Just purchased DMR-EX78EB and would like advice upon which type of disc to use to record upon.
Whilst i'll be using the system from day to day to watch & record freeview, the main reason for buying was to archive old footage. i.e: Copying home movies from vhs, sony mini dv camcorder (DCR-TRV17E) via dv cable, storing pics via USB & archiving a few items from Sky+ box via scart. Thought I knew what I was doing until I read the manual about DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-R DL, DVD-RW, +R, +R DL & +RW.
I realise RW are re-writable, but is there any differnce in quality with these types.
What i'm looking for is quality, longevity and compatabilty with other players.

It seems a tired old excuse, but it really is my first post and I have searched thoroughly for an answer first so....

& thanks.

[Gavtech]

Welcome to the forum.

The advice is simple: Use DVD-R for all general archiving... preferably copied by high speed copying. [ lossless ]
They are the most ubiquitous and most widely compatible.

Don't waste your time with cheap discs . It is a false economy.

If you can, use discs by manufacturers such as Taiyo Yuiden which use the TYGO3 Dye... which have good accuracy and longevity and are well matched to your machine.


These machines have the best support for all '-' type discs , so always use those in preference to + types on this machine.

It can be be worth keeping a few DVD RAM in stock for special applications.
They can be useful in editing and temporary storage , as recording can be bounced endlessly and losslessly to and from the HDD.

[STdrez625]

It can be very useful to put all your first editing tryouts to a RW disc.. you are bound to make a few maitakes. Like that. What I do is just shove footage onto a +rw then read it onto my PC and manipulate it there. It is far easier to edit on a PC and you can add some really nice menus, sound tracks and other whizz-bangery to give your dvds some relevance eg "Holiday with wife 2006"
"Bitter divorce footage 2007"
"House before Re-possession" etc etc.
I like Ridiscs and Verbatim are also meant to be good.. look for discs made in Japan rather than China.
Dont forget lightscribe discs or inkjet printables....very good and far far better than hand written lables

Thanks Gavtech & STdrez625 for your help!

[Ivor_Biggern]

I use these. I am not the seller btw , they are a good price for 50. They are the same as what Gavtech recommends.

50 Verbatim DVD-R 16x/4.7gb (Taiyo Yuden) BEST QUALITY on eBay, also, Blank Media, Drives Storage, Computing (end time 28-Nov-08 10:56:55 GMT)

[davee b]

As already mentioned anything using Taiyo Yuden (TG03) dye seems to work well (Online try SVP or APR media to name but two). I also find that off the supermarket shelf maxell and verbatim discs have a very low failure rate . I use Panasonic or verbatim Ram discs to backup important programs if they are hanging around on the hard drive for a while. I'm not a fan of -RW, they seem a bit unreliable.