How to choose reliable blank recordable DVDs

Submitted by Patrick Grote on Fri, 12/08/2006 - 5:00am.

If you're like us, you own a DVD recorder. These things are great for moving movies from your Tivo to DVD. You can skip pulling it into your PC and the burning it to DVD. We use a couple of models from Samsung that use DVD-Rs.

Ok, I guess the -R +R thing needs to be explained. The best way I can explain it is that DVD-R requires you to erase the entire DVD before reusing it, while DVD+R can erase certain sections at a time.

For us, DVD-Rs work fine, though we've found that some DVD players cannot play back our DVDs without skipping. Yes, that's an issue, but for us at home it works on all our DVD players.

Anyway, when you're buying blank DVDs to record on, which one should you select? It's s tougher question than you think. You can't just say, "Buy Sony" since where the DVDs are manufactured matters.

Luckily, there is a great page that describes how to buy blank DVDs.

So, how have we bought in the past? We bought on price only. Yes, I know, not the best strategy if you're interested in keeping your shows or movies safe, but what can you do.

If I pull our current DVD-Rs off our shelf, I see they are Sonys. Specifically, these are Sony AccuCores model 100DMR47LS4. Looking at the site it shows the Sonys are among the best you can buy, but only if they are made in Taiwan or Japan. Whew, ours were made in Taiwan. This means that we have first class media, which means our burns will be exceptional. Cool.