Difficulty finding DVD+RW

[jjfw42]

hello!

I've acquired a Cyberhome DVR1600, and yes, I know, a lot of people have had a lot of problems with these, but I would really like to try it out.
Unfortunately every recordable or rewritable disc that I've tried to format has been rejected by it (1-4x, 4x, 16x). In various posts on many forums the perceived wisdom seems to be that this machine will not accept anything faster than a 2x DVD+RW or R. I have therefore been trying to buy some...one even, but to no avail.
Can anyone suggest where I might find such a disc?

[jman98]

ONLY buy Verbatim's re-writable DVD discs. As I live in the USA I am sorry but I do not know about UK sellers except to say that you can buy these through Amazon UK.

If you want to buy good quality DVD+/-R discs, only buy Verbatim (anything they make is fine except their Life series - do not confuse that with DataLifePlus which is fine) or Taiyo Yuden. You may have to buy those online too. I took a look at Verbatim's UK website and they don't seem to have anything specifically branded as the Life series. Here in North America this is their cheap line of discs for stores and they use low quality manufacturers to keep costs down.

[DB83]

I had a similar issue with a Toshiba dvd-recorder. The unit would only accept 2x disks. Even those rated 2x-4x were rejected.

Even some disks from one 'manufacturer' SONY at 2x were fine but others still 2x were rejected. The issue here is that even with branded names you cannot gauarantee that these will work simply because people like SONY do not make them. They simply brand their name to them.

Pure 2x disks are quite rare these days and due to the above they may not work.

Looking back, I was probably very lucky with the very first disks I bought for that unit - these were Phillips 2x and they worked fine as did the first 'SONYs'.

I would suggest you try a specialised retailer. I now buy all my disks from aprmedia. Give them a ring. They may be able to suggest a 'brand' having the experience.

[jman98]

I still very strongly recommend ONLY Verbatim without exception for RW discs. The are the ONLY manufacturer - the ONLY one - that consistently makes high quality RW discs. Sony sometimes uses the lowest quality manufacturers for their discs. If buy Sony and they don't work - you were warned. Verbatim's discs are produced at plants they own (with the exception of the previously mentioned Life series, which they outsource) and those plants have some of the highest standards in the industry. We recommend Verbatim because they work consistently. Can you use DVD-RW discs? These seem to be easier to find in 2x than DVD+RW. It will be essentially impossible to find 2x DVD+R or DVD-R discs, but Verbatim's DataLifePlus series of discs has consistently performed well at low speed burning although they are rated around 8x or higher.

[sanlyn]

you want Verbatim's "AZO" series, not DataLifePlus.

Some players can't read DVD+R, +RW.

[DB83]

I still very strongly recommend ONLY Verbatim without exception for RW discs......

I do not dispute your logic here. I was simply relating my previous experience. I ditched that Toshiba a long time ago and the rw disks I have since purchased (all 4x) have all worked.

Yet even the retailer I use do not appear to have any specific 2x disks right now. They do sell Fuji 2x but these are OOS at present.

[mammo1789]

I still very strongly recommend ONLY Verbatim without exception for RW discs......

I will also strongly recommend only verbatim every disk that i bought works perfectly some are rerecorded maybe more then 300 times ( i have 3-4 that i rerecord couple of times daily).
I was also lucky to find 2x certified DVD-RW Verbatim made in Singapore 2003 and bought all 8 left in the store. My Panasonic dvd recorders seems to like just them ( even the e60 which says that it doesn't support them at all for reading it can't write on dvd -+rw) 4x or more are no go, but it doesn't have any problems with -R all the way to 16x. +R +RW are more difficult to find i bought 100 from AZO series and my dvd recorders ( all Panasonic ) accept them even the oldest one.
I never had any experience with TAIYO YUDEN but all other "brands" that i tried are crap.

[orsetto]

The trouble with acquiring old "bargain" recorders is that you will waste more time and money looking for compatible blank media than the recorder itself is worth. If your Cyberhome DVR1600 was new-old-stock, perhaps its worth fussing with, but if you bought it used and have no idea how much mileage is under its belt, you could be in for major disappointment. This model was extremely picky brand new, and does not improve with use and age. You might be better off cutting your losses and dumping it, in favor of a new recorder.

That said, if you have no other recorder options I agree totally with the previous replies. DVD recorders in general are way more picky about media than PCs, and the older "discount brand" recorders are pickier still. Most "name brand" blank DVDs have long since become a cheapened commodity optimized for PC burners, with unreliable backwards compatibility for DVD recorders. The only two brands that even attempt broad compatibility and consistent quality are Verbatim and JVC/TY (Taiyo Yuden). Each makes decent 16x -+R sold in UK stores, and Verbatim makes various +-RW. Unfortunately your Cyberhome will likely reject all these "modern" high-speed discs, so you will need to buy slower 2.4x RW or 8x R discs from online dealers like Amazon. The most-compatible current blank for old recorders is Verbatim DataLifePlus 8x DVD-R #94852. The RW is less predictable, but you should still get better results with Verbatim than any other brand.

[jjeff]

you want Verbatim's "AZO" series, not DataLifePlus.

Some players can't read DVD+R, +RW.

I think you mean Life series, as Jman98 said the DataLifePlus is Verbatims top of the line discs, nothing wrong with those It's really stupid of Verbatim to name the top of the line and bottom of the line discs "life" To make matters worse the cheap Life series discs look exactly like the AZO discs, the only way to tell is by the MID.
BTW Cyberhome 1600 is a +R, +RW machine only, the one I tried in '05? burnt 4x +R discs just fine, I never tried +RW discs in it since I only had it for a short time, I didn't care for it at all.

[sanlyn]

The words "Data", "Life", or "DataLife", or "DataLifePlus" don't appear on these packages:


[Attachment 13424 - Click to enlarge]
For DVD±RW, Super Eutectic Recording Layer (SERL) should be mentioned or visible (the image on the right).
http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/media/dvd-media-concepts.htm

[jman98]

DataLifePlus uses AZO. Acting like they don't is either being ignorant or dishonest.
http://www.verbatim.com/prod/optical-media/dvd/dvd-recordable/dvd-dash-r-shiny-silver-sku-94852/
http://www.verbatim.com/prod/optical-media/professional-optical/dvdrecordable/dvd-plus...ver-sku-95052/

Life series discs are branded as such but it's hard to see. However, you can zoom in on the photo and see it in cursive writing on the side of the cake box:
http://www.verbatim.com/prod/optical-media/dvd/dvd-r-life-series/life-series-sku-97611/

Finally, EVERYTHING Verbatim makes uses AZO except the Life series so acting like you have to be careful or, gasp!, you won't get AZO is untrue.

[jman98]

I never had any experience with TAIYO YUDEN but all other "brands" that i tried are crap.

TY doesn't make re-writable discs, not even for the Japanese market. They make CD-R, DVD+/-R, DVD-R DL and single layer BD-R. That's it. Just an FYI kind of thing.

[sanlyn]

The last time I used the white-label DataLifePlus spindle, I had 5 rejects. Never bought another one. Out of more than 2 dozen packages of the images I posted (yes, I've recorded more than 2000 videos and video or data backups), I had only two booboos. Two, out of more than 2000+. Both were recognized by the DVD writer just as burning started. I've yet to use any of the other 2000 in a player or PC drive that couldn't be read.

[jjfw42]

Very many thanks for all the replies fellas!

Verbatim seems to be the way forward. I've just ordered some 4x from Amazon. I shall see what transpires and report back.

For the record, the DVR1600 was a Christmas present from the wife a few years back which, for a number of reasons, I wasn't able to try out at the time. I've used a Cyberhome player for years with no trouble at all, so she thought the recorder would be similarly reliable. That's obviously not the case. I feel a tad guilty about this so I'm keen to use it to any extent by way of an apology. I intend to invest in a newer more reliable model courtesy of a company with a better reputation, but I think you'll understand my short-term objective here....

Kind regards to you all

[mammo1789]

This is what you want
interestingly the Europe verbatim branch is in UK

[lordsmurf]

Finally, EVERYTHING Verbatim makes uses AZO except the Life series so acting like you have to be careful or, gasp!, you won't get AZO is untrue.

Some things to remember:
- Technically speaking, CMC Magnetics uses azo dyes as well. However, CMC's own media product is crappy.
- MCC media is manufactured at CMC facilities, but is still using Mitsubishi specs, and has Mitsubishi production oversight.
- The "Life Series" is rebranded CMC media, not Mitsubishi's MCC/MKM media. This is the junk sold in consumer stores locally.
- Verbatim is a consumer brand name wholly owned by Mitsubishi Chemicals.
___

If you want quality Verbatim discs, get it from the stores listed on this guide.

Notes on older +R/+RW recorders:
There is no such thing as "2x" DVD+RW. It's either 2.4x or 4x. Finding non-4x +RW media will be almost impossible.
So you'll need to fall back on using Verbatim 16x DVD+R, which should work just fine.

[roma_turok]

hello!

I've acquired a Cyberhome DVR1600, and yes, I know, a lot of people have had a lot of problems with these, but I would really like to try it out.
Unfortunately every recordable or rewritable disc that I've tried to format has been rejected by it (1-4x, 4x, 16x). In various posts on many forums the perceived wisdom seems to be that this machine will not accept anything faster than a 2x DVD+RW or R. I have therefore been trying to buy some...one even, but to no avail.
Can anyone suggest where I might find such a disc?

I think its time for new DVD recorder with hard drive and hdmi output