The only Double Layer Media Worth Buying

Okay first off let's give a little background. I have been involved in DVD Burning and media research for about 4 and a half years. I devote a good portion of my free time not only burning but doing error rate scans and comparing my results with the results of other media enthusiasts all over the world.

A common trap that many people fall into is just going into the store and buying a brand that they recognize. This is not a wise thing to do since most brands have no loyalties and outsource to several different manufacturers with differing quality standards. So results can vary quite a bit from batch to batch or user to user. This is one of the reasons why it is so crucial for people to watch out for manufacturers rather than name brands.

Verbatim DL DVD+R are currently all produced by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) in Singapore (although it has been announced just recently that SOME production will be outsourced to Moser Baer in India). Verbatim (MKM) DL DVD+R has been in production longer than any other DL media and as a result has the widest range of support among burners and firmware. It is also often used to bench test DVD Burners and help the manufacturers develop specs. This is something that is severely lacking from the other DL media manufacturers (i.e. Ritek, Ricoh, CMC Magnetics) and hence the results are all over the place with them.

Over the last couple of years I have burned over 120 DL 2.4x DL DVD+R Verbatim (Media id:MKM001) and have burned them on a Pioneer 109 with official V1.40 firmware and my current Pioneer 111D with The Dangerous Brothers V1.29 firmware. Both burners will burn this media well at 4x or higher. I usually burn at 6x or 8x. For error rate scans I usually get quality scores of 93 (with 100 being absolutely perfect) or higher with the DL Verbatims. This checks out with the vast majority of other media experts. Out of the more than 120 discs that I have burned, so far I have had two discs that were defective. Given the number of "coasters" that I have heard people getting from other brands of DL media, I consider myself pretty fortunate.

I have used these discs for the following applications:

DVD Movie/TV Series backups
Data backups
XBOX1 backups
PS2 backups
XBOX 360 backups

Regardless of application they have all performed great (barring the two defective discs that I mentioned). Anyone who has done console backups knows that these drives are typically pretty fussy and my 360 has the Hitachi drive which is notoriously fussy, yet it loves the DL Verbatims regardless of what speed I burn them at.

As for DVD Players I have tested them out on the following:

Panasonic S-35
RCA 257N
Mintek 1600
Oppo Digital DV-981
30001R Version PS2
V1.0 XBOX with Samsung, Phillips and Thomson DVD-ROM drives
XBOX 360 with V47DJ Hitachi DVD-ROM


One of the reasons why the 20 packs are so popular is due to the sales that periodically come up on them. About every couple of months Best Buy has them for $30+tax and sites like newegg and rima carry them for under $2 a disc on a regular basis. I see people complaining about the prices on these all of the time but if you keep an eye out for sales you can get them at relatively affordable prices. DL media manufacturing is a tricky process which is one of the reasons why virtually all other manufacturers have fallen short in this category. You have to maintain a pretty strict quality standard to get decent results with DL media.


The bottom line is that these discs are outstanding for any application and are by far the most durable and compatible double layer media out there. As mentioned above though, you will have to watch out for the country of origin on these. I can't say for sure what the quality will be on the Indian produced Moser Baer DL Verbatims, but if their single layer media is any indication then it will leave something to be desired. Simple way to check is to look at the spindle label right below the UPC symbol. If it says MADE IN SINGAPORE=MKM (Mitsubishi Kagaku Media). If it says MADE IN INDIA=MBI (Moser Baer, Inc.). So in a nutshell look for the spindles that say MADE IN SINGAPORE.