Customer Reviews

Velocity DVD+R 4.7GB, 8x (100-pack Spindle) Best Value

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Velocity, like several other OEM brands, exists solely on the label that comes with your discs. Distributors purchase huge quantities of blank media and repackage them for retail sales using generic names like Velocity. Unfortunately, the media contained within the cake box is subject to change as suppliers change, and that is precisely what has happened with this media.

Using tools like DVD Identifier (available free from: http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/), anyone can learn the true origin/type of media used, and early purchasers identified the media they received as branded MCC (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation) which is one of the world's most recognized manufacturers of quality media. Purchasers almost universally gave high ratings for this media.

In the late fall/early winter, the distributor changed their supplier (probably because they managed to cut a better deal), and recent purchasers have received media labeled Optodisc OR8. Optodisc is, frankly, a second tier manufacturer of low cost media. They simply refuse to burn properly in several burners (in particular Plextors, which insist on high quality media to start with), and although they may initially burn properly on burners that are tolerant of a wide range of media (NEC, LiteOn, Opto, etc.), purchasers may discover data integrity problems (unreadable discs, frozen/pixelated video), especially towards the outer edges of the disc (with video, this generally shows up as progressively worsening video towards the end of your recording). Unfortunately, your burned media may become completely unreadable within weeks to months later. That is the risk you take when using lower grade media.

After burning more than 2,000 DVD's since April 2004, I have learned some important lessons:

1) Don't buy cheap quality media and expect it to work well, especially six months after you burn it. Spend a few dollars more to buy media that is compatible with your burner (check your burner manufacturer's web page for recommended media). My Plextor, which is infamously fussy about media quality, has been quite happy with Ritek/Ridata media, also available from Amazon and at a reasonable price.

2) You roll the dice when you purchase media from labels such as "Velocity." If you get MCC media, you win. If you get Opto media, you probably lose. Thankfully, you can return media to Amazon if it doesn't work well for you. I personally wouldn't keep Opto media.

3) You risk the longevity and integrity of your burns if you try to burn at a speed faster than the media was rated at. In fact, I burn everything at conservative speeds (2x or 2.4x for media rated 4x, 4x for media rated at 8x, etc.) Since doing that, I've never had pixelated/frozen video, or disc reading problems.

4) For critical backups, I recommend burning two copies on different types of media (example: burn one copy on Ridata media, the other on MCC). This reduces the chance that your data will be lost if one of your burns turns out to become unreadable in the months/years ahead. Make sure you don't store them together - a calamity that could destroy your first backup (fire, etc.) would have also destroyed your second.

Nero InfoTool reads them as:

Supported Speeds: 12.0X - 8.0X - 6.0X - 4.0X

Blank Capacity: 4.38 GB

Manufacturer ID: MCC 003

If you research the Manufacturer ID: MCC 003 you'll notice that's the same as in the high quality Verbatim DVD+R's.

I'm using these with my Pioneer DVR-108 16X burner. These discs rated at 8X burn just fine at 12X.

My only gripe with these are their shiny surfaces and this is the reason they get 4 instead of 5 stars. I can already tell they will collect fingerprints fairly easily and don't like having a Sharpie written on them either. The sides of the ink written kind of fade off.

But for $0.30 a disc (not $0.33 like the other reviewer stated) this is a good buy. I would buy them again.

BTW, I've burned about 10 so far and all went flawlessly (no coasters)

Media is inconsistent. I have used about 20 Velocity DVDs so far. Some dvd will burn at 4X and some will only burn at 2.4X even tough it is rated at 8X. I must have gotten the bad batch. I purchased two 100 disc spindle, hopefully, the second spindle will be better. I used to use Ridata DVDs, I never had any problem with them (I have used over 300 of them). After these 200 Velocity DVDs, I will try to stick to brand name DVDs from now on.

I just received my package today. I placed an order for these back in October. Everyone was saying that they had received good quality MCC discs. I opened my package and tested my discs. They are now Optodisc OR8s. This is some of the worst media around. I tested the discs with my plextor drive. None of the discs would burn correctly at 8X. A few would burn at 6X. A few more at 4X. And most just came up and told me that they would not burn correctly at any speed. I am going back to ordering discs I know to be of good quality. I have tossed the discs into the trash and with them my money. Do yourself a favor and do not buy these.

I have a LiteOn 1633S, and these discs burn quite well. The media code is MCC03, and burn at 8x. My PI errors were under 25, and PO under 2. I may speed hack my drive to burn them at 12x, and see how that works.

I received my 100 pack spindle of theses dvd's and they are in fact MCC 003 media!I've burned about 10 discs and not a single problem with any of them.They burned perfect in my burners and play in any DVD player I put them in.Glad they are back in stock and I'm getting my second spindle today.

Last year these Velocity 100pk DVD+R were MCC discs. Those discs were of decent quality especially for their price. However, as of the begining of this year, the discs shipped are now from another manufacturer OR8 (Optodisc). These discs are just not as reliable as the MCC discs that Velocity was shipping last year.

It seems that these discs have a decent burn rate, but you can tell that the manufacturing is just not quite up to spec.

Additionally, my DVD-recorder/VCR (AKAI, Lite-On) can not recognize the OR8 Discs. So far everything else, Sony, Memorex, TDK, Ridata, Phillips, and OLD Velocity have worked great.

My LaCie dvd burner (external) and Lite-On drives on the PC have no problems except that it can only burn the media at 4x, not 8x as stated.

I bought 200 of these last year and Every disk was good. Now they've changed to or8 instead of velocity. They will not play in some dvd players after written. I get Uknown disk on 2/3 of the dvd players. I've sent one order back and experimented til i was blue in the face with another hoping for the quality I had come to expect.

Just wanted to clarify something...Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC/MKM) hasn't made any of its discs in Japan since the 2x DVD-R days. The majority of MCC media (yes, legitimate MCC media) is made in Taiwan by Prodisc or CMC using MCC dye and equipment, with very few being made at MCC's own plant in Singapore. Just check out any of the Verbatim 8x DVD-R media in retail stores. Most, if not all of it will be made in Taiwan. The only real way to determine if Velocity discs are fake MCC or legit MCC made by Prodisc is to check the serial number etched in the dye side of the disc, around the hub area. If it's a number that starts with ZCXXXX or ZDXXXX and ends in X47B, it's legit.

Never did a review before but I am compelled to write it for this.

'penny wise, pound foolish'. Tried to save 10 bucks by buying this, but wasted 10s of hours copying videos for backups. They write without any errors, but when I play them, they skip or hang like crazy. I tried them on 4 different DVD players; same issue with 90% of the DVDs

Stick with named brand and you won't regret it.