BD-R Disc Lifetimes

[sonydude1966]

I read over at Amazon that some of the Quantum's now say "value" on the package and are lesser quality.

I haven't seen that myself and have been using the "regular" Quantum's for 2 years or more. I get 1 coaster for every 100 or so discs, but when they burn correctly (99 out of 100), they have been lasting this whole time. (knock on wood).

Just ordered another 50 pack, and hope I don't get the "value" style. Atleast there's a very easy return policy.

[Whale2]

Discounted BD-R disks

I read over at Amazon that some of the Quantum's now say "value" on the package and are lesser quality.

I haven't seen that myself and have been using the "regular" Quantum's for 2 years or more. I get 1 coaster for every 100 or so discs, but when they burn correctly (99 out of 100), they have been lasting this whole time. (knock on wood).

Just ordered another 50 pack, and hope I don't get the "value" style. Atleast there's a very easy return policy.

Verbs are less than a buck a disk until 1-11-12 at New Egg:



Optical Quantums are also very reasonable at $38 for 50 disks. My last order about a month ago was was the Phillips type even though it was the silver finish rather than white. Media is now routinely less than a buck. I love the Quantums the best. They burn at 8x according to imageburn. I set them for 6x and get no coasters. I suspect they would burn correctly at 8X.

[unknownbluray]

Problem is those are the LTH type which not all player let alone burners use. They are better for data than movies. I used one last yr my computer and PS3 played it this yr nothing reads it. Maybe they make them better but I heard nothing truely good with the LTH BD's.

[btufail]

Has any tried the new Optical Quantum 50 gb discs? So far i have had good luck with their 25 gb discs(as along as they're made by phillips and not Ritek).

[jfan24]

Recently, I came across 50GB BR-DL made by Digistor on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/DIGISTOR-50GB-...9972207&sr=8-1 Decided to pull the plug and bought the 10-pack at first to make sure I didn't get burned. Low and behold 10 perfect burns with not a single coaster. Went ahead and picked up the 25-pack for $106 and got the same thing; no coasters. Seems to be a great product with an amazing value, the lowest price per disk I've found so far at $4.25/disk.

[SuperFist]

Recently, I came across 50GB BR-DL made by Digistor on Amazon. ...

Those DIGISTOR's are now over $2 per disc, plus they're too new for me to trust shelf life. I would stick with Optical Quantum over at Supermediastore for $4.50 a disc...

[SuperFist]

In the interest of this thread and those who wish to purchase the most reliable media they can at the most affordable rate, I decided to go back and test the first discs I burned with the computer I built a few days after New Year's 2011. I will give you the model Blu-ray burner I copied them with along with the movie I backed up, the media ID of the discs I used, the brand name, speed, the speed I recorded them at as well as the date I actually made them. All of the following backed up movies currently play flawlessly in my PS3 with the latest 4.10 update.

Blu-ray Burner: LG 10x BD-RE WH10LS30


Backed Up Movie - Media ID - Brand - Speed Burned - Date Created

Entourage Season 6 (All Discs) - RITEK-BR2-000 - RiDATA 4x 25GB BD-R - 4x - 1/8/11

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children - RITEK-BR2-000 - RiDATA 4x 25GB BD-R - 4x - 1/13/11

The Town - RITEK-BR2-000 - Optical Quantum 4x 25GB BD-R - 4x - 2/15/11

The A-Team - RITEK-BR2-000 - Optical Quantum 4x 25GB BD-R - 4x - 3/19/11

Hero - RITEK-BR2-000 - Optical Quantum 4x 25GB BD-R - 4x - 3/23/11

Spider-Man - RITEK-BR2-000 - Optical Quantum 4x 25GB BD-R - 4x - 3/19/11


As you can see, all of these discs were burned a year ago and they still play just as good as if I just burned them today and the data side still looks very deep and pronounced without any visible fading.

[s9ac3r]

ive been using Digistor BD-R's. I havent had one fail me yet. I'm on my 4th spindle of 25pack. I thought price was good. its about a dollar for bd-r or about $4.50 for dl bd-r. im a little comfused about the htl or lth and i dont know which one it is with Digistor. I havent had one coast on me just yet.

My computer config.

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV5
Windows 7 64bit
Intel Core i5-460m 2.53- (2.8GHz turbo boost)
Mobile Intel HM55 Express Chipset
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 350M with 1GB GDDR3 discrete graphics memory
o Total Available Graphics memory 2781MB
RAM Configured with 8GB DDR3
Samsung 830 series SSD 128GB on sata3
1x Matshida fixed optical blu ray disc rom
1x LG External 12x Super Multi Blue LightScribe BE12LU38 on esata


PS. I hate them media disc that slips when loading in a slot drive.

[p2nenga]

BD-R defect management

What seems to be missing in this discussion is blu-ray is a data disk format whereas dvd was a streaming disk format. BD-R has the capability to mark bad segments and branch around to a good segment during the recording process. For example, in Nero you have to turn this option ON: "BD defect management (for blank discs only)"

Even high-quality blanks have defects. But the recorder finds these on-the-fly by immediately reading back the segment just recorded and, if it's bad, mark that segment and branch to try again -- and again, and again,.. -- until a good segment is made. You can actually see this after recording as the color shift around e.g. a pin-hole defect outlines the problem.

As a result, NO COASTERS. No stutters. No mid-movie full stops. Pretty cool. And you can dare to buy cheaper media.

[jimp124]

Recommend Optical Quantum

I've been using Optical Quantum for over 2 years and I've had excellent luck with play-back, even on the earliest ones I burned. I've been using a Pioneer BDR-205 for most all my burns. Optical Quantum is also sold under the name Vinpower Digital which are the exact same discs. I DO NOT however recommend the ones with printable tops, they seem to produce more coasters. The prices are very reasonable.

[SuperFist]

Very interesting, p2nenga.

What I'm understanding from the clarification about this feature below is it's inherent in the blu-ray writers themselves and is defaulted to "On". It's just that Nero gives you the option to turn it off.

Here is further explanation from the avsforums...

Recordable Blu-ray supports defect management within the drive, this defect management is handled entirely by the writer and the computer/player has no part in handling defects, they just see a big lump of free-space which is all defect free. Defect management also takes place when creating a Blu-ray video disc and this is a big change from DVDs. DVDs for video do not support defect management as video data must be in a continuous stream, and for data, DVD needs the host to deal with defect management (except for DVD-RAM). This defect management is not just used on BD-RE, but also write once BD-R.

This should mean more reliable burns to Blu-ray media as any defects while burning can be remapped to a spare sector, and the Blu-ray player will be able to play this back without a problem, a good job considering the price of blanks at the moment. It also makes Blu-ray great for storing data.

Because of defect management, burning speeds can be less than half of the advertised speed (just like DVD-RAM) as everything written is read back and verified and if necessary sectors are remapped by the drive. Software packages can let you disable defect management to get the full burn speed, but this might mean a coaster which could have been avoided. Also when defect management is in use free space is slightly reduced in order to reserve space for defects.

Another change that can look like a fault when recording to BD-RE, is that BD-RE is a truly random access format. Where CD-RW/DVD-RW/+RW always records sequentially from the last point recorded, so on a new blank disk you can see the recording sequentially grow from the centre outwards with no gaps, Blu-ray BD-RE can record anywhere to the disk (like a hard-drive) and so isn't constrained to always recording from the very last point written to. This means on a clean blank Blu-ray BD-RE disk, as you add and remove recordings, you can see concentric rings with gaps where no data has been recorded. On a DVD/CD this would show something had gone terribly wrong, but is quite normal on BD-RE and is not a problem. (See picture below).

[GadgetVictim]

@jimp124: I have been using OQ BD white printable top version for several years now, and not been having much problems.

I like the convenience of printing BD covers directly on my backup disc, and would like to find out what kind of failure rate others have been getting.

Out curiosity: What kind of coaster stats per batch of OQ have you been getting from the OQ printable tops do you base your NON-Recommendation on?

I'm on about my 4th batch of the 50 stack OQ BD purchased from Amazon, and estimate that I've getting about 1 defective disk per stack of 50 (that's about 2% failure rate). So, I'm interested in finding out what others been getting???? It also comes down to cost-benefit/defect trade-off.

Would be nice if we can get others to provide statistics on number/% of defects on other makes/models BD discs, they have had experience with.

I have the LG BD burner, and I'm also, looking at getting 2nd BD burner and would like to know if you would recommend the Pioneer BDR-205 or possible 206? I'm look for something other then an LG model, and want recommendations from those that are HAPPY with models that they're using.

Mahalo,
GadgetVictim

[8855A]

GadgetVictim,

I've been using pioneer's 206 model Blu-ray burner and haven't had any problems out of it!

When I was burning I was using Verbs BD-R, non -LTH or HTL, and never had one coaster! They are still playing without any problems!

I use a Media Player now, no more burning!

[GadgetVictim]

@8855A,
Thanks for your response. I haven't bought a 2nd BD burner as yet. Mainly because I can't make up my mind on which unit to get. I know the Pioneer 206 is a good unit, and I do what to diversity from the LG line.

However, it looks like LG offers the best "bang for the buck" wrt features/functions versus price. Case-in-point, I also have the LG's WH12LS39K M-Disc 12x BD-burner on my evaluation list. Its fast, and also writes to M-disc.

The M-disc blanks are more expensive, and I'm not sure if "M-disc" technology is here to stay, and the wave of the future for long-term storage??? Would be interested in hearing from anyone with any experience on this BD storage technology.

Again, 8855A, thank you for taking the time out to respond to my question.

Aloha, GadgetVictim

[jonnpenney]

Sorry..a bit off topic but can anyone point me to decently priced BD-R 50GB discs now? It seems the prices have gone up considerably and I cannot seem to find any deals that come out better than just under $4 per disc. Thanks in advance!