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- Q. Can the disc created be used on other DVD or CD drives?
A. Yes. If the disc has been secured with a password, you will need to install the SecurDisc™ reader which is a free program that can be downloaded from http://www.securdisc.net/eng/downloads.php. This program is also included in the bundled Nero software.
- Q. Can I used the bundled Nero software to create a secure disc with any ordinary DVD-RRW or CD-RW drive?
A. No. To create a secure disc, the bundled Nero software must be used together with an optical drive like the Addonics SecurDisc™ DVD±R/RW that has the SecurDisc™ technology.
- Q. Can I make copies of the DVD or CD media that is created by the Secured Disc technology.
A. Yes, The information on the copied disc will still be secured and required password authentication.
- Q. Do I need special DVD or CD media to create a secured media?
A. No.
- Q. Why do my DVD-Rs only play on some DVD players and not others?
A. While the DVD Movie and Game discs you buy or rent in the stores
appear to be "silver" or "gold", they are usually
made from aluminum coatings, over a clear layer that has been mechanically
pressed with pits or holes to encode the data that the lasers in the DVD
players decode into music and video signals. DVD Video discs that are
made this way do not require the light sensitive dye layer used in DVD-R
discs, and so they appear clear on the bottom, or nearly so. They never
have to be "burned".
By contrast, the recordable DVD-R discs use a dark dye layer to absorb
the higher powered laser in DVD burners to create the tiny pits or holes
that encode the disc's data. This dye layer causes problems for some cheaper
and older DVD players, but it is none-the-less required to "burn"
the DVD-R. Most of today's DVD Players now are able to read both the clear-bottomed
DVD movie and game discs, and also the colored dye bottomed DVD-R discs.
We have a page that lists over 200 DVD players now in the market, rating
their DVD-R playing compatibility. Approximately 76% of today's DVD players
can play DVD-R type discs.
- Q. What is the difference between DVD-R and DVD-RW?
A. Both DVD-R and DVD-RW types generally come in the single-sided,
single layer 4.7 GB capacities, which is roughly equal to 120-minutes
of standard playing time.
You can also now find 9.4 GB double-sided discs entering the market,
although there are no players, which will automatically play both sides
of the disc without ejecting it and turning it over. Eventually, there
will be DVD-R discs available that will hold around 20 GB of data, recorded
into two layers on each side of the disc. At this time, these 20gb discs
are not yet available.
The most common DVD-R is a write-once 4.7gb disc that comes in two sub-types
-- "general purpose" and "authoring". The general-purpose
discs are part of the industry's copy-protection scheme, which employ
CES scrambling to protect movies and music and game discs from being copied.
General-purpose type DVD writers such as the Addonics Mobile DVD-R/RW
Super Combo and the SecurDisc™ DVD±R/RW can only burn these discs. Such machines cannot copy the playback
descrambling codes on DVD movies or game discs, so they cannot be easily
copied.
By contrast to the write-once DVD-R types, the DVD-RW is fully re-writable
or erasable up to 1,000 times. However, unlike the older DVD-RAM format,
these particular erasable are NOT "random access", meaning that
you cannot erase bits and pieces of them. Instead, you have to completely
erase the whole disc to reuse it. The DVD-RW can be played on many DVD
players, but not quite as many as the DVD-Rs. Of course,
Most DVD-R burners like the Addonics Mobile DVD-R/RW Super Combo, the SecurDisc™ DVD±R/RW and
compatibles can also burn DVD-RW discs. DVD-R is the most popular format
for most Windows users, and is almost universally accepted by Mac users
as their standard DVD recordable format.
- Q. Will paper DVD labels hurt my recorded DVDs?
A. For many years, CD-R manufacturers recommended that users NOT
apply paper labels to their newly recorded CDs. They felt that the labels'
adhesive would harm the sensitive silver reflector by tarnishing it, or
that off-center labels might cause the disc to wobble, making it unreadable.
These factors are much more important today for DVD recordable discs
than they ever were for CD-Rs. On DVD-Rs, the tiny data bubbles that encode
the video and audio data are 8-times closer together than on CDs. Even
the slightest degradation of the edges of the bubbles due to UV or heat
exposure can ruin a DVD-R. Also, even the slightest wobbling during playback
can make video tracks unreadable, or produce "jitters" or blinking,
horizontal lines, and so on. In some cases, the discs can become completely
unplayable.
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