I've been buying a large number of DVDs from the 2000s for preservation and restoration work, and I'm seeing more and more sellers spreading the same misinformation to excuse selling bootlegs or cheap DVDR copies. For anyone doing archival work, this is a real problem - taking a DVD9 retail disc and compressing it onto a DVDR is a massive quality loss and basically useless for restoration.

Here are the main issues with the "studios switched to DVDRs" claim:
1. A title that had a pressed glass-mastered release cannot suddenly become a DVDR.
If a DVD was originally pressed with a reflective silver underside and a proper matrix code, that is the authentic retail version. Any DVDR version appearing years later is not studio-made. Pressed discs and burned DVDRs come from completely different manufacturing pipelines.

2. MOD (Manufactured on Demand) programs only come from active studios or rights holders.
MOD discs are produced directly by the studio or the current rights holder, not by random retailers. If the original studio is defunct, it cannot legally authorize new production of any kind - pressed or DVDR. Selling a burned DVDR as "studio-made" is false advertising.

3. Reprints that look "red" are still pressed discs, not DVDRs.
Some budget replication plants used red-tinted polycarbonate, but these discs still have a pressed matrix and are fully legitimate. I own several of these - they are clearly pressed, not burned. Sellers often confuse (or pretend to confuse) these with DVDRs.
Example:
SILVER original run in 2004:
https://www.adultdvdmarketplace.com/dvd_view_71784.html
RED re-production run in 2011
https://www.adultdvdmarketplace.com/dvd_view_237180.html

So my question is: Does anyone have any hard evidence that studios are actually using DVDRs for reissues of titles that originally had pressed retail releases? Because so far, every DVDR I've seen in this category has been a bootleg or unauthorized copy.

I'm tired of receiving poorly re-shrinkwrapped DVDRs that were ripped from a DVD9 and recompressed to fit a DVD5. If I wanted a low-bitrate version, I could just buy the VOD - it would still look better than a recompressed DVDR pretending to be a retail disc.