This is just getting on my nerves, so I'm going to vent. I had lousy burns with Verbatim on my last Plextor 712A. I tried Verbatims from 3 different 100-pack spindles - all with terrible results. I replaced the IDE cable, tested with different media brands, uninstalled Nero and went back to Nero 6, etc. So I assumed the drive was dead, and I replaced it with a new Plextor 740A. Same, exact problems! I am coming to the conclusion that it's one big conspiracy. I am boycotting anything that's made in Taiwan! Trust no one! You think you can trust Verbatims because they have an MID code of MCC? BS! I am sure these spindles are garbage made by Prodisc and/or CMC. And Plextor is crap too. From now on, I'm staying Japanese - NECs, Taiyo Yuden, etc. Screw Taiwanese garbage.

Well we are glad you got that off your chest but a scan of the bad burns would help to back up your venting. Px 740 is a rebadged BenQ 1640 so you might as well hate BenQ as well. Media is media and there are way too many variables to get the best burn every time although we all wish we could.

Hate is just a 4-letter word, in case you didn't know...

I have to agree with crossg: it seems you have done a lot of testing, and with all those less-than-desirable results you got, we understand your venting; however, as much as possible, post some disk quality scans of the burns you made with MCC mid. It is so true that MCC mids are so variable in quality that you either get a very good spindle or at least a below-average spindle. Again, please post some burn scans if you'd be so inclined.

I understand it, because while my Plextor 716a performed fine on its own, its performance in burning was not superior to my BenQ 1640--especially not considering the price I paid for my 716--based on its true former reputation of being unparalleled. Its write strategies weren't as well-developed as they should have been, and the f/w updates continue being very slow, if not completely haphazard and incomplete at times. That said, I don't hate Plextor, just the unsubstantiated claims Plextor made about that burner, when I could have gotten another (a Liteon 1693s) that clearly is superior in many cases, and writes many lower grade media with good or even close-to-excellent quality (especially most things MCC from all the scans I've seen at the 1693s scan thread); the Liteon would have also been 1/3 the price.

i can fully understand your hate towards verbatim dude

i once bought two cacke boxes of verbatim dvd+r from taiwan
damn when i started to burn these mf i thought my plextor died or was about to die...
tested the dvds in 3 different dvd-burners with even worse results(write failures, unreadable discs etc.)
now i look where the dvds i buy are made and stick to verbatims and plextor-branded dvds made in japan
its unbelievable that such a good name like verbatim is now on these horrible quality dvds...
this makes me think twice before i buy verbatims now and most of the times i buy plextor just to be sure and i dont give a **** if they cost twice as much because i want my data to be safe which are priceless...

I have been lucky and have had nothing but success with US purchases of Verbatim MCC +R but I understand this is not the case everywhere. My media of choice is YUDEN000 T02 non branded. I have yet to encounter anything but a pefect burn on any of my drives with this stuff at 8X.

Seriously, that's some horrible luck to have such problems with Verbatim media. MCC made by Prodisc and CMC is just fine with my many Plextors, often rivaling Taiyo Yuden in quality.

Are there "real" 100-cake boxes from Verbatim? Fake Verbatim perhaps?

Yes there are real 100pc spindles from Verbatim.

Here's an example: DVD+R 4.7GB 16X Branded 100pk Spindle

Yes there "real" 100 cake boxes from Verbatim. I just about only buy the 100's unless I find a sale I just can't pass up.

I buy mine from Sam's Club

those horrible verbatims had the CMC mediacode btw.
like Lord Voldemort suggested i also thought that these couldn't be real verbatims
but hey i have bought them in a big electronics store in berlin so i thought it couldn't be true(yes i have read some articles about these fake verbatims in eastern europe)
well i was so angry about the bad performance that i threw away all remaining dvds into the trashcan(60€ worth of discs.. :/ ) because they wern't worht wastin my time...

now i regret that i haven't sent some of them to verbatim-europe with a short note...
just to make them care more abouth their quality image...

I don't know what's up with 8x Verbatim media in Europe using non-MCC discs. Are there no more DataLifePlus 8x discs on the market there?

i gave up looking for an explanation for this...
i mean the marketing guys @verbatim should be aware that offering crap under a quality brand causes more damage than the potential savings on the production costs of these crappy discs...

maybe i'm wrong...

I'm guessing that the discs in question are "Pearl White" discs, which are always non-MCC. See this search on Videohelp.com.

You can still get Verbatim 8x DVD+/-R media in Europe, but it is easier to get the Pearl White media (or 16x media which is real MCC or TY).

DrageMaster you are right!
mine were pearl white
that is correct!
thanks for pointing out this fact
now i have two things which serve as criteria to sort out the bad ones
color and country they were produced in