What is DVD compatibility? Simply put, it’s the fact that some DVD players will refuse to play certain DVD discs. Incompatibilities usually happen with duplicated (burned) short-run discs, while replicated (store-bought) mass-quantity discs often don’t cause any problems. But why does this occur at all?
Incompatibility issues most often arise due to problems with the disc itself. Manufacturing quality varies greatly where blank DVD media is concerned. And using a “good” disc doesn’t mean selecting the most familiar brand name or the most expensive blanks on the shelf–in fact, often the more expensive discs will be lesser quality! About half of all blank DVD media is cheaply made, most often originating in China or Malaysia. In these facilities, manufacturers often skip quality control measures, which results in discs that fail during burning, freeze up on DVD players, and or become unreadable in short order.
The best media is produced in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden (now owned by JVC) are widely acknowledged to offer the best quality. Sony is another disc that usually works quite well. These discs will burn reliably and create few compatibility issues in DVD players–but they can usually only be found via online stores. Timeless DVD primarily uses Taiyo Yuden media, due to its excellent printable surface.
Blank media aside, there are other factors that go into DVD compatibility as well. The next issue is the DVD player itself. Most DVD players these days are able to play DVD-R discs (the type of disc used by most video transfer companies). This was not true years ago, when DVD-R compatibility was far more hit-and-miss. But as DVD players have come down in price, so unfortunately have their internal specifications. Player manufacturers now cut more corners, which means less attention to detail in terms of the player’s reading abilities. In addition, cheaper lasers are now used for DVD players (again, in order to lower the price), which entails a shorter laser lifespan. And as a laser begins to die, it will read fewer and fewer types of discs, with short-run DVD-Rs usually the first to go.
The excellent website VideoHelp.com offers a resource where you can check known incompatibilities for a wide variety of DVD players. You can even find consumer reports indicating if a laser died quickly on a certain model. We use this site often to check our customers’ players:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
Another issue is the authoring and burning process itself. Timeless DVD uses Adobe DVD Encore to author discs, which is one of the most stringent programs in terms of specifications; Encore only allows videos and files through that will be readable on many DVD players. Other DVD authoring programs–particularly cheaper ones–are not as tough, which results in more potential playback problems on a disc.
And burning can be a problem as well. We use high-quality Pioneer drives in the studio, which produce very few disc failures and are extremely reliable, but this is not true of every drive out there. And we verify each disc after it is written, which confirms that every part of the DVD was burned correctly and is 100% readable.
By using the best blank media and a careful authoring process, Timeless DVD takes every step to ensure that the discs we produce are playable in as many DVD players as possible. But even with these controls in place, we cannot guarantee that every DVD player is capable of playing our discs. This is true of every video transfer company. Unfortunately, DVD compatibility issues will always exist–although thankfully, they have diminished over the years.
