Recommended DVD-Rs

[kwerk]

ritek is right on go to meritline

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.

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. 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