It's been probably two years since I last posted here where I learned to burn...Anyway, I still use Verbatim DL media, but it's too expensive even when on sale. I was browsing SuperMediaStore and found Ritek DL spindles @ approximately $1.00 per disc. I'm going to use them for data backup not movies. How reliable are they?
Verbatim (Mitsubishi) invented the DVD+R DL disc, and their media remain the most widely compatible DL discs with very good quality. Ritek was an early follower, and once they overcame the problem of bubbles between layers--it took a year for Verbatim to lick that problem--they began producing in large numbers. At this point I suspect that Ritek produces far more DL discs than the Singapore plant Verbatim uses because certain brands have become very aggressive in selling Ritek DL production. If you have a fairly new DL drive, it will probably work very well with good Ritek production, even the Inverse Stack discs that are rated at 8X (record them at the slowest speed possible, though).
However, you stated that you want to record data, not video on these discs. That would be a mistake because there are significant errors on all DL media at the transition point when the laser pickup head reverses direction and refocuses on the second layer. This change shows up in movies as a slight pause if the player handles transitions well or as a temporary freeze of a second or so if the player is not good with the transition. I still find that barely acceptable, and it could be disastrous with important data, particularly backup. Two decent DVD+/-R discs are, and will always be, less expensive than a single DL disc. Stick with regular discs instead of DL for backing up data for reasons of economy as well as safety.
Well, that's what I thought, but It's gonna take a lot of single layers to back up almost a terabyte of data (my lossless music collection and my digital photos). I guess I'm I'll be burning my Single Layer Verbs.
