Comment: well, it was a huge dissapointment to me when I first used it. there are like around 10 dvd failing totally. but I think it was my fault since I run a lot of programs when I was burning a dvd. So now every time I burn a dvd, I exit all the programs. It turns out to be really good. I think the best speed for these is 4x. now they raised the price. last time I bought it for like 28$ or so. compared to verbatim its a good deal. of course its not as good as verbatim. If you want guaranteed burning, go for verbatim. but for me, I prefer this brand. it helps save money
Customer Rating:
Summary: The manufacturer has changed.
Comment: Up until my last order, these DL discs were unmatched in quality and price for my NEC and Samsung DL drives. However, upon inspection, Amazon seems to have changed the manufacturer on their house branded discs. Neither of my 3 drives(all have current firmware updates) recognizes the new discs. I'm sure they are compatible with other DL drives, but just not my NEC's or Samsung. I wish Amazon would return to their prior manufacturer, since the last generation of their blank media was superb!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Burn defects 5/25
Comment: One in every five discs I burnt I found errors that could not complete burning. My system is a ultra fast system with no bus speed problems or any DVD recorder problems. Other brands have worked just fine. But with this brand it was not the case.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this media
Comment: Don't buy this product! Out of a pack of 50, I was able to burn to 5 of the discs. The other 45 were bad media (tested on 2 machines) and could not be written to. Very frustrating experience.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The cheapest DL discs around-- and work fine if used properly
Comment: I've noticed that there seems to be either a very high reported success rate or a very low success rate with these discs among the reviewers here. For what it's worth, I have burned thousands and thousands of optical discs over the years and I have never come across an entire 50-pack spindle of discs of any type, DVD+/-R or CD-R, that predominantly failed to burn-- a claim that many of the reviewers here are making. If your results are that abysmal, I would strongly recommend switching burners, burn speed, and/or burning software. If none of that works, or is not an option, buy Verbatim. They cost over twice as much per disc as these, but you are paying a premium for high compatibility with subpar hardware and software, which most people use.
I personally have had excellent success with these discs. The media code on mine are "UMEDISC DL1", made in China. I strongly recommend all reviewers here to also share the media code of their discs, so it will be easier to keep track of who is making the "good" ones and who is not-- assuming that there are multiple manufacturers making these. I suspect Amazon may be using different OEM's to manufacture these discs, due to the intermittent availability of this product as well as the constantly fluctuating price. (As I write this review, the discs are $32 and change. I bought my spindle for about $25, and with a little patience the price will almost certainly drop to that point again.)
As stated by the media code, UmeDisc made my discs, and their reputation is less than stellar among the blank media connoisseurs you find searching the internet. Chinese-made optical discs do indeed have a poor reputation for several reasons, too numerous to list here (put succinctly, "they suck"), but it looks like the Chinese may be cleaning up their act these days. I have gone though many spindles of Chinese-made DVD+R DL discs that illegally used Ricoh media ID's. (Ricoh's discs are manufactured in Japan only, and nobody is supposed to use their media ID except them.) The fact that UmeDisc are actually identifying themselves on their product means that they are willing to take credit for it, something that was not apparent before and may indicate improved quality. If you have had poor results with Chinese-made discs in the past, you may want to give them another chance.
A word about coasters: If you are making multiple attempts to burn these discs, and ending up with a large stack of coasters (assuming they are UmeDisc-manufactured like mine), I promise you that it is due to user error. These discs are not made to an excellent specification and they are not very tolerant of sloppy burning. Do not burn them at 8x if your software gives you the option to, even though it says that on the label. Burn them at 4x. I used Nero Burning ROM 9 for these discs and it did not even give me an option for 8x-- smart Germans!
Do not try burning these in a slimline burner, like the ones you find in a laptop or iMac/Mac mini. You are asking for trouble. These discs are difficult enough to burn in a high-quality full-size burner, let alone a tiny laptop drive. You will have a very high failure rate if you attempt this. If you must burn DL discs on a laptop, buy Verbatim.
Use decent software when you're burning the disc. On Windows, the gold standard is Nero. On the Mac, the standard by default is Roxio Toast. Do not try burning these from Windows Explorer or the Macintosh Finder, it is a waste of time.
Do not burn anything irreplaceable on these discs. It is not worth the hassle and risk. Most people are using these discs to copy video games or movies, so it's a non-issue. If you are burning data that is priceless and must be preserved indefinitely, you should be using single-layer 24k gold DVD-R's made by MAM-A, not anything double-layer. If it MUST be a DL disc, you know which brand to choose.
Verify your discs. If the disc fails verification, burn it again!
Finally-- use common sense. You are using these discs to burn a very large amount of data (5-8 gigabytes) in a relatively short period of time (~25 minutes at 4x for a full disc, not including verification time). Do not start the burn, load up Team Fortress 2, and then complain that the burn failed. The computer will be reading a large amount of data off the drive and will need to do so continuously without interruption. If the hard drive is being burdened by other software, it may not respond quickly enough to meet the recorder's demands. If this happens, do not blame the disc-- it's the user's fault! Forgive me if I happened to insult your intelligence during this review, but the amount of complaining about something as straightforward as a spindle of blank discs is quite unprecedented, at least to me.
That all being said, don't expect a perfect success rate. Double-layer discs are finicky, time-consuming and difficult to both burn and read, no matter what brand. I have had a few discs from my spindle fail on me. I have also had the odd Verbatim fail on me. It's tempting to blame the disc--that pathetic, cheap-looking circle of polycarbonate--but it was probably my own fault. (As an aside, these DL discs tend to crap out at one of three points during the burn-- the lead-in, the layer change, and the lead-out--so watch out. I've had various burns fail during all three points.)
Don't forget that you get what you pay for. You are paying less than half the cost per disc compared to Verbatim because these discs are of much lower quality. As such, you, the user, need to pay more attention to the burning process to avoid wasting discs. If your time is too valuable for such a demand, I recommend that you turn to another manufacturer.
There is an old adage about CD-R's that was said many, many years ago, but I think it applies here-- it goes something to the effect of, "burning your own discs is just like flying in an airplane. Hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror."
