I have read many forum discussions regarding what type of blank dvd-/+r medium should be used. And just about everybody is recommending to use name brand blank medium vs. cheap brands. I understand due to poor quality, you may ended up more coasters when burning with poor quality cheap brands and more artifacts like breaking up, pixelization etc... But once you have successfuuly copied and able to play movies/games properly on your machine, nobody at least what I read so far ever compared longevity of copied medium whether they are from name brand nor cheap brand. Does cheap brands only last few months, years?? then fade away? vs. name brands last forever (within reason of course). I started to back up movies just last several months only using both name brands and cheap media. So far both of my copied dvdrs plays exactly same regardless once I am successfully copied. Any respectable manufacture did the proper study/research on this subject? Hopefully somebody can provide good scientific articles that we can share.
I can only speak from personal experience. I have backed up all of my DVD's which is several hundred. Certain ones I watched over 100 times over a couple years, they still work just fine, same as the day I burnt them. I have no experience on cheaper no name brands with DVD's
But...
With CD-R
I noticed a night and day difference in logevity between Sony and Memorex. I burn a memorex and it would work for about 1 month and maybe been played 10 times through. Now the Sony and other name brands I have burnt, still work some of which are nearly 10 years old by now. And I still have a few memorex discs but they will not even be recognized by any player I put them in, and if they are recognized they will skip like crazy.
I also am very picky about the handling of my DVD's and CD's I never touch the surface, always store them in the cases, Most of what I have doesnt have a single scratch or mark on the disc surface, yet these memorex discs just simply seem to wear out after such a short period of time.
I have used other cheap brands as well with similar results.
I can only speak from personal experience. I have backed up all of my DVD's which is several hundred. Certain ones I watched over 100 times over a couple years, they still work just fine, same as the day I burnt them. I have no experience on cheaper no name brands with DVD's
But...
With CD-R
I noticed a night and day difference in logevity between Sony and Memorex. I burn a memorex and it would work for about 1 month and maybe been played 10 times through. Now the Sony and other name brands I have burnt, still work some of which are nearly 10 years old by now. And I still have a few memorex discs but they will not even be recognized by any player I put them in, and if they are recognized they will skip like crazy.
I also am very picky about the handling of my DVD's and CD's I never touch the surface, always store them in the cases, Most of what I have doesnt have a single scratch or mark on the disc surface, yet these memorex discs just simply seem to wear out after such a short period of time.
I have used other cheap brands as well with similar results.
Archival life is a big reason not to waste your time with cheap media. With cheap media you may save 10 cents a DVD, but you get lucky with each successful burn you get, and even luckier with each passing month that the DVD is still playable. As with everything, you get what you pay for, and with blank DVD prices as low as they are and getting lower, theres no reason not to buy quality media.
The longevity thing is a problem for DVD as the media has not been around that long, the figures I have seen touted around are derived from a combination of "accelerated testing" (ie very high temperatures and intense UV), and actual ageing results for CD media which has been around for quite a while now.
I suppose the real answer is that nobody knows for sure at the moment.
About the only thing anyone can do at present is to ensure they get the best burn possible and store the media well. Test different media with your burner until you find brands that give really good test results with KProbe, Plextools, or similar, then use these brands exclusively. Some people have found that burning at slower than maximum speed will improve burn (and hence signal to noise), quality.
I personally use TY media, it gives the best test results I have ever seen and is consistently good batch to batch. In my experience (NEC 2510, stock F/W), this media gives the same quality on testing regardless of the burn speed.
If you're really freaked about longevity, try to find, and use, more than one brand of media that tests well, that way you will have some protection from unforseen brand specific failure that may occur in the future.
If you're really, really, freaked, test and re-copy the data every year.
mrgraves some really good brands are TY..Ritek..Maxell..Sony..TDK..VERBATIM ..Fujifulm all thoses are good blank media TY being the best you can buy and memorex being the worst media out there.
You don't have to buy the absolute best media out there and pay a fortune, but the same can be said for buying the cheapest media you can find. Just because it burns and plays does not mean that you got a bargain while others who paid a few dollars more per spindle were suckers. DVD players will play flawed DVDs by just skipping over the errors, but try copying them again when your burner needs to read every 1 and 0. Have you ever left a DVD in your burner or standalone? Do you know how hot it gets? Want to leave it up to cheap dyes to withstand high temps? And my cheap CDs (never bought cheap DVDs) would scratch if you looked at them the wrong way. A scratch in a CD will still play/copy. Try that with a DVD. DVDs are so cheap these days that you can afford to spend 30 cents a piece for very good media. It was alot harder over a year ago when a Verbatim DVD would set you back $2.50.
