Name Brand DVDs

Latin Lens

Well-known member
Hey guys do you have any trouble with name brand dvds you buy for burning stories/video projects/etc to dvd? Which do you prefer -R/+R? Is there any way to lessen the frequency of messed up dvds when burning dvds? Just trying to troubleshoot for learning purposes as much as possible. Thanks for any insight.
 

Chugach3DGuy

Well-known member
Several years ago, I always seemed to have problems with +R discs. Not so much on my end, but clients would have glitchy playback or at best, inconsistent playback experiences. I switched to -R discs, and the problem went away. I'm not sure if there are still issues with +R discs, since those are now more abundant in my area than -R discs.

For brands, I currently use Sony DVDs. They're not perfect, but at $30 per 100 discs, they hit a nice balance between price and reliability. I've tried the really cheap discs and no-name brands before, and have noticed that 5-25% of the discs in any given batch would fail. I tried some of the higher end discs and had more of a 0-5% failure rate, and with the Sony discs I currently use, the failure rate is typically somewhere between 0-8%.

I have also noticed that burning at a lower speed than the disc is rated for drastically cut down on the number of faulty discs and experiences of glitchy playback. So, while my Sony DVD-R discs are rated for 16X, if I burn them at 8X or 12X, I have less faulty discs and no complaints from clients that their discs aren't playing back smoothly. Your mileage may vary, but this is what I learned over the past couple years after offering short run disc duplication services in addition to my video services.
 

Latin Lens

Well-known member
Thanks Shawn...good insight. I am using Memorex -Rs and +Rs depending...the latest batch had about 5 bad discs out of the 20 I burned. I had no real issues before but I was never burning this high amount before. I hated getting that call from the person saying there is/was a problem during playback. I tend to use -Rs the majority of the time so I will continue to use them. Thanks guys.
 
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