DVD quality help

Newbie Forum
#1

Hi, this is my first post. You seem to have a very nice forum here. I tried to introduce myself yesterday in your living room, but when I went to post my introduction, the computer logged me out, and my work was lost. I’ll try again later.

For now, I have a question that you all have probably heard a zillion times before: Recently I bought a 100 pack of Memorex 16x DVD’s. As I got into burning them, it turned out that they were trash and I have ended up throwing about 1/3 of them away due to the fact that they would not burn.

It has been brought to my attention that there is not neccessarily a correlation between brand and quality, and the only way to determine for sure the quality of a DVD is to test it with a testing program. But in order to test them you have to buy them first, so what happens if you buy a batch of DVD’s and they turn out to be low quality?

How do members of this forum get around this problem? Is there any brand that you can buy with confidence that they will perform well? And how does this balance against expense? I have found that you can pay up to $2 per disc. What do you do if you are doing a lot of burning?

I am confident that members here have experienced the same issues and perhaps can pass some helpful hints along to me. Thanks, Helen

#2

Welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

Indeed there are a couple of brands that produce reliable media: Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden. These are the very best available at the moment.

With low quality discs, there are mainly two usages: coasters and freesbee :stuck_out_tongue:

Ok, getting serious, low quality discs can be used as a short term way to store not too important data, like for example moving data from a PC to another. After the data are moved, you can trash the disc. Even if for this task it can be used a rewritable media, RW discs can cause issues because are less reliable than write once discs.

The best thing, however, is avoid to buy crappy discs :slight_smile:

#3

With low quality discs, there are mainly two usages: coasters and freesbee :stuck_out_tongue:
So I see! lol :iagree: I have a TON of coasters now!

I have a further question now that I am clear on what brands to use: What is the effect of labelling discs with markers such as Sharpie pen? I have seen these pens sold in stores as disc labellers, but I have also heard that there is a problem with labelling discs this way. What’s the scoop on that? :confused:

Thanks, Helen

#4

Writing on discs with a marker is safe, I just suggest to avoid sticky labels, because these can unbalance or, worst, warp the disc :slight_smile:

#5

Memorex CD/DVD labels are just fine they are very thin and will not cause balancing problems. I have used 1000’s with no effect on any disks!

#6

Verbatim is easy to find in the US if you want to try them. Best Buy is my local source.

Taiyo Yuden disks are another matter. They are found online mostly. Rima.com and supermediastore.com are two sources. I would buy 8x +R TY over the 16x personally.

And the vast majority around here do not use stick on labels, and do not recommend them.

#7

You should avoid labels. Only people that don’t know much about backing up DVDs would recommend labels.

#8

[QUOTE=geno888;1975208]Writing on discs with a marker is safe, I just suggest to avoid sticky labels, because these can unbalance or, worst, warp the disc :)[/QUOTE]

depends on which side u rite :bigsmile:

#9

[QUOTE=FidelC;1976499]depends on which side u rite :bigsmile:[/QUOTE]

You picky :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

Thanks for all the info! :slight_smile:

I have used labels, though not extensively, prefer the ease and security of the marker, though when I stack discs that I am burning on a spindle, if the previous disc was freshly labelled I worry that wet ink would contaminate the wrong side of the disc on top. It has never happened yet though. I have used litescribe and consider it to take too long while doubling the chance of misburning the disc.

I’ll take a look for Verbatim discs in the local stores.

#11

I agree paper labels on DVD should be avoided at all costs. In a short time they will peel and then you have problems. :wink: