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[jay_smeezy]

What is the best brand of DL disk to use for backing up games?  I have tried HP DL from local retailer and have heard rumor that Verbatim and sony work best, just checking with you guys(experts) to make sure I purchase a good product.

[I Bac0n I]

Made in Singapore verbatims are recommended because they have the highest success rate and usually last longer than other brands.

[digitalman42]

I would have to disagree the new Made in singapore memorexes in purple packaging are not that good at all, out of ten so far, two were bad.  I had better luck with the Old memorexes in red packaging, the new memorexes are crap.  But maybe Sonys or Fuji I am going to try them and let you guys know my results, the new verbatims singapore in purple packaging are junk though.  Like like the 8x verbatims or the old school ones.

QUOTE(I Bac0n I @ Mar 31 2008, 11:10 PM)

Made in Singapore verbatims are recommended because they have the highest success rate and usually last longer than other brands.

[I Bac0n I]

Well i have a spindle of MIS verbatims with he new purple packaging, 14/14 discs burned so far with no errors.

I have had horrible experience with anything but verbatims.  Memorex/fuji/TDK/Ridata all have atleast a 15-20% failure rate in my xbox.  Not my burner because it burns verbatims that play fine.

The old school orange/white and purple/white verbatims were the best.

This post has been edited by I Bac0n I: Apr 1 2008, 06:58 AM

[brandogg]

I picked up a 50 pack of the MIS Verbatims from Sam's. Backups work just fine, burned at 8x (no more 2.4x yay!), even though the package says 2.4x, they'll burn at 2.4, 4, 6 or 8x. No one said anything about Made in Singapore Memorex discs - I'm assuming you meant Verbatim. Memorex is shit, even if it works now, it won't work for too long, though there is always an exception to the rule.

[digitalman42]

All mine burnt fine too, but eventually two of them gave unreadable errors.  The purple memorx spindles I cant burn any of them, but the red label, iv'e burnt alot and had zero coasters.  The Singapore Verb puprple packaging actually had defents in the material you could see, so yes they are garbage like the india ones.  The only good ones are the 8x with orange label, you got lucky.  Google it once, you will see im right.

QUOTE(I Bac0n I @ Apr 1 2008, 05:58 AM)

Well i have a spindle of MIS verbatims with he new purple packaging, 14/14 discs burned so far with no errors.

I have had horrible experience with anything but verbatims.  Memorex/fuji/TDK/Ridata all have atleast a 15-20% failure rate in my xbox.  Not my burner because it burns verbatims that play fine.

The old school orange/white and purple/white verbatims were the best.

[Rubiks1080]

QUOTE(digitalman42 @ Apr 2 2008, 09:25 PM)

All mine burnt fine too, but eventually two of them gave unreadable errors.  The purple memorx spindles I cant burn any of them, but the red label, iv'e burnt alot and had zero coasters.  The Singapore Verb puprple packaging actually had defents in the material you could see, so yes they are garbage like the india ones.  The only good ones are the 8x with orange label, you got lucky.  Google it once, you will see im right.

You probably just got a bad package that made it past QC, which is not uncommon, but still frowned upon.  Im speaking from my experience, and i have had a 100% success rate with all of the verbatim versions from singapore.  I still stand by my memorex experience with the horrendous failure rate.  I bet those memorex backups don't work in 6 months without your drive having trouble reading them at 12x speed.

OH crap, my cousin forgot to sign out of his account, whoops.

[digitalman42]

The memorexes are over a year old and work flawlessly.  Now the Verbatims in the bad spindle, they have the same new top look that the india ones have too.  Ever since they started this purple packaging crap those discs are garbage.  If you look on cust reviews on newegg and amazon, alot of people had problems with Verb singapore purple packaging that they dont have with Verbatim 8x orange packaging.  The quality is just not as good.

QUOTE(Rubiks1080 @ Apr 3 2008, 02:44 AM)

You probably just got a bad package that made it past QC, which is not uncommon, but still frowned upon.  Im speaking from my experience, and i have had a 100% success rate with all of the verbatim versions from singapore.  I still stand by my memorex experience with the horrendous failure rate.  I bet those memorex backups don't work in 6 months without your drive having trouble reading them at 12x speed.

OH crap, my cousin forgot to sign out of his account, whoops.

[cory1492]

QUOTE(digitalman42 @ Apr 3 2008, 08:37 PM)

If you look on cust reviews on newegg and amazon, alot of people had problems with Verb singapore purple packaging that they dont have with Verbatim 8x orange packaging.  The quality is just not as good.

If you have a look at the info on sites like cdfreaks, you will also find that the 8x MIS have always been better off over even the old packaged 2.4x MIS, as well.

I for one am getting excellent burns on the purple 2.4x packaged disks, though I had to bump up to 4x on the burns to get the best results. Considering everywhere that has restocked recently has been getting mixed MII/MIS shipments with the only difference being some small print on the label I find the accuracy of the MIS/MII on the label... questionable at best (though it seems something has definitely been done to increase the 2.4x's QA.)

BTW:/ I still say it comes down to finding the media that burns the best with your burner, and after burning plays the best with your console's drive (and I don't mean just booting, I mean playing end to end like a movie or similar.) What works for one person often doesn't work for another, and in many cases the history of the burners burns has some part to play in it. For example, because the MIS and MII 2.4x disks share the same media code, it took around 4 burns of the purple MIS 2.4x disks I picked up before I started seeing the best results (though the first 4 were definitely acceptable) - conversely, after about 4 burns of a different off brand like memorex I started seeing horrible results.

[digitalman42]

Whatever the reason, verbatim went downhill period.  Im not paying the extra money anymore because I cant be guaranteed the orange label 8x anymore off the net.  So im gonna try other brands for something cheaper, without the quality verbatim use to offer, in every one of there spindles, not this hit and miss crap, im not paying the extra dough.

QUOTE(cory1492 @ Apr 4 2008, 07:21 PM)

If you have a look at the info on sites like cdfreaks, you will also find that the 8x MIS have always been better off over even the old packaged 2.4x MIS, as well.

I for one am getting excellent burns on the purple 2.4x packaged disks, though I had to bump up to 4x on the burns to get the best results. Considering everywhere that has restocked recently has been getting mixed MII/MIS shipments with the only difference being some small print on the label I find the accuracy of the MIS/MII on the label... questionable at best (though it seems something has definitely been done to increase the 2.4x's QA.)

BTW:/ I still say it comes down to finding the media that burns the best with your burner, and after burning plays the best with your console's drive (and I don't mean just booting, I mean playing end to end like a movie or similar.) What works for one person often doesn't work for another, and in many cases the history of the burners burns has some part to play in it. For example, because the MIS and MII 2.4x disks share the same media code, it took around 4 burns of the purple MIS 2.4x disks I picked up before I started seeing the best results (though the first 4 were definitely acceptable) - conversely, after about 4 burns of a different off brand like memorex I started seeing horrible results.

[Havok]

I like to see a link stating where you see people having problems.  I have been keeping up with CD Freaks and eople have tested the new MIS Verbatims and they have been testing fine.  I also bought a bunch with the new packagaing and have no problems.

Verbatim MIS are still the ONLY good media.

As cory said.. they do burn better at 4X than 2.4X.

This post has been edited by Havok: Yesterday, 07:19 AM

[Shallow012]

If someone would, could they please drop me a clue on how to identify MIS Verbatim media in store?
Ive been able to stick with orange label Verbatim Singapore's so far and have had absolutely no problems burning or playing but they are becoming HARD to find in my neck of the woods. I cannot afford trial and error when disks are 45+ a pop for a spindle of 15.

 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I also demand ONLY the highest quality media for my machine (after all the TIME and MONEY Ive put into it).
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My sad shame is that I have recently considered buying a spindle of Memorex DL because in the past with my original Xbox I found that the -media actually loaded faster then pressed media and ran more reliably in my Samsung drive (yes, Im a moron and was completely wrong, I heard it all a few years ago and dont need to hear it again but, I still believe it).


EDIT: Heh, I didnt mean to come off like such a prissy bitch but, I am quite intoxicated ATM, my bad. Still, are all Singapore verb's (despite color packaging) still the best or should I hold off on ordering a shit ton of media out of fear that I wont be able to buy the quality of media that I am accustomed to in the near future locally?

This post has been edited by Shallow012: Yesterday, 09:33 AM

[cory1492]

QUOTE(digitalman42 @ Apr 4 2008, 11:50 PM)

Im not paying the extra money anymore because I cant be guaranteed the orange label 8x anymore off the net.

As far as I know, the 8x disks haven't had any quality drop or package change... just the 2.4x ones. It honestly sounds to me like you got some from a bad batch, which happens even to Verbatim. It's part of why they give a "Verbatim Limited Lifetime Warranty" - which, by the way, you have the option of taking advantage of. I did try various other locally available brands (including MII 2.4x verbatims), and in each case easily 1/2 of the disks I burned were put into the trash.

QUOTE(Shallow012 @ Apr 5 2008, 02:20 AM)

EDIT: Heh, I didnt mean to come off like such a prissy bitch but, I am quite intoxicated ATM, my bad.

You are what you eat?

QUOTE

Still, are all Singapore verb's (despite color packaging) still the best or should I hold off on ordering a shit ton of media out of fear that I wont be able to buy the quality of media that I am accustomed to in the near future locally?

As far as I know, yes. The good ones will say "made in singapore" on the outer packing label right near the barcode. From what I have seen so far, especially when it comes to the ultra picky 360's drives, none of the other medias were made to work well with them (though there are exceptions which some people here will be glad to point out.)

[digitalman42]

No it's not a bad batch my friend just recently bought a spindle has the same problem.  Also check this link out from CD-Freaks this guy is having the same problem.

http://club.cdfreaks...ng-fast-242493/

And with my discs, it's not a bad burn becuase I have blanks right now that I have not burnt anything on that have this defect.  My friend just bought a spindle, same problem.  It's hit and miss, they are not what they use to be.  And it's not a bad spindle, cause it's all over the net.

QUOTE(cory1492 @ Apr 5 2008, 10:37 PM)

As far as I know, the 8x disks haven't had any quality drop or package change... just the 2.4x ones. It honestly sounds to me like you got some from a bad batch, which happens even to Verbatim. It's part of why they give a "Verbatim Limited Lifetime Warranty" - which, by the way, you have the option of taking advantage of. I did try various other locally available brands (including MII 2.4x verbatims), and in each case easily 1/2 of the disks I burned were put into the trash.
You are what you eat?

As far as I know, yes. The good ones will say "made in singapore" on the outer packing label right near the barcode. From what I have seen so far, especially when it comes to the ultra picky 360's drives, none of the other medias were made to work well with them (though there are exceptions which some people here will be glad to point out.)

[cory1492]

Did your friend get them from the same store? Could very well be the same (bad) batch, you'd have to check the QC/production run info in the center to find out. Or perhaps I'm just simply fluking out and got all the ones I have here from a "good" batch?

The guy you are pointing to at cdfreaks bought his disks 4 months ago... so it couldn't really reflect on the current/new ones (now), does it? Are they at least using the same burner model(s) as yourself? Have you even considered the possibility that the effect you are seeing has something to do with your burner, or for that matter it's burn history of same media code but differently producted media? One thing to consider is looking at his scans they do look almost exactly like the post burn scans I have of MII disks.

I don't have any long term results as of yet with these dual layers, unfortunately. But here is what some of my burns looked like (for 360 related ones at any rate) and why I justify suggesting the more expensive Verbatims. Burned on pio 212d scanned on benq dw1620. For whatever reason, I don't have any memorex scans on my drive at the moment, the two I tried to burn for the 360 gave dirty disk errors and some very unnerving noises from my 360's drive until they did.

Given this example of current local pricing ($40/15 fuji, $50/15 memorex, $58/15 philips, $55/20 verbatim), the verbatims are definitely the best value for the dollar (especially if one waits for a sale and can get actually MIS packs at that time.)

24fujiD01 - fuji label 8x disks (of a 15 pack only 5 burned like this without any read errors when fetching the data back, this is what the other 360 burn I did looked like) - seems to work OK in the 360 until the drive heats up (.5-.75 of an hour, I suspect the laser is a bit weak.)

24xMIIverb - the MII 2.4x verbatims I had gotten locally at christmas time, this is one of the better scans.

8xMISverb  - these I got for a mint from blankmedia.ca, the 8x branded ones (haven't had any problems with these yet), burned at 2.4x

4MISnewVerb - these I picked up locally with the purple packaging when they were on sale recently (25CAD for a 20 pack), this burn was at 4x. I can say I was getting slightly higher PIO failures burning at 2.4x, but none of the disks have been a coster aside from the one with surface/dye issues I simply won't burn to find out.

Any rate, use the warranty it is there for many reasons besides just giving customers peace of mind - if most don't do so when they run into problems then the company will continue to go on selling defective media with next to no chance of finding out there are problems somewhere along the way, the result being generally that they would continue to be unreliable in your eyes despite such a great warranty.

Keep in mind as well, like I said before the whole thing is somewhat subjective. Even if you have the same burner as I, it's history can impact it's burn quality. After a few disks I can no longer burn my ritek cdr, nor the fuji disks, without problems. I wish you all luck in finding the "magical combination" that works with your burner and 360 drive, I'm pretty happy with the one I found for myself.