Customer Reviews

Memorex 8.5Gb/ 2.4x DVD+R Dual Layer (25-Pack Spindle)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

I had an NEC OEM shipped by Dell. After a few coasters, I researched the reasons why. Unlike DVD+R discs, the DL discs work only with specific drives and specific firmwares. If you use NEC, you need 2.18 version. You can easily upgrade your firmware by going to NEC site.

Once you fix that, these discs work like a champ. More affordable than other DLs.

Just an addition after several months of using the dual layer: Once in a while you will come across Memorex DVD+R DLs that are defective. It would copy fine but when you try to play it (even on the computer), it will give an error message. Although Memorex offers lifetime warranty, I have not been able to get through to customer service. After a week of sending them a message, no response.

If you want to play any dual layer media to play on your home DVD player, you need to set the booktype to DVD-ROM. This advice is not specific just to Memorex. You need to do that with all brands.

Even at this price (...),this is 5x the price per GB as single layer disks after rebate. When will those who set the prices recognize these WOULD sell like hot cakes if you bring them in line with normal storage prices! And they can even tack on an additional something small for the convenience but 5x the price -anyone would have to be crazy to buy these, unless they just had to - and that's all they are selling to is those who absolutely must buy them - a small pittance of the market! We all have dual layer burners now for a long time and we can't even use them, since its no where near cost effective.

I had some issues with my first few tries burning dual layer discs on my Memorex external DVD burner. It mostly came down to software problems, which I sorted out after some time. Then, as a previous reviewer stated, I needed to change the booktype to DVD-ROM. After changing the booktype I was able to successfully burn dual layer discs that were playable on my stand alone DVD player. It's my understanding that setting the booktype to DVD-ROM is recommended to increase recognition of DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R DL discs in older DVD players.

I use this media on a Dell laptop. Thanks to the informative reviews from others, I upgraded the firmware on my DVD drive before I tried to burn a disk. I have about a 90% success rate. But wow, the price went from $49 to $69 in one month. Guess I won't be buying any more of them...

Avoid these. Bought a 10pak, and burned 3 coasters out of the gate. Sold the remainder on eBay, and bought Verbatim DVD+RL (part 95166). These work 100% of the time (presently have burned about 100 with 0 coasters).

As it was explained to me, Memorex buys their discs from other manufacturers. They don't make their own media. Verbatim makes their own discs, and control the quality of every batch. Memorex may get theirs from a number of manufacturers, each using different quality standards, thus giving you no guarantee between discs of whether they will work or not. I've seen more then a few people say "I bought 10 that worked great, then bought 10 more, and all those were junk". No consistency at all. BUYER BEWARE!

Completely unacceptable performance from a brand name I used to trust. Maybe it was a bad batch (batch number J6-08D02505301071A08)? I now use WinData discs that you can find at your local MicroCenter in 10-packs for $10, which work perfectly (zero failures).

No coasters so far.
Burns at 4x with Nero 7 on my Samsung.

I'm using a NEC drive, model 3500AG. I updated its firmware to 2.1A, and I'm using Nero 7.0.0 to burn my discs. Not a coaster so far with this combination, and all discs are fully compatible with my Sony DVD player, my PS2 and my XBox360. The only drawback is that every once in a while (I think once or twice per disc) I've notice a slight pause when playing the recorded video. I think this might be related to a layer switch or something, but I can live with that. A word of caution for Nero users: don't you ever think updating your Nero software to 7.2.0. I did some coasters with it, the menus didn't work and the 360 got stuck with these discs.

I upgraded my NEC ND-2510A to the latest firmware a while ago, and I've had no problems with these disks. I've been using AnyDVD (to break CSS encryption) along with CloneDVD to copy a few Scrubs DVDs that were getting a bit scratched. So far, I'm 3 for 3. I'd recommend these to anyone who's flashed their drive to the latest firmware.

Update: After attempting to play these disks in a number of set-top DVD players, I have found one in my house that will not play after the layer break. This was a very old Mitsubishi player, one of the first affordable DVD players. To anyone who has problems playing these disks, I would suggest a new set-top DVD player. You wouldn't expect a 10-year-old CD player to play CD-Rs and CD-RWs, and you shouldn't automatically assume that a 5-year-old DVD player will play these, either. You can pick up a brand-name set-top box for $40, so there's really no tremendous need to complain.

I built a PC with XP MCE that I use to record my favorite shows. My wife has her favorite and I have been recording it every day. I started to copy them onto single layer discs but found that due to file size and time limitations I could only fit one episode each. In a series that had over 200 episodes I didn't want to think about what it would take to store these babies. So far I have bought two spools of these discs and burned through 3/4 of them without incident.

The computer I built myself has an ASUS P4S8X motherboard, P4 2.4 HT processor with 1GB of RAM, a 200 GB Western Digital SATA hard drive and an older ATI video card with a cable tuner built in (I forget the model number).
The ATI tuner was not compatible with MCE so I had to install a Hauppauge WINTV 150 tuner and it works flawlessly.
My DVD burner I recently purchased is a SONY DWQ-30A16X DVD±RW Dual Layer Black that I purchased from one of my favorite online stores. (I won't mention any names)
Anyway, if I had the time I could probably edit these shows down and fit 3 onto one disc, but for now I am putting two episodes on each. I haven't had any write or read problems whatsoever and the price on Amazon is far far better than that of any retail chain I have seen. I went to one of the major local electronic stores and they wanted the same price for a spool of 15 that Amazon wants for a 25 spool. For now they are a little pricey so if you really need the DL discs then it's worth the money, but if you are just goofing off I would suggest buying single layer 4.7 GB discs and using them until you really need the larger capacity.
I suspect the price will drop as they become more available and there is more competition. To be honest I haven't even seen anything from another manufacturer in this price range, but I haven't scoured the web like some folks have.

As with most stories I suspect that success or failure of this media is highly dependent on your hardware configuration.
I try to build my systems a little stronger out of the gate to avoid the problems of a "budget" system later on. I also like to use name brand components even though they cost slightly more.
I actually built this PC about 3 years ago but recently upgraded it to MCE and added the capture card about 9 months ago, oh and replaced a dying IDE drive with the SATA.