DVD-R market plagued by fake media and inconsistent quality
Posted on 13/02/05 01:16 by Seán Byrne                             
DVD-R market plagued by fake media and inconsistent quality

When a consumer purchases budget media that is either unbranded or of a less known brand, they are often not aware of what manufacturer makes those discs.  Generally the media identifier code on the media is one way to find out the manufacturer, however it appears that some of these generic brands are exploiting the codes used by Taiyo Yuden to falsely make customers think their media is manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.  A few brands that do this include Budget, BulkPaq, DataWrite and Hyundai.

Quite often the media quality from these brands vary quite a lot, with some media which may not be playable in certain DVD players, DVD based game consoles and give variable read performance in DVD-ROM drives.  However, faking the media identifier codes of known high quality manufacturers may put customers off from media using these codes, thus in turn harming the official manufacturers with these codes. 

At the moment, probably one the safest choices of media is Verbatim's DataLifePlus and Pastel products.  The current pastel series is manufactured by Taiyo Yuden and AdvancedAzo series by Mitsubishi Kagaku, Mitsubishi or CMC Magnetics.  However while some generic brand media may give poor results or use fake media identifier codes, it is often best to test media with trial and error as many other budget brands do indeed use media from high quality manufacturers with proper media identifier codes.  ItalianJob used our news submit to let us know about the following news:

It is all too common that the customer is not aware what DVD recordable media he is actually buying. The brand printed on the disc or the packaging may tell nothing about the manufacturer. Every recordable DVD has a media identifier code, but even that doesn't give you certainty of the product you have purchased. Too often trial and error is needed in order to find good and compatible media.

This article covers a few products currently found on the market. It is possible that the quality of the products vary a lot. The method used for analysis is not scientifically accurate. Most of the discs were burned with a LiteON SOHW-1653S, and some with a NEC ND-1300. The LiteON was used for error rate analysis, with the KProbe v2.4.2. Note that is not a 100% accurate method for analyzing quality, but it usually gives a pretty good idea. Some playback tests with DVD players and game consoles were also done.

Fake Taiyo Yuden

The Japanese Taiyo Yuden has been a premium quality optical media manufacturer for years. Unfortunately, some manufacturers are now exploiting the Taiyo Yuden media codes on their lesser quality products. Fake discs identified as TYG02 can been seen under various brands. These include, but are not limited to: Hyundai, Budget, BulkPaq, DataWrite, and many others. We spoke to OC-Freak of NorwayDisc.no, and according to him the fake discs are likely to be manufactured by Infosmart, Anwell, UME Disc, Vanguard or 3A Media.

Read the full article here.

Like the quality issues with some budget recordable CD media, the same would be expected for recordable DVD media also.  However it is not until now that we find out that some budget manufacturers fake their media identifier codes to make their customers think that their media is from a well known manufacturer.  Then again, as the budget brand media is cheap, it may be worth purchasing a few discs from a various budget brands and doing some testing to see which media offers the best performance and compatibility. 

Feel free to discuss and find more info on recordable media on our Media Forum.   For test results, see our DVD Media Tests Sub-Forum.

14-02-05 Update: cd-rw.org has an updated news item about the media from A3 Media. They send them a statement that they have never manufactured discs with fake media identifiers. Read about it here.

 

Source: cd-rw.org

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Reactions
Discuss this article with your fellow community members! We appreciate your valuable input, but please keep the reaction policy in mind and make sure your reaction is constructive.
By FreqNasty, Sunday 13 February 2005 02:53
Those brands that use the fake codes should be sued and all the media should be refused entry into the market. They obviously know their own media is crap and need to trick people into believing it is from a good manufacturer.
By manu_dvd, Sunday 13 February 2005 02:56
I am not surprised, It is very disappointing to find good media and I live in Germany. Shopping for the likes of Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden is expensive. Try looking for Printable DVD on ebay and little or no seller is going to give you a disc ID, many are false. Looking at places like SVP results are mixed and patchy Information. If the disc is crap then just say it. The bottom line for me is like my diet: I like to know what is in the food I eat, so I look at the packaging I can see... Would it be very beneficial for DVD recordable makers to print disc ID, Dye Information etc on the actual packaging? Is this Bulkpaq an actual MCC 003? I think not, but is faking DVD recordables and selling them with fake codes illegal? If not it should be. My two cents is: Disc manufactures must display clearly the Disc ID/Manufactures Information on packaging.. Yes easily forged, but what if by law all seller's had to display this info.. I just hate the fact that buying good DVD media (Printable for me) is a headache.puke
By Two Degrees, Sunday 13 February 2005 04:06
Two DegreesI don't think when the cheaper manufacturers use a Taiyo Yuden media code that they're trying to pass their media off as genuine TY given the fact that they're sold as Hyundai, BulkPaq, etc. I think it's more of a compatibility issue. Drive firmwares may limit speeds on their discs to lower than rated speeds if they use the true media code, so they use media codes they know will be supported at the rated speed. It is troublesome to be sure, but I don't think this is a case of fraud.
By johnzap, Sunday 13 February 2005 04:24
johnzapIf that's their real intention, then it is not a good idea. Probably the strategy for the faked MediaID is not optimized for the fake disc, therefore the resulting burned disc will seldom be any good. It's not even possible for hacked firmwares to cater for these fakes. Their mediaid is the same as others, therefore there's no way to know which is which.
By Alexandre, Sunday 13 February 2005 04:33
Some retailer knowingly sell inferior media and leave the customer hung and dry when he seeks satisfaction. For example, I purchased Ultra DVD+R media from www.tigerdirect.ca and experienced a 50% failure rate (Of two cake boxes of 25 disks, 25 failed at burning). Not only that but the media was sold as 4X, yet the media code declared it 2.4X. When I complained to the company by phone I was told to contact Ultra. They told me that their 1 year warranty didn't apply in this case because it was dvd media(?!!!) When I contacted Tigerdirect.ca I was told that I should heve returned it right away and not gone through 2 cake boxes---They're right but I didn't know I had a problem with the media. I was it was the Ulead software, etc...I any case I never buy Ultra or shop at Tigerdirect.ca. BTW, when I posted my negative review of their media they never posted it, even though I submitted it twice.
By Two Degrees, Sunday 13 February 2005 04:41
Two DegreesYou're right, but think about this from the overall perspective. Many (most?) consumers know nothing of media codes, they just expect that when they buy an 8x disc to use with their 8x burner it should burn at 8x. A lot of them don't even know anything about updating firmware. So manufacturers with discs that aren't supported at their rated speed in many burners resort to "borrowing" media codes to ensure that when Joe Consumer buys their discs under whatever random brand, they'll burn at the speed they say and he'll be happy if his movie plays back. It'd be nice if they would improve their disc quality so borrowing codes would be unnecessary, but that would cost more money and we know how companies feel about spending more money...
By _chef_, Sunday 13 February 2005 09:37
_chef_The consumer is the donkey to be feed with crap... Some "manufacturers" believe that's the way to go - but that cannot work endlessly.
By bcn_246, Sunday 13 February 2005 13:07
bcn_246Im unclear about this, are putting fake codes on there illegal? I dont think Taiyo Yuden owns the right to the TYxx codes.
By dakhaas, Sunday 13 February 2005 13:48
dakhaasCorrection of some of the newspost information. Anwell doesn't make fake TY disc's. Anwell is a companny who makes material to produce dvd recordables however they don't produce themselves. They just sell there technology.(like Plasmon /Interaxia) Now it is true that a lot of HongKong compannies who used in the past some of anwell codes now abuse the TY code. ------- Another thing most TY (and in the old days maxell/tdk media) are codes that are abused however this is not allways the case with other mid's incombination with cheap disc's. Currently there can be found a lot of cheap media with FUJI/TDK/MCC(MKM) code on the market most of this stuff is legal but don't expect the consisant quality/guarantee that big brands have but then again it doesn't have the price.
By Seán, Sunday 13 February 2005 18:26
SeánThanks for the update Wink As the italic section is a quote from the news source, I decided to leave it as it is unless the source changes this.
By I Have Piles, Sunday 13 February 2005 20:57
A brave move to openly name and accuse companies of manufacturing fake discs.
By alseides, Sunday 13 February 2005 22:00
but for some reason they are not getting sued. i guess if the authentic brands don't do anything its going to get worse. if they don't file lawsuits then they are stupid and deserve to have their discs codes immitated.
By Kenshin, Monday 14 February 2005 10:09
CD-RW's article seems confusing to me. Those "brands" first of all just buy the media that are cheapest on the market. Just like most consumers. They are traders, not media companies. The manufacturers that make fake disks want to sell their products through those brands. If they are based in Hong Kong, what can you do whether it's legal or illegal?
By Dismembered Ninja, Monday 14 February 2005 10:53
Dismembered NinjaTrue, but traders have to take some responsibility for what they sell. All they have to do is get some of the samples they get given and try them out in their machines. If it burns and scans well then they can be happy in giving their customer a good deal. If not they should pass it over, as it will damage their name in the long run (Although they would make money in the short term). The companies mentioned just have to be more careful about what they buy, or noone will trust them and they will slowly fade from the marketplace.
By Herrie, Tuesday 15 February 2005 08:16
I can confirm that 3A Media never produced discs with a fake MID. I have been testing and reviewing their media for the past 2 years and can confirm that they would never sell discs with fake MID. Their discs require an own set of writing parameters, so simply implementing a fake MID would hurt them more then it would do them good!
By Nephilim_2001, Wednesday 02 March 2005 18:12
Nephilim_2001There is a whole thread on 'fake' TY media in the forum. If you are looking to buy TY media, I would suggest you read it beofre you palce your order... http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=112854&highlight=fake
By Margie Enriquez (guest), Tuesday 25 September 2007 21:41
Am having so much trouble recording onto Memorex dvd-r disc. Is this a common problem, and can you suggest a disc that won't give me so much trouble.. Thank you for any help you can give me.. M. Enriquez
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