Introduction

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away – Atomic became the hotspot for the worlds DVD burning enthusiasts, as a means to modify their drives and in a sense, overclock their hardware, using software – known as firmware. Such a wonderful thing, were these modifications, created by Zebra and his men, that a whole forum – known as Speedlabs was created, for the sole purpose of in-depth DVD burning discussion. In all of the hype, the quality of the media we pop into our drives is oftentimes neglected. In recent times, we have seen maybe 10-15 threads asking the same questions over and over, being “which media is the best?” This has prompted us to create a unified thread, covering the concept of DVD media quality and to a lesser extent, the analysis of it. Now, on with the show….

What is this thread all about?

As aforementioned, this thread was created as a means to educate people on media quality for their shiny new DVD recording hardware. There are right choices and wrong choices. We feel we can help you save your data and save your $$$ with this guide!

How can this help me?

The guide will act, if nothing else, as a means to guide you in your purchase of media, so when some slick snake-oil-peddler at a computer store tries to pull the “top quality stuff” sham, you will know better, and walk the other way!

Why do I care what type of media I buy?

Simple! Want to lose your data in the end? Buy crappy media. We don’t care. Want to keep it safe and secure for years to come? Then take note! 😀

What if I don’t buy what you suggest because they are cheaper?

Well, don’t come crying to us when your backup of that treasured family photo album gets lost forever in unrecoverable errors on a PRINCO disc!

Can I be a DVD media GURU like yourself?

Sure you can! Research, be wise and read widely!

For the latest web development news follow this link.

What is a MID?

A MID or Media Identification Descriptor is an internationally recognized mark of manufacturing brand/factory/stamper for all ‘legal’ DVD recordable media. It is small several byte codes embedded on every DVD-R, +R, -RW/+RW/RAM.

Tools for MID Extraction

There are several tools out there that exist for MID (Media Identification Descriptor) extraction but we will list the two (2) main programs which are widely used by DVD burning enthusiasts.