O.T. Prefered / most compatible DVD discs brands

R
Posted By
Ray
Oct 10, 2003
Views
343
Replies
14
Status
Closed
I got the [big] surprise of finding a DVD burner in my computer a few weeks ago 😉 (xmas before its time…)

Now, I need to archive pictures (my HD is full of them), but I’d like to get opinions on brands. As
you all know, digital pictures are negatives, and I’m a little worried (alright, I am a lot worried)
about putting them on an unreliable disc.

So far, I bought a Verbatim DVD+R, worked fine, though I had some problems having my regular DVD-ROM
drive reading it. I got, with the burner, two discs : HP DVD+R and HP DVD+RW. The +RW is just unreadable with my regular DVD drive. The +R will read, when the moon is full and when there’s a good song on the radio and when it wasn’t raining two days before.. (you get the picture, once every
several attempts).

The next brand (just found them last weekend) is Maxell. I used their CDs for several years now, no
problem.

So, if some of you have DVD burners, please post your comments about your prefered brand of discs, if you can. It would be appreciated greatly!

Ray
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JH
Joe_Henry1000
Oct 10, 2003
Ray,

I’ve had good luck with the Memorex DVD-R & DVD-RW, which I get at Target for a reasonable price. I’ve played them on my Mac’s DVD player, my brother’s Sony Playstation and my other brother’s RCA DVD player with no problems.

I’m not sure where (I’ll try to dig it up) but I read that -R format is a little more common on DVD players.

I’ve only made one coaster and that was a FujiFilm DVD+R.

Joe
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Oct 10, 2003
Ray, if you’re planning to get a mac, you might want to read this about formats:

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24451>
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Oct 10, 2003
Hey Barb,

I think parts of that kbase article are getting a litte dated. I can burn any of the 4 main formats (DVD+R, +RW, -R & -RW) with my Superdrive. I do have to use Toast 6 to use + media as well as -RW but I can use them. I think that article was written for the first generation of Superdrives but the ones Pioneer is making now are both +/- compatible.

I also heard a rumor that Panther was going to support + media from the Finder. That’d be nice, lets keep our fingers crossed. Hey, you’re a big wig ( 😉 ) over there at the Apple support forums, have you heard anything that might confirm that?

Joe
R
Ray
Oct 10, 2003
Barbara,

Thanks, I knew this particularity. That’s not a big problem, I’ll network my two computer if I have
to, then re-burn on DVD-R.

Ray
R
Ray
Oct 10, 2003
Thanks Joe!
VB
Vicky Bilaniuk
Oct 10, 2003
Apparently, + is better, but – is more widely supported. And AFAIK, hardly anything reads +RW (i.e. cheapo dvd players).

As for my preferred brand: whatever is cheapest. 😉 I keep multiple copies of the things that really matter to me, and I tend to keep those multiple copies on different types of media.
VB
Vicky Bilaniuk
Oct 10, 2003
Really? That would probably not apply to the powerbooks, though. Right? Mine’s a Matshita. The superdrives in the powerbooks are kind of reduced in functionality compared to the full sized ones. It would be cool if they could use + media, though. I obviously haven’t tried it. 😉
R
Ray
Oct 10, 2003
Vicky, my DVD+RW are read by my DVD player. It’s a Sony NSV-715P (not an expensive one).

Ray
LM
Lou_M
Oct 11, 2003
Don’t worry, Ray. Nowadays, new drives can read pretty much everything (+ or -, R or RW).

In spite of Apple’s protestations, my 15" iMac & 12" iBook from last year and my new 17" PowerBook read all 4 major formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW. Panasonic and Sony set top players from the past few years have read all formats, too. It’s really not an issue anymore unless you *need* compatibility with old equipment.

As Vicky mentioned, the PowerBooks use the "Matshita" drive (yes, it’s really "Matsushita", the parent of Panasonic, but the drive displays as Matshita to the operating system). It records only DVD-R/RW, but it’ll play the +R/RW formats no problem.

Oh, and you’re getting pretty good with your English jokes, what with the full moon and all. 🙂
LM
Lou_M
Oct 11, 2003
Oh, yeah, wasn’t the question about disc brands? Oops.

For the "+" brands, they’re all pretty much made by the same company (Ricoh) so there’s not a huge difference. This will probably change soon, though, as + becomes more popular.

For the "-" brands, Maxell, TDK, Verbatim, and Apple seem to be the best. There’s a lot of cheap junk out there…sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. They depend on the phase of the moon and which batch you happen to get.

Check out <http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia.php> if you want to do some heavy research.
R
Ray
Oct 11, 2003
Thanks Lou 🙂

All things being equal then, I’ll stick with Maxell. It served me good so far (for CD-R / RW), so I
shouldn’t have a problem.

Ray
VB
Vicky Bilaniuk
Oct 11, 2003
Ah, I guess they are starting to catch up. Come to think of it, I think I remember seeing some advertised, lately, as being able to read +RW. I know mine doesn’t. It’s a couple of years old, now.
VB
Vicky Bilaniuk
Oct 11, 2003
wrote:
As Vicky mentioned, the PowerBooks use the "Matshita" drive (yes, it’s really "Matsushita"

I had been wondering about that. Thanks for mentioning this. I had wondered if Matsushita had somehow been split up or something. 😉 I wonder why they shortened it? Was it one of the things that they had to make smaller in order to fit the drive into the machine? (heh heh heh I’m *just kidding*)
LM
Lou_M
Oct 12, 2003
Ha ha! Actually, you’re probably right, Vicky. They probably only have 8 characters for the drive ID, so they had to shorten it to Matshita. It might sound OK to Japanese speakers, but to English speakers, well… 🙂

Oh, and according to macrumors.com, it looks like Apple is finally supporting DVD+R/RW in Panther. According Apple’s web site:

< http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/creativeprofessional s.html>

(Scroll down to the System section near the end; it’s the first item listed.)

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