Tips on burning data to Verbatim BD-R M-Discs

[guy24s]

I am looking for advice on how to best burn data to Verbatim BD-R M-Discs. Since I am using M-DISCS I guess it's obviously I am trying to optimize the finished product to be as good and secure as possible, and I want something that lasts and don't result in corrupt files or failed discs etc.
My burner is an internal LG BP60NB10. I am wondering for example:

1. I am trying to decide whether to use 25Gb discs or 100Gb discs. Naturally the 100Gb would be preferable as I have several Terebytes of data to backup and 100Gb discs would result in fewer discs vs. using 25 Gb. But I am worried the 100Gb discs are less reliable and probably less durable as they are using multiple layers of data while the 25Gb discs are single layered. I read that people were having trouble burning to the 100Gb discs, i.e. the burner spit the disc out after finishing burning the first layer etc. I did not read any negative comments about the 25Gb discs. Should this be a concern? Are the higher capacity, dual layered discs in any way less durable or come with a higher fail rate than a single layered 25Gb disc?

2. When burning, does it matter which software I use? Do the various software produce better / worse results when it comes to the quality of how well the discs are burned? Which software would you recommend? I am looking for something that is both good and also easy to use. I have not burned any type of data discs for probably 15 years. At that time I used Nero Burning ROM which was very easy to use at the time. But I'm sure things have changed and there may be better options now. Please advise.

3. Any special settings or anything I need to do when I burn the discs? Perhaps something that can verify that the burned disc was burned perfectly? I seem to remember a setting in Nero Burning ROM that would simulate a burning process without actually physically burning anything to the disc.
Also, which is the best speed I should be burning at?

Thanks for reading any any suggestions are welcome.

[october262]

there's not very many players that'll read / play the full 100GB discs.
start by reading this thread - https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/388243-BluRay-Player-with-BDXL-Support
you can still use the 100GB discs as long as you don't burn over 66GB.

[usually_quiet]

With regular BD media, BD-R burns more reliably than BD-R DL or BD-XL and is used more often for archival purposes. I have no experience with M-Disc so I don't know if the same is true for it, or what burning speed works best. However, as with regular BD media, one should probably not attempt to fill discs to their full capacity.

I use ImgBurn for burning. I found a discussion about burning M-Disc at the ImgBurn forum: https://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?/topic/25558-m-disc-for-data-backup-proper-image-options/

[guy24s]

Thanks for your replies.

there's not very many players that'll read / play the full 100GB discs.
start by reading this thread - https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/388243-BluRay-Player-with-BDXL-Support
you can still use the 100GB discs as long as you don't burn over 66GB.

I don't need to play the discs on any standalone BluRay player as I will only be using them for data backup. I think all optical drives that feature M-Disc are able to write 100Gb discs? Regardless, after further reading, I think I will still choose the single layered discs.

With regular BD media, BD-R burns more reliably than BD-R DL or BD-XL and is used more often for archival purposes. I have no experience with M-Disc so I don't know if the same is true for it, or what burning speed works best. However, as with regular BD media, one should probably not attempt to fill discs to their full capacity.

I use ImgBurn for burning. I found a discussion about burning M-Disc at the ImgBurn forum: https://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?/topic/25558-m-disc-for-data-backup-proper-image-options/

I think I'll go for 25Gb discs. Why is it not a good idea to fill the discs to their full capacity? What is a good breakpoint then, on a 25Gb disc?
I have only used ImgBurn to burn images like ISO, to disc. What I liked about Nero Burning ROM long time ago when I was using it was that I was dragging and dropping files to a window and there was a meter at the top which indicated how much space I had left to work with. Is there something like that in ImgBurn too?

[usually_quiet]

I don't need to play the discs on any standalone BluRay player as I will only be using them for data backup. I think all optical drives that feature M-Disc are able to write 100Gb discs? Regardless, after further reading, I think I will still choose the single layered discs.

The 100 GB discs are BD-XL. If you think that you will ever want to burn that type of media you should always check the drive specs because some drives don't support burning BD-XL. You shouldn't try to burn more than 23.5 GB on a 25GB BD-R.

Here is a quote from a post in another thread explaining why

Media manufacturers rate the capacity in GB (1000 * 1000 * 1000). Windows reports file sizes in GiB (1024 * 1024 * 1024), though they don't use the GiB nomenclature. So when Windows shows a file is 25 GB the file is actually 26,843,545,600 (25 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024) bytes, 26.8 GB by the disc manufacture's way of counting.

This is the same reason a 4.7 GB DVD only holds 4.3 GiB of data.

I'm presently using a laptop without a Blu-ray or DVD burner and I don't recall if ImgBurn keeps track of the used space or unused space on a data disc, although I know it does one or the other. I will get back to you later when I can use a desktop with a Blu-ray burner installed.

[Edit]ImgBurn displays both the total amount of disc space that has been allocated and the remaining empty space as numeric values. It also displays a bar graph labeled with the percentage of the total space that has been filled. However, a user must click on the calculator button to see any of this information.

[guy24s]

I don't need to play the discs on any standalone BluRay player as I will only be using them for data backup. I think all optical drives that feature M-Disc are able to write 100Gb discs? Regardless, after further reading, I think I will still choose the single layered discs.

The 100 GB discs are BD-XL. If you think that you will ever want to burn that type of media you should always check the drive specs because some drives don't support burning BD-XL. You shouldn't try to burn more than 23.5 GB on a 25GB BD-R.

Here is a quote from a post in another thread explaining why

Media manufacturers rate the capacity in GB (1000 * 1000 * 1000). Windows reports file sizes in GiB (1024 * 1024 * 1024), though they don't use the GiB nomenclature. So when Windows shows a file is 25 GB the file is actually 26,843,545,600 (25 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024) bytes, 26.8 GB by the disc manufacture's way of counting.

This is the same reason a 4.7 GB DVD only holds 4.3 GiB of data.

I'm presently using a laptop without a Blu-ray or DVD burner and I don't recall if ImgBurn keeps track of the used space or unused space on a data disc, although I know it does one or the other. I will get back to you later when I can use a desktop with a Blu-ray burner installed.

[Edit]ImgBurn displays both the total amount of disc space that has been allocated and the remaining empty space as numeric values. It also displays a bar graph labeled with the percentage of the total space that has been filled. However, a user must click on the calculator button to see any of this information.

Thank you for explaining! Do you have any idea which is the optimal speed I should select when writing a BD? I read various suggestions. Sometimes it says if the disc says 4x, you should choose the maximum speed 4x. Other times it says you should go a little below the max speed, like 3x. It usually says lower speeds like 1x causes faulty discs.

[usually_quiet]

Thank you for explaining! Do you have any idea which is the optimal speed I should select when writing a BD? I read various suggestions. Sometimes it says if the disc says 4x, you should choose the maximum speed 4x. Other times it says you should go a little below the max speed, like 3x. It usually says lower speeds like 1x causes faulty discs.

I don't know what the optimal burning speed is for M-Disc. I never tried any M-Disc media.

[guy24s]

Thank you for explaining! Do you have any idea which is the optimal speed I should select when writing a BD? I read various suggestions. Sometimes it says if the disc says 4x, you should choose the maximum speed 4x. Other times it says you should go a little below the max speed, like 3x. It usually says lower speeds like 1x causes faulty discs.

I don't know what the optimal burning speed is for M-Disc. I never tried any M-Disc media.

OK.