Tong Family

“CD Freaks”:http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/134/. A super comprehensive review of the new NEC ND-2500A. It is the first drive that can write DVD-Rs at 8x. (Most drives can now write 8x DVD+Rs). But, the most impressive thing is that it has very low write error rates for CDs and DVDs.
The same piece does some great recommendations for media type, the overall reco is that Verbatim Data Life seems like a great brand across CD=R, DVD=R and DVD+R
* CD-Rs. They like Verbatim Data Life (Mitsubishi Chemicals 97m34s23f). they like Sony as made by Taiyo Yuden (97m24s01f) but not the Sony (Acer Media 97m22s67f), but there is no way to tell at retail who made the underlying disks.
* DVD-Rs, they like Verbatim Data Life Plus (either Taiyo Yuden TYG01 or Mitsubishi Chemicals MCC01RG20). Note that the Data Life Plus is $10 each compared with $1 fo general use, but its really good quality.
* DVD+Rs, Also Arita (Ricoh RICOHJPNR01) write at 6x. Verbatim Data Life Plus (Mitsubishi Chemicals MCC002) and BeALL (BeAll000P40) but only write at 4x. Finally, they like Plextor made by Taiyo Yuden (MIC YUDEN000T01), These are also expensive at $10 each compared with $1.00 typically for say Memorex brand (the best sellers on pricegrabber) but they do write at 8x, so super high quality
As an aside, which DVD format to use? I’ve used DVD+RW and DVD+R with good success and only buy combo drives that support both. Basically DVD-Rs are more compatibille but slower to write. They require a final step called finalization that can take a long time. On balance, DVD+Rs seem like the right long term format as long as you use only newer drives.

lLh4. What CD-R or DVD-R is the best?
First, you have there is the brand-name on the CD-R, then the underlying manufacturer. Apparently, there is a different. For instance Verbatim makes Data Life Plus (currently $0.30 per CD) and ValueLine ($0.24 per CD). So there is about a 30% premium for Data Live that seems justified. Apparently, these CDs will burn cleaner and have fewer errors.
“Who Really Makes a CD?”:http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71698. Second thing to know is that Verbatim and everyone else resells media from a couple of big factories. On the CD is burned something called the MIC (Manufacturers Identification Code). You can only figure this out by running a program like “Kprobe”:http://www.dvdrhelp.com/tools?tool=415 for CDs or DVDInfo for DVDs. Personally, I’ve had some DVD+Rs that just wouldn’t burn and then switched and things worked fine.
The main issue is that Kprobe only works with Lite-on CD and DVD drives (good thing I have one 🙂
“Big Caveat”:http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html#S2-33. there is one huge caveat which is that there is no encryption of the MIC, so that all you really know is what the master was and it doesn’t really tell you who used the master.
h4. CD-R Recommendations
Most interesting though is that they go through various recordable media and recommend them. Its actually hard to figure out who the underlying manufacturers are, but there apparently is a media code somewhere that tells all. The net is that media made by Taiyo Yuden (they are sold as Sony CD-Rs, but Sony has resells other brands), their MIC is 97m24s01f for these. So you buy a Sony,
For DVD-Rs, Taiyo Yuden is resold as Verbatim Data Life Plus DVD-R certified at 4x, but writable by the NEC at 8x. Their code is TYG01. Verbatim Data Life Plus is also made by Mitsubishi Chemicals with code MCC01RG20. Fortunately, both of these are very good, so getting Verbatim Data Life Plus seems like a good bet.
For DVD+Rs, Taiyo Yuden is sold as Plextor with code YUDEN000T01 and again have great quality.