How good r DL DVD media these days???

[tpham]

I've just recently purchased the pioneer 111D and am thinking about using Dual Layer media. I know the price has come down dramatically and the media itself is a lot better now, but, does any1 really recommend using DL discs?

[OneSickPup]

Depends entirely on your needs. If you are into backing up your purchased DVD's and want to avoid shrinking content; then they are good if you use quality media and your player supports them. However; if you create your own content (home movies) or edit / burn video from a settop dvd recorder I personally stick to SL media. It's cheaper and usually more compatible.

[tpham]

I want to backup the movies I've purchased and at the same time want to avoid compression. @4 dollars a pop I think this is quite reasonable but want to confirm whether the DL media itself is mature enough - in that it will last, the quality is near the original and that I won't be creating coasters....

[OneSickPup]

Let's see what others have to say. I have not burned any DL media on my 111 yet. I would recommend Verbatim - either MKM001 or MKM003. Have used it successfully with several other drives and am pretty certain it has as good a player compatibility as you are going to get currently. Good luck.

[zagortenej]

Provided you use good DL media (Verbatim or Fuji) and burn your backups properly, you should have no problems. Make sure to bitset the media to DVD-ROM for maximum compatibility.

[jolo]

I have to echo what zagortenej has said.

I have very, very pleased and have made three flawless copies using Clone DVD2 (a little help from ANY DVD friends).
I am using a Liteon SOHW-1693S DVD RW.
I have used Fujifilm DVD+R DL DVD DLs. They worked great.

DVD quality is a total moving target these days, with media makers lowering their quality to compete with the very inexpensive media made in Mainland China.

The inventors of the DVD+R DL is Verbatim, and in general they seem to be the most successful, although my FujiFilm 3 Pack works great burning at 2X.

I just ordered a 10 pack of the Verbatim DVD+R DL spindle box.
Amazon.com sells them for $24.95 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B018VO/sr=8-1/qid=1145895186/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-738...Fencoding=UTF8
NewEgg.com sells them for $23.99, over the weekend they has a .99 shipping deal on them.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817131163

It appears that people seem to have the most success with Verbatim +R DL.

Now the the cosrt of the DL media is getting to about $2.20 or so each, I want a few for those special times when I want to backup the entirety of a DVD. This is especially true with some concert DVDs, which will do different angles, have song selection, and interviews throuout that I do not want to miss.
In another case, I wanted to be able to backup the dialogue that the Director as well as band members had.

I have heard NOT to rty any of the DVD -R DL.

I am pretty sure that the verbatim's that I expect to get tomorrow, can burn DL at 4X, where the Fujifilm was rated at and burnt at 2X, but I thought it still went veryt quick.
I also have been advised that always going at 2X is a safer route.

At some time I will try Nero 7 instead of Clone DVD2.

One other item, I like to see the results before I burn them. So I did an initial burn to a Image (.ISO) files, then used Daemon tools to make that image file a virtual drive. Then I could run it through some of my DVD players first.

after that, it is a very quick burm from image file to DVD+R DL.

Jon

Provided you use good DL media (Verbatim or Fuji) and burn your backups properly, you should have no problems. Make sure to bitset the media to DVD-ROM for maximum compatibility.