I have bought and burned over 200 of these discs and I have never had a bad disc! Today the blank media market has been flooded with cheap discs that won't work after a few uses or even burn properly! However, this specific blank media is still high quality and won't fail. Verbatim 96542 8.5 GB 8x-10x Double Layer Recordable Disc DVD+R DL, 30 Disc Spindle
This was my first experience using double layer media for burning, so while I have no reference points to go by, I must say I've not had a bad disc so far. I promise to update this review if things begin to change.
I have two versions of Nero (6 and 8) on two very different computers, and I've noticed that they both automatically lower the burn rate to 4X (though I can pump it up to 6X on Nero 6) and wonder if speed accounts for the fact that "lesser" brands fail more often. I even have one of the hated Sony burners in my Core Duo 2 laptop with Nero 8, and it works, despite being HUGELY slower than with a Lite-On drive installed in my ancient AMD64 desktop.
My only gripe with this product is, oddly, what drew me to it in the first place: the price. At $40.48 for a 30 pack you're looking at $1.35 per disc. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, when the product cycle for optical discs of this sort is quite mature, that it costs this much to produce them. Can it really be more than double the cost of two single layer discs which can be had for 20 to 30 cents each at fairly reliable quality? Perhaps...I've never made them myself. I will conclude in Verbatim's defense that this is the lowest price point short of the widely maligned Memorex discs. That's why I chose them, and all in all I'm quite happy.
P.S.--It might be interesting to hear from those who have used both these and the cheaper Memorex discs to see if patterns in why things head south do so. I'll let you know if I decide to bite the bullet and try the competition at some point.
Verbatim has changed the manufacture process of their discs with the 8x. The dye has serious flaws in 80% or more of the discs. Normally I would recommend these to anybody interested in backing up data. Now I say stay away from these. Out of 15 discs only 3 are barely readable. 12 coasters. I would expect this from Memorex but not Verbatim. Stick to 2.4x discs if you can still find them. I used a brand new Pioneer burner with all of these so I know my drive is not failing. It burns everything else very well including the HP Dual Layer discs. Extremely disappointed.
Please take note I am referring to the purple box not the orange one. Never had a single problem from those. Depending on your chosen software for burning check and see if the disc ID number MKM-003-00 (or something close to that - must have the 003) appears. If it does.. do not even attempt to burn or else you will have just lost an hour of your day and a very expensive disc.
I do a lot of DVD burning, I won't mention any competitors all I will say is that I NEVER have had a Verbatim disk fail on me. If it fails its usually my fault. I have had great success with the Verbatim +R DL disks.
Don't let the price scare you. Verbatim DVD's are worth every penny! Use the other brands for frisbees and never worry again about your media. These babies burn clean without any discards. I've used a few hundred and haven't thrown out any! My only disappoinment is the 8x dual layer doesn't come in a pack of 100 spindle(hmmmmmm). I have reliably used them at different speeds with no difficulty. I have tried other brands, NONE COMPARE!!!
Discs performed perfectly--I'd heard stories of lost or contaminated data with 'bargain' or other cheaper Double Layer discs...I decided to go with the Verbatim discs based on reviews and the experience of friends, a little more co$t, but worth it in the long run....GH
My friends and I have a lot of experience writing DVDs. Even with a top rated DVD burner, the double layer writing is a little tricky and, as far as I am concerned, Verbatim is the ONLY choice. It works almost every time with very few failures. One time I bought a 50 stack of another brand because they didn't have the Verbatim in stock. I gave up trying to get a good write and threw them away. Don't waste your money on any other brand.'
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