CD-R and DVD-R Best brand?

[Aboulaly]

Hey guys I was wondering what brand cds and dvds you guys prefer to use, I have been using cheap ritek and princo and i realised that over a period of time they start looking fade as if they are dirty or something, I mainly use them for recovery cds, installation discs and sometimes I have problems where they can't be read, so I am after a more reliable brand if you guys can name few please.
Sorry if this has been asked previously.

[gordon_s1942]

When 'Optical Storage' ie CD's then DVD's were first introduced, the Hype was these were 'Forever' !!
Replacing the then 'Tech of the Day' magnetic floppy discs, cassettes and Video Tape.
Like everything else it seems the Hype was just a wee bit overly enthusiastic and we now know that 'Optical Storage' suffers from being too easily marked which can render a disc unusable as well as the material used inbetween to store on can be sun affected or just 'rust' if the edges arent sealed correctly.

I regret to say I dont believe that cost or Brand name equates to quality as so many 'Brands' sub out to other makers and sell as their own.
Many years ago I saw a doco on how Video tape was made in sheets and how the 'middle' had the most accurate thickness and composition which the program claimed was sold to the 'Qualty Brands' and the 'outer' edges while still quite good were sold to the 'No Name' or generic brands.
The next and as equaly important part of the chain is the Burner/Player.
As I recently found with a dodgy burner that ruined a number of CD's and DVD's,
Kodak, HP, IMC,Ritek,Memorex,MagMedia, it stuffed them all equally.
Today we're all into Memory cards and Pendrives which are supplementing CD's and DVD's but each has its little foibles as did its predesessors.
Recorded a heap of music on a pendrive, plugged into a car adaptor and lost the lot, including the Pendrive.
Is it a fair comment to make that it will be the 'devise' with the most important material on it it that will die first, totaly and inconveniently unexpectedly ???
All I could suggest is make backups of everything but on perhaps different brands.
After all, what else do you have to do in your copius free time?

[GT250]

I've got 'some' CD's from 15+ years working ok.
I've got DVD's from 8 years ago still working fine.

People don't know that DVD burners wear out. So if you have a case of a dicky burner or an old one (done hundreds and hundreds of burns), then you may not get a 'good burn' - might last for 2-3 weeks then start failing.

I always buy a new burner (Pioneer for me), every 6 months. I burn approx 150-200 in that 6 months.

I use (bang for buck), Ritek. The creme de la creme AKAIK is Verbatim and if i had the money, i'd buy that brand everytime.

But brands seem to be cross branded nowadays. In my 'old days', there were only four DVD plants on the Earth and the relevant brands would hire the factory for a few weeks and pump out 1,000,000 DVD's...

There is (was), a neat little program called DVDInfo it will tell you the actual make of the DVD (not the brand on the package), but who actually made it.

It used to have a database feature that told you what other names it sold under.
I think you find that Mitsubishi Chemicals make a lot of blanks that are sold under very well known brand names.

Hope that helps.

[Aboulaly]

after doing a bit reading, it looks like more people trust verbatim, but I was wondering is all verbatim brand are one, or is there different quality too?

[GT250]

AS ABOVE::::

There is (was), a neat little program called DVDInfo it will tell you the actual make of the DVD (not the brand on the package), but who actually made it.

It used to have a database feature that told you what other names it sold under.

I think you find that Mitsubishi Chemicals make a lot of blanks that are sold under very well known brand names.

HINT! HINT!

[admin]

You will find that a lot of us that have been on the site since the beginning have seen some interesting changes to discs burnt 10+ years ago. I can remember buying blank discs back then and they were expensive as hell. Cheaper discs eventually arrived on the market and forced prices down but unfortunately a lot of those cheaper disc brands ceased working in as short a time as 5 years.

It is generally a case of you get what you pay for and it depends on you personally as to how highly you value whats on them. If its personal data or photos or something , buy quality. If its DVD mvies or games or something I would use cheaper.

Why ? Photos are something you want to last forever , a movie or a game is realistically worth nothing as time progresses.

[urban_s0ulja]

Use Verbs for most things.

But Music CDs for the car go on the cheap and nasty disc i can find, as they usually get scratched very easily and also have very limited usage span.

[Aboulaly]

AS ABOVE::::

There is (was), a neat little program called DVDInfo it will tell you the actual make of the DVD (not the brand on the package), but who actually made it.

It used to have a database feature that told you what other names it sold under.

I think you find that Mitsubishi Chemicals make a lot of blanks that are sold under very well known brand names.

HINT! HINT!

it's nice to hear about this program, but that means I have to buy few brands to see the info on them and find out which ones are made with Mitsubishi chemicals, that's gonna be costly.

I mainly need the cds and dvds to make recovery discs for laptops and some desktops that I would like them to last for a long time, to burn iso images of operating systems, programs that I use to repair computers at customers house, there is nothing worse than having an xp cd that is no longer readable while you at your clients house especially when he is a bit too far to come back to.
I will stick to cheap ones likes it's been said for my movies etc especially when I give away heaps for free lol.

[autotuner]

There are "Archival" quality blanks available, I know Kodak have them and there are probably others. Supposedly they retain integrity much longer.

A Couple of things I usually make sure of.
1. If the CD is a keepy, then I burn at lowest speed.
2. Proper storage, i.e seperate soft sleeves, in a box and stored out of heat/sunlight etc.

For everyday use I always use Verbatim, just sticking to what I know works.

[Aboulaly]

I went to MSY and grabbed Verbatim CD-R and DVD-R 100 each, at a very good price. I'll give them a go. they are Mitsubishi

Thanks for all the input guys.

[admin]

Give this a try Aboulay


Go the 14 day trial for a look

[GT250]

I went to MSY and grabbed Verbatim CD-R and DVD-R 100 each, at a very good price. I'll give them a go. they are Mitsubishi

Thanks for all the input guys.

Thar ya go!
Mitsubishi Chemicals make Verbatim... I was trying to tell ya all

They make a LOT of other brands as well.

Kodak did some good stuff. The GOLD range i still use today - after 15-18 years.

As some other posters have said: If you want it to last long - Pay. If just for now and again buy cheap.

but surely the price diff isn't that 'big' to have something around when you 'might' need it?

[Philquad]

those ty from jpldisplays.com.au are the go for dvd-r
otherwise, ridatek-aka ritek
or tdk if you get stuck
cd- who cares, i just buy cheapest ones

[pieces]

Dont trust just one copy . I use Data bank .Plus hard drives .

The words Vegetable dyes doesn't give me confidence in a plastic disk long term

Put those smaller hard drives to good use as back up drives . Store them in a fire rated safe . Ask relations to store back ups also.

I think a lot of people have already lost family photos for ever in the digital age .

You can never have enough back ups .


.

[Aboulaly]

I do have all the iso images saved on a HDD as well, I wouldn't wanna loose them.