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[UnMiked20]

I received a few trades recently that made me shake my head and I just want to get everyone's opinion as to whether or not I'm over reacting.

1) I don't really care if you write on the paper sleeve, but I've always been told to NEVER write directly on the disc itself. If any of the senior or more technical traders here can assure me that this does not affect the quality of the show, then I guess I'm fine with it.

2) I've received a few shows on some funky, unrecognizeable brands. I even wince a little when I see shows come in on the HP, Corporate Express or Office Depot brands. Is there a link that compares and rates quality of media objectively?

3) I always assumed that we ALL burned DVDs at 4x speed. If I have a show that pauses or even freezes up, should I assume it was burned at a faster speed? Does making a copy and re-burning at 4x restore the original quality?

Any input is appreciated! I've been trading like mad lately and just now had a moment to vent.

Thanks!!

[radikal]

UnMiked20 wrote: I received a few trades recently that made me shake my head and I just want to get everyone's opinion as to whether or not I'm over reacting.

Quote: 1) I don't really care if you write on the paper sleeve, but I've always been told to NEVER write directly on the disc itself. If any of the senior or more technical traders here can assure me that this does not affect the quality of the show, then I guess I'm fine with it.

Some mention that the ink may after a while penetrate through disc....I never really read up on it but the majority of traders will agree not to write on them

Quote: 2) I've received a few shows on some funky, unrecognizeable brands. I even wince a little when I see shows come in on the HP, Corporate Express or Office Depot brands. Is there a link that compares and rates quality of media objectively?

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

Quote: 3) I always assumed that we ALL burned DVDs at 4x speed. If I have a show that pauses or even freezes up, should I assume it was burned at a faster speed? Does making a copy and re-burning at 4x restore the original quality?

Im no expert but depending on drive and media you can burn at 2X which is what I always use...I have a NEC 3550A That burns 2X and Sony burner that has lowest as 4X.....The reason you burn slowest speed is that there are less chances of burn errors and supposedly keeps better quality while burning and longevity of DVD video...

Now if the DVD you got pauses and freezes well that can mean a few things..

1. Your DVD player doesn't read media well....I have 2 players that when a DVD dont play well on one it plays well on the other......
2. Depending on what speed was used...again faster speed more chances of errors
3. DVD media quality that was used .... Cheap media = errors

We have great Tech members here who can elaborate on this subject :thumb:

[ron]

UnMiked20 wrote: 2) I've received a few shows on some funky, unrecognizeable brands. I even wince a little when I see shows come in on the HP, Corporate Express or Office Depot brands.
If you are worried about the quality of the discs you receive in a trade, I would suggest that you copy them over to your preferred discs and discard the originals.

If you find that they are unplayable, or unable to be copied, then you need to go back to the trader (within a reasonable time frame) and work something out.

[Neil1115]

Anyone that uses store brand discs such as office depot is going to have a real hard time finding people to trade with them. That's just basically giving the people you trade to a big FU.

[UnMiked20]

ron wrote: If you are worried about the quality of the discs you receive in a trade, I would suggest that you copy them over to your preferred discs and discard the originals.

I was thinking that too!

(Would I be an ass if I offered the original disc as a freebie? Even w the caveat that the disc is written on?)

Also, a majority of the trades in question I rec'd came from Tapetrader. Still, a few did come from here... :eek:

[Scott Roberts]

Here's an old post written by Jaakko and myself that covers etiquette :
Quality Assurance Trading Standards

[dokkendude]

UnMiked20 wrote: ron wrote: If you are worried about the quality of the discs you receive in a trade, I would suggest that you copy them over to your preferred discs and discard the originals.

I was thinking that too!

(Would I be an ass if I offered the original disc as a freebie? Even w the caveat that the disc is written on?)

Also, a majority of the trades in question I rec'd came from Tapetrader. Still, a few did come from here... :eek:

politely let your trade partners know what you expect from them up front
if you run a website post some guidelines, & do's & don'ts

a freebie is a freebie, if they don't like the writing they too can copy it to another disc (so no not an ass) :D

[liquid_steel_az]

dokkendude wrote:
politely let your trade partners know what you expect from them up front
if you run a website post some guidelines, & do's & don'ts

Exactly. It's all about communication! :thumb:

[BIGTOMIE]

All GOOD points .!!

WELL Said guys .!
Those guys are very good , don't ya think :thumb:

IMO :-) if you have some issues on a disc , ask
the person you got the disc from .....
(( talk it out )) .

if anything , maybe ask another VHtrading .com
trader .... * (many good one's around)
for a little help . :cool:

[frankm]

UnMiked20 wrote: 3) I always assumed that we ALL burned DVDs at 4x speed. If I have a show that pauses or even freezes up, should I assume it was burned at a faster speed? Does making a copy and re-burning at 4x restore the original quality?
I often find the freezing or pauses has more to do with the quality of the media than the speed the disc is burnt at. If the issue you have is because of the media quality than yes ripping and reburning may solve the issue BUT if the issue is because of data errors because of a bad burn (too high rate or anything else) it probably won't. As was already suggested try it and if it doesn't work out contact the person you got the discs from.

[Lance]

sometimes it may not be the blank dvd or the speed that you burnt it.....it could be your burner....You should ( but not for some ) keep up with the firmware updates....sometimes it helps with newer blank dvds that come out and other stuff.....

[Iron Mike]

I was taught by some of the vets here when I began 2+ years ago that maybe the single biggest key to good, solid trading is GOOD COMMUNICATION. If you have an issue w/a burned cd or dvd that's part of a trade, you let the other party know right away. It's the good communicaters that make the best, most consistent traders.

If someone has a problem with something I've burned and I didn't discover it in a test run before mailing, I do whatever I can to make things right. As a trader, your rep is everything.

[sickman]

I had some issues with some dvd's I made for my kids. I originally burned them at about 16x speed, not knowing that I may run in to errors. This was about a year ago. Since then I learned that the slower the better. I always use the same media Sony DVD+R, it's easy to find and I haven't had any problems. Anyway, yesterday my son wanted to watch one of these movies that I did at 16x and it skipped like crazy and froze and pix elated. I re-burned the disc at a slower speed, 2x and it came out flawless. Needless to say he was very happy. So to answer one of your questions yes a disc that is freezing can be recopied at a slower speed and saved. At least that is my experience.