DVD Burner lifespan...

is there any software for mac to check the condition of the optical drive? or to verify a disc once it's burned?
toast will verify a burn, but have to initiate the burn with toast.
reason for the question being...
in dvd studio pro, i've sometimes created discs that dvdsp said it was successful, but problematic once taken to replicator. when the burner was brand new, it never had such problem. I have gone through 4 external burner in the past two years, 2 lacie and 2 sony. my previous sony lasted a lot loner than all of my lacies, so i purchased another sony late last year. now it feels like it's burning more and more bad discs. I burn no more than 250 DL discs every year, hate to believe that burner doesn't last a bit longer.

my last experience was that i have format to disc successfully with dvdsp; and then at replicator, the discs turn out to have bad sectors. reburn the DVD with toast and another drive, no problem this time. not sure if it's the drive or something else.

Please help!!!
thanks

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

You cannot control the burnspeed in DVDSP. If you're burning standard DVD-R's then you should output a .img to the harddrive and burn with Disk Utility (10.5.x). Or a 3rd party app of your choice like Toast. Depending on your drive & blank media combo you'll have various speed option available to you. Burn as slow as you can if you're going to replication.

Recordable +DL discs have a very low compatibility rate. You should probably stop sending those for DVD-9 submission right away! You should either output each layer to your harddrive and burn each layer to disc. Then supply the DDP files to the replicator, make sure you are very clear about what you're supplying and that they can take it! Otherwise get a SCSI Card, a used DLT4000 drive and output to DLT type IV tapes. One for each layer.

DVDSP burns the fastest speed it can for your drive/media combo which is very bad from a compatibility standpoint,

Good luck,

hi Jake,

Thanks for the input. So I suppose there's no way to verify a disc if it's burned with DVDSP?
about compatibility, if once the disc had been replicated does it make the hard-pressed disc more compatible? or it's going to carry all the problems with the original burnt master?

a compatibility issue could mean so many things, from a problematic media to fast burn speed. Maybe i am over simplifying, but isn't it true that as long as all the data are transfered correctly unto the glass master the end result should be fine?

Thanks again,

CW