Could a whole case of DVDs be bad?
 

I've been burning numerous projects with Memorex DVD-R White Inkjet Printable discs with no problem for a few years. I buy them 100 discs at a time. Lately, I had a few clients of a specific project complain of audio dropouts and some chapters entirely without sound. Can't be, I spot check and review the master disc from beginning to end. Has to be their problem...nope.

I played some copies all the way through and audio would drop low, drop out, and pop back up. However, if you rewind and play it back, the audio plays fine. Dropouts are random and different from disc to disc despite being burned from the same image file.

My work flow is always the same, Avid Xpress Pro, Quicktime Ref, Sorensen Squeeze, Adobe Encore. Always worked.

Tried different burners, same problem. Other projects have been okay but they are under 30 minutes, this specific project in question fills the disc with just under 2.5 hours (had to be on 1 disc for client, no dual layer). The project worked when I finished it earlier this year and made hundreds of copies. Same image file since then but bad discs now.

I think the entire pack of discs I bought may be bad. Could that be possible? Could heat have warped it perhaps? Would a physically bad disc have bad audio but then play fine once it is played again? I'm trying a different brand right now and so far no drop outs.

Smoking gun...

Right now I've got one particular stack of Memorex Black CD-R's that seems like every other disc is a coaster. I'd suggest
getting another batch immediately -- perhaps substitute a different brand -- and see if that solves your problem.

I've had a batch of Taiyo Yuden's have 30% coasters but in my case, they fail on insertion NOT after burning or verification. Strange issue you have there...

I found a HP DVD-R in a drawer and gave it a shot. Seems to work well. Looks like the batch of Memorex was bad. I'm glad it looks like the problem's solved but now I dread thinking there are 96 other bad discs out there.

Shaun, strange to hear about Taiyo Yuden. I thought they were usually the can't go wrong brand.

Out of 100 TY's I had bother with at least half of them. They burnt OK at 4x speed but kept sticking on playback.

Since moving to TYs about 2000 or so discs ago I have not had a single coaster. I use the WS (watershield) and not only do the burn and play right but they look great as well.

Further to what Don says, PREVIOUS to my bad batch and SINCE I've had 100% success (I don't use Watershield - I personally don't like high gloss) with TY. Any number of things may have contributed to the batch being bad but yes, one batch was.

Yes, whole packs can be bad
 

Hi,
I've used Sony DVD-R inkjet printables I buy in 100's from Costco.
I use burnimg to burn at 1/2 speed (16x at 8x), then verify.

When Costco had a 2 for 1 on the disks I doubled up. I noticed
that they were no longer using shrink wrap over paper label but had
the label printed directly on the shrink wrap.

In the middle of producing I had to open one of the new packs.
I went from no verify errors to every other disk was bad. I checked
my burners, verified the disks were the 'same' as the previous good
ones. Finally gave up and took the suspicious packs back for a full
refund. These were bought in March timeframe.

In July I needed more disks, out of convenience I tried another
100 of the Costco Sony DVD-R ink jet printable with label printed
directly on the shrinkwrap. No problems.

I believe there are bad batches. The benefit of Costco is being
able to return them. The negative is the lost time and aggravation.

good luck,
jim cowan

I had a second case of Memorex DVDs that were purchased months after this "bad batch". I'm getting the same issues. It really baffles me that the audio gets low, fades out, and pops back in but once rewound and played again it will play fine. Usually a bad disc just doesn't burn but this is a whole new thing.

See my original comment.

I don't allow memorex products in my editing suite...

You'll catch on soon.

Bad batches do get out - but some are more consistently good than others. One apprach is to check who made the DVD or CD since many brands are just rebadged products. Some brand names maybe from different manufacturers at different times.

Lately I've been using TY premium (both Watershield and not depending on the end use) with good results.

I"ll be glad the day I don't have to deliver dvd's to my clients anymore, I"ve had weird problems in the past with Tayo's, philips and now verbatims. The verbatims really surprised me as they allways worked out for me the past year and then suddenly caused major stuttering in my Sony dvd player but not in other players. I have tried it all, buying other brand dvd burners, switching dvd brands and thinking that Tayos would do the trick, nope. half of a 50 pack with no problem, other half again with stuttering of my video's. My sony player does play every dvd from my moviecollection without a problem, just my disks it doesn't like.
Weirdest thing is that I was at a client recently who had a first generation of philips dvd standalone player/burners which are notorious for being very picky about the videos they will play without any stutter, the client said even movies he bought won't play right and my dvd, that wouldn't play right on my Sony player played without any problem on his player, even he couldn't believe.
I don't like dvd's...

Another vote for Costco, and just yesterday I got my coupon book for "buy one get one free" - they do this once or twice every year. I had both Sony and TDK +Rs from them, several hundreds, not one ever defective (I also burn at half speed).