We’ve always had good luck with Apple brand blanks. The charts below, from http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm, rate blank DVDs:
1ST CLASS MEDIA – EXCELLENT DISCS:
Almost flawless burns with 95-100% reliable results. These discs are suited for pretty much anything. They will usually serve as excellent archival quality media, as well as video masters. These discs are often the most expensive DVD media, so be sure to take advantage of sales, when available. (Trivia: The 5 best discs ever created are probably PVC001001, PVC001002, MXLRG02, MCC00RG20 and YUDEN000T02, with exceptional quality burns.)
| MEDIA ID | MANUFACTURER | COUNTRY | FORMAT | NOTES |
| PVC001001, PVC001002, PVCW00 | Pioneer | Japan | DVD-R, DVD-RW | PVC stopped making media in 2003 |
| MCC00RG20, MCC01RG20, MCC02RG20, MCC03RG20, MCC002, MCC003, MCC004, MCC00RW, MCC01RW, MCCA01, MKMA02, MKM001, MKM003 | Mitsubishi Chemicals, Mitsubishi-Kagaku Media, Verbatim | Singapore, Taiwan, India | DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL | some outsourcing |
| TYG01, TYG02, TYG03, YUDEN000T02, YUDEN000T03 | Taiyo Yuden | Japan | ||
| MXLRG01, MXLRG02, MXLRG03, MXLRG04, MAXELL001, MAXELL002, MAXELL003 | Hitachi Maxell | Japan | DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM | |
| SONY04D1, SONY08D1, SONY16D1, SONYD21, SONYD11, SONYS11, | Sony | Taiwan, Japan | DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW | some outsourcing |
| TDKG02, TTG01, TTG02, TTH01, TTH02, TDK501, TDK502, TDK001, TDK002, TDK003 | TDK | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R |
2ND CLASS MEDIA – OKAY DISCS:
Mixed quality media, average 75-90% of discs tend to be good. These discs are not suggested for archival data or video masters. These are best suited for data that can be replaced easily, such as secondary backups or data/video distribution. In bulk, these tend to be less expensive than 1ST CLASS media.
| MEDIA ID | MANUFACTURER | COUNTRY | FORMAT | NOTES |
| RICOHJPND00, RICOHJPNR00, RICOHJPNR01, RICOHJPNR02, RICOHJPNR03, RICOHJPNW01, RICOHJPNW11, RICOHJPNW21 and others | Ricoh, Ritek | Taiwan, Japan | DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL | some outsourcing |
| PRODISCS03, PRODISCS04, PRODISCF01, PRODISCF02, PRODISCR01, PRODISCR02, PRODISCR03, PRODISCR04. PRODISCG02, PRODISCW02 and others | Prodisc Media | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD+R | |
| DAXON008S, DAXON016S, DAXONAZ1, DAXONAZ2, DAXONAZ3, DAXOND42 | Daxon (Acer+BenQ) | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW | similar to Sony media |
| RITEKG01, RITEKG03, RITEKG04, RITEKG05, RITEKW01, RITEKW04, RITEK000, RITEKR01, RITEKR02, RITEKR03, RITEKR04, RITEKF1, RITEKD01 and others | Ritek | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL | reflectivity and degradation concerns, DL has layer break issues |
| FUJIFILM02, FUJIFILM03 | Prodisc, Ritek, CMC, others | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD+R | outsourced media ID |
| CMCMAGD01, CMCMAGE01, CMCMAGF01, CMCMAGM01, CMCMAGR01, CMCMAGAE1, CMCMAGAF1, CMCMAGAM3, CMC00RG20, CMC00RG30, CMCMAG, CMCW02, CMCW03, CMCMAGW01 and others | CMC Magnetics | Taiwan | DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL | wide quality variance |
| OPTODISCK001, OPTODISCR004, OPTODISCR008, OPTODISCR016, OPTODISCW002, OPTODISCW004 | Optodisc | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD-RW | |
| PHILIPSCD2, PHILIPS010, PHILIPS041, PHILIPSC08, PHILIPSC16, PHILIPSRW | CMC Magnetics | Taiwan | DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL | outsourced media ID |
| LEADDATA01, LEADDATA, LD01, LD, LDS03, LDA02 | LeadData | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD+R | |
| MBI, MBIPG101R03, MBIPG101R04, MBIPG101W03, MBIPG101W04, MBI01RG20, MBI03RG40 | Moser Baer | India | DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW | poor firmware support, some of the discs are similar to MCC |
| GSC001, GSC002, GSC003, GSC502 | Gigastorage | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD+R | |
| INFODISCA01, INFODISCA10, INFODISCR20, INFODISCR01 | Infodisc Media | Taiwan | DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW |
2 Comments
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I recently bought : Ridata, Ritek & Traxdata dvd-r media only to find that since new year [2009] they don’t work on my rewriter [LG]. coincidentally they are all Ritek g05 discs!!!
Before newyear i never had any problems with ritek media but as i say i do, so from now i will be avoiding Ritek and using other brands that are not manufactured by them. -
We use Taiyo-Yuden exclusively. Just the most reliable in our limited experience. For whatever reason, we find CDs to be more reliable generally than DVDs, so we go with any brand for CDs.
Would not recommend DVDs for archival purposes. 2 large cheap HDs (mirrored) updated quarterly are easier to organize and access.
