[vox-tech] DVD and labels

[ME]

Peter Jay Salzman said:
> I bought a DVD writer a month ago, and have been so busy that I didn't
> get a chance to use it up until today.
>
> I burned a DVD and made sure it worked.  Then I put a CD Stomper CD
> Labeling System label on my DVD.  The DVD became unreadable.
>
> Burned another DVD.  It was fine.  Put another CDR label on it and the
> DVD became unreadable.
>
> I can take a hint.
>
> Did some Googling, and can't find any mention that CDR labels destroy
> DVD's.  I've seen threads asking about the long term safety of DVD's
> with labels on them, but nothing that says "it immediately destroys your
> DVD".
>
> FWIW, I'm using cheap 2x TDK DVD-R and the drive is a Memorex ATAPI
> DVD(everything).
>
> Any input?  Are there special "DVD only" labels?!?

I had problems when some adhesive labels were too thick or too heavy and
caused the drive motor to have too much resistance or intertia to overcome
during spin-up. Also, I have had cases with multi-spin CD-ROM fail to spin
up to full speed due to ink weight on the adhesive causing the CDto spin
with a bit of a wobble at higher speeds... this caused a spin cycle of
spiin up, slow down, slip up slow down....

Could the labels be to thick or heavy? Could there be heavy ink on one
side (?thick ink?) which could cause this?

Just some guesses...

Something to try...
Make a "doughnut" of a label which only uses the outer half of writeable
space, and only write to the inner half. See if the DVD is readable for
the first half (inner portions working out.) If So, do the same thing, but
write to the whole disk. Can the first half of the session be read at all?
Does it break only during the midway point of the session?

If the DVD do not play with the first half of the disk filled with data
and the last half filled with adhesive labels, then I would suspect the
labels weight/thickness/inking. If the DVD works up to the half way point,
but fails beyond that, I would suspect the label is somehow interfering
with the reflective nature or reflective expectations of the media. Try
using the labels on DVD which you have used before with labels and you
know work. See if the problem follows the labels. If it does not, then,
perhaps it is a media problem with labels, or specific to the labels you
are using.

HTH,
-ME