I have been using Maxell DVD-R for a couple years now and have personally had no failures. Tried a few other brands but always seem to end up going back to the Maxell. Personal preference - yes, reliable - yes.
Some are and some aren't.It depends on the speed rate and country of origin on the shrink wrapper. Maxell is just like most other brands-Memorex,Phillips,Sony,Fuji,TDK,HP,etc. They outsource their media to many different manufacturers. They've got some quality manufactures like Hitachi and Ritek,then there's the crappier manufacturers like prodisc and cmags.
Here's what I have run into:
MAXELL:
+4X MADE IN TAIWAN: RICOHJPN-R02
+8X MADE IN TAIWAN: RITEK-R03 and reports of cmags.
+8X MADE IN JAPAN: MAXELL-002-00
+8X MADE IN JAPAN FULL HUB PRINTABLE: MAXELL-002-00
+8x MADE IN Taiwan FULL HUB PRINTABLE: Reports Prodisc or cmags
+16x MADE IN TAIWAN: CMCMAG-M01-000
YELLOWTOPS
-4X MADE IN TAIWAN: RITEK-G03
-4X MADE IN JAPAN: TY-G01
-4X MADE IN JAPAN: MXL-RG02
GOLDTOPS
-8X MADE IN TAIWAN: RITEK-G05
-8X MADE IN JAPAN: MXL-RG03
-8x Made IN TAIWAN: Reports of Cmags
Look at the shrink wrappers for Made in Japan.
The MID codes with MXL and Maxell are from the manufacturer Hitachi of Japan.They have also used Taiyo Yuden that are also made in Japan. These are some very good discs. Majority of the spindles saying Made in Taiwan will yield Ritek media,which is also pretty decent. However,Maxell has been using a lot of media produced by Cmagnetics and their quality is said to be lower.
All the other brands are the same way,so that's why Genuine Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim are the top 2. However,you have to watch out for where you purchase Taiyo Yuden media. There's fakes out there,usually with a generic name claiming to be Taiyo Yuden.
It depends on how you purchase your media.
Maxell and Fuji-definitely made in japan. Sony spindles that's from taiwan is pretty decent,but there's Ty-G03 on their -1x-16x spindles with the white/octagon foam spacer. However,sony is placing paper covers so we can't see the foam spacer.
Easy to find Verbatim locally and 25-30 cents each when on sale at office max,office depot,and bestbuy- Verbatim!!!
On the web,the dash format costs less than the plus format for some ungodly reason.
We can find you some good media at a cheaper price than the crap media.Check the weekly sales threads by Jasper44 in the DVD-R media forum.
