Which blank DVD discs should I be using?

[DVD-and-Media]

What you need to do initially is know which format you need DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM or perhaps Dual layer media. This largely depends on the recorder you have and should be listed in the manufacturers instructions, failing that you can visit your drive manufacturers website or post up a thread on this forum with the make and model of your drive.

Then you can start to narrow your choice down:

• Do you want discs in cases, on a spindle or bulk wrapped?
• Do you need a branded, plain or printable disc? Plain silver topped discs are easier to label - its not recommended to label a white top disc as the labels dont tend to stick correctly.
• Do you want a disc that will record once - DVD-R or a disc that will let you record over and over - DVD-RW?

The best of the bunch in terms of quality and reliability are manufacturers such as MCC Verbatim, Ritek, CMC, Maxell, Kodak, Kingdisc - they all manufacture highly compatible and reliable discs suitable for backup and long term data retention.


The best example is to look at the problems people encounter with DVD Duplicators and media compatibility -

You just bought your business a DVD duplicator and suffering burning problems, don't be too quick to blame your hardware the moment you encounter the difficulties. The first step in your investigation should be to look at the recordable media you are using, many brands are not just up to the job when burning several discs at the same time in a multi bay duplicator. You could waste a great deal of time researching web forums, communities and asking friends for advice - or you could take the recommendations of the technical team at DVD-and-Media, a company which has burned literally millions of discs in house for clients, done all the research over the last 10 years, had its fingers burned and learned all the lessons good and bad.

When it comes to DVDR you are looking for consistency. There are 100's of brands to choose from and lets face it they in the main come out of maybe 10 major factories, on the face of it that sounds great as one brand out of one factory should be just as good as another from the same factory, right? Well actually no, most definately not, the best quality product off the production lines is reserved for the top brands who pay the premium price and in the case of brands such as Sony, Verbatim, Maxell etc they install their own production staff on the factory floor to oversee quality standards for their discs. High volumes then follow the premium product off the production lines with less control, diluted dye concentrations and too many pieces churned out without the attention to detail afforded to the premium 'flagship' product. Yes these subsequent discs are cheap but they often have inconsistency, and if you factor in that cheap brands often produce some discs in one factory, some in another and pull in discs from the 'deal of the day' over produced minor factories this all adds up too alot of inconsistency - something you cannot afford to have when you have a dvd duplication system.

http://www.dvd-and-media.com/dvd+r-duplicators.htm

There are two standards, DVD-R and DVD+R and all new dvd recorders will support both of these formats. But having successfully burned your discs you now need to worry about issues such as the ability of home users DVD players to playback your DVD content. Again you need to find a reliable disc, cheap discs are not the answer, the cheaper the disc the less likely they are to play on a wide range of players - that is not to say some batches of cheap discs will work on a large range of players but the next batch of the same brand will give different results and that is when you lose your customer base - always pay the little bit of a premium for a reliable top brand disc and nowadays that premium may be as little as a couple of pence per disc.

Matching your discs and hardware is therefore extremely important when you come to use your dvd duplicator.

http://www.dvd-and-media.com