which is the best dvd-r / dvd-rw brand to buy? i recently bought a dvd-rw drive off of ebay and im wondering what brand is best to buy for dvd-r and dvd-rw...ive seen on ebay princo...im pretty sure ill never buy those...i mean come on for $1.59 each they gotta be bad. im not talkin about going to best buy and buying a dvd-rw 1 pak for $10! ill never do that. im looking for packs of 10 probably, but not exclusively
i dont want like really expensive, overpriced discs, but i dont want cheap crappy media either im just lookin for some discs that r always (or at least most of the time) reliable and dont cost TOO much...THX any help is appreciated

o yeah i have a pioneer dvr-a03 drive in case it helps

I only use Verbatim DVD-R discs. A the moment, they're about 5€ each.

Verbatim DVD-RW are about 10€ each.

Even older drives that are not designed to read DVD-RW are able to read them, such as LG 8x.

You might try to get Meriteline. They're cheaper, seem to be very compatible, too, but can only be written @ 1x-speed.

i just checked out ebay and the ads for some princo discs say that they work "100%" with the dvr-a03...i was just wondering if ne1 has had any good expierences with them. how bad could they really be if people continue to sell them? it seems my drive is a favorite to specify that the discs work with. it is illegal for them to have false advertisements by the way, so if they dont work 100% theyre breaking the law...

Princo can be written, but some DVD-ROMs refuse to read these crap media (as well as Penmax).

I would never insult my dvd writer with such stuff.

how bad could they really be if people continue to sell them?

You can tell people everything and they believe it. They're sold until everyone knows they're crap, and that will never happen.

Others say: Why should I pay 5-6€ each for Verbatim if I can get Princo for 2€ each, even if some are going to be coasters? I experienced that with someone who prefered (cd-r) Fujitsu Siemens (Ritek) crap media with 30% coasters, because TDK Reflex were 3x as expensive as these Fujitsu Siemens at that time (1 DM vs. over 3 DM each).

Look into de.comp.hardware.laufwerke.brenner: Really many people buy Platinum, Bestmedia, Intenso etc (with manufacturers such as PostTech, Fornet, InfoTech, Auvistar etc) and then wonder why some of them are unreadable after buring or after some weeks.

It's the same with AOpen writers: People read a review of 1/2 page where only the time is measured and then the fastest writer is the best.

These princo will never disappear from the market. There're enough stupid people who buy them (in other words: dvd writers are already too cheap: too many people can afford them for 350€).
About half a year ago, when I bought my DVR-A03, you didn't get Princo here in Germany. You only got Verbatim and Pioneer. To few people owned a dvd writer (I got mine at a very good price of 1150 DM; most shops offered it for about 1400 DM = 700€ at that time), and the ones who did own one knew enough not to buy such crap media.

Don't know where you are based but here in the UK I use the superb DATASAFE White Top Branded Gen 3 - General Purpose DVD-R 4.7gb Disc. Seem to be good for everything & very compatible with most DVD players