Customer Reviews

Verbatim 96320 UltraLife 4.7 GB 8x Gold Archival Grade DVD-R, 5-Disc Jewel Case

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The reason you should be looking at these DVD blanks is to make archival storage discs. Regular DVD's, or really inexpensive ones, are reported to have a very short life after burning - even if you store them properly - even in the one or two year range. It's been reported that these Gold foil DVD blanks will last longer. There is also evidence that says the Taiyo Yuden blanks last a very good long time. The blanks do appear to be tougher than my usual Sony discs, but I didn't do any Brillo pad tests.

I purchased these Verbatim blanks to back up some irreplacable video files, which had been converted from VHS to DVD. What can be said about the 24 I burned, they burned beautifully, were extremely high contrast when you look at the business side of the disc, and play on every single DVD player we've ever thrown at these. There wasn't a single coaster burn in the set (my coaster rate using Sony DVD blanks is around 1 in 100). I've burned maybe 3 or 4,000 DVD's on every imaginable brand of DVD, and these are the sharpest looking burns I have ever seen.

On longevity, well that's almost impossible to comment on today. Verbatim says some incredible number of years. Nobody should ever believe that claim, dyes just cannot last that long. But they should be good until the next storage media arrives.

One sensitive point with DVD blanks is the reflective layer behind the dye layer. Most are aluminum, which if ever exposed to air, will tarnish and lose reflectivity rendering the disc useless (depending of course on the location of that tarnish). These Verbatim discs avoid that problem from ever happening, gold will not tarnish and lose it's reflectivity.

What a person really has to consider when they look at a digital archive strategy, is using multiple back up places. DVD's can fail over time, or become unreadable. I don't subscribe to the format nonsense or scare tactics many like to toss around about incompatible reading formats where drives to read a particular media will cease to exist. A person can still get 5 1/4 inch floppies converted to other formats (8.5 inch discs are almost impossible to convert now), and that size floppy has been gone for well over 10 years now (if you were asleep for 10 years you could still get that data off those floppies). In the case of these irreplaceable movie files, I chose to use these Verbatim discs. Made three copies of each DVD on Taiyo Yuden blanks for day to day viewing (they are lacquer based discs and are so optically flat that you can see all the way to the bottom of a 100 spindle through the center - they are also about 1/4 the price). I saved the Video_TS folders on two separate hard drives, one of which is only turned on to copy to or from for critical backups. And one day I will copy all these files up to a service like Mozy. I will then have 5 separate copies in three different physical locations. Ah most would say overkill, but these are important files. I'm following the exact same strategy for my 25,000 digital images.

These are without question excellent DVD blanks. In my experiece I've never seen a better blank for critical archival work. They are expensive, but they are cheaper on a per gigabyte basis than a hard drive. If they last 1/4 of the 100 years Verbatim claims, I'd be super happy. Just remember, hedge your bets with critical files - put them in multiple places on different media.

If you tried the Delkin gold DVDs on your Mac and discovered you are the proud owner of 50 new gold colored coasters, take heart. These Verbatim discs are the tickets, they work great and should last 100 years, longer than most of us. The only downside is I've been using 4x speed to insure they work every time. Your best option at the moment for archival backup.

These discs are lovely and actually do appear to weigh more than other discs. The data transfers well and none of them have been defective so far (I've used about 15 out of 50.) This is a good price for a good product.

I don't burn a lot of DVD's, so when I do it's something special like a DVD-Audio image, BD-Audio image, or perhaps a rare VHS tape not commercially available on DVD. In any case, the quality needs to be high and the durability long. An internet search will reveal Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, and some Sony discs to be the best. Less expensive blanks are reported to have a higher failure rate on burning as well as issues with longevity of the dye. Note that these are also DVD-R as opposed to DVD+R. DVD-R is more compatible and the only format carrying the familiar DVD-Video logo. I also like that these come with a full size jewel case so that the spine is legible on a rack in the movie/music library.

On the topic of burning, I've noticed a trend of love/hate amongst blank media reviews. I think failure rates can be reduced dramatically if steps are taken before burning to ensure correct operation.
-Update the drivers for your media drive via the drive manufacturer website or the computer manufacturer website
-Don't run a lot of other programs while burning, or ideally don't use the computer at all...really it's only a few minutes.
-Burn at the proper speed. For these discs it's 8x. Many burning programs default to maximum speed or adjust automatically. Instead choose the speed recommended by the disc and/or check forums for user experiences.

I have been transferring my old home movie vhs and 8mm tapes to dvd for 3 months with a Nero moviemaking program. I have used 64 of these discs, and am about to order 50 more. In the beginning, 2 discs failed, but I am certain that was because my computer was scheduled to perform updates at the same time that it was trying to burn a dvd. So I scheduled updates for a time when I was not burning a dvd, and I had no more problems. They seem to be slightly thicker than standard dvd's and are really tight when I try to fit them back to back in storage album pockets, so I use every other pocket for a card describing the contents of the adjacent dvd.

I bought this about a year ago. In the last 12 months, I probably experienced 1 to 2 failed disc out of 30 (Intel MAC failed to burn). I just started archiving a large batch of files, after 4 consecutive good burns, I suddenly come across 7 discs that won't burn. I try on two different computers with identical problem. The failure rate is just too high.

NOTE: It turns out the problem was an OS issue. The disc now burns fine, so I changed my rating from 1 star back to 5.

These were purchased to archive one of a kind family videos. At the end of the day it was a one of a kind experience. The top four disks on the 50 disk spindle performed as expected. The remaining disks on the spindle - not so much. Since the first few disks had done well, we assumed the disks were OK and started the trouble shooting with the hard wire connections, equipment and programs of the computer system. That word assume, in retrospect one always knows that is trouble. Short version of a long story - most of the remaining disks were faulty. We had several long conversations with the company reps. Pleasant folks who would like me to, at my expense, ship the disks back to them for inspection. Perhaps I would then get replacements. It would seem a better then even chance the replacements would also be faulty. As I pointed out to them, the money they received from me worked just fine. No doubt many people have had good luck with this product - why, the first four on the spindle worked great for me also. I think you can figure it out. In our business Verbatim is now Verboten.

Only one bad burn out of 50. I burned them all at 4x. The scratch resistant coating is VERY nice though it's only on one side (the burn side). Using my fingernail it is very easy to scratch either side of a regular Verbatim disc (94852) but on these 95355 discs there is no way I can scratch the bottom side with my fingernail. The top (gold) side is easy to scratch. Overall I'm very happy with the discs and I've always been impressed with Verbatim products.

UPDATE - Ordered and received another 50 discs because I had more stuff to backup then I thought I did! Burned 22 out of the second group of 50 discs. 100% trouble free. So of the grand total of 73 discs I burned I only had one coaster. No complaints from me on these discs!

I read Brian's review with some concern. I'm glad to say I've used 45 w/o a failure / problem and am ordering a 2nd spindle. Thanks, Verbatim!

Got these to archive images. I burn 2 copies of each disk and so far, no errors in burning or verification.

In theory the gold reflective layer should give long life but it is too soon for me to tell. I haven't seen any errors yet.