Haven't burnt anything myself for years but have a friend that wants to buy some blank DVD's. What are people having good results with? What would be the best to buy from Australia wide walk-in department or technology stores?
Thanks for any advice.
Best Blank DVD media?
bigpallooka on 01/02/2013 - 14:22
Last edited 01/02/2013 - 14:37
Last edited 01/02/2013 - 14:37
Comments
This just confuses me. If you are no longer using optical storage for backup, what is your criteria for this assesment? If it is just successful burning and short term reuse, how does my comment not apply? Furthermore if you want more detailed technical analysis, how do you think this forum will help you if you have read expert advice?
…. and I told you (like everyone else) that it depends on your usage, but it doesn't really matter what brand you pick.
I can tell you which of my discs from 10 years ago do and don't work but this is useless because:
1: The discs are not the same as what you can buy today.
2: You still haven't indicated what you mean by 'best'.
I can only assume by now that you want the longest mean time to failure, in which case I can only recommend an expert review.
I made it pretty clear that I was looking for anecdotal evidence. As I was asking for a friend I wasn't sure what all the usage was for but if you had an opinion you were welcome to share. A for this, B for that and don't buy C. As I said I appreciate you have an opinion and I respect that you want to defend your opinion but it adds nothing to the discussion. In all that you have said you actually haven't been able to make a recommendation so why bother? If I wanted an in depth analysis I know how to use google. If I want to be told what not to do I have an ex-wife. Sometimes when people ask for a recommendation, that's all they want. Anyway. I bought Verbatim for my friend. I guess time will tell if they do the job.
i think he means that all brands are very similar
Lol. If only he had just said that I wouldn't have all the trolls hunting me or voting reasonable comments negatively. Maybe he just has a lot of friends? :D
I think it's safe to assume that the reason you were heavily negged was because you were a complete wanker to someone who was genuinely trying to help you. You post a question asking for help, two minutes later a person comes to the table to offer some information and you slap them in the face. Unbelievable.
Not true,
M-Discs last ages.
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&p…
Though they are pretty expensive.I asked someone I trust to read your first reply (above) and he thinks I misunderstood your comment (as does zelda707) and that my response sounded knobish. Your disingenuous confusion and lack of clarity aside, if that is true I apologise for any presumption.
Your disingenuous confusion
I promise you the confusion was genuine, I had no idea (and still don't) why you came out so hostile, and I really did not know what you were after (still a little vague there actually).
So I guess I half accept your half apology.
I assure you I didn't mean to be hostile only mildly frustrated. If my reply to what I understood to be a non-answer came out that way then my bad. I may be the knob my friend says I seemed but I usually take great care not to sound like one (maybe that makes me sound more like one?). I also take great care in what I say (or type) and I can't see how I could be more explicit than "What are people having good results with? What would be the best to buy from Australia wide walk-in department or technology stores?"
I could have listed all the technical and review site I read first only to find that while some manufacturers have higher rated disks failure wise and longevity wise (both dependent on different variables) many brands source from various manufacturers. Or that many reviews were country-of-sale-centric. I didn't because that would have just given all the armchair experts a reason to argue their opinion ad infinitum instead of genuine contributors just making simple recommendations on there own experience.
I asked for a recommendation. I thought you were saying the best you can hope for is a week then everything deteriorates (which sounded stupid. Seems I was wrong). If I have been advised correctly, what you were saying was they are all much of a muchness (the technical sites and the anecdotes of some others here disagree), that they should all work straight up (you had no initial failures although others have a different experience), they will all let you down eventually (anyone who has used a DVD is aware of this).
Playing semantics with definitions of "best", demanding that a recommendation is dependant on usage when no one else required one (and a caveat can be easily added), claiming confusion when there can be none (what do you prefer? where can I buy it?) display your clear intent not to make a genuine recommendation. It would have been just as easy to re-state your opinion more precisely instead of making a very simple request seem much more complicated than it was. I make sincere apology for seeming hostile but as I said I find all of your responses putting down the confusion to my failure to explain irrelevant details to your satisfaction disingenuous. If you couldn't understand my initial post then I have to presume you were in the minority (despite the numerous negative votes I received) as the numerous other much more helpful commentors didn't seem to be in any quandary over what I was asking.
So I guess my apology is more about my initial error than anything I said following that. Just to clarify…
all much of a muchness, ive got movies n things from 5-6 years ago still working on Verbatim and i cant think of a time when they have failed for me.. so, annecdotal only, but for what its worth. Verbatim.
Thanks. That's all I can ask for.
Regards+1 For Verbatim, out of all the brands I've ever used (and it's been a few) it's the most reliable.
VERBATIM Rules!!! My trusted brand for blank discs.
If you are willing to order in bulk over the Internet go for Taiyo Yuden. There are local suppliers. This is what I use for archiving, but as I am paranoid I have external disks too.
Over the counter, Imation has been fine but to be honest only the most cheapo CDs or DVDs have not lasted me more than 6 months.
It all depends on your proposed use.
+1 for Verbatim or T-Y
I bought Verbatim for my friend. Thanks for the recommendations. I remember buying Taiyo Yuden many years ago and they are still sitting on spindals with old archived video. I should see if they have developed errors.
bought my Taiyo Yuden OEM from JPL as well, very reliable disks.
I read somewhere that JB HI-FI was stocking them at one stage. I might check next time I go in in case my friend wants more. Otherwise I will send them the links. Thanks.
Taiyo Yuden for the win - MSY sell them. Verbatim is the only other brand I'd think of using, that the more major shops sell. Everything else is rubbish, or just rebranded generic crap (including most brands Kmart / Target / Big W / el-cheapo shops stock).
Taiyo Yuden have in my experience proven the most reliable, both for initial burn quality (very low error rate) and endurance. I use them for some quite precise purposes and they stand head and shoulder above generic brands.
It is worth noting that TY are a supplier to many brand name suppliers like Verbatim, but as brand names source from multiple locations, you need to validate that they are in fact TY disks.
Personally, I opt for media with a code of TYG03, as these are of archival master quality and can last for a century if stored correctly.
The cheapest domestic supplier I have located is JPL Displays - 150 for $73.45 (plus freight).
http://www.jpldisplays.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?produ…Nicely edited, DVD-R has not been around for a century my friend so there is no way of knowing exactly how long they can last
DVD quality scans are available and they show that even after a few years the best media degrades regardless "if stored correctly" and using "archival master quality" what ever that means :-P
I think everyone is aware that optical disks don't last forever and I'm dubious about the 100 year claim (maybe hermetically sealed in temperature controlled bunker 2 km down?) On the other hand when I went to Officeworks yesterday and bought the Verbatim disks that many recommended I had to chose between a spindle of DVD-R or DVD+R so I'm not sure what you mean.
To expand on this the big problem is 'can last' or 'up to'. The way it works is the longer you keep the disc (any disc) the higher the chance of failure. a 100 Years MTTF (Mean Time to Failure) means that most* of your discs have failed before 100 years.
*Probably. Depends on the failure rate curve, but it is not a bell curve, and usually the bigger results will have a longer tail, skewing the mean beyond on the 50% mark.
If the idea is that maybe you can leave the DVDs in a box and your descendants can read them a century later that's the wrong concept. DVD drives will not be around that long. You only need it to last until the next generation of storage then you copy. And you would have kept 2 copies out of distrust. Plus offsite copies.
Also you will not live a century. In time it will be your descendants' problem, if they care.
Also if you baulk at 20c extra for a good brand then maybe you don't really care that much.
Greenpossum. Once again the voice of sanity. My friend isn't storing cures for disease that may reappear in a century or recording messages to be sent into outer space. Turns out my friend just wants to back-up some DVD's that are hard to replace. I'll let her know not to expect to leave them to the great-grand-children in her will. It's easier to let her copy the DVD's than try to explain and set-up any other media alternatives.
Verbatim, you should buy one, test it to make sure it's MCC, if it's CMC it's crap
FYI Taiyo Yuden are over hyped and not worth the extra cash to get your hands on them
I've had mixed results from all of them. At the moment i'm using sony.
I always wonder how many failures are more to do with the software or hardware or the speed burned or all the other variables. I do remember that my old HP laptop would burn lightscribe disks faultlessly but my HP desktop had many failures.
i think software has plenty to do with it.
I've had many failures with MS built in burning software, very few with cdburnerxp
I've only ever used Nero (which came with the hardware) and an open source program I can't remember the name of. I see that cdburnerxp is freeware so I may check it out if, as I suspect, I will end up doing the burning for my friend. Thanks for the recommendation.
You might be thinking of imgburn, which works fine
cdburnerxp is great for burning files, particularly over multiple discs. I simply drag the large files into the software, select disc spanning, choose the disc size (i always take a meg or two off the disc size). and bingo, just insert each disc one at a time for burning.
It also creates an index of files and saves it on each cd.
I've burnt 1000's of discs for my work and the best for value and reliability I'd recommend Princo.
I pay about $15 a stack.
FYI: I find Verbatim to be crap.
Thanks. I hope your bad experience isn't common. I'll pass on the Princo recommendation if the Verbatim prove a problem. Just out of interest what software do you use? Commercial?
Just letting you know I had the opposite experience with Princo. Literally more than half wouldn't burn. Maybe bad batch then at the time and maybe I could have returned them but there you go.
I'm using Sony right now.. Going through a stack i bought 3 years ago burning stuff for a friend. seem to be going fine.. I only bought them because it came with a DVD storage thing.
I still burn at 4X speed though to reduce bad experiences.
Taiyo Yuden, TDK and Verbatim.
Assuming you intend to keep the contents for a long time:
Taiyo Yuden for DVD-R/DVD+R. The reason is Taiyo Yuden discs are made in Japan and they make their own discs. Other big companies (Verbatim, TDK, Maxwell) ask companies like CMC, Ritek, Prodisc to make DVD-Rs on their behalf and let them use Verbatim, TDK, Maxwell media codes. Best place to buy Taiyo Yuden discs is MSY. After all, they are the one selling Taiyo Yuden at a reaonsable price first (which forces others to drop their prices).
Verbatim (made in Singapore), TDK (made in Japan), and Maxwell (made in Japan) are also very good. Whether you can find them is a big question though. Certain Verbatim (made in Japan) and TDK (made in Japan) are actually made by Taiyo Yuden.
For DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL, Verbatim (made in Singapore) is the reliable one.
If you intend to use the DVD-R for temporary / short-term storage:
Get the cheapest one. Don't expect them to last a long time though (certain batches of CMC, Ritek, Prodisc are great quality), but it can be a bit of lottery.
BTW: Many people do a double take when this is pointed out, but the company's name is actually Maxell (no w). I did many years ago.
Thanks for pointing that out. Can't edit the post anymore.
If you want more comments, try somewhere like http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia?dvdmediasearch=&dvdmediadv… although sadly there seems to be no way to list by "reliability" rating
+1 for Taiyo Yuden
I'm not sure if I should open a new thread for this, since it is a related query. Over a year ago I switched to backing up "data" I wish to preserve of both Blu-Rays and hard disk. In my experience quality brand CD-Rs are 100% error free after 10 years if burnt correctly, and DVD brands like Taiyo-Yuden and Verbatim haven't exhibited any corruption after 6 years.
Does anyone know if Blu-Ray blanks will have a similar lifespans, and which brands are best for archiving? I have so far used Sony, Verbatim and Panasonic brands, 25 GB 4x speed burnt at 2x speed, all purchased from Japanese Ebay sellers. Unless informed to the contrary, I am likely to stay with Panasonic since they don't prostitute their media codes and are apparently fabricated in the land of the Rising Sun.
One last tip - if you have an old Blu-ray burner, make sure you update the firmware or you may have problems with coasters on newer media. When Sony changed their media I experience a 30% burn fail rate using ImgBurn until I did a firmware upgrade. And try burning at less than the maximum rated speed.
Panasonic claims their BD-Discs have a shelf life of 50 years. Not sure whether that's true or not, because BD discs are also known to suffer rot and detoriation if you don't keep them properly.
So basic principle — buy good discs, but also store them appropriately.
Thanks for that info. I shall most likely be deceased before my Panasonics BD-Rs are corrupt then.
I haven't had an optical disc fail in the first week of use since probably 2002. In the 90s this was a big deal, now not so much.
If you want it to last a long time, none of them are any good, they all degrade with time.
The only time you might care is if you want to last over 1 year, and get as many years as possible after than (but risk of data loss will always go up regardless of the product).