Can you know what Media is great?

[kevs]

this site:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

rates media.

Yet I, and others, have had bad experiences with top rated here, and conversely, great success with worst media?
What does it mean? can you trust this site?
Is there a better rating site?

[samijubal]

If you're having problems with TY or Verbatim discs, it's time to look at equipment or firmware, not the discs. I've used both in a PC and half a dozen different standalones, they burn flawlessly every time.

[terryj]

TY and Verbatim are the top two brands and with STRONG reason.
Yup, I'd check the firmware on the drive first, then the drive
itself, and finally the IDE cables and the logic board.

Whether you buy 50, 100 or 200 at a time, unless something is seriously wrong with your computer or you just have no clue
what your doing, TY and Verbatim should produce NO COASTERS.

I just got through 200 Verbatims and not one coaster!
NOT. A. SINGLE. ONE.

I fell to my knees and prayed with tears in my eyes...
the media is THAT good.

Post what your burner is, and we'll work from there.
firmware too...

[hech54]

While I also do not agree 100% on digitalfaq's findings.....there is one thing I do agree on....I turn to my TY stash for important data/video. I've also had exellent results from 8x Ritek/Ridata media but only use it for backing up/customizing movie DVDs....I'm not stupid. My family movies and pics go to TY's.

You can start as many threads as you like....you will still find the same answers coming up time and again....it's a hardware/software problem....not a media problem that you are having.

[redwudz]

I use TYs 8 and 16X and zero coasters in 200+ burns. I had maybe one or two with PRODISCs, but that was acceptable as these were likely something I did, and not the media. I use Verbatim DLs and not one coaster yet with them either. And I have used cheap media in the past with maybe 5% problem discs. This was with probably 5 different burners. It's not that hard if you use decent programs to encode and burn. Using better quality media just insures you get the highest percentage of DVDs without flaws.

[classfour]

Having burned a couple of thousand DVD-Rs, I can only say that Taiyo Yuden is my media of choice: For both DATA and VIDEO. It's the only disc that I can be certain to retain what I burn onto the disc, and know that it'll be there next year. I've tried tons of other media, and have been sold media with fake Taiyo Yuden media codes - it's all not created equal.

If your "Taiyo Yuden" media smells like cheap plastic, and is stacked on a cheap gray plastic spool - it's not the real thing, and will definitely burn like crap.

If it arrived in a tight tape wrap with funny Japanese writing on the top label: Check your drive, check your software, check your firmware, etc.. It's not the media.

As I've said in other posts: The wrong firmware can ruin a burn. Even on top quality media, the Plextor drive that I was using at the time couldn't burn above 4X reliably until Plextor updated the firmware. After that, I couldn't even ruin a cheap TY fake.

[lacywest]

I use the 100 pack TY from the Value Pack ... no inner spindle.

No problems using them with my Panasonic EH50 ... DVD Recorder / 100 GB HD

[kevs]

thanks info