Best DVD-R To Archive

[james_robinson6]

Looking for any definitive information as to which, if any are the most stable and highest

quality DVD-R. For a Mac

[emre]

I think you need to find one compatible with your drive; you can find details <a href="http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=61">here</a>. Taiyo Yuden is generally considered to be the best manufacturer in consumer optical media. Their discs are rebadged by Fuji (when "Made in Japan").

[eric friedemann]

James, I've been using Delkin's Archival Gold CDs and I'm starting to use Delkin Archival Gold DVD-Rs. Unfortunately, Delkin has yet to post its test data on these premium DVD-Rs:

 

 

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_archival_gold_dvd.html

[william_john_smith]

You might also want to check out: http://www.mam-a.com/<BR>The make the MAM Archive Grade Gold DVD. For what they are worth there are test results on their site.

[afx]

I found http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm pretty helpful.<p>

cheers<br>

afx

[bill_tuthill]

Interesting, I have never seen a DVD+-R other than metalized azo

(dark purple-blue) so it's intriguing that other types exist.

Most discs are stored in the dark, so warnings about dye fading

might be the least of your worries. Although cyanine is thought

to fade faster, on CDR it is also the most forgiving when played on

different equipment. Bottom line: nobody knows yet.

[._kaa]

I don't believe writeable DVDs (or CDs) are a good archive medium.

 

My bets are on redundant hard drives with the files moved to new media every 10 years or so.

[lex_jenkins]

The makers of my CD/DVD burner (LiteOn) and bundled software (Nero) recommend Philips discs. Whether they have a deal with Philips to boost their product, I don't know. I do know that the Maxell-labeled DVD+RW's I bought, which were actually made by Philips, have performed just fine, while the Maxell-labeled CD-R's made by some company I've never heard of have many defects - around one out of every 3-5 discs is unusable.

 

You can't rely on the label as an indication of which company actually made the media, but software should be able to read that information.

[john_brewton]

I am using the MAM-A Archive Quality Gold CD-R. I believe it was Michael Johnston who did an column on their quality on Luminous Landscape. No problems so far, but then this is something we may not know until years have passed.

[emre]

You can not easily measure longevity, but you can certainly measure burn quality in terms of error and jitter with applications like Nero CD-DVD Speed. In fact, getting high scores on such tests has become a contest among enthusiasts. I kid you not; just visit cdfreaks.com or cdrlabs.com

[jreades]

Verbatim has been pretty good to me, while Sony has been surprisingly bad for DVD media. I have a DVD-DL writer and could not get a *single* readable burn from Sony media. The Verbatim had *no* such trouble. For DVD-R media I get issues on one in four burns to Sonys.

 

Given the trouble I've had with name-brand media, I would *never* buy store-brand DVD media even if they were 20p a pop.

 

That said, on the whole I've been rather surprised by how many times I get disk verification errors after writing the Sony disks. It almost makes me wonder if the drive itself (a LaCie external DVD+R/-R/DL is the problem. It could well *also* be my 667MHz G4 PowerBook having throughput problems or something.

 

jon

[bill_tuthill]

Lex: According to digitalfaq.com, Philips is 3rd class.

See <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00AmKq&tag=">this older photo.net thread</A>

for URLs.

[suspendedmoments]

<p>http://www.discmakers.com/shop/ItemDetails.aspx?ItemID=DVD030-00048<br>

This is where I go for all my archive media. I have never had an error while burning/archiving RAW files to the disc makers silver, nor the Toyo-Yuden DVD-R discs.<br>

I store them on edge, not flat and have copies in two locations just to be sure. I make two copies of each shoot.<br>

I also drag and drop each completed shoot to a TB capacity hard drive which can be connected via fire wire to any computer I happen to be editing on. If saving to hard drives, it's easy to ghost the drive and transfer everything you need to a new computer, or redundant drives at any time.<br>

DVD-R/DL media is a good way to have non-electronic hard copies of your work as another layer of protection against loss.<br>

I've also found that the price of the disc isn't necessarily a good indicator of quality nor error potential within the data. I don't have time for re-writes on DVD-R/DL's so I buy those which write flawlessly the first time... every time.<br>

Disc Makers does the data testing for me as they evaluate blank media prior to selling as blank silver DVD+R or DL I stay with what's been working for me. <br>

Disc Makers Premium DVD-R<br /> Disc Makers Premium 16x Silver DVD+Rs<br>

In the past, I had bad experiences with TDK and tossed the entire batch... Maxell was pretty dependable (2 out of a 100 spindle would be bad) For lightscribe media, I use Memorex DVD+R/DL and these are what I give to customers, not what I use for archiving.<br>

My second choice for LightScribe discs for a customer or client would be Verbatim DVD+R... using lightscribe takes f o r e v e r but is a handy way to imprint a disc with copyright and origination information in a non-fading way. Clients always seem impressed with a spiffy lightscribed disc for some reason.<br>

With fast paced digital work flow... who has time for discs that don't work as designed? I don't.<br /> </p>

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