Maxell 16x 4.7 GB DVD-R Spindle 50 Discs

I bought this 50-pack of Maxell 8X DVD-R's because I was impressed with the product description, which said that Maxell used high-quality "metal azo dye." I discovered, however, that, while these DVD's seem to work OK for data-storage purposes, they do not perform as well as I was hoping when used to create video DVDs.

For whatever reason, it is possible to successfully burn and verify a video DVD that is perfectly readable and yet "skips" on some (or most) DVD players. These semi-random glitches seem to occur most often at the outer edge of the disc, and hence are usually noticed at the end of a long movie that fills the entire DVD. And yet the recorded DVD is perfectly readable in the sense that you can use it to produce a flawless ISO image on your hard drive: If you watch the movie from the image rather than the source disc, the movie will run smoothly from beginning to end, without any skipping.

Before I bought these Maxell DVD-R's form Amazon.com, I was using a cheap brand that I bought at Wal-Mart. These discs would exhibit this "skipping" problem about 20% of the time. I was hoping that the Maxell DVD-R's would work close to 100% of the time.

On the contrary, I found that they exhibited the glitches consistently on at least one of three DVD drives the very same NEC ND-3520A drive that I used to burn the discs. When recorded at 8X speed, the DVDs skipped at the end (outer edge of the disc) on the NEC drive and at both the middle and the end on my PlayStation2. When recorded at 2X speed, they worked fine on my PlayStation2 but, surprisingly, still skipped at the end on the NEC drive used to record them. A standalone Sylvania DVD player was able to play any disc I threw at it without skipping, whether the disc was recorded at 2X or 8X.

I have since bought some Maxell DVD+R's from a local store, and they have been working great for me so far. I don't know exactly why these Maxell DVD's are superior to the ones I purchased from Amazon.com. Perhaps because they are the "+" type rather than the "-" type, or because they have a different manufacturer: I've noticed that, whereas the Maxell DVD-R's I bought from Amazon.com had a "Ritek" manufacturer ID, the DVD+R's have a "Maxell" manufacturer ID. (The manufacturer ID is pre-recorded on the media and tells you who actually made the disc; this will not necessarily be the same as the brand name. Most burning software will allow you to view the MID via a "disc information" option.)

Another anomaly that I've noticed is that, even though the discs appear to be silver or white in the picture at the top of this page, the discs that I actually received in the mail from Amazon.com were gold on top. Incidentally, the Maxell DVD+R's I bought from the local store were silver-topped, like the ones in the picture. (Maybe it's just a glare in the picture?)

The bottom line is that these Maxell DVD-R's will work for you if your intention is to create Data DVDs. (I'm still using the ones I have left over to store data.) But if your intention is to create Video DVDs, my advice is to avoid spending too much money on a gazillion-pack of a particular type of DVD media before you've tested a few of them on the DVD player that you want to use to play your recorded DVDs. Remember that it will not do to check just the beginning of the DVD, because the glitches tend to happen near the outer edge. Instead, try using all of the available space on the disc, so that it records all the way to the outer edge, and then watch the last 5 or 10 minutes to see if there are any glitches.

Every one of the discs burned properly in my DVD burner in the computer as well as in 3 DVD recorders. The recorders are all the same model, Panasonic DMR-ES10. The burner is a Samsung TS-H552U. I would buy these again if the price remains low enough. I use these at work and at home.

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Unfortunately, all DVD media don't perform the same. And to make matters worse, companies like Maxell often source from multiple suppliers. In the battle to determine drive/media/player compatibility, Videohelp.com has set up a forum to track user experience, http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia.

Searching for Maxell DVD-R 8X, Maxell media with media code 'MXL RG03' has an xlnt rating. However, Maxell media code 'RitekG05' is mixed. This helps explain B. Mayfield's situation.

Good luck with your own search.

Read Best Reviews of Maxell 16x 4.7 GB DVD-R Spindle 50 Discs Here

Excellent quality and so easy to use in my Panasonic DVD Recorder. Will continue to buy this brand since it works so well and I've been told that not all blank dvd-r's and dvd+r's work in certain brands of recorders.

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I have not had a bad burn of the 150 Ive used to burn vhs movies to dvd, dvd to dvd, and tv to dvd on my jvc dr-m100. Anyone complaining about these discs is having a problem with some other component of their burning system.

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