Best DVD copying media guide

This basic guide is aimed to help you decide the media type and company to use for creating your backups on.. We intend to explain the difference between 1st Choice, 2nd Choice and 3rd Choice media, explaining their advantages and differences compared with the other's. We hope you find this guide useful and we also hope you enjoy endless playback hours of your favourite DVDs.

Those who disagree with our categorization and feel they have been wrongly listing or judged. We are not responsible them nor will we make any apologies. We are confident the suggestions are honest and in the best interest of the user.

1st Choice List

Almost flawless burns with 95-100% reliability results. These discs are suitable for just about anything. If searching for the best storage media you can't go wrong with these as they are highly recommended, and popular amongst video masters.

Our 1st choice media listing may come with a high price tag and be sure to take advantage of sales, when available. As the cost of such media is forever decreasing, we can only guess deals are to be found at your local PC World, Staples, or online at Amazon, eBay, eBuyer and other popular U.S.A and UK electrical stores.

Company Media Type What to look for Taiyo Yuden Plextor, Miflop Xtreme Always look for Made In Japan/Taiwan on the packaging. Sony DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW look for Made In Japan/Taiwan on the packaging. Verbatim DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL Might be produced by a different company. Look for made in Japan on the spindle or DVD case for the best in the 8x range. Panasonic look for Made In Japan/Taiwan on the packaging. Plextor Ricoh DVD+R versions only

2nd Choice List

Will record at it's best rated speed with error levels at minimum or none. Proven media and most of these come with money back guarantees.

Some brands mentioned may use different companies to produce their media which in rare cases may effect your ability to backup your DVDs or your writer may not work at optimum with these media but on writers that support the media, expect excellent results. The major advantage is our second choice list offers the end user a great balance in terms of Price Vs Media Quality.

Traxdata Ridata Ridisc Xtreme HP Ricoh Infiniti Philips TDK BeAll BenQ Fujifilm Imation Samsung Optodisc Thats Write 3A Media 4M Media Piodata ToPrint Emtec Daxon Mitsui Maxell MAM-E MAM-A

* Traxdata - Always uses Ritek A grade dyes for best results.
* Ricoh - DVD-R versions only.

The media mentioned here are as good and in some cases equal to our 1st choice listing box, and only your recording device can determine the difference. Big names like Philips, TDK, HP and BenQ, can be considered as 1st choice media types but again this depends on your recording device and if it supports it in the firmware. All the names listing in our 2nd choice may suffer from slight but harmless errors compared to those in 1st choice box, apart from that, you will be able to enjoy endless hours and months of top quality recording.

3rd Choice List

Quality amongst these discs do vary. You will either not be able to record anything or your recording device (writer) may not deal with the correctly to complete the copy. Sometimes you might get your hands on a really good batch but don't count on getting hold of them again, as there is no consistency in the quality. The reason we say this is due to the fact that companies mentioned don't manufacture the media themselves or have no checks in place to ensure quality at the source. Another reason could be that most of these types of media are referred to as 'B' grade goods of 1st Choice or popular media.

Memorex Datasafe Bulkpaq Tuffdisc Data eProformance Datawrite Primeon Arita Prodisc Rivision Platinum Freespace Intenso Tevion Maxdisc Prime Playo Moviestyle Value Disc New Star Digital Sky Princo Octron Generic

* Generic - Disc is not named

You shouldn't worry or bother yourself too much in regards to which media types to choose. The 3rd choice options lists media types which are perfectly common and mainly used for data backups and very popular due to good value for money and quantity. You shouldn't expect copy after copy success when it comes to copying and burning video files, and be prepared to go through a few blanks before completing a successful burn. However, there is 'Good Stock' to be found out there, and these bargain discs should work pretty much like choice's 1st and 2nd and perform very good during movie backups..

Final say!

Our tests have shown Taiyo Yuden media has remained constant and the quality of backups remains very good copy after copy. This is true amongst Plextor and Miflop Xtreme who always use Taiyo Yuden media. You might come across Taiyo Yuden look a likes but they certainly do not function like Taiyo Yuden media.

Our 2nd choice box offers great value for money along with very good copying success rate. The only difference between our 1st choice and 2nd choice media is price and guarantee's. Consistency could be down to your particular recording device and it's support for your media, otherwise you have little or no room for doubts amongst the two options and shouldn't concern yourself as both will perform exceptionally well.

Our 3rd choice box lists media from companies who do not guarantee quality but can be bought in bulk, so expect the odd re-runs and media wastage. They are good for data backups and you never know you might even come across the the occasional batch of decent discs which perform well as the 1st and 2nd choice media discs. But we wouldn't take risks or count on it.