Are Memorex Blank DVD-Rs any good?

[rr76012]

Hello AX,

From your link I read this - "Disc Quality Tests by Nero CD-DVD Speed."

I think a utility like Nero would be helpful to test our DVD's for quality and speed?

Thanks for the link.

[cazador31]

Lightscribe Disks

I Have been using Lightscribe DVD+R for a long time and have never had any problems. I only use main movie and i have never had a coaster

[Guest]

This may be mentioned somewhere but I couldn't see it.

I have been using blank DVDs for some time now, with of course the official paid for versions of DVDFab, but initially was not sure what blank DVDs to use, I don't mean the brand, I mean either - or +.

Some time ago when I was buying more the salesperson seemed to know about them, so I asked him, and he said for what I was doing definitely the - ones.

Is that true, or not, or either are just as good?

Please excuse my ignorance in these matters.

[dallacuse]

From my experience, "-" discs tend to play more universally than "+" discs. Also and counterintuitively, more expensive DVD players tend to be "fussier" than cheaper ones, and more likely to "reject" certain discs.

Brand wise, Verbatim and T-Y are typically recognized as reliable, and I buy "-" types.....

[stonemiser]

As for the original question, I have used Memorex DVD+R's and haven't had a problem. I have also used Sony, Verbatim, etc. All seem to perform the same. I will say the Verbatims did seem to correspond well with the drives I have.

[Guest]

From my experience, "-" discs tend to play more universally than "+" discs. Also and counterintuitively, more expensive DVD players tend to be "fussier" than cheaper ones, and more likely to "reject" certain discs.

Brand wise, Verbatim and T-Y are typically recognized as reliable, and I buy "-" types.....

Okay thanks, so whatever brand we use, the ''-'' is the way to go, yes?

[rekd0514]

Okay thanks, so whatever brand we use, the ''-'' is the way to go, yes?

He's is meaning DVD+R versus DVD-R if you didn't know....

I thought DVD+R was supposed to be the media that works in more players. I do know that it is supposed to hold a slightly larger amount of info though.

[maineman]

This may be mentioned somewhere but I couldn't see it.

I have been using blank DVDs for some time now, with of course the official paid for versions of DVDFab, but initially was not sure what blank DVDs to use, I don't mean the brand, I mean either - or +.

Some time ago when I was buying more the salesperson seemed to know about them, so I asked him, and he said for what I was doing definitely the - ones.

Is that true, or not, or either are just as good?

Please excuse my ignorance in these matters.

Hi davidh,

No need to excuse anything about your queries...perfectly reasonable.
The advice you got from the staples dude is rubbish.
With modern hardware, either should be just fine.

In a nutshell it went like this...
Years ago, -R was the first, blank dvd media out of the gate.
This format was/is supported by Panasonic, Toshiba, Apple Computer, Hitachi, NEC, Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp.
Soon to follow came +R supported by Dell, HP, Mitsubishi Chemical Corp, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, RCA and Yamaha.
The war had begun.

Years ago with really old dvd players, -R had a slight advantage in terms of compatibility.
In recent years, bitsetting (also called booktyping) enables +R media to appear as DVD-ROM media to players and thus confers even greater compatibility than either -R or +R.

In truth, it probably doesn't make any difference at all unless you have a finicky burner or player. I've used tons of both -R and +R and have ahd no problems based on format...at least not in years.

When refering to blank media, we prefer to identify the MID (media ID) rather than the brand as the brand usually doesn't tell much.

For eg., the problem with recommending Memorex is that it has multiple manufacturers and quality varies widely.
The discs you have may have been manufactured by:
Moser Baer, CMC, Ritek, Ricoh, Prodisc, Infodisc or ideally by MCC.

Quite the crap shoot, wouldn't you say?

This is one more reason that most forums and users recommend Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim.
My favorite SL media is YUDEN000 T02. They're +R and the best darn stuff on the planet...JMO

Hope this helps

[Guest]

Having burned many thousands of dvds I was surpirsed to say the least with the results from the last batch of Verbatim made in Tiawan code Ritek F16.
The photo says it all. This happened three times today.

[Guest]

Hope this helps

Yes thanks........

[rekd0514]

What if you want to play a movie in the car ... plane, I myself need at least a 10" screen (portable player) to watch a good movie. I trust good quality DVD's over HD failure

That is why I said a lot of times anyways....

Having burned many thousands of dvds I was surpirsed to say the least with the results from the last batch of Verbatim made in Tiawan code Ritek F16.
The photo says it all. This happened three times today.

Ooooo ouch. I have heard some of the MIT and MII have suffered in quality lately, but that is pretty bad. I haven't had any problems with my MMC-004-00 DVD+R and I am pretty sure they are MIT as well. Luckily the MKM-001-00 DVD+R DL I have are MIS which is supposed to be the best location for Verbatim at this time.

[rr76012]

great links to articles: "How to buy blank DVDs"

Great links to articles on "How to buy Blank DVDs". Speaks to DVD-Rs and +Rs, best to worst manufacturing countries, best burn speeds etc...This information should be useful to our members on our forum.

1.

2.

The information being presented here is summarized from the original guide at -- go there for a much longer version, with more details and current information. (Just copy and paste that address into your web browser and hit enter.)

Amazon: "Not all blank discs are create equal. In fact, a majority of the blank discs out there are pretty poor or mediocre quality. The internet is full of complaints from users having bad experiences with the cheap discs made in China, Hong Kong and some of the bulk suppliers in Taiwan.".

What Makes A Good Disc?

Contrary to some of the ramblings you may find in user forums online, the hallmark of a good blank disc is not how it tests in special software in a special drive, but how it performs for the masses.

A good blank DVD should do 4 things for you:

1. Burn successfully without any write errors, at least 9 times out of 10. That means at least 90 or more of 100 discs should be perfect. The best discs are often flawless, with 99-100 good discs on a 100-count spindle.

2. Play back in a DVD player with no skips or pauses, and read in a computer DVD-ROM without any lock-ups.

3. Be seen by at least 95% or more of all DVD devices, be it a DVD player, DVD recorder, DVD burner, Blu-ray drive, or computer DVD-ROM.

4. Be able to pass all of the basic read/scan tests, as performed by software such as the freeware Nero DiscSpeed. (Note: Not to be confused with the Nero burning software most people are familiar with.)

Again, visit for more details and expanded information, and to see the full DVD media guides. Just copy and paste that address into your web browser, or search for "digitalFAQ DVD guide" in Google.


I think maybe the brand choices in Blank Discs do make a difference in the quality of the backups? I hope this information is helpful to our beginners, juniors and senior members.

[Guest]

Yes, thank you.............

[kasiestracy]

As long as you didn't go all the way to ''Wally World'' again to get them.

By the way, was it open when you got there, or closed like when the Griswalds finally arrived?

Nope, bought these at Office Max. I actually haven't had a problem at all with these blanks since I got the external burner. Out of the 50 spindle I have I haven't had a bad burn yet. I'm really happy with my new burner.

As for Wally World, they never close except for Christmas and they close at 6:00 on Christmas Eve and open back up the day after Christmas at 6:00 a.m. I haven't bought any blanks there because they never run them on sale. I usually go to Staples. One of the stores always has them on sale. I just buy whatever brand they have on sale that week and they always tend to work fine.

Tracy

[Guest]

I do the same, at a place here called ''Officeworks'', probably similar.

Hope you continue to have good luck with the burns now.