DVD's damaging DVD player

[robgraham]

I've had a request from a friend to re-record some technical DVD's for him.

His DVD recorder (I haven't found out what sort yet) failed and he put it in for repair. He was charged £120 and told not to use Verbatim DVD's as they damaged the machine.

Actually that's an answer in from him just now saying it is a Panasonic VHS to DVD recorder and that Panasonic servicing "assured me that the advice on Verbatim and other "bright" DVDs came direct from Panasonic. They recommend using only discs with a dark recording surface"

The collective's comments would be interesting.

Rob

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Holy Shite. He paid 120 quid for a repair on that? Why not pick up an old VHS player and output it to an old DVD PVR? He could pick up both for (in total) less than half of what they stitched him up for.

[Brian Gaff]

Not heard of that one. I do know that some manufacturers suggest that tdk 90 min cds are not uses as they can damage the end stops on some players. So what failure mode would be the issue if the disc was a different colour after all as long as the beam frequency is reflected what could go worng?

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Its the labour costs that do it of course. I guess he wants something compact.

Brian

[Jethro_uk]

This vaguely reminds me of the warnings about C120 cassette tapes ....

[John Williamson]

It's possible that the shiny ones need more write power than the dark ones, and the increased power will reduce the laser life.

[Paul D Smith]

I've had a request from a friend to re-record some technical DVD's for him.

His DVD recorder (I haven't found out what sort yet) failed and he put it in for repair. He was charged £120 and told not to use Verbatim DVD's as they damaged the machine.

Actually that's an answer in from him just now saying it is a Panasonic VHS to DVD recorder and that Panasonic servicing "assured me that the advice on Verbatim and other "bright" DVDs came direct from Panasonic. They recommend using only discs with a dark recording surface"

The collective's comments would be interesting.

Rob

++++++++++ What are the specs of the Panasonic and the Verbatim blanks? If the Panasonic says it writes to then presumably the Panasonic isn't fit for purpose. When DVDs were new, I had an expensive player from Debenhams and it was very picky about Disney DVDs - the manufacturer's claimed that Disney was "not following the DVD specs." and of course Disney said they were.

But, eventually I gave up talking to them and contacted Debenhams who immediately offered a full refund. I took this up and purchased from a different make from somewhere else, for much less as prices had fallen in the meantime.

So might be worth asking Panasonic why their device isn't apparently up to the job it's design for.

Paul DS

+++++++++++ Using Windows Live Mail 2012 - comes without any response indenting!

[Graham.]

I think you mean C180

I always gave that advice, especially for making archive recordings.

4 hour tapes were an afterthought, and the substrate was thinner to get the required length on the spool.

[John Williamson]

C120 was the longest commonly available audio Compact Cassette. I've never seen a C180. VHS tapes came originally in 2 hour lengths, then 3 anf 4 hours, which if you weren't bothered about quality could be used at half speed to make 8 hours of recording.

The best quality on most cassette decks was achieved by using C90 tapes. C60 was too thick and rigid, and C120 was too thin and printed through very easily.

[Jules Richardson]

Although this kind of thing does happen. I'm reminded of a hard disk 'horror story' from the days when hard disks were the size of washing machines; in one particular case, a loss of spindle rpm was interpreted by the drive firmware as a need to increase drive to the spindle motor until the rpm reached an acceptable level, with no upper limit checking whatsoever.

Unfortunately the speed sensor had a habit of becoming dirty over time, at which point it would start missing pulses from the rotating assembly. When self destruction eventually occurred, the results were apparently quite impressive, with bits of platter and parts of the casing embedding themselves in the wall around the room.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I tried to burn a DVD at 6x speed instead of 'as fast as possible'

I thought the whole computer was about to explode. Horrible noises.

I haven't tried it since.