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Review on πŸ“€ Enhance Your Storage with Verbatim DVD R 4 7GB Recordable Media+ by Conrad Greene

Revainrating 1 out of 5

The quality control of these discs has fallen off badly.

UPDATE: It's been a little over a month since I wrote my review and the pack I just bought is about 1/3 full but I've used up all the good discs . The rest is completely covered in tiny pockmarks and scratches and I don't like using them to backup or record anything important. I've also seen a few more completely broken discs with spacer layers, including one that had a coin sized chip but only on the top layer of plastic. This is easily the worst quality control I've seen on a DVD-R package in the sixteen or so years since I bought it. So I'm reducing my rating to 1 star and recommending that people stay away from these Verbatim discs altogether. I'm definitely looking for another brand, especially since these Verbatim will never sell for less than $25 for a 100-pack again. I remember going to Office Depot or Office Max and getting good quality DVD R discs on sale for $15 a pack of 100 and there was always a decent brand on sale every week, but I guess that fewer and fewer people are using them, companies are making them very cheap and of much lower quality while raising prices. In the past I've tried to avoid nameless or unknown brands, but why should I trust the quality and durability of these Verbatim discs more than any of these brands when Verbatim can't make packaging where almost all discs fail? covered in scratches, pockmarks and nicks or just falling apart? Stay away. Also, this latest package is in the -R flavor, while the previous package I got before with all the same problems was in the +R flavor, so this seems to be a widespread issue across the production system. and is not limited to just one disc style. ORIGINAL REVIEW: These Azo Verbatim DVD-Rs and +Rs are probably still the highest quality discs you can get for the price based on the higher price DVD-Rs sell these days, but in the last one or two For years, Verbatim's quality control has failed. I started using Verbatim Azo almost exclusively, maybe three years ago, when other brands I was always switching between (depending on availability or what I could get on sale) started giving me more failed burns or became too expensive . Verbatims cost well and I've always felt I have fewer unfortunate burns per pack. The discs I burn now almost always burn well, pass the test and all that, but now there's always a lot of discs in the pack that are just completely riddled with scuffs, scratches, pockmarks, and other obvious, plainly visible imperfections that only make you are unsuitable for backup copies or other things that are really important. I've used DVD-Rs, both -R and +R, for many years, so I always expect to see some imperfectly scratched or optically defective discs in a box. , but this has become more and more of a problem with the packs I've bought in the last year or two, and my last Verbatims pack (100+ disc pack) contained at least 20-25 of these unusable discs. I got about the last third of the package and finally had to pick out the last few discs with small but clearly visible nicks or scratches that I usually set aside and use for disposable or less important discs. Stuff, because the rest of it was so pockmarked and scratched it was useless. I also came across at least three discs in this box that appeared to have massive defects around their rim where the layers of plastic were peeling off, and the discs disassembled by hand almost effortlessly. Using those last few usable discs, I also ordered a new pack (they are now 100-R style packs because at the time the +R discs I preferred were in the $30-$35 range for some reason), although it was the case that there are probably 20 or more discs still in the old packaging, all obviously damaged and unusable. Well, on a quick glance, this new pack of 100 - Rdiscs that I received today also appears to have a huge number of discs with the same damage. on them, mainly at the top and bottom of the stack. Although most discs are closer to center, they seem fine. So it looks like whatever process they use to put discs on a reel is now likely to damage them both at the beginning and end of the process. Either that or large batches of damaged discs go through a quality control process and this roll ended up with multiple discs at the top and bottom and only a small piece of good disc in the middle. However, Verbatim's quality control now seems terrible. In a box of 100 discs, one-third or more of the discs should not be so visibly scratched and damaged that a cursory glance would justify discarding them immediately. Again, DVD-R seems to be getting more expensive in general, and some companies like Sony don't seem to make them anymore at all, so the Verbatim Azo series (not their Life series, which is lower quality but almost the same price) seems to be still the best indicator of overall disc quality, but it really sucks that their quality control on such basic things as overtly pockmarked, scratched and worn discs is so poor that buying a 100-pack is now more of a gamble . whether or not you actually buy a pack of 50-75 usable discs. If I could find another brand that I like just as much, for the same price or a little more (because paying like $30 for 100 good discs would be better than paying $25 for 70-80 good discs out of 100), I would I switch to her immediately. Even if you order them from Revain, I highly recommend ordering the No-Frustration Pack version, even if it's a few bucks more expensive. It is then automatically shipped in a box with real protection specially designed for these disc rolls. This time I ordered the regular version because it was $1.50 less and whoever packed it in Revain just tossed it in one of those gray plastic bags that are designed to carry clothes and other things that are not easily damaged. It had no protection and the spool's black plastic base was broken into many pieces. At least the shards and plastic wrapping on the spool still kept the stack of discs in the clear area and they didn't spill into the bag. So I know that the damage to the discs came from the factory and not from shipping. Luckily I had an empty spool from the previous package on hand to put on the new rims because the new spool broke uselessly, but the $1.50 savings just wasn't worth the hassle. I didn't give it much thought when ordering because I've ordered both ways in the past and the regular way is usually included in the Revain box as well, but from now on I'll use the FFP version every time this happens not the case t. significantly more expensive.

Pros
  • Free for educational purposes
Cons
  • Not sure