Dvd -r Media Recomendations

[ernest1966]

ok, what do you guys (n gals) use , that is pretty robust? i've got a lot of files that i put onto dvd just the usual content

how does the media stand up to the thai weather? (only been here 9 months)

thanks

E

[webfact]

Would go for Pioneer because they invented the DVD -R format.

[jeffer]

Doesn't matter which brand I've used, none have melted so far, even with the hot and humid climate here in Thailand.

[webfact]

Doesn't matter which brand I've used, none have melted so far, even with the hot and humid climate here in Thailand.

What about Princo? I had bad experiences with this brand. Cra_p IMHO

Edited March 25, 2009 by webfact

[Sel]

Ritek is good

[jeffer]

Everyone says Princo are rubbish yet all the Thai vendors use them and all I can say is the ones I have all still work just fine. In fact all the CDs and DVDs what ever brand I've used still work but after a couple of years I've updated the data and made new copies anyway. For anything important I always make two copies with the data verified, as well as keeping a copy on an external harddisk and on a flash drive. For really, really important data I also keep that online as well in case my residence was destroyed or everything stolen.

[ungcas]

ok, what do you guys (n gals) use , that is pretty robust? i've got a lot of files that i put onto dvd just the usual content

how does the media stand up to the thai weather? (only been here 9 months)

thanks

E

As someone has mentioned Riteks are awesome. I've had good luck with Verbatims, Memorex, Sony. I'd stay away from generic brands. I've had really bad experiences with them.

This is coming from someone who has burned well over 1000 dvds

[MKAsok]

Everyone says Princo are rubbish yet all the Thai vendors use them and all I can say is the ones I have all still work just fine.

Thai vendors use them because they're cheap. That's the only reason. They don't give a hoot if you get them home and they're unreadable, or become unreadable in a few months. By their logic, the majority of casual purchasers won't bother bringing them back anyway. I stand by what I said in the other thread about Princo: I would estimate (this is just my own experience) around a 50-60% failure rate with them. Most of these failures are related to disk finalising (ImgBurn, or whatever software you're using won't finalise the disk, necessitating a restart to remove it - the disk will play in a DVD player, but won't be readable in a computer - this is very common with cheap media), the rest are straightforward write errors, or the disk becoming unreadable after a period of time (one disk I burned lasted a week). I know some people do swear by them. I suspect if you have a very high-end external burner, one that can deal with crappy media, you might have no problems (with write errors that is, archival reliability is another matter entirely). My personal experience is this: Taiyo Yuden - never had one problem as far as I can remember, but it's unusual in my experience to see them in Thailand. Verbatim and Sony - failure rate around 2% - generally 1 or maybe 2 in 50, (except the Verbatim DVD9s, which are a pain in the ass, but still far more reliable than any others. I'd stay away from DVD9s completely). If you're in Thailand, I'd go for the Sonys. Available pretty much everywhere. Expect to pay around 600bht for the 50 disk 'soft-pack' or 650bht for the 'cakebox' (they're exactly the same disks). ImgBurn reports the Media ID as SONY16D1.

For anything important I always make two copies with the data verified, as well as keeping a copy on an external harddisk and on a flash drive.

I'd definitely agree with this. Don't rely on any DVD-Rs for anything critical.

[ernest1966]

MKAsok, thanks for the brand name advice, I've never used dvd9's but have a few things sets of stuff i'd like to keep together but it doesn't seem to be worth it, i think i'll start buying sony's

[ernest1966]

Just found this excellent link:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

[MKAsok]

Just found this excellent link:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

Yeah, very good guide. And yes, I'd definitely stay away from trying to burn to DVD9s. If you need to re-encode DVD9s to DVD5s, use DVD Rebuilder (not DVD shrink which produces transcodes). I'll PM you a link where you can find a definitive compilation of what you need...

[spacebass]

Sony DVD-R are readily available at about 600thb per 50 make sure they are made in Taiwan not Malaysia. As per guide above.

I buy my DVDs from http://www.dvdr2u.com/ by mail order. They currently have Pro disc 16x at 405 thb per 100!! (so called reprints) I just bought a batch of similar 8x +R no problems so far. These very special offers seem to come and go quite quickly there one minute gone the next , then back again etc.

When it comes to working out p&p if it gets a bit much take a tub or two off or change mix of order can have illogical effect on total.

Sony which I believe to be the best ordinarily available are 540 thb here.

Edited March 26, 2009 by spacebass