DVD -R media recommendation

[Jake Ironshirt]

When recording in HD than saving as SD to a blank DVD which manufacturer would you recommend?
Thanks
Jake

[Anthogore]

It depends on your DVD Player. To be sure of the compatibility, buy the same manufacturer than it. I use Philips DVD-R and I don't have problems.

[Worley]

Taiyo Yuden (or any make that used the TY dye). Nothing comes close to Taiyo Yuden for quality.

Remember, your DVD player has built in error correction, so even if the quality looks good when you watch it, the actual quality of the recorded digital signal could be riddled with errors.

TY disks ensure the signal has very few errors, meaning that the error correction ciruitry in the player does very little work. Therefore, your disks are likely to play in virtually all players that accept DVD-R/+R disks.

[Erik Bien]

In the US, I've always found good prices at cdrom2go.com. They carry the Taiyo Yuden as well as other brands, and myself and others have also had good success using their US Digital Media "home" brand discs (I need to order another spindle of the "silver inkjet printable" ones, I love the way they look after printing them on my cheap-o Epson Photo R200 printer).

[Worley]

@Anthogore: www.svp.co.uk has good prices, and cheap delivery to Europe.

[XFR]

Taiyo Yuden or Ricoh :)

[bluegrass]

Taiyo Yuden (or any make that used the TY dye). Nothing comes close to Taiyo Yuden for quality.

Remember, your DVD player has built in error correction, so even if the quality looks good when you watch it, the actual quality of the recorded digital signal could be riddled with errors.

TY disks ensure the signal has very few errors, meaning that the error correction ciruitry in the player does very little work. Therefore, your disks are likely to play in virtually all players that accept DVD-R/+R disks.

I've never heard of them or seen them in the store. What chain store carries them?

[Lunchbox]

I use Ridata 8X white inkjet hub printable DVD. Print using the cheap Epson R220. The result is excellent.

If you are in the US, you can check out http://meritline.com or http://supermediastore.com.

[Mal]

I also like Taiyo Yuden.

[Lunchbox]

I tried both TY and RiData. They are both white inkjet pritable and they are both good. However, Ridata's white is whiter than TY's white in their value-line DVD. I did read good many good reviews about TY. If you don't care about inkjet printable DVD, I would recommend TY. If you need to print on DVD, get Ridata.

[Worley]

If you are using Nero to burn your DVDs, you can use a special tool to scan your discs to check for errors. Although you may think your disk has burned perfectly, you'll be surprised. There will be errors on it. These error indicate how hard your DVD player has to work to play the DVD.

Nero CD-DVD Speed is the program you'll need, together with a compatible DVD-RW drive. Run the Disk Quality scan. Here are examples:

A Verbatim branded disk (DVD-R) with a Taiyo Yuden Dye:
http://hv20.info/yopu/TY02Verb.png

A Datawrite disk (DVD-R) with CMCMAG03 dye:
http://hv20.info/yopu/Datawrite.png

Note the number of PI errors, PI Failures, and the higher jitter on the Datawrite. All these errors tax your DVD player. And if there were any PO failures, you'd end up with blockiness in the replayed picture. In these scans, notice that the Datawrite contains only 2GB of data whereas the Verbatim holds 4GB. It's not unreasonable to double the values shown in the Datawrite scan to get a more realistic comparison between the two disks.

So, try to stick with branded names. The cheaper disks tend to be rejects from the larger companies. Ridisc, Ritek, Datawrite, Datasafe, Tuffdisc, etc. The quality is hit or miss. One batch may be great, another batch may be crap. There is no consistency, but with the know makes, there is consistency.

Check out www.cdfreaks.com for more information.

[24Peter]

Hmmm - I tried Ritek, Ridisc and some other infamous discs. Now I just use Sony DVD+R's. Perfect everytime.

[Worley]

My message isn't too clear - Ridisc, Ritek, Datawrite, Datasafe, and Tuffdisc are all lower grade media. Even if the dye is from a reputable source, the disc themselves are rejects.

If the quality control detects bad disks in a given batch, that batch is thrown out, even if the majority are good. Other companies buy the discs, print them with their own brand, then sell them on. Nothing wrong with that, but the quality of the discs will be variable.

I once had a great batch of Datawrite discs. The media code was MCC003 (Verbatim) and the quality of the burns was fantastic. Every batch after that was truly awful.

With Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim, TDK, Sony, etc you are assured good quality all the time.

[terjeber]

Just want to add to the support for Taiyo Yuden. Excellent quality. Problem is that most brand name DVDs like Phillips (and even Sony) are just re-branding of other disks, most of them dont make DVD-Rs. So when you buy these, you really don't know what you get, did they change their supplier? How do you know?

The consensus is that TY is the best, but you can't get the in the store generally. I get most of mine from meritline (see above) or supermediastore. cdfreaks, also referenced above, is a good place to check for quality, so is http://www.videohelp.com/

[Worley]

In the UK (and for Europe) I can't recommend svp.co.uk highly enough. Superb prices, a great range of disks from el cheapo to premium, and a customer service ethos that puts all other companies to shame!

Really, the customer service swings it for me every time. There are humans there, and they really care.

Most highstreet stores will have a small range of discs, that they sell at twice the price of SVP. I picked up a batch of 100 TY discs for £25 from SVP (£25 including postage).

And remember, some disks may decay after time. I once bought some very cheap discs to test. On day one, they played well. On day 14, they were unreadable. This is an extreme and exceptional example, but it made me realise that it really is worth paying extra for a quality brand.

[veg]

Is it Product Code 3260 on this page that you bought Mr. Worley?.
http://svp.co.uk/searchresults.php?pg=2

[Worley]

I bought item 3138 (http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=228&prepg=#reviews).

The prices have fallen quite a lot recently, so TY is definitely a good buy at the moment. 100 disks for £25 is a steal. And if you sign up for the SVP newsletter, you can get free postage every so often. Well worth it.

[Jake Ironshirt]

When recording in HD than saving as SD to a blank DVD which manufacturer would you recommend?
Thanks
Jake

Thanks to all for replying to my question about which DVD blanks are best. I appreciate the sharing of your knowledge and experience.