How To Choose CD/DVD Archival Media

(Last updated January 11th 2013)

Translations: Serbo-Croatian by Jovana Milutinovich



Short history of the Compact Disc






Short history of the DVD




Why archival media is hard to produce







Why Taiyo Yuden media, and how to buy in the US




Why DVD+R?


















And finally, the end of the article…







Samsung: Samsung is currently producing two drives worth owning, the
Samsung SH-S222AB


















Written by
Published in
Transmissions from the Little Blue Marble

Published October 30th, 2006


1,250 Responses

It depends. Verbatim now ships Taiwan manufactured discs that have at least passable quality (by my standards, not the industry’s standards which I believe are lower than mine), but they still use the Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Azo Dye formula.

Verbatim does sometimes relabel other brands (none of these carry the Advanced Azo Dye moniker), and these should be avoided as they aren’t Verbatim at all.

On my 100 pack spindle of Verbatim DVD+R it says it’s made in Taiwan.
I suppose whoever that manufacts Verbatim’s discs must follow their specification when it’s comes to dye and how well it’s been sealed and so on.
Or is there, in your opinion, any quality differences between Verbatim’s discs when it comes to in which plant it’s manufactured?

Russell: Yes, I’m recommending DVD+R over CD-R: TY DVD+R and TY CD-Rs last just as long as each other, DVD+Rs cost minimally more than CD-Rs, and DVD+Rs hold way more than CD-Rs. Theres no reason to use CD-Rs anyore except for the question I’m about to answer..

Cris: To pay CD audio on a CD player, you can’t use DVD+R. You really wanted CD-Rs.

You use DVD+R for mass data storage and for backing up/creating DVDs only; CD players don’t understand how to use DVDs.

This article was great, thx. answered a lot of my questions… but 1 more to show my “non-techiness” lol …

recently Id bought DVD+R thinking I could create my own mixed music. Obviously it dint work.

What do I use these discs for then? and what is it I SHOULD have bought?


Someone asked this question but I’m not sure it was answered clearly for my understanding. For archiving purposes, are you recommending DVD+R over CD-R? For price and the capacity I need, CD-R would serve me better, but I can use DVD+R if they are better for archiving.


I usually ignore what the software says the fastest speed I can use is. I only go by what the box the media came in says.

I have a Plextor PX-760A and when I set with the fastest speed (in Nero Burning Rom) it says that I can burn with 18X although I use Verbatim DVD+R 16X.
Shouldn’t the info on the DVD set the software to max 16X?
And will the quality on a 18X-burned DVD be lower with more errors than with 16X which is the maximum speed the DVD is certified for?

Most likely its the same media between the two types of DVD-Rs, but the ones sold as “Advanced AZO+” pass additional quality tests, ie, these are the ones you should buy. I don’t have either handy ATM (I only have a TY DVD+R spindle open), so I can’t check.

A complement to my earlier posting.

I have checked the codes on the net and it seems that the mediacode MCC004 belongs to Verbatim DVD+R.
They must have mixed up the codes or something.
But they do sell those two different DVD-R with different covers and marked as AZO+ and Advanced AZO+. So there must be some difference between them?

I’m confused about Verbatim’s DVD-R.
I have found a website that offers 2 different DVD-R from Verbartim.
One is labled as AZO+ and mediacode MCC004.
The other one as Advanced AZO+ and mediacode MCC03RG20. This is also more expensive.
The cover of the spindles differs also.
Are there any quality difference between these two?
“Advanced AZO+” sounds more quality to me.
And since the mediacodes are different it must mean that it’s two different dyes used in the media?

Their opinion on the subject most likely differs than mine. They prefer Verbatim’s archival line over TY products, thats their choice.

I consider Verbatim and TY the only top media providers, so its not like Verbatim is a bad choice. Also, I don’t know if Verbatim makes a DVD+R archival line (check their website, I can’t find it myself).

I believe your Mashita drive can read DVD+R (but it obviously can’t burn them, its a DVD/CDRW combo drive), and your NEC you clearly state is DVD+RW, which implies it can burn all four media types, -/+ R and -/+ RW.

As for best, I still recommend TY’s DVD+R. I’ve had zero problems with TY media (both CD and DVD) over the years, and I trust them to store my data.

Just spoke with the folks at They recommended the Verbatim rather than TY for archival purposes. As for the Verbatim archival quality DVDs, they only carried DVD-R? I’m a bit confused based on all you shared in your article. Could you provide a little more insight?

I have a DVD drive on my Laptop…Matshita DVD/CDRW UJDA775. My desktop has a NEC DVD+RW ND-110A? How do I know if I should us +R or -R?

Bottom line…I am looking to back up digital photography to DVD and store in a safe. What is the best method allowing for maximum shelf life?

I appreciate any help. Thanks!

Thally; The best speed is the maximum speed of the media as written on the box OR if your burner can’t burn that fast, the maximum speed of the burner.

Andy S: If you dont plan on playing it on a DVD player who requires the booktype hack, it doesn’t matter either way.

Just wanted to say that I got my new TY DVD+R in and used the booktype-fix and it worked perfectly.

Are there any advantages to not booktype-fixing a DVD+R?

What is best speed for recording CDs and DVDs??? (the lowest speed or the highest)
Does the recording speed influences the recording quality???
e.g. If I have a DVD-R 1x-8x. Should I use 1x speed or 8x or doesn’t matter???

Thanks and congratulations for the great article.
(and sorry for my poor english, i’m brazilian)

There have been no major changes. DVD quality is probably not going to change significantly for the meaningful life of the product.

What I am expecting, though, is for Bluray archival quality discs to come out sometime in the next year or two, Bluray burner prices just have to drop below $150 for a decent burner first.

I mean it is May 2008. I am guessing no change about Ritek. So let me change the question to “can you summarize the major changes noticed since the original post in 2006”.

It’s June 2008. Does Ritek still suck for DVD +R ?
I bought some b efore reading this thread 🙁 Thanks.

Excellent material and forum; glad I found it, as I am amassing many film and video transfers on DVD and now have to find the best medium.

Re fuzzy tapes, in cassettes (and I suspect reel-reel) the principal failure mechanism in tapes has been oozing of the binder resins at the edges of the tape, making passage over the heads a stick-slip situation. The squealing can be easily heard. The corollary problem is too much drag on the slip sheets. All CRO2 tapes I bought are today unplayable. Trouble also has arisen with some of the “Super” formulations that came along near the end of the cassette’s golden days. At the other extreme, I have 3M cassettes from the very dawn of the cassette era that still play as well as ever.

Finally an article for those of us who need basic training or are not familier with all the workings of our computers and attachments.

The only way of knowing is to actually try it. Some DVD players just don’t care at all and happily play burnt discs of all kinds, and others have some sort of anti-piracy fetish and can can even tell when you’re playing a booktype-fixed DVD+R.

So, burn a DVD and try.

Argh, Im a little confused on the book type fix. My DVD player around 1 year old, I have never attempted to play a DVD+R on it, but Im assuming it will play it fine. Should I assume that TY DVD+R will play fine without using the book type fix? (My DVD burner is capable of changing it)

Should I assume that most relatively new DVD players would play it fine without changing the book type setting should I either get a new DVD player or play the disc on another DVD player?

Thanks again, sorry for all the questions. Great site, there’s a ton of info, its easy to get lost in all of it though.

Thank you for this very informative site. I am wondering why Taiyo Yuden doesn’t make DL DVD media for those media buffs who want to back up their movies.

Burned media should last at least 25 years if its a brand like TY or Verbatim. Taken care of, it should last a great deal of time.

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