i have been burning dvds for 2 years now. most of the time i've been using datawrite titanium 8x dvd-r. i have a philips 16x writer and now want to know what the best media i should be using. my copier can copy onto either + or -, so i would like some tips on the best media and also best speed to go for.
ie - because discs are cheap, are they really that good?
I like to burn at half the speed that the media is rated for.
What's the exact model # of your philips DVD-RW 16x writer?
Philips outsources their drives. They have one certain model# that was absolutely horendous.Majority of those drives went into Dell pcs. There's a huge thread in the DVD-RW drive forum about all the problems of that model#. Benq is also making drives for phillips and they should be excellent quality.
The differences between those model numbers will help.If they are rebadged benqs,then you may have the capability to booktype the plus format to dvd-rom,making your backups a lot higher compatable for stand alone players.
I purchase my media locally,when it's on sale. I can get some quality verbatim/ritek/hitachi/or taiyo yuden for brands like Fuji/sony 8x,maxell 8x,and verbatim. To find the quality ty and hitachi,just look at the labels of fuji/sony/and maxell for made in japan.
I try to find the sony and fuji tys. Then the maxell hitachis.Both are made in japan. If no japanese spindles,then the verbatim/Office depot +8x which are riteks,then last would be the maxell riteks.I can get maxell riteks for 30 cents,or Office Depot riteks for 20-25 cents. Same exact MID code,just a huge price difference. I get my Yuden000-T02 from sony and fuji +8x for 30 cents each.
These are all very good quality media. I have a very high success rate for those brands.They all perform at over 99.5% success! The 16x verbatims actually scan a heck of a lot better at 8x and 12x speed.They definitely give me more errors on the slower 2.4x and 4x backups from my benq 1640.I can't burn those babies slow or I get crc errors on them when I try to re-rip them.
