Is it time to abandon Verbatim DL?

[dafoe]

I'm getting ready to buy some more DL DVDs as I'm running low. I've never bought anything but Verbatim because of the stellar reputation they used to have. But a lot of people are saying the quality isn't what it used to be.

Since the entire point of paying a premium for DL discs is to get the best quality. I'm really starting to wonder if I should just get some no name brand discs and save some money.

I live 20 miles from Best Buy and 75 from any other major electronics retailer. So going to the store to sift through discs and figure out where the discs were manufactured is out of the question. Even if proximity wasn't an issue I probably still wouldn't want to be bothered.

I'm just kind of thinking of the days when all I bought for single layer was TDK. I'm sure some of you remember when TDK sold top of the line DVD-R. Now they are crap. Maybe I should cut ties with Verbatim before ther same thing happens there.

What do you guys think?

[guns1inger]

But a lot of people are saying the quality isn't what it used to be.

Who ? There were question marks over the quality of the India manufactured discs, but this seemed inconclusive.

Singapore made Verbatim DL +R discs have the reputation they always have had - the only choice for DL burning. They would have to drop 50% in reliability just to drop to the levels of their nearest competitor.

[lordsmurf]

"A lot of people" suck on cancer sticks and fill their body with cancer too, but I sure as hell wouldn't listen to their opinions on certain topics.

People do and say dumb shit, but it doesn't make it intelligent or factual.

To say that Verbatim is "bad", for example, is currently a ridiculous statement. And the Indian DVD thing is a myth, some sort of bias rooted in the idea that India is stealing our jobs, or that it is on the "terrorist side" of the world. There's no data to back up any of the BS, and Verbatim itself has confirmed the Indian discs are made the same as the Singapore ones.

[jman98]

Verbatim still uses high quality manufacturers. In fact, I think the whole Made in India uproad over DL media spooked them into going back to Singapore. There were a lot of vicious complaints on various websites about the India made discs. I can tell you that if you buy the 8x-10x discs that they are now ONLY made in Singapore. Verbatim only uses India for low speed DL media. If you buy any DVD+R DL media rated at 6x or lower, it may be made in India, with the exception of the DataLifePlus inkjet printable DVD+R DL discs, which are at 2.4x speed and are ONLY made in Singapore. I speak from personal experience here.

For what it's worth, I used about 15 or so of those Made in India DVD+R DL discs and they were mostly good, but I did have one burn that became unwatchable towards the end of the 2nd layer. However, to be fair I have had burns that were useless on Made in Singapore Verbatim DVD+R DL discs too. Such things are not common, but DL media is chancy and there are no guarantees. Others have reported never making a coaster with Singapore made Verbatims. The Made in Singapore DL discs just seem to be more reliable. I totally agree with guns1inger that if you think Verbatim is bad, just buy anybody else and try them for DL discs.

Verbatim still produces high quality single layer discs, although they have a variety of manufacturers for them. I only buy their DataLifePlus discs if I want shiny non-printable single layer DVDs and those are only made in Taiwan. The quality on them is excellent.

TDK used to be top notch for North American media, but they switched to cheap manufacturers for us because the marketplace demanded low prices.
TDK discs outside in Europe or Asia may or may not still be high quality, but I have no way to know.

[JohnnyBob]

There's nothing available now that's equivalent in quality to the old 2.4x DVD+R DL 95310 made in Singapore. They were super-reliable and produced beautiful quality scans.

However I tried a spindle of their new 95310 made in Singapore and they're crap. So all bets are off. Nothing about Verbatim is reliable anymore. They have zero credibility with me.

But there's nothing better than Verbatim for DL media, so it's a matter of shooting craps and hope you'll get a good batch. As someone else mentioned, I favor the 8x-10x faster discs. There's no guarantee there either, so I'm reluctant to buy more than one spindle at a time. I don't want to get stuck with crap despite the quantity discounts. I used to stockpile several hundred discs in advance, but not anymore. I've seriously considered quitting DL entirely and compress to fit on SL discs, but haven't yet.

[lordsmurf]

I create my own content (not copying DVDs), and burn DVD+R DL all the time, and have yet to run across any problem with Verbatim DVD+R DL, be it 2.4x or 8x, India or Singapore, new stock or old stock. I burned about a half dozen discs again today, new Singapore media from Microcenter this past weekend, some 8x (burned 6x) and some 2.4x (burned 4x).

I use a Pioneer burner. Your profile shows LG burners. I'm sorry, but LG drives have been crap for a couple of years now, especially OEM versions.

[Noahtuck]

There's nothing available now that's equivalent in quality to the old 2.4x DVD+R DL 95310 made in Singapore. They were super-reliable and produced beautiful quality scans.

However I tried a spindle of their new 95310 made in Singapore and they're crap. So all bets are off. Nothing about Verbatim is reliable anymore. They have zero credibility with me.

I just bought a 20 pack of 2.4x MIS march 24th from newegg, burned 19 so far and every single one plays perfect from start to end AND i burned them all on an old NEC burner.
Some were backup's of concert dvd's & some were backups of 360 games.

Look at that, they also have 95310 on the package.....

It's a poor musician who blames his instrument 8)

[guns1inger]

It's a poor musician who blames his instrument 8)

Are you quoting your wife ?

[Noahtuck]

It's a poor musician who blames his instrument 8)

Are you quoting your wife ?

Easy there old man!!!

My instrument functions flawlessly 8)


It's just funny how people always right away assume it's the media, yes, it usually is when using cheap crap media but when i have a problem with a burn or during a burn, media is not even a thought.

I'm wondering is there something wrong with my burner, my system has something wiggy going on, ect ect. but i don't buy the cheapest no name brand dvdr's either

But to just cmoe out and basically say Verbatim DL's are now crap
I'm sure there is something else to it.

I'm also kind of surprised lordsmurf did not throw in a little extra about the

produced beautiful quality scans.

[Seeker47]

I'm wondering is there something wrong with my burner, my system has something wiggy going on,

Well, these things can't last forever, especially under heavy use. (But please don't tell that to my trusty ol' Pioneer 108, which by now must be the equivalent of a Chevy with 400,000 miles on it ! But the floorboards are still there, and I don't see any highway if I look down . . . .)

[orsetto]

DVD burning is alchemy, I'm sorry. A person's experience is their experience: 50% of the people here apparently cross their arms like Barbara Eden and magically blink their way to perfect burns, but the rest of us grunts run into issues. DL just complicates those issues. The Verb DL "made in India" problem was real for many of us, politics had nothing to do with it: if the rotten TDKs now made in Saudi Arabia were as good as the 2005 TDK Taiwans, I would buy them without a second thought. But they aren't, so I don't. And at this point, everyone from Verbatim on down is using second-rate OEM factories scattered throughout the world, so country of origin barely matters anymore: any retail 16x is a gamble for some people, depending on burner or recorder they're using. The perfect example of how completely random this media nonsense is can be found in the experience of LordSmurf: he is a heavy user of media, and he favors "old" 2004-2005 JVC dvd recorders for some projects. He swears he has never ever ever had a bad Verbatim disc, no matter when or where it was made, and I believe him. I don't understand how it could be possible, but I believe him: that is his experience so that is his version of reality.

Mine is quite different. I have the same JVC recorders, plus various Pioneer recorders made from 2003-2008, plus several varieties of PC and Mac based burners. Every damn one of these burners gags to death on any Verbatim DVD-R mfrd after early 2007. I try a new spindle just for the hell of it every couple months, mostly because I'm baffled they work for LS using a lot of the same hardware. Every time they get spit out as "unrecognized discs" or I get coasters. It ain't my electricity, it ain't incompetence, because it happens in other homes and offices where I also try this media. I can't give it away to friends or family, because they report the same failures. Unless the entire state of New York, parts of Pittsburgh, Phoenix and greater Los Angeles are all in cahoots against Verbatim 16x, I'd have to say based on those experiences not everyone is gonna love Verbatim, whether its DL or SL. The Singapore DL has a bit of extra effort put into it, and is usually a good bet, everything else is random. I've given up almost completely on 16x and now use 8x media for nearly everything. Some of my newest hardware manages a 75% success rate with Sony 16x, so I'll use that for non-critical projects, thats about it.

There are no guarantees with any media: just a consensus of opinion based on experience reports. Your odds of success are greater if you follow those recommendations, but if they don't work for you, they don't work for you. If you eliminate hardware errors, software errors, and human errors and still can't get good burns try a brand of 8x media instead of store-bought 16x. If that works, stick with it while you try to find a batch of 16x that can match it. If even 8x doesn't solve your problem, your hardware or software is probably faulty. DL is even more tricky: some burners prefer the lower speed rating even though they're spec'd for high, and vice versa. You may "burn" thru some money until you find what works best for you in DL.

[lordsmurf]

I feel for you orsetto. I burned about 20 Verbatim 16x brand-new DVD-R in JVC recorder in the past 48 hours, and every burn looks fine. It's because of you that I more thoroughly check the JVC+Verbatim work, but I'm still having a flawless experience. These discs were bought from Microcenter in Atlanta, while out of town on business.

Checking against 10 other JVC owners, however, produces the same experience. In fact, a few of them can actually squeak by on cheap CMC crap purchased from Big Lots, and still give okay burns (read fine at 1x-2x or real-time, faster read speeds make the discs barf).

Variations in firmware and hardware quality are the likely culprit here.

[Noahtuck]

The Verb DL "made in India" problem was real for many of us, politics had nothing to do with it:

& JohnnyBob was talking about

There's nothing available now that's equivalent in quality to the old 2.4x DVD+R DL 95310 made in Singapore. They were super-reliable and produced beautiful quality scans.

However I tried a spindle of their new 95310 made in Singapore and they're crap. So all bets are off. Nothing about Verbatim is reliable anymore. They have zero credibility with me.

And i said i just burned 19 of them and they all work perfectly.
Although he stated the same UPC# for the "old" and the "new" but i bought mine less than a month ago & i don't know what he is basing new Vs. old on

[Seeker47]

The Verb DL "made in India" problem was real for many of us, politics had nothing to do with it:

& JohnnyBob was talking about

There's nothing available now that's equivalent in quality to the old 2.4x DVD+R DL 95310 made in Singapore. They were super-reliable and produced beautiful quality scans.

However I tried a spindle of their new 95310 made in Singapore and they're crap. So all bets are off. Nothing about Verbatim is reliable anymore. They have zero credibility with me.

And i said i just burned 19 of them and they all work perfectly.
Although he stated the same UPC# for the "old" and the "new" but i bought mine less than a month ago & i don't know what he is basing new Vs. old on

Verbatim has retained the same stock #s / order #s on most of the media they sell for quite some time now, regardless of whatever changes in country of manufacturing have occurred.

I have to credit all of your varying experiences, but am personally very disinclined to roll the dice on anything other than the Singapore-made DL. (I still have a decent older stock of those, and so can say nothing about their more recent DL output -- say, from the time of the first purple packaging up to now.)

[LCSHG]

Good Disks – Bad Disks

Operator Error – Equipment Failure

I have used many a 100 spindle of verbatim disks 4x, 8x., 16x Not one problem except a few that were me [operator error]

Lately I have used a number of spindles (100 disks Ridata disks which are looked upon by others as bad (crap) disks.

Again no problems [But]
I also have a Cyberhome1600 and an ilo 05 [same thing] Both work fine but neither will burn a Rytik disk. A message pops up that says this disk cannot be written to as it is not on the approved list.
That disk can be burned in other units and than played in the 1600 and 05.
I do not believe the disk is at fault as I can burn them with 2003 - 2004 drives that have original firmware.

The 1600 and 05 units are about 3 years old and some body left out the Ridata name on the[List] and that’s not the disk’s fault [Equipment Failure]

[Seeker47]

Good Disks – Bad Disks

Operator Error – Equipment Failure

I have used many a 100 spindle of verbatim disks 4x, 8x., 16x Not one problem except a few that were me [operator error]

Lately I have used a number of spindles (100 disks Ridata disks which are looked upon by others as bad (crap) disks.

But there is another issue being overlooked in the current discussion: Will you still find anything readable or playable on the crap media, three years from now ? (Even if stored under ideal conditions.) I've seen TDKs and others not pass that test, so I wouldn't care to place any wagers on this.

[LCSHG]

Well

I have used many disks, Verbatim, TY . Ridata, Maxel, TDK etc-etc etc and a number of the much maligned CMC .

A good number were burned ok some not mine but were 3 to 5years old. All played without any problems in my units. Those units that they failed to play in were proven to have problem DVD drives. They also had many burn issues

PS my reference to the Cyberhome 1600 and ilo 05 As Equipment Failure was really not correct The Equipment. itself. was OK
They who wrote the Firmware were the problem. When many units are not provided with proper firmware or upgrades this error is compounded And the Easy way Out for any Tec Support is to say
The Disks are the problem

[lordsmurf]

I still have Princo discs from 2001 that are perfectly fine. But those tested fine then, and now. Most people who have "lost data" never tested, so have no basis by which to insist anything was "lost" (it was NEVER THERE to begin with).

Players, readers and recorders are another overlooked variable. Player A was fine 5 years ago, but brand-new Player B won't play the disc! Bad disc? Of course not, the player is more likely to be at issue than "lost data". The player likely doesn't work well with inferior media (it probably has poor reflectivity), so the "lost data" is a two-sided issue, and with a good drive, the disc could be read.

[archaeo]

Sigh...
I suggest we (mercifully) let this thread die.
Based on assumption and hearsay, the title has attracted more attention than it deserves.
Even the original poster hasn't taken the time to return.

[RLT69]

@archaeo

This thread is too long after 1 page and 18 posts? Are you kidding me. I've seen threads go on for 6 pages!

Contrary to what you may think, there is good information here. Real data is being presented which can help people. Understanding the conditions under which burns fail will help other users avoid these pitfalls.

Let the thread take it's natural course.

FYI - you prolonged the thread's life after making a post and thus moving this thread to the top of the list. If you wanted it to die, you should have refrained from posting.

[Constant Gardener]

wot? still not dead?

[CBC]

Considering that this topic is seldom , if ever brought up here..

[LCSHG]

The posts - by (Lordsmurf) are informational

We may not always agree on what is a good disk --But

all to often the real culprit in a problem issue is overlooked

My wife Hates DVD recording from the TV. In the days of VHS things were simpler
I also have a working VHS system that is used. While it may not be up to DVD standads

It Does Work [Plug and Play]

[SCDVD]

I burned about a half dozen discs again today, new Singapore media from Microcenter this past weekend, some 8x (burned 6x) and some 2.4x (burned 4x).

I'm curious if you find any difference when burning Verbatim DL at different burning speeds. I don't burn that many dual layer discs but when I do, I burn at 2.4X to be on the safe side. Do you think there is any benefit to doing so?