[Slowhand] Labels on Discs - Bad

[Matthew Brown]

Cd & DVD players have mechanismas in them to ensure the disc is centred and spins around its centre axis.  High end high-fi will often use a heavy "puk" to keep the disc in place.  What I suspect is happening with youre discs is the labels are not properly aligned and additional mass of the label is causing the disc to spin in an eliptical path rather than truely circular.  CD/DVDs play from the centre out (as opposed to outside in for vinyl), as the laser gets further from the centre the effect will become worse and the error correction on the player cannot adjust for the laser missing the track and the disc will skip.

In essence more mass is a good thing as it smooths out the path due to the increased momentum, however if that mass is not exactly aligned it will cause the problem you are experiencing.

Different players have different tolerances so these discs may well play okay in some machines.  However if the label is mis-aligned even slightly it will increase the work load of the error correction system in the player resulting in a loss of sound quality.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mel Boss 
  To: slowhand at planet-torque.com 
  Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 8:06 PM
  Subject: [Slowhand] Labels on Discs - Bad


  I bought a label kit (Memorex Kit and TDK DVD+R discs) and started to gussy-up some of my favorite discs both CDs and DVDs. I did a cursory test of a DVD to make certain that the label didn't adversely affect its playing by playing the first couple of songs - with no problem. 

  Well, I should have played to the end of the disc. After applying some really cool looking labels to about a half-dozen video discs, I found a problem. Starting mid-disc, the tracks skipped with increasing severity until the disc was "unplayable." What a bummer - luckily, I was able to peel off the offending labels, and the discs play w/o problem once again.

  I don't know if I will encounter a similar problem with CDRs as I did with DVDs (+R). 

  I thought that I would pass my (bad) experience on to the Digest community... Can anyone offer an opinion (he asked innocently) as to what the problem might be? Too much mass?
  De-labeled and Disgruntled,
  Mel
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