Do you find generic media reliable?

[RobCur]

Such as shop4tech's sonic 4x dvd-r. Their media code name varies from longten 01, Must 01, VDSPMSAB 01
LONGTEN001 4x
LEADDATA01 4x
VDSPMSAB 01 4x
MUST 001 4x

500 pcs only cost 80.00 with coupon, it's priceless!!!

 

[hemiram]

I've had decent luck with generic CDRs, but DVDs are another story. All in all, I've had great luck with Verbatims and Fujis. Going back to 1979, Fuji VHS cassettes blow all the others out of the water. I have stuff recorded on Fuji tapes that still looks great. Can't say the same for the other brands.

So far, burning both CD's and DVD's, Fuji seems to be the most reliable. No coasters.

 

[DavidoFoo]

No. www.rima.com TY all the way

 

[imported_rod]

For CD's, generic seem to be fine as long as you dont burn them too fast. But not sure about DVD's. I've heard bad stuff about turning out heaps of coaster with generic DVDs. Also, generic DVD's tend to be really badly affected by UV rays, compared to brand-name discs.

I personally like TDK's, because they are reliable, but not too expensive.

 

[Chode Messiah]

no, get some tdk or memorex and ur good to go.

 

[Mark R]

My experience with generic CD and DVD has been disastrous. Avoid both at all costs.

 

[Oyeve]

At work we use Optidisc, and IMO, they suck. I stick to TDK for everything. When I first got my first DVD burner I was buying Compusa branded DVD-R cuz at the time they were a buck each (which was dirt cheap a coupla years ago) and while they were 1x they worked great, but now with sales all over the place and with faster speeds it makes no sense to me to buy generic unless its Ritec or so. I also avoid Memorex as I have had bad expierience with them on my Sony burner and my Lite-On.

 

[RobCur]

Originally posted by: Oyeve
At work we use Optidisc, and IMO, they suck. I stick to TDK for everything. When I first got my first DVD burner I was buying Compusa branded DVD-R cuz at the time they were a buck each (which was dirt cheap a coupla years ago) and while they were 1x they worked great, but now with sales all over the place and with faster speeds it makes no sense to me to buy generic unless its Ritec or so. I also avoid Memorex as I have had bad expierience with them on my Sony burner and my Lite-On.

Your Liteon or Sony are both crap burners that can't burn most media reliably, let a lone quality brands. Invest in a different brand of burners like nec/plextor/pioneer/optorite/benq and you'll see that generic media are not as bad as you thought.

Good!

 

[ifixedit]

from my experience, generic burners work great at first, but then they decline really quickly, as in generic media like blank cd's and dvd's they all work, but the imitation brand sucks.

 

[n7]

Buying generic media is like buying time-bomb media.

Eventually, perhaps in only a few months, perhaps a few yrs., the media will be unreadable, & your data will be gonzo :Q!

 

[RobCur]

Originally posted by: n7
Buying generic media is like buying time-bomb media.

Eventually, perhaps in only a few months, perhaps a few yrs., the media will be unreadable, & your data will be gonzo :Q!

who keep junk for this long??? most of the data I backup are not important. backup because hd space is limited, it is far cheaper to buy lowest priced media then to buy an extra hd or to buy quality media to backup worthless data that is purely for entertainment. No media is 100 percent proof from corruption, you just have to scratch it to some degree or expose it to the sunlight for half an hour.
Sure their are bad generic media but their are bad batch of brand name media as well, because all you got is a media with a brand slapped on top of it.

It all amounts to why spend more when you can spend less for something that is just as functional without any fancy names? lol.

 

[n7]

You may be only using it for a temporary data storage.

I use my DVD-/+Rs for storing TV series, movies, etc.

Stuff i want to last forever, or at least till i can transfer them to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: RobCur

Originally posted by: Oyeve
At work we use Optidisc, and IMO, they suck. I stick to TDK for everything. When I first got my first DVD burner I was buying Compusa branded DVD-R cuz at the time they were a buck each (which was dirt cheap a coupla years ago) and while they were 1x they worked great, but now with sales all over the place and with faster speeds it makes no sense to me to buy generic unless its Ritec or so. I also avoid Memorex as I have had bad expierience with them on my Sony burner and my Lite-On.

Your Liteon or Sony are both crap burners that can't burn most media reliably, let a lone quality brands. Invest in a different brand of burners like nec/plextor/pioneer/optorite/benq and you'll see that generic media are not as bad as you thought.

Good!

Um, while I dislike Sony my sony burner does NOT suck, it is the DRU-510A, which, IMO was their last good burner. My Sony has never made a coaster on any type of disk but one particular type from memorex. The lite-on I have does indeed suck. If you are going to ATTEMPT to give advice please get some facts before you post. Not every Sony DVD burner has sucked nor has every lite-on burner sucked. And, what makes you think I dont own a pioneer burner? Because I didnt say so? Please, before telling people that their equipment sucks, find out what they have first. Everyone is into NEC burners but they used to suck, but now they dont.

 

[Nocturnal]

A lot of the name brand stuff you guys are talking about are usually rebranded media from CMC, Ritek, and Taiyo Yuden. There are others that I can't think of off the top of my head but they aren't neccessarily "Fuji" or "TDK" media.

 

[RobCur]

Originally posted by: n7
You may be only using it for a temporary data storage.

I use my DVD-/+Rs for storing TV series, movies, etc.

Stuff i want to last forever, or at least till i can transfer them to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray

These backups are made because it is junk, it is for others who have not seen it yet such as friends but they are non-existent for me. I have gotten some bad burns, that's because the burners did a crap job burning it.

My liteon was the culprit, ever since I started using nec burner starting from model 2510a, all my burns have been perfect regardless of media type or quality.
The funny thing is that the burns made by liteon's are so bad that only the liteon are able to detect the media when inserted. media quality is like a piece of paper, higher quality cost a lot more plus it only looks nicer when printing family albums. for everyday usage, it is next to useless and a waste of money.

btw, nothing lasts forever including life on this planet.

 

[furballi]

Hit n miss. I don't have $ to burn, so I use Fuji Made in Japan Taiyo Yuden media.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

in my experience, i have had worse experience with TDK CDs. I have only borrowed a friend's spindle once. Otherwise, I have bought Memorex all the way. Even the black CDs 3 times =).

slow speed burning works well for cheap CDRs. I bought a bunch of cheap noname brand CD-Rs in Taiwan that worked well with my 2x burner from 6 years ago =)

 

[KoolDrew]

Do you find generic media reliable?

No.

 

[RobCur]

I dunno why most of you guys vote no, but generic media are usually cheapest and serve their purpose well. Problem is finding them at good price and ones that work well for you. Not all generic are crap, some are good you just have to find a reliable source that stocks them. I'd avoid yesbuy.net as most of their media are defectives, have 90-100 percent fail rate.

 

[DerelictDev]

Well im not sure if you consider Dynex (Best Buy brand) media to be generic. I buy them ALL the time, cd, dvd-rw doesnt matter and they worked great. Sometimes burn slower than labelled by not by much so i dont care.

I get these with "the employee discount" so they cost like $13 bucks a 50 pack of dvd-rw's.

 

[RobCur]

Anything under 4x, I would just toss it away. I couldn't stand 30min wait time for 4.7gb.
cd-rw are the worst kinds of media to burn with since the dye in it are more likely to go bad then an -r or +r... I had one that wouldn't read or can't format either and it was only 2x. I can burn any 4x media at 8x but not any 2x at 4x or 8x, what gives? low quality?

 

[RobCur]

Why do most say no? Is it because they never used one before and just basing their opinions on others having bad luck with it?

 

[eplebnista]

Yes

 

[DrZoidberg]

I disagree about LiteOn being crap burners. Crap media even on good burners like Plextor/NEC also leads to DVD movies skipping occasionally like every 20 mins, unusable coasters after few years.

Actually if u buy decent quality media LiteOn can burn dvds with very low PIF/PI errors. I copy alot of DVDS and always perfect burns when using TDK and Verbatim DataLife+, while had problems when i was using generic media made in China.

Have u tried using a program that tests your copied DVD's for PI and PIF errors? Like Nero CD-DVD Speed program, goto Extra in menu and select Quality Test. Even original DVD's u buy from shop have some PI and PIF errors though few. All DVD drives/players have some error tolerance so dvd viewing never skips appears perfect.

Club CD Freaks forum has really good articles on good DVD media.
DVD Media Tests

If you read their articles u will never ever buy generic media again. I mean like 40c each for generic media that occasionally give coasters and you have to throw away, 60c each for good branded media that always give perfect burns NEVER ANY COASTERS like Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi, Ritek.

 

[djnsmith7]

When I first started buying generic CD-R's (GQ Brand) 3 years ago, they would work just fine. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, the last 2 or 3 spindles I've purchased (from Fry's) have just sucked. The discs are usually corrupted towards the end of the burn. I won't be buying GQ CD-R's anymore. I've actually stopped using them altogether.