Before you buy discs

[dbtoe]

What do you look for at the store before you buy discs? I've read alot about the ID but that is after you bring them home. Is brand and where they are made the main thing to look att, or is there anything else? Basicly I'm looking at -r discs and am wondering what the clues are that will tell mee what is better or worse. Bad signs? Good signs?

[Shocker Milwaukee]

Look on the cakebox for Made in Japan. Try to avoid Made in Taiwan if you're concerned about quality & reliability first.

[HatchetMan]

And if it doesn't say "Made in Japan", I go to plan B and look for one other word... "Verbatim" But you really gotta look up your burner in the DVD Writers section here to see what others are reporting.

[ROF]

I look at the way a store handles their cased media. To find this out look around the store. Most stores leave the upper shelf for excess storage of items leaving the retail packages still inside the cardboard boxes. Examine those boxes (especially ones for electronics and media) for any signs of physical damage in shipment or movement throughout the store. If you notice torn boxes, tears in the cardboard, bashed corners, etc., this is not a good sign of a place you'd like to buy anything, let alone media.

Where I buy my media, the cases are stored on an upper shelf right above the media section. This allows for two things:

1) inspection of the quality handling assurance for the store.
2) Allows customer to see if an empty shelf can be restocked immediately.

I've had good luck with made in japan media and I've also had good luck with made in Taiwan media. As a christmas present I was given some made in India DVD-R's that were complete junk, so I'd recommend avoiding those. Sorry, I don't remember the name, but I've heard other horror stories about discs from there as well.

For me, I buy only name branded discs (Verbatim, Memorex, Sony, etc.) and I've rarely made a coaster. All I look for in the store when making a purchase is the quality handling of the merchandise, the brand name, and the price. I still sometimes look to see where they were made, but this isn't much of a concern for me.

[Bix]

For me, they need to be either:

1.Made in Japan (Some Fuji, Maxell, & TDK, plus all Taiyo Yuden from online stores) or
2.Verbatim.

[kisrum]

If you've got local stores you frequent, write down what media they carry and then wait for the good ones to be advertised on sale. Houston Office Max and Depot frequently have 100 Maxell made in Japans for $80.00, but only occasionally, if ever, do they knock the price down. Best Buy reliably carries Fuji +R and -R, 50 ea. made in Japan, for $40.00, but occasionally knock it down to $20.00 which seems like a good deal.

No opinion on verbatim or online shopping for media, haven't used them.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Fuji(Taiyo Yuden),Maxell(Maxell) and Verbatim DLP(MCC) is what I buy.
BestBuy and Office Depot have these DVD's on sale every other week.

[lordsmurf]

For me, they need to be either:

1.Made in Japan (Some Fuji, Maxell, & TDK, plus all Taiyo Yuden from online stores) or
2.Verbatim.

Same here.

More or less. I never get TY, don't like them. but "Made In Japan" is solid advice, as is Verbatim (good Taiwan discs, formerly Singapore).

[Bix]

I never get TY, don't like them. but "Made In Japan" is solid advice, as is Verbatim (good Taiwan discs, formerly Singapore).

It's worth clarifying that while TY is quality media, it disagrees with lordsmurf's BTC burners so he doesn't use them.

[dbtoe]

Thankks for all the help. I saw some TDK on sale they were made in Taiwan. I'm still tempted to try them out. If I do and they burn in my recorder and I can play them back in a DVD player should they last? Anyways I picked up some Maxells made in Japan. My recorder is the Pineer 220.

[lordsmurf]

I never get TY, don't like them. but "Made In Japan" is solid advice, as is Verbatim (good Taiwan discs, formerly Singapore).

It's worth clarifying that while TY is quality media, it disagrees with lordsmurf's BTC burners so he doesn't use them.

I've also experienced some burn rings (dye melting) on Pioneer drives, but those are infrequent. I blame those mostly on some bad FUJI 4x that were clearanced for $1 per disc when OfficeMax discontinued them.