IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT DVD’S MEDIA ID (MID) If you’re having PROBLEMS
OUT OF THE BLUE with ANY brand of DVDs or CDS that you have used successfully in the past, then consider that even when the physical appearance of a DVD hasn’t changed, it doesn’t mean the manufacturer have not
TINKER WITH THE MID, they could have recently outsourced their operations or gotten a cheaper media provider (e.g. China and Malaysia are famous for their almost criminally bad quality DVDs, lol)
The MID is a tag name that identifies the actual company that produces a CD or DVD, from which is possible to determine it’s quality
NO MATTER WHAT DVD BRAND OR TYPE YOU’RE THINKING OF USING, ALWAYS GET THEIR MEDIA ID (MID) AND CROSSCHECK IT WITH A QUALITY RATING LIST SUCH AS THIS ONE: http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm (OR ANY OTHER LIST THAT YOU TRUST, I DON’T PARTICULARLY ENDORSE ANY)
If you’re wondering how to get the CD’S or DVD’S MID tag name; probably your burning software has an application where it displays that piece of info, and then some. It obviously depends, in Nero for example the application’s name is Nero Cd-DVD Speed, or there’s freeware to analyze a DVD, google it (My advice, use your own burning program’s application)
Here is my experience with MIDs,
just as side reading... Since I can remember I have used Maxell's DVD-R, but the LAST 2 batches I bought were disastrous, I hope my observations help someone having similar problems:
1. The old Maxell's DVD-R, the ones with a pale yellowish color, have worked great, not one single problem. Their Media ID (MID) was: RITEKF1
2. Then I purchased a 10 DVD-R batch, the first thing I notice was the different, not pale (very shiny) more aesthetical darker yellow tint to them. This time their MID was CMCMAG. AM3 , And they worked just as well as the old ones
3. More recently I bought again from the same place another 10 DVD-R Maxell batch, this time they had yet another tint, still a shiny yellow color (this time yellow-orange actually) but not as shiny as the ones before. Their MID was ProdiscF02. AND BOY WERE THEY BAD, NONE OF THEM WORKED PROPERLY.
• Notice the physical description I just gave of the Maxell’s different DVDs, at first I thought they were just simple presentation changes (of color on the side where you write the name, not the side the computer burns.To clarify) , latter on I crosschecked them all and found the different MIDs. Before criticizing the observations please know that I don’t have a decaying sight (lol), nor the color differences were caused by light exposure changes or wear and tear, since they were all new. Plus my DVD Burner (LG GSA-H20N) is working perfectly and the computer a: Pentium 4, 3GHZ, 1.5G RAM, ETC. So NO HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE POSSIBLE PROBLEMS.
• Also notice that in Maxell’s case they did not only changed the MIDs but also the appearance (or the last one was a fake, that I can’t confirm), the important thing here is that no matter the DVD OR CD BRAND THEY WOULD VERY WELL JUST CHANGE THE MID HENCE PROBABLY CHANGING THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT AS WELL, so inform yourself.
With this just as with everything in life:
HAVING KNOWLEDGE IS BEING EMPOWERED. I hope this helps ...
