DVD Burner & Blank Media Compatibility Report

Back in April of 2005, VSO Software introduced a new feature to collect anonymous data about the burning process. These statistics were collected in a database and we used this database to focus our attention on some optical drives. The database contains information like drive model, firmware, media type and brand, burn speed and whether the burn has completed successfully or not. As of today the database contains more than 14 million records, collected by VSO products such as CopyToDVD, BlindWrite, PhotoDVD and ConvertXtoDVD ( formerly known as DivxToDVD ) but also by some 3rd party products which use VSO technology (Burning SDK). If you wonder why you should switch on the statistic option during installation, please read this.

We published a first analysis in December 2005 and are now releasing the second, updated report .

 What are the most popular CD and DVD writer manufacturers ? What is the best DVD format to use (+R or -R) ? Is it that important to update the firmware? Have the last trends changed since December 2005 ?

With 50 000 new records per day we can quickly analyse the behaviour of a new drive and detect compatibility issues. We use this database for support, suggesting the best drive or the best media brand for customers.
The average burning  success rate has reached  95%, increasing by 2.5 % since December O5.. Some people may consider it not very high, but the behaviour of customers leads to believe they try several times in case the burn fails, and before realizing it is an issue of poor media quality, or another reason, the success rate is lowered. As we will see later, the best drive combined with the best media can increase the success rate up to 97%.

It's interesting to see that there are more than 1900 different drive models, and 900 different media brands and types.
As we will see later, the top 5 drive manufacturers represent more than 80% of the market.

• Intro
• Chapter 1: What is the Most Popular Media Format?
• Chapter 2: Most Popular DVD Burner Hardware Makers
• Chapter 3: Most Reliable DVD Burner Analysis
• Chapter 4: Most Popular Blank DVD Makers
• Chapter 5: Most Reliable Blank DVD Analysys
• Chapter 6: Conclusion & Awards