What to watch for when buying blank Discs?

cheroxy wrote on 1/28/2004, 11:39 AM
I would like to buy a set of 100 discs. I remember reading various posts here about some bad brands and stuff. I have a Sony DRU-500A burner that burns at 2X (+/- R/RW) and have NEVER burnt a coaster, and I don't want to start now. The forum search isn't working for me today for some reason, so I was wondering what information would be good for me to know. Any help is greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Carson Calderwood

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 1/28/2004, 11:46 AM
Coasters are seldom the problem with media (although it can happen). The bigger problem is compatibility and longevity. The old boxed Maxell DVD-R discs (in the orange box, with jewell cases) rated at 2x burn speed, were one of the highest rated. They are no longer available. I'm hoping the 4x media will be as good. Many people swear by Ritek, and I've had pretty good luck with their R04 which burns at 4x on my Pioneer A05.

Places to look for both opinions and facts on this subject:

DVDrHelp

and

Lordsmurf

Go to the bottom of the navigation sidebar and click on "Blank Media and Quality FAQ."
craftech wrote on 1/28/2004, 12:52 PM
My recommendation would be Ritek G04 1x, 4x media burned at 1x.
Always run DVDInfo or DVD Identifyer when you but media to see who actually made it. Many places sell Ritek and note "Genuine Ritek" in the ad. It doesn't always say Ridata on the inside hub, but the DVD Info tool won't lie.
I buy mine from either Newegg or Supermediastore.
I switched from Taiyo Yuden (also good). It is sold by Fuji, but only in 5 packs or 10 packs in Jewel cases. The spindles are made by other companies such as CMC Magnetics (bottom of the barrel). The key is the Made In Japan logo on the packages. If it says Made In Japan is is usually Taiyo Yuden or Mitsubishi Chemicals both of which are good. If it says Made In Taiwan I wouldn't buy it.
Still, given the price and compatibility I would get the Ritek G04 1x, 4x. Always burn at 1x.

John
riredale wrote on 1/28/2004, 1:20 PM
Craftech:

Only nit-picking I would do would be to mention that the G04s burned at 4x do well, also. I personally have never burned the G04s at less than 4x and have had only a few playability issues out of hundreds, and those issues were not related to the 4x burn (lucky, perhaps?).

There was a web site I saw last month that reviewed the G04 blanks. The discussion got very technical very quickly, with lots of graphs and mentions of "error rates" and such. The bottom line was that the 4x speed produced excellent resuls. What I don't know is how much better the disk would be if burned at 2x or 1x.

Now, if I can only remember where I bookmarked that web site...
Liam_Vegas wrote on 1/28/2004, 1:29 PM
I think you should find that your burner can burn a 4X speed. I have the exact same model and all it took was to upgrade to the firmware (currently it is 2.0h). Very easy process. I don;t have the URL to hand but you can search for "firmware update" on the sony site I am sure you will get it.

I can also recommend the Ritek G04. Works great for me... and I always burn at 4X speed.
cheroxy wrote on 1/28/2004, 2:28 PM
Liam, thank you very much about the update info. I'll go get that right now. Thanks everybody else for your recommendations.
johnmeyer wrote on 1/28/2004, 11:40 PM
It doesn't always say Ridata on the inside hub, but the DVD Info tool won't lie.

Actually, Meritline (a reputable media dealer) got burned about nine months ago with a bunch of media that some Far East manufacturer had faked to look like Maxell. They included the ID on the media itself. Many lawsuits ensued, so hopefully this won't happen again ... but it did happen.