I know that Taiyo Yuden's are supposed to be as good as it gets. My question is, is this a good deal?
http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-white-inkjet-hub-print... I have used Verbatims in the past but I just got an Epson R220 and I bought some Verbatims at Sam's Club but they are not hub printable and I forgot to check for that when I got em and I want some hub printables! I always burn at 4x but the Verbs that I got are a max of 16x..is buying these TY's (4x) any different than buying say an 8x or 16x capable TY for more if I only burn at 4X anyway? Just wondering if I should spend the extra money and jump to something with a higher capability (such as 8x or 16x). Thanks! Also, any other webstores besides supermediastore that anyone recommends, I live in the US? Thanks! Also, in general is burning at 4x too slow? Everything I have burned has played great but I see a lot of people saying to maybe use 8x but never 16x? Just wondering what you guys think!
1) If you MUST have hub printables, this is probably going to be one of the best prices for decent DVD-R media.
2) Personally, I advocate DVD+Rs if you have a drive capable of booktyping them to DVD-ROMs. This creates the overall best compatibility and quality if you're using decent media. Of course, if you're going that route, you're looking at about .60 per disc, or about double the price, BUT, you are then getting the best of both worlds, pure compatibility, pure quality. If you're going for true archival, that would be my choice.
3) As for the speed, yes, 4x is rather slow and 8x seems to be the "sweet spot" in terms of creating quality, low error burns, but 4x media is still going to produce great quality, it's just going to take longer (about 15 minutes for a full disc versus around 10 minutes at 8x).
Final thoughts: If you don't mind sacrificing the best compatibility possible to get discs that are otherwise just fine, go for it, otherwise, step up to the TY DVD+R 8x hub printables and get the very best you possibly can.
First off, yes that is a good price, and they are top notch media.
Burning speeds are always going to depend on the quality media and burner. I have read several people who burn these 4x's at 8x. Really what you want to do is test burning at several different speeds. The 16x Verbs don't test as good at 4x as opposed to 8x and 12x burn speeds with my BenQ DW1655. With the 4x TY's I would test burns at 4x, 6x, and 8x, most likely your going to want to stay at 4x though. With 16x media though 4x speeds will often return worst test results than at higher burn speeds.
Online stores I would recommend:
www.supermediastore.com
www.meritline.com
www.rima.com
www.shop4tech.com (always use the coupon code CS10 to get an additional 10 percent off)
Thank you both very much, that answers a lot of my questions! Beltline..so you can burn 4x discs at a higher speed than 4x? I didn't know that. And what's the best method to test burning speed to see what speed produces the best results? Just burn and then watch and compare or what? So if I do for example end up getting 8x Verbatim DataLifePlus (which is what I think I am going to get because I have had such good luck with Verbatim in the past) do I want to burn at 4x or 8x for best quality. I am wanting to stay with the -R's. I am not going to need to booktype to DVD-ROM so I see no reason to get +R's. Thanks again!
Depending on your drive's ability to test will determine what testing prog you use. I have a BenQ DW1655, so I use Nero CD/DVD speed test. If you have a Lite-On I believe they have their own testing prog, I believe Plextor has Plex Tools. I believe other drives updated firmware to help them use some of the different tools. Dvdinfopro also will help you test your media and the advert edition is free.
I would still burn the Verbatim 8x at 4x. That seemed to get me my best results with Verbatim 8x media. I consistantly had 98 scores at that speed. Personally I think the 8x Verbatims are better than the 16x. I have consistantly gotten 99 scores on the 8x TY's. If you stick to one of those brands, you can't go wrong.
If you're not having any problems with the -R and your burner won't booktype anyways, than stick with the -R. I know about your dilema price wise. I only buy printables and there is a HUGE difference in price between the -/+ R printable media. I did however fork over the extra cash for the +R since my drive can booktype. Now if you weren't buying printables, than I would highly suggest the +R especially if your burner booktyped.
