I did a major upgrade to my computer recently and got a new Pioneer 107 that burns 8x from Newegg, and with it I got a 50 pack of the Ritek DVD+R's. I had some coasters at first but after updating Nero and the firmware I have had nothing but success, I've burned about 40 so far and have copied each DVD to verify the data. I just today ordered a 25 pack of the Ritek DVD+RW's from Newegg, so I will soon see how those hold up. I am noting the warnings on Ritek but I am not holding anything critical on the RW's.

When out shopping at CrapUSA or BestBuy it seems that the DVD+R's are taking over, when a year ago I worried that I made a mistake with the Buslink drive since it only burned +R. In a week or so I may take a chance on the ProDisc from Rima and will report my success. This thread has been much more informative than all the reviews and sites I went through a few weeks ago when I got the new drive, so again thanks for all the info!

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Generally, you can't tell by the label because most if not all companies sell media from different manufacturers. You can read through the hundreds of posts and reviews in the cdfreaks forum about what media is best.

Short version:

Fuji DVD+R or DVD-R manufactured in Japan. They have a distinct cakebox with a black base (50 pack). These are manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, which has one of the best reputations in the business.

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Fuju 8x DVD-R -- I got these at Best Buy quite cheap in a 100 pack. Working very well so far. However Lite-On burner thinks it is a 4x disc. Works at 8x in Pioneer. The box says made in Tawian but I believe a utility IDed the discs as Japanese.

Memorex 4x DVD+R -- working very well for me in all burners. Surprising but true. I believe these may be Japanese discs (Ricoh).

Maxwell 4x DVD-R -- these worked great for me.

CompUSA cheap DVD-R discs wrapped in saran wrap with white label. These burned fine but very slow (often 1x). They seem to play OK for me on my players. Others report they do not play on their machine about 50% of the time.

I tried to get a 25 pack of HP DVD+R blanks at Staples yesterday for $9.99 (weekly advertised special), but they were sold OUT.

-- Snowman

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