Bride keeps returning damaged DVD's... blaming me!

Holy Harry

Holy Harry

Well-known member
Never had this problem before... and I'd be interested in some help!

For a recent wedding I burned the brides videos on to Datasafe DVD+R Dual Layer Discs with my Apple Mac Pro at 2.4x speed. Reason being she wanted hugely detailed coverage, so the final product was 3 hours and fifteen minutes with a detailed index. As always, I tested the discs before sending them off... no problems.

Two weeks later the bride returns two of the three discs saying they played fine the first time, but kept skipping at about half an hour in whenever she played them again. I examined the discs and sure enough there were some scratches, fingerprints etc. So, I pointed it out to her, explained that she needed to take care of her discs and burned a couple of replacement discs.

That was two weeks ago. Tonight she calls with exactly the same problem... played once, then next time started skipping. She tried them on another DVD player and it won't play them either. The basic tone of the conversation was... it's my fault, my discs are faulty. I'm fed-up about this because I really put a lot of work into that wedding and went out of my way to accomodate her requests.

I've used these discs before, and no problem. I'm sure she's just not looking after them.

Now I'm having doubts... and here they are...

1. Are Dual Layer dvd's inclined to cause more problems in general, are they too delicate?

2. Should I be using DVD-R DL instead of +R?

3. Are DVD's burned on PC/Macs more susceptible to scratches and marks than mass produced discs you buy off the shelf?

4. Am I using a crappy brand... Is there a brand of dual layer DVD that everyone agrees is superior?

Thanks in advance guys!
 
burned discs (not sure how DL affects it all) are going to be more susceptible than a commercially stamped disc, but I have never had an issue like that - sounds like her dvd player is screwing them up royally. Have you tried replicating the problem by playing it, removing it then playing it again on your player? If it does it fine I would tell her its obviously her dvd player at fault and cut her loose as politely as possible.
 
Thanks Jeff.

Yes, I've played them a few times like you said, and they come out ok.

Something's marking them, though. Thing is... I've seen similar scratches on other DVD's and it didn't seem to affect them so badly.
 
That's a good question.

No. They start to skip at exactly the point she said. But they worked fine before she got them.
 
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interesting - might be worth trying a single layer burned disc in her player and see if it trashes that too - I know the whole thing wont fit on one, but it would let you know whats up at least. worst case you could split across two dvd's.
 
Find out what kind of player she has - then see if you can find another one (at a Best Buy or something) and see if you can test out your discs there.
I know...big pain in the ass, but it would be a good way to find out if it's her player specifically that is causing the problem.

Doesn't sound like its a compatibility issue with the player - or it wouldn't play it once without problems.
 
How radial are the scratches? If they follow the rotation of the disk then there might be a mechanical fault in her player (like a screw backing out or something). Usually a center to edge scratch will not be a problem as the error correction inherent in the various DVD specs will correct the problem, but if a radial scratch takes out a big chunk of data and / or the pointer to the next 'groove' then error correction has nothing to work on.

Bob
 
Most likely she has a mechanical problem with her player that is damaging her discs. She probably never cleaned the heads and it could be something on them can be causing the scratches. I personally like Verbatim brand of disks but I wouldn't burn one for her machine if that is the problem. Tell her to clean her heads on her dvd player before running any disks.
 
i think it's funny that the crazy b**** feels the need to watch her wedding video 20+ times.... but i don't really understand the point to wedding videos anyway... (i'm shooting my second this weekend and am not looking forward to it)
 
Holy Harry said:
1. Are Dual Layer dvd's inclined to cause more problems in general, are they too delicate?

2. Should I be using DVD-R DL instead of +R?

3. Are DVD's burned on PC/Macs more susceptible to scratches and marks than mass produced discs you buy off the shelf?

4. Am I using a crappy brand... Is there a brand of dual layer DVD that everyone agrees is superior?

Thanks in advance guys!
Click to expand...


1. Yes - I never distribute/deliver on dual-layer DVDs because many players are very finicky about them. I'd assume these players could very well react more to dirt/scratches on these discs as well.

2. In general, DVD-R seems to be playable on a wider range of players than DVD+R. DVD-R single layer is the most reliable. Make a 2-disc set! You can generall charge a little more for that, anyway!

3. In some ways, yes, in some ways, no. But - all players will play replicated (mass-produced) discs well; few guarantee to play recordables. Most recent players WILL play DVD-Rs, but you should expect the occasional problem. Some DVD-Rs are PHYSICALLY less susceptible to damage (they are thicker), but again, a player that's finicky about DVD-Rs in general will be extra-finicky about dirty/scratched ones.

4. Never heard of Datasafe... Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui consistently rank as the best, most reliable, most widely playable media.
 
seemed like you had found your answer until the very end of the thread.
i wouldve said it was her DVD player but i have no experience with DL -- though i should soon.

i also agree with tommy
kyle
 
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