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May 27, 2012, 09:36 AM

Hey!
(I didn't really know where else to put it; and it's not the most complicated question, too)

It sounds like a stupid question probably, but can you really burn well on DVD-Rs bigger than the standard 4.7 GB? I thought there are 9 GB and dual layer 18 GB DVDs that any normal DVD burner accepts these days; but I always wondered about reliability and price - I never tried.

Thought many of you will have experiences enough with this...
Pete

Waragainstsleep · May 27, 2012, 09:54 AM

I gave up using dual layer 9GB DVDs (Never heard of 18GB) years ago because the were expensive and never lasted very long. Nothing like as durable as 4.6GB discs. I expect they have come down in price a bit otherwise flash media would probably be cheaper by now.

Eug · May 27, 2012, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

I gave up using dual layer 9GB DVDs (Never heard of 18GB) years ago because the were expensive and never lasted very long. Nothing like as durable as 4.6GB discs. I expect they have come down in price a bit otherwise flash media would probably be cheaper by now.

I have tons of dual-layer 8.5 GB DVD+R and they work perfectly after many years.

They key is to buy good quality media. The problem with that is that good quality dual-layer media costs more than twice as much as good quality single-layer media.

mduell · May 27, 2012, 01:48 PM

The 17GB media are dual sided (and dual layer), so it's not seamless over the 8.5GB boundary.

P · May 27, 2012, 02:29 PM

Correct - and I have never ever seen one in the real world.

I have used dual layer discs a few times, but generally I stick to the much cheaper and faster single-layer discs.

Waragainstsleep · May 27, 2012, 03:40 PM

Last time I used one it was £5 a disc and quite possibly they were Apple branded media. They didn't last at all so I never bothered trying again.

Eug · May 27, 2012, 06:21 PM

The discs I buy are Verbatim DVD+R DL. They usually go for about $1 apiece in North America on sale, in packs of 30.

I have never seen Apple branded DL media.

Note that I burn all my DVD movie discs with a bit-setting burner. Kinda irrelevant in 2012, but it was important many years ago. What this does is set the identification bit on the disc to DVD-ROM. So, instead of the player seeing a DVD+R, it sees the disc as a DVD-ROM. Older players didn't know what a DVD+R was, so it'd spit out the disc. Set it to DVD-ROM and the exact same discs play perfectly.

For example, if I wanted such DL discs to be compatible with my Cube's DVD-ROM drive, I'd have to use a bitsetting burner with DVD+R DL media.

mattyb · May 27, 2012, 06:24 PM

Not to derail the thread, but I'm not sure that I've saved anything to DVD/CD for the last three years. Why not external hard drives, or USB keys? You can get 32G keys for about 15€ from Amazon (even less on Ebay).

Eug · May 27, 2012, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by mattyb

Not to derail the thread, but I'm not sure that I've saved anything to DVD/CD for the last three years. Why not external hard drives, or USB keys? You can get 32G keys for about 15€ from Amazon (even less on Ebay).

Back up to DVD (or or CD or DVD DL or Blu-ray), then put it a CD album, and place it in the cupboard.

And I use CDs and DVDs to give people files. I don't give them USB drives, for a few reasons: Virus transmission, and USB keys aren't cheap enough that I'd be willing to give them one, whereas I'm happy to give them a DVD. Another reason I don't always want to loan them mine either is because it may have sensitive files on it.

Plus if I mail files to someone, I'm certainly not going to spend $10 on a USB key to send to them, for higher shipping cost than a mailed CD. (CDs and DVDs fit into a slim envelope and therefore cost the same as higher weight regular mail. Around here, because of the thickness, USB keys generally need to be sent as small packages. Mailing a CD might cost $1.50, whereas mailing a USB key might cost $8.)

mattyb · May 28, 2012, 03:11 AM

I either use Dropbox or a service provided by my ISP to give people large files (or zips of files).

Backups go onto 2 1.5T external hard drives, one with Time Machine and another is just copying directories.

I guess that I don't have the same need for DVDs anymore.

Eug · May 28, 2012, 07:16 AM

Dropbox requires the person to be a Dropbox member.

ChrisF · May 28, 2012, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by Eug

Dropbox requires the person to be a Dropbox member.

The public folder in your Dropbox can be accessed by anyone. Obviously, this has security issues, but if it doesn't matter, membership isn't necessary.

Ghoser777 · May 28, 2012, 02:49 PM

Google Drive allows you to share to anyone (last I checked). Much better access controls too.

el chupacabra · May 31, 2012, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by PeterParker

I thought there are 9 GB and dual layer 18 GB DVDs that any normal DVD burner accepts these days; but I always wondered about reliability and price - I never tried.

Thought many of you will have experiences enough with this...
Pete

I've burned some verbatim dual layer dvds 100% success, and they've lasted for years. Other brands aren't so good from what I hear.

Jun 14, 2012, 01:55 PM

I thought I'd bump this up again, as there is one final question:

Which DVDs to buy? I found some Verbatims cheap in a store close to us, but wondering though. Some of you mentioned Verbatim; so that's the recommendation? (or aren't the differences that great?)

(and btw, I thought I'd only buy DVD-R and DVD-R DL and no DVD+R or DVD+R DL, that might be conservative, as I thought the '+' would be more recent and modern, but I only used DVD-R for years, and I'm somewhat sceptical; but hmm...)

Pete

P · Jun 15, 2012, 02:15 AM

There is quite a large difference between brands, IME. Verbatim is one of the good ones.

+R and +RW are generally more reliable over time if all your devices support them. Some older set-top DVDs do not support reading them but work with -R. Buy +R unless you know you need -R for compatibility.

Athens · Jun 15, 2012, 04:20 AM

The main thing is to never leave all your eggs in one basket. If you have something important enough to backup, back it up on more then one disc, drive. The problem with media that gets larger, 4.7Gb to 8.5 GB to 19GB and so on is the more chance of loss and the bigger the loss.

Media when it gets old becomes unreliable. Make new copies of it every couple years.

Accidents happen, scratch, bump and next thing you know your paying a recovery company a lot of money and still risk not getting it all back.

Formats Change IE a backup on a IDE drive from just a few years ago will be a pain to access on most newer computers that don't include IDE.