tgunnell

If you use a programme called dvd identifier you can fin out who the actually manufacturer is of the disc.Some maxell discs i bought in asda(walmart) were very good and they were identified as japan ricoh ,but cheaper maxell discs were made by ritek

PaulDK

There seems to be many disc manufacturers now coming onto the market that its difficult to know what your buying.
My mate uses the Tuff Discs, ....he never has a problem with those....but he cant seem to find any you can actually print on with a printer....!....still you cant have everything.

Frank63

I always use VERBATIM as I found them the most reliable. Some discs that I burnt around 12 months ago ( Ritek) have deteriated so much that they are now unplayable. Apparently it's all to do with the dye used . Unfortunatley there are many 'fakes' on the market which are sub standrd and it's almost impossible to tell from the real thing, until that is you start burbing them.

I have 3 DVD playes, a Philips DVD recorder, a Sony DVD player and a Warfedale DVD player all 3 play both +R and -R.

I recomend joining one of the video forums and see the number of Q&A's asked regarding the problem of " which disc is best.."

ColinK

Also worth bearing in mind that DVD +/- R will not last as long as VHS tapes, they do have a finite life. Albeit they will play perfectly upto the point when the dye starts to break down and they fail to play. Even the 'archive' grade discs will eventually fail. Someone mentioned above a previously recorded disc is now unplayable. If you are burning discs that you want to still be playing in 10 years time then pay the extra for long life 'archive' or premium quality discs. e.g. Verbatim (Mitsubishi) DataLifePlus.
If you plan on keeping your VHS tapes then its not so much an issue as you can just re-copy the vhs to a new dvd.

A free PC program such as DVD Info Pro can tell you which manufacturer actually made your branded dvd. As mentioned above, a brand could buy in dvds from different manufacturers. Some good, some not so good.

The following 3 links are a great resource for getting the best dvds:
Digital FAQ
Video Help
CD Freaks

The general concensus seems to be that Verbatim dvds and those manufactured by Tayo Yuden (TY) are best and I expect those made by Sony and TDK are equally as good.

Amethyst_Isle

I still do not quite understand the DVD +/- R side of things,obviously some players only use DVD- R and some are able to use both.

Are DVD-R's have better quality recording (obviously given the source material in the first place ) than DVD+R's or vice versa or the same ?

I have used both but really can't see the difference in the recordings tbh.


AVOID the ones in shops like Poundland and 99p shops though as they are basically cheap and horrible.

There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple.

Tony Pendrey

Not long ago I would have agreed. But the Poundlavd discs branded "Signalex" and the 99p World discs branded "Mr DVD" are both made by Mitsubishi and I have been using these for a while with no problems.

Of course, that doesn't mean to say they won't all be beer mats in a couple of years time !

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

Amethyst_Isle

I did not know those you listed were by Mitsubishi.

I know there are some lesser brands out there that are rubbish though but never tried the Signalex/MR DVD ones though, I did try some other makes but as I say they were rubbish.

So are the Signalex/MR DVD worth 4 for a £1/99p then ?

Most you can buy drums of them for about £10 for like 100,so financially not worth it unless you get stuck for 1 or 2.

There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple.

Tony Pendrey

The ones they used to sell under those brands were made by some other manufacturer that I'd never heard of. I had a lot of problems and actually posted here about avoiding them !

But these Mitsubishi disks do seem to be worth the price.

The other thing I have noticed is that the branded name is quite often not the manufacturer as tgunnel mentioned in an earlier post.

Ah Yes, the Soviet Union. All them wheatfields and ballet in the evenings

mrs_emma_peel

I’ve found Verbatim to be the most reliable of DVD +RW discs … I also use Panasonic and Sony …
but I could definitely recommend Verbatim +RW discs

Mrs Emma Peel

Carl V

I realise this is an old thread, but I've only just come across it and I was always curious about the shelf life of a DVD.

I first purchased a DVD player in 2000 and some of the early pre-recorded discs which I bought in 2001 became unplayable after a few months. Two of the titles were 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'The Terminator', and although MGM were aware of this problem and offered an exchange, I have lost various other titles within a couple of years. By coincidence, they were all MGM titles - all the others such as Columbia/Tristar, Fox, Universal, Paramount, etc, are still OK even today eight or nine years on.

On the subject of blank media, well I purchased a DVD recorder back in 2004 and most of my discs are Verbatim but I have some Sony and Taiyo Yuden.

However, with the main brands, I would check to see where they were made. For example, Verbatims marked up as 'Made in Japan' are manufactured by Taiyo Yuden which are regarded as one of the best discs for archiving. Whether they have a longer shelf life than the Verbatims that are made in Taiwan, well I couldn't honestly answer but only time will tell.

For what it's worth, the discs I've recorded on back in 2004 are still as good as new, but I have been advised to avoid the ones that are made in India or China, even if they are Verbatim or any of the other well known brand names.

Lord Brett

Does anyone know if Sony are subject to the same variations as Verbatim apparently are (though I've never had any problems with theirs). The only ones which have given me probs are Maxell, especially the DVD + RW's, which fortunately I never used for archiving, but were unbelievably poor.

Carl V

My first ones were Sony DVD-R and these were made in Taiwan. I've had no problems at all with them. However, some now are made in India just like Verbatim's, so I'm not sure how they'll compare.

Maxell is an interesting one because I have seen those at my local Maplin's but there doesn't seem to be any indication as to where they are made. Personally, if you can get discs marked up as Japanese or Taiwanese, then you won't go far wrong.

Windyridge

Is this still the case two years on? I am recording films on my Sky HD box then recording them onto Sony 16x/1x DVD-Rs with a Toshiba player. Unfortunately, the discs won't play on my Panasonic player in another room. I have tried recording from both boxes, swapping the players over etc but a disc recorded on one just won't play on the other. Will a Read/Write disc solve my problem? Sigh.

Mr Sloane

Must agree I bought 10 Maxwell DVD-RW 4 have errored on first use.

rjd0309

As others have already said here, first check to make sure that the discs are compatible with your player. For example, one of my players will only play DVD-R discs, and will choke on a DVD+R. But this is clearly stated in the Owner's Manual.

If your recorder gives you a "recording speed" option, make sure that you record your discs at the slowest possible speed (usually 4x). This ensures more reliable data writes.

Don't waste your money buying "16x discs" when you're going to end up writing to them at 4x speed anyway.

I've mailed discs to literally hundreds of people worldwide, and the most reliable discs that I've found are the ones sold under the Verbatim brand name.

(Using one of the disc utilities that allows you to read the disc's Manufacturer ID shows that these discs have the ID of "MKM-001-00", indicating that these Verbatim discs were actually made by the Mitsubishi Chemical Company, which also makes high-quality discs sold under the Sony and Taiyo-Yuden brand names.)

But when all else fails, I've found that using a DVD-RW disc will work when nothing else will. Perhaps this also has something to do with write speed, as my recorder writes to DVD-R discs at 4x speed, but writes to the DVD-RW discs at 1x speed. So perhaps the reliablility of the data writes has something to do with the slower write speed?