Recommended DVD-Rs

[insidedanshead]

I am sure this has been a topic of discussion before but I thought I would bring it back up. I am making a video for my friends wedding. I have never burnt a dvd out of imovie successfully, as all the DVD-Rs I buy aren't supported. What kind of DVD-Rs do you guys generally use? I have a first generation Superdrive to if that matters.

[crazzyeddie]

You should try the Apple DVD-R's. Theyre guaranteed to work =)

Also, ive never had a problem with Memorex. In fact, i just bought 100 of them on sale at Best Buy.

[FuzzyBallz]

Well, what brands of DVD-R have you tried? Apple brand 2.4x DVD-R is supposedly very good, but then it's really made by Maxell, so you can just pick up a 25/pack Maxell at any retailer instead of bleeding for the 5/pack Apple DVD-Rs.

[sahnert]

apple recommends buying apple media from their store, if that helps.

[FuzzyBallz]

Of course they do, they want to squeeze every last drop of your money from your wallet. The Apple branded 5 pack 4x DVD-R black w/ individual slim cases costs $20, or $4 a disc. The same people who makes Apple DVD-R, Maxell, sells the 25 pack 4x DVD-R for $30. You do the math.

[absolut_mac]

Originally posted by FuzzyBallz
The same people who makes Apple DVD-R, Maxell, sells the 25 pack 4x DVD-R for $30. You do the math.

Where do you buy the Maxell at that price?

A website would be most helpful :)

[FightTheFuture]

maxell and verbatim are considered the two best brands. i would choose maxell over the latter IMO.

[insidedanshead]

I tried some phillips one but I took those back.. so I can't tell you the details on those.. the other ones are Memorex DVD-R 4X... does the 4x matter? can the first generation superdrive not write to 4x media?

[~Shard~]

As it is in most cases, you get what you pay for. Although media like Verbatim and Maxell may be a bit more pricey than other brands, like Memorex, they are definitely better quality. I haven't had the best luck with Memorex in general, and their products just seem overall "cheap" to me. But, you got to go with what works, so if people don't have issues with Memorerx, then by all means!

[jywv8]

I've used K Hypermedia DVD-Rs. From what I've read, I don't think anyone likes them but me. I got them free from a friend and haven't had any problems.

[GrannySmith_G5]

Originally posted by absolut_mac
Where do you buy the Maxell at that price?

A website would be most helpful :)

I second that. I would be very interested in knowing where I can get 25 maxell dvd-r's for 30 dollars.

[maxvamp]

Hello all,

I have had the best luck with two different superdrives ( A03 and A05 ) with Verbatum and Ritek media. I get them from www.meritline.com. Recently, I have had good luck with Princo discs in the A05 superdrive, and those I get for less than $1 ea. from AllMediaoutlet.com.

I have not had the best of luck with Memorex, or the new Apple 4x media. I kept getting video distortions periodically. I have a PM DA 733, the first withg a superdrive, and I have had it for several years now. I am finding that some of my older Apple discs are no longer playing well in my DVD players. Fortunatly, I am able to make a copy of the discs onto a newer disc, and get a restored version. I suspect that the superdrive has better error correction for reading discs

I would stongly suggest you have a look at either of these places.

Max

[LethalWolfe]

As another poster said, you get what you pay for. Cheap discs might work now, but in a year they will probably be coasters.

maxvamp, I would stay far, far away from Princo dics. Princo + "why do my burned DVDs no longer work?" seems to be a popular combonation.

I've used Verbatim and Apple branded discs so far w/o a problem. I also have a Pioneer authoring quality disc that someone made for me 2 or 3 years ago and it still works like a charm.


Lethal

[cotton]

I get my Ritek DVD-R (now known as RiDATA) from Rima.com. They have pretty cheap prices (100 pack of Ridata discs is currently $82 plus shipping and tax if applicable).

Have not gotten any coasters (knock on wood) yet and I have been using only those discs for a while now. :)

[maxvamp]

Tanks for the heads up. I'll go back to sticking with what works...Verbatum and RiTek.

The Riteks are only a few cents more anyhow...

Max

[~Shard~]

Originally posted by maxvamp
Tanks for the heads up. I'll go back to sticking with what works...Verbatum and RiTek.

The Riteks are only a few cents more anyhow...

Max

Probably a smart bet. As I said above, you get what you pay for. And even though Memorex and those other cheaper DVDs may burn fine and appear to work, I question their longevity.

[maxvamp]

I have found that you can go buy the most expensive blank out there, and the quality will be no different than a much lower cost reasonable priced disc.

For example, both of the brands I use regularly, I have done so for a couple of years. These are Verbatum, and Ritek. The Verbatum are generally twice the cost of the Ritek.

Now, I have tried a lot of different brands, and some have started fading away very soon after being burned (DVDPro), while others have taken a couple of years ( 3M and Apple ).

I would urg people not to take cost as the only factor, but instead, try different brands on different burners ( not all burners like the same brands of blanks ), and try to find out what other people with your brand of DVD burner have had long term (if possible ) luck with. A good source of information might be your local videographers, and there source for media. In Denver it is the 'TapePlace' .

Myself, I will pay $1.25 for Riteks 4x blanks, $2.50 for Verbatums, and $3.25 for Ritek 9.4 GB blanks. I will not pay $9 for Pioneer 9.4GB blanks, even though Pioneer makes the Apple drive I use.

I could pay much more, but , through two plus years of testing, I have found that it buys me no more quality. There is no sense in throwing money away either by paying way to much, or by using really bad discs.

Max

[maxvamp]

I have not liked Maxell media for almost a dozen years. I think thier motto is : if it looks good, it won't last, and if it looks bad, it will last forever.

I have had fairly poor luck with thier BetaCam, VHS, and DVD ( RAM and R ) media for quite a long while now. Sad part is that I actually liked thier stuff in the 80s. They got cheaper, and as such, the quality seemed to have vanished.

Do not be surprised if I do not give a thumbs up on this brand.

Max

[stromie952]

I have used both the Maxell 2x and the Ritek 4x disks on a built in Pioneer 105. The Maxells were good in general but had some problems when backing up DVDs. Near the end of the disk there would almost always be a major flaw that would pause the movie for a second with artifacts and then continue and be alright. But, with the Ritek 4x, I haven't had a single problem with anything. No coasters on either but I would definitely suggest the Riteks, either 4x or 1x depending on the type of drive you have. The Riteks are comparably priced. I know the prices have dropped a lot since I bought mine and I got them for ~$145 for a hundred. Check out dealmac.com for curent pricing around the web.

[krimson]

I've gone thru 7 50-pack spindles of Princo 4x (unbranded white-top), and i've not had a single problem, except for 1 spindle where some (42 to be exact) of the media was screwed up (scratches, stripes and mis/discolored dye) .. I had opened and used a few, so I couldn't return it.

All of them work fine in my A05, my PS2.. i've burned alot of those for friends, as session or season ending DVD's, and only one person has said that they've had problems with the DVD.

Riteks are also very good, I like the Fuji's, but they're too costly for me to do.. since i dont make any money from most of the DVD's we create.

If anyone wants to get the Princo's, www.rima.com has them for $80 for a (2) 50-pack spindle. They're Los Angeles, CA based, and shipping is about $7.

www.dvdrhelp.com is also a good place to check, they have a section of reader experiences with all kinds of media.

[johnnyjibbs]

Try to get the media that fits with the speed of your drive. My PowerBook has a 2x superdrive and Apple states that I can use 4x discs but they will burn at 1x speed. So 2x are the optimum for 2x superdrives.

Your G4 733 superdrive is very likely a 1x drive so it probably doesn't matter which discs you use (although make sure you installed that firmware update before using 4x discs).

I've just used my complimentary 2x Apple DVD-R to backup my iTunes collection (only took 30 mins, I was impressed) and i'm probably just going to buy more Apple ones. I can get a 5 pack for £10 education ($16).

[johnnyjibbs]

One question though... if the Apple branded DVD-R says it has a capacity of 4.7 GB (like normal DVDs), why then could I only fit 4.30 GB of music onto it?

[maxvamp]

The G4 733 Digital Audio contained a Pioneer DVR-103. This was a 2x DVDR /1x DVDRW burner. This was a very picky burner, as it was released 6 months before anyone could buy them separately.

You did need a firmware patch to use 4X media in them. Failure to do so could lock op the drive, and if not caught, burn out the laser.

On the 4.7 vs. 4.3 GB size, it comes down to how one measures a byte. If you count a Byte as 1024 bits, then your DVD holds 4.7 GB. If you count a byte as 1k bits, then a disk holds 4.3 GB. Many dvd shells explain this on the package.

Max

[MattG]

I've had good luck with Verbatim, Maxell, and Memorex. I try to stay away from generics.

[El Dandy]

I usually shop on eBay and get Princo. There's very inexpensive and I love them, i've gone through about 150 of them with only a handful of mess ups.

[kwerk]

I have tried TDK, Fugi, Imation, and I was a bit skeptical about trying the riteks at first but the research I did was overwhelming that Ritek has the best ratings across the the board-so i ordered 50 of the dv04 from meritline and got them at about 1.45 a disk, BUT THESE ARE VERY HIGH QUALITY DISKS THEY are the only thing i plan on using-the dye is very consistent and no bleeding at all they are really well made
whatever you do
WARNING do not fall for this total crap that many of these retailers push that they claim are Pioneer OEMs they are called piodata and are total CRAP and they ain't cheap either

[LethalWolfe]

Those of you using Princo blanks, how old is your oldest burned DVD and how well does it still play? That's the problem I've been hearing about Prinoc blanks. They burn okay, but after a year or two the disc is a coaster.


Lethal

[~Shard~]

Originally posted by El Dandy
I usually shop on eBay and get Princo. There's very inexpensive and I love them, i've gone through about 150 of them with only a handful of mess ups.

Yah, but will they retain their data a few years down the road or become coasters? That would eb my concern - the longevity of some of these cheaper brands of recordable media.

[krimson]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Those of you using Princo blanks, how old is your oldest burned DVD and how well does it still play? That's the problem I've been hearing about Prinoc blanks. They burn okay, but after a year or two the disc is a coaster.


Lethal

I have a few DVD's that are just over a year old, but they're 1X's, and i just played a snowboard vid we made, and it plays fine still.

if you're really concerned about the archive status of some of these non-name brand DVD-R, i'd suggest getting the branded ones. Although they have warranty's, it doesn't really matter if the data is lost and they replace your DVD-R... IMO.

[groovebuster]

My favorites are Verbatim DVD-Rs. Never had any problems with them so far on different burners. And my throughput of DVD-Rs is pretty high... ;)

They are not the cheapest, but the money is well invested to prevent later head-ache because of data-loss.

Princos are just on the other side of the scale. They are POS. I tried them once. Out of 4 DVDs I burned, 2 were coasters (media errors while burning) and the other 2 only burned at 2x speed max, even though they were supposed to burn at 4x.

groovebuster

[krimson]

i've heard of others having the 2x problem.. though i haven't had that yet, except when they weren't manufactured correctly...

I just started on DVD-R #7 of spindle 8, and still no major problems *Knock on Wood* ...

they have QC issues with some batches.. so keep that in mind when ordering Princo's. I'll take a pix of my bad spindle, So ppl will know what to look for.

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by krimson
i've heard of others having the 2x problem.. though i haven't had that yet, except when they weren't manufactured correctly...

I just started on DVD-R #7 of spindle 8, and still no major problems *Knock on Wood* ...

they have QC issues with some batches.. so keep that in mind when ordering Princo's. I'll take a pix of my bad spindle, So ppl will know what to look for.


Just out of curiousity why do you keep using Princos? They sound like more of a POS brand now to me than ever (the spindle of 50 w/42 defective discs is just amazing). Yer like, "don't be surprise ifyou buy unusable blanks." Why do you keep giving them $$$?

I do use higher quality blanks because in two years I want to watch the videos I'm making today. Now, I know that burned DVDs, just like burned CDs, don't have the life that their replicated, commerical count parts do (which is my I master all my stuff onto MiniDV) but I still want more than a year or two shelf life for my burned DVDs. Unless it's something for a demo, or a throw away I don't see the point of using cheap media that most likely won't be playable in a year or two. While moving out of my parent's house I found a lot of home videos that I had forgotten about/hadn't seen for years and most of this stuff was 10 or 15 years old. I guess I don't see the point of chosing to put your memories and/or you work onto media that most likely will die in such a short time frame.


Lethal

[krimson]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Just out of curiousity why do you keep using Princos? They sound like more of a POS brand now to me than ever (the spindle of 50 w/42 defective discs is just amazing). Yer like, "don't be surprise ifyou buy unusable blanks." Why do you keep giving them $$$?

I do use higher quality blanks because in two years I want to watch the videos I'm making today. Now, I know that burned DVDs, just like burned CDs, don't have the life that their replicated, commerical count parts do (which is my I master all my stuff onto MiniDV) but I still want more than a year or two shelf life for my burned DVDs. Unless it's something for a demo, or a throw away I don't see the point of using cheap media that most likely won't be playable in a year or two. While moving out of my parent's house I found a lot of home videos that I had forgotten about/hadn't seen for years and most of this stuff was 10 or 15 years old. I guess I don't see the point of chosing to put your memories and/or you work onto media that most likely will die in such a short time frame.


Lethal

well, this is the last spindle that I have, ill need to pick up another one sooner or later, but except for that 1 spindle, i've really not had any problems.. and for 1/2-1/3 the cost of the Fuji's or other brand name DVD-R's, you really can't beat the Princo's.

Why do i keep giving them money?
Because I know what to look for in a bad disc, so If i get another bad spindle, ill get it exchanged immediately.. at 80 cent/disc, and the sheer amount of discs that I go thru per month... it makes the most sense to me... now if I were getting Optodiscs, then I would be ashamed and wouldn't even post that I used them. :D

As for longetivity, I keep the master on a Fuji, and the Princo's go out to other people... usually as Demo's or Samples. Most of the discs just get watched once or twice, and then they're thrown into a drawer, folder or something. I have generic 2x CD's that were of questionable quality, but they still read perfectly fine years later...

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by krimson
As for longetivity, I keep the master on a Fuji, and the Princo's go out to other people... usually as Demo's or Samples. Most of the discs just get watched once or twice, and then they're thrown into a drawer, folder or something. I have generic 2x CD's that were of questionable quality, but they still read perfectly fine years later...


If I was sending out boat loads of DVDs I'd probably send out cheaper media too as long as they weren't any less compatible.

I think the "I used crap CD blanks w/o a problem so I can use crap DVD blanks w/o a problem" is a common misconception. DVDs are much more "dense", in terms of data, than CDs (4.7gig vs 700MB in the same amount of space) so errors and defects that are unnoticable on a CD can easily be show stopping for a DVD.


Lethal

[krimson]

I've only had one person say they couldn't read the DVD's, and I sent him a Fuji... so I suppose i've been lucky. If i could afford to use more expensive DVD-R's, or I actually trying to make a profit, I would use more expensive brand name -R's. :D For now, the Princo's are just fine.

the generic CD comment was my long winded way of saying that only time will tell whether or not they will hold up... But as with hearing statistics or whatever on the news/radio, you have to wonder at the conditions... in theory, a DVD-R in a controlled environment (ie, not jumping from 40 degrees to 110 degrees F) such as a closet or even a home with central AC, they should last more than a few years... now if you're leaving them in the car, sunlight, tossing them around, then well... 2 years would be good for any blank, cd or dvd. IMO ;)