I'm in the process of burning through a bad batch of 100 Maxell DVD-R. I'll get three good, two bad, five good, three bad, ten good, four bad, etc . . . . I get just enough good discs in succession to keep me from throwing the whole batch out, but it's damn frustrating. I use two different Panasonic DVD-Recorders, the DMR-E55 and the DMR-EZ28. The discs are crapping out on both, as well as on my Toshiba Lap Top (using Toshiba Disc Creator).
What will happen with my Panasonic's is about halfway through the burn (1-1.5 hours on 2 hr speed) the Machine will give me an error message and power off. After a Self-Test, it will report "Unsupported Disc". The LapTop will just give me a general "unexpected error" message.
I have read great reviews on Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden, but I have had similar issues with these DVD's far more consistently with my Panasonic's, particularly with the last batch of Verbatim - about four of five failed. I'm not saying they're inferior to Maxell; it's just that Maxells have typically been error free with my two Panasonic machines. Sony and Fuji DVD-R's have also been a nightmare with my Panasonic. The only DVD's to never give me a headache have been Maxells (up until this batch) and Memorex (which I've heard some people consistently trash, but they do always work for me).
So a couple of questions - do you think that Maxell could have changed their production standard, affecting their reliability? Does it matter where I buy them? Is a Maxell DVD-R 100 spool I buy off Amazon.com the same as the 100-Spool I pick up down the street at Best Buy? Is it possible to just get a random "bad batch", and if so, how does that happen . . .why are those 100 discs different than the hundreds of thousands of mass-produced discs that work fine? Has anyone else encountered these issues and found a more reliable brand? I guess the most important question is, should I take a chance on another set of Maxell DVD-R or take my chances with something else?
