-Ray writers in my system, an LG and a Pioneer. With the Pioneer, I have a Format command in the context menu when I right click on the drive in File Explorer. With the LG, I don't have a Format command. I know my LG writes DVD+RW and DVD+R DL, so I would guess that since it reads Blu-Ray and writes those 2 DVD formats, it should be a Blu-Ray writer. Any comments?

Yeah, I've never even heard of that INI importing install switch before so I can't say anything about how that works. Has it worked for you before in the past to import settings from an .INI file? I've always used .REG files ever since, er, a certain program before ImgBurn, and definitely after the release of ImgBurn. I've never had any problems with importing .REG settings to restore ImgBurn settings. Are you saying that this ini switch imports the ImgBurn settings so that the settings are active while ImgBurn is open but that when you close ImgBurn, the settings are not saved? If so, I guess this INI switch doesn't allow for saving the settings to the Registry. You may have a workaround by creating a shortcut with the INI switch in it and running ImgBurn from that shortcut. That way, you're always running ImgBurn with the INI settings imported each time you run the shortuct with the swtich.

I'm afriad I don't know anything about install specific settings. I just know I have to import the .REG file after installing ImgBurn on a new PC to restore my settings. I also don't know if there's a way to convert an .INI to a .REG file. I'd have to say no. It could probably be done by manually editing the settings. However, you're probably going to save more time by just manually changing the settings in ImgBurn and exporting the .REG file. Also, be sure that you've closed ImgBurn before exporting the .REG file. I forgot to mention that. That way, you're ensured that ImgBurn wrote all the settings to the Registry.

Open Microsoft Registry Editor and find the following key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ImgBurn Export this key to a .REG file. Now all you need to do is double click the .REG file each time you want to import the settings back into ImgBurn. Keep in mind that every time you change a setting from something other than what you saved in the .REG file, you'll have to make a new .REG file after you change the setting in ImgBurn. You'd also probably save some time by adding this key to your Favorites in Registry Editor.

I'm still a bit confused. My Pioneer returns the same "warning" but a first format takes 45 minutes and not 20 seconds. Are you saying a certification support would increase the formatting time by an hour in addition to the 45 minutes it takes to first format a BD-RE in my Pioneer?

My Pioneer formats new BD-RE at about 45 minutes.

Well, to be honest, I don't know. Something's weird with that web page. It doesn't display information normally as other Amazon.com pages do. These are the ones I got and know they're MKM's, e.g. MCC. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DT6OWFG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The only problem I had with these is they won't burn in my Pioneer correctly. They fail at or shortly after the layer break. Which makes NO sense since the MID is the same for unbranded DVD+R DL's from Verbatim and they burn fine in the Pioneer. I have to burn the inkjet printable ones in my LG. These are the branded ones that do burn in the Pionner: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F2YPH2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Both of those that I linked are MKM's from Verbatims. Verbatim is pretty much the only DVD+R DL of any quality. The only others I ever used were some TDK discs made by Ritek. They burned okay but I don't know of their longevity. My 2009 burns of Dawn Of The Dead to a Verbatim DVD+R DL still played on Halloween when I last played it.