Are these really Verbatim AZO DVD+R DL discs?

[Dawgsfan]

A few days ago I bought a spindle of 50 Verbatim AZO DVD+R DL discs from the Verbatim store on Amazon. When I’ve bought from this store in the past, the discs I received have said “AZO DVD+R DL” right on the disc (pic attached).

This time, however, the discs only say “DVD+R DL” with no “AZO” on the disc itself (pic attached). The wrapper and the paper disc cover on the top of the spindle both say AZO. The wrapper says “Verbatim #97000 0313-347” and the barcode is “23942 97000” (pics attached). These new discs are made in the United Arab Emirates. I’ve also included a screenshot from Nero InfoTool which says the disc manufacturer is MKM 003 and the disc capacity is 7.96 GB.

Are these truly AZO discs? Are they decent quality or some cheap knockoff?

Thanks.

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4412.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4413.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4414.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4415.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4416.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/Nero%20Infotool%20screenshot.jpeg

[october262]

A few days ago I bought a spindle of 50 Verbatim AZO DVD+R DL discs from the Verbatim store on Amazon. When I’ve bought from this store in the past, the discs I received have said “AZO DVD+R DL” right on the disc (pic attached).

This time, however, the discs only say “DVD+R DL” with no “AZO” on the disc itself (pic attached). The wrapper and the paper disc cover on the top of the spindle both say AZO. The wrapper says “Verbatim #97000 0313-347” and the barcode is “23942 97000” (pics attached). These new discs are made in the United Arab Emirates. I’ve also included a screenshot from Nero InfoTool which says the disc manufacturer is MKM 003 and the disc capacity is 7.96 GB.

Are these truly AZO discs? Are they decent quality or some cheap knockoff?

Thanks.

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4412.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4413.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4414.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4415.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/IMG_4416.jpeg

https://files.videohelp.com/u/304236/Nero%20Infotool%20screenshot.jpeg

see here - https://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia/verbatim-dvd-r-mkm-003-8/3781
and here - https://www.verbatim.com/prod/optical-media/dvd/dvd-r-dl/dvd-plus-r-dl-sku-97000/

[lingyi]

Very, very suspicious!

First, unless something changed very recently, all Verbatim discs are manufactured only in Taiwan by CMC Magnetics since 2019, when they bought out the Verbatim disc name and formulas. And there are no DVD manufacturing plants left, other than those in Taiwan and China. Verbatim AZO was manufactured in UAE, Singapore and India, but those plants have long closed. If they're real, they're at least pre-2019 and according to lordsmurf, even blank discs begin their ~15 year lifespan from date of manufacture. In addition, you don't know the warehouse condition they were stored in, and heat and humidity accelerate aging.

Even before CMC Magnetics took over, Verbatim was fooling customers with lookalike packaging, even using the familiar purple and orange wrappers on later packages. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/391272-Beware-of-new-Verbatim-non-AZO-packaging,

That said, your discs do look like real (though old stock) discs. Test and use them, but take off at least 4-5 years from their expected ~15 year lifespan.

[Dawgsfan]

Thanks. I appreciate the insight. Yes, I thought maybe these were just old stock pulled from a different warehouse than the others I’ve ordered. FWIW, this was Verbatim’s terse response to my email:
“The 23942 97000 is the DVD+R DL AZo disc.”

[DB83]

Terse but to-the-point.

A Google also reveals that 'MKM' appears to stand for the coating i.e Mitsubishi.... and is unique to Verbatim ie AZo


If you were on the same Amazon page that I looked at there were several photos of the disks one of which shown the face with no 'AZo'. TBH in the past I only ever bought Verbatim AZo disks - and in bulk (meaning by the case of 200 or so) - I did a quick check and I do not see AZo on any of them.

[Skiller]

The Verbatim discs made in UAE and their packaging were always a bit oddball looking, but good quality! I'd prefer UAE discs over India and China ones any day (although Double Layer discs were never made by the latter two if I'm not mistaken).
These look like new old(ish) stock to me.

[lingyi]

I'm sure lordsmurf will slap me blue if I'm wrong.

MKM stands for Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) and MCC stands for Mitsubishi Chemical Company.

1990 - Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation acquires Verbatim Corporation.
1994 - Parent company Mitsubishi Kasei Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. merged to become Mitsubishi Chemical Co., Ltd. Dissolved Kasei Verbatim, established Mitsubishi Kasei Media, and absorbed Verbatim Corporation. Temporarily terminated the use of the "Verbatim" brand in Japan.
Reintroduction by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
September 2009 -Mitsubishi Kagaku Media switches the product brand of optical disc products for data sold in Japan from the "MITSUBISHI" brand to the "Verbatim" brand, and re-introduces it to the Japanese market [2 ] .
September 2010
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media will switch all product brands sold in Japan from the "MITSUBISHI" brand to the "Verbatim" brand, and thereafter unify the shipment level to "Verbatim" [2] .

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbatim

There were numerous debates about which factory, Singapore, UAE, India, Taiwan, China(?), produced the best AZO discs, but that's all moot now since as I stated above, only CMC Magnetics in Taiwan is producing AZO discs with Verbatim's formula. Any AZO discs you find today that aren't from CMC Magnetics in Taiwan are old stock.

Note that they only bought out the Verbatim name for optical discs.

BTW, CMC Magnetics also bought out Taiyo-Yuden and is the exclusive manufacturer or Taiyo-Yuden discs with the original formula in their Taiwan factory.

[lordsmurf]

NOS non-AZO may still exist out there.

I still have unburned PVC from 2003.