News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

February 20, 2007

hardware

What you don’t know about optical media…could kill you (or your drive)

Posted Feb. 20, ’07, 9:35 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Hardware

DVD of EvilIf we were a local news show, we’d be running teasers saying things like “Could the blank disc you put in your disc drive destroy it? We’ll tell you at 11.” But since we’re out here in the wilds of the blogosphere, we’re just going to go ahead and tell you now. I mean, you’re already here and everything.

ZDNet’s Jason O’Grady went to burn himself a DVD the other week and ran into a bit of a problem. A SuperDrive-killing problem.

When the disc came out of my drive the white thermal printing was mostly de-laminated from the top of the disc surface. About half of the white thermal surface had peeled off inside the SuperDrive mechanism. Note: that is not a label that I installed or some sort of a sticker, it’s the white thermal printable top coat that ships from the manufacturer on the media.

Pieces of the label were trapped throughout the inside of my SuperDrive and it wouldn’t read any disc, in fact, subsequent discs that were inserted got scratched beyond further use by all the white shards that were distributed throughout the inside of my machine.

Fortunately, Jason’s MacBook Pro was covered under AppleCare, though the Genius who handled it informed him that it wouldn’t have been covered by Apple otherwise, a repair that would have totaled almost $450.

The moral of the story? Stay away from shoddy B-grade media: in this case, Prodisc White Thermal Hub Printable 8x DVD-R. Remember: sometimes it’s worth it to pay a little more for something that will not break your optical drive. Jason recommends Verbatim; I’ve had good luck with Staples’s generic brand. Burn safely, everybody.

[via MacSurfer]


2 Comments

Steven Pryor said:

I don't think it's shotty DVDs. My Macbook super drive has a hard time reading certain discs I get from Netflix. I can hear them rubbing inside just like this post describes. I quickly eject them. I also can't read certain blank DVDs, such as those from HP. I wouldn't call any of the discs shotty. More likely, a drive problem, not a disc problem. When a disc spins you shouldn't hear rubbing inside.

February 20, 2007 11:47 AM
HawksM Author Profile Page said:

I concur that sticking to quality media is important, I also agree that Verbatim is the way to go. I have sold all brands of media for years. Among blank DVDR manufacturers Verbatim by far has the least amount of complaints. I don't have experience with SuperDrives, but I do know that the physical specs of the disc are important with SuperDrives. With DVD there are 2 substrates glued together as opposed to CDR which is 1 substrate. I will also say that store bought media is "outsourced" and branded for companies like Memorex, HP, Staples etc. They do not manufacture their own media. Therefore consistency and quality from batch to batch is a gamble. They will change manufacturers from batch to batch as they see fit. For DVDR stick with Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden. For CDR stick to Taiyo Yuden, MAM-A (Mitsui) or verbatim. One more point about quality manufacturers they will be much more likely to play in DVD players after they are burned. Have you burned a DVD only to have it freeze when you watch it with friends? Stick to the quality manufacturers. The few pennies that you save by using B-grade media will not be worth it in the long run. What ever happened to the saying "You get what you pay for"?

February 21, 2007 10:39 AM

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