Customer Reviews

AmazonBasics 4.7 GB 16x DVD-R (100-Pack Spindle)

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

I have nothing bad to say about these discs. I've burned plenty of videos to watch on my particularly finicky Sony DVD player and they have played just fine. In addition the $25 Samsung dual-layer burner I got from NewEgg has had no problem burning these at full 16x speed.

ImgBurn reports these as UME02 discs.

Other than that, these discs also include a protective coating on the label side of the disc to protect the foil. So you don't have to expect any of the foil chipping off like you do on some of the really cheap discs.

There's really not much else to say. The price is right. They work well and they're fairly durable.

In the past, I've found DVDs from different companies may or may not be usable in all my equipment. Sony DVDs were compatible with all my equipment, but they can be pricey. I was happy to find that these Amazon DVD were compatible with a wide range of equipment. We've already burned DVDs on an Apple IMac G5, Dell Inspirion 15, Sony DRX-840U DVD burner and Toshiba DR410 DVD player/burner. No compatibility problems. And they are priced less than $19 for a 100 disc spindle! Excellent!

And although Amazon touts their new "Frustration Free - Ready to Ship" packaging, I received my package of DVDs in a small neat box marked "Ready for Shipping" INSIDE a huge box labeled C3 that was 19 X 13 X 8. I don't think the warehouses are clear on the concept yet. Although my account page allows Packaging Feedback on products I ordered, none of my Amazon Vine products, including this one, are on the feedback page. But this minor flub did not change my mind or rating for these DVDs, they are an excellent product.

I'm very pleased with these dvd-r's, but I'm sad to see that the initial price was a teaser, and it is now almost double the cost of the dvd+r and cd 100 spindles. My only hope is that if and when they are back in stock, the price will decrease so that the AmazonBasics brand remains a bargain.

The price is right. Shipping was quick enough. But so far two out of five is a dud. This ratio may go up or down as I progress through the stack, but with 20 or so used, eight have stopped writing with errors. I've never had a batch this bad.

So they're cheap enough, but the price almost doubles when you consider how many duds you have to deal with...not to mention the wasted time.

I'll try another brand next time.

EDIT: Just after I hit the publish button, I remembered something else about these. I'd actually like to bring this down to one star. I forgot to mention that I had to drag an external drive out of the closet to use these...none of my internal drives would recognize them. I think at this point all they have going for them is fast write speed. My recommendation: leave these alone.

These disks are simply not recognized by NEC drives as someone else already commented.

Junk.

Otherwise I love Amazon, but this is their big mistake.

These blank DVDs suck. I used them to burn home movies and promotional video. I though it was my old DVD player that was not reading them, but then I bought another brand of blank DVDs (Memorex) and they worked perfectly. I also though it was the DVD burner that was not doing its work, so I tried with other burners, with same result. Thus, I can say that it was the Amazon brand that was giving me problems. It might be that I received a bad batch, but they were all consistently defective.

The first 20 or so recorded flawlessly. Then, for every one that would record, I got 2 that would not record. Today, I had 4 bad ones before I got one to record!!! Total waste of time and money.

To me, Finding the right DVDR is like finding the Deodorant - gotta find something that works.

Let's face it - Writable Media is expensive and Doesn't always work well, Depending on Brand. I use writable DVDs both on my Computer and my Philips DVDR3575H/37 DVD Recorder. And with That Philips DVD recorder, not all brands work properly or will Finalize for playback, Mainly any TDK DVD+R (Yes just the Plus). plus, often Burns on my PC fail.

AmazonBasics DVD-R, for those unaware, AmazonBascis, is amazon.com's own line of Products and These DVD-R discs are perfect. Not only do they work as good as Leading brands Sony,JVC, Memorex, ETC. You get more for your money and a lot more room on the Label side of the disc to write on. 100 DVD-r's for the Price of 50 Name Brands and work just as good as the name brand - WHAT More can you ask for?

The old Scottish proverb goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." I guess the shame is on me, then. This is the second cakebox of AmazonBasics 16x discs I've bought. The first batch had no "bad" discs in it as far as I could tell. But for some reason, I could only get my burner to recognize them as 4x. And no, it wasn't my equipment. I use Maxell, Verbatim, and Taiyo Yuden DVDs most of the time and decided to experiment with these. And only the AmazonBasics DVD-R blanks defaulted to 4x. Sadly, I thought this was just a fluke and decided to order a second cakebox.

The second cakebox is worse than the first. Again, they default to a 4x burn. But this time, out of the first 25 discs, 4 were coasters (bad discs). All I can say is that I won't be fooled a third time. The more familiar name brands may cost more. But, when a disc is supposed to be 16x, that's what I expect. And one or two coasters out of a hundred is reasonable. But four out of 25??? I've still got 75 to go and shudder at the thought of how many of those will be coasters, too.

I have a TiVo Humax box, which has a built-in DVD burner. They don't make these any longer, and there's a good reason why. . . because it's VERY difficult to find DVD's which the darn thing will take and burn! I've purchased expensive ones. . . and cheap ones. . . and in the end, some work a little better than others, but none of them work 100% of the time. Some does even work 10% of the time! Fortunately I have a 2nd DVD burner which I'm usually able to use for the "rejects". But with the Amazon "Basics" DVD's ALL of them work! I've gone through almost a complete 100-pack spindle, and haven't had a problem with any of them! (knock on wood) I'm SO glad to find DVD's that work, and are also at a good price! If you have a "finicky" DVD burner of any type (including a Humax) then I HIGHLY recommend that you try these.

As to the write speed. . . . A DVD can only burn as fast as your DVD burner will burn. If you have a DVD burner which will only burn at 4X or 8X speed, then that's all you're going to get out of these blank DVD's. Personally, I don't have any problems with the speed.

As someone else has mentioned about the packaging. . . The idea that Amazon.com writes that they use "Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging" is TOTALLY bogus. Amazon OVER packages this item. First, the DVD's are on a spindle, like with any other manufacturer. Then They are packed in a separate box, with more cardboard inside so the spindle doesn't "bounce" around. Then that box is placed in a MUCH larger box with lots of packing "pillows". When I've ordered DVD's or another brand from Amazon.com in the past (and I've ordered a lot) they are always just the plastic spindle in a medium box and that's it. I really think that Amazon.com could get away with shipping in the original box, but so far. . .they are not doing that. . . so much for "saving the planet"!