I apologize to any of you who bought these blank DVDs based on my initial review a few weeks ago. Although I do occasionally get a good quality burn and had in my initial review; for the most part, using these 16X Printable DVDs have resulted in a very attractive looking frisbee. These discs have FAR TOO MANY ERRORS to be useful for DVD backups. I did comparisons with other DVDs to make sure that it was not my burner (which ironically is also a Memorex). The same DVD backed up onto a Maxell DVD+R resulted in a very good back up. I repeated the test several times and got the same results. My Memorex DVDs had far more errors, and the Maxell DVDs were almost error free or error free.

Anyway here is my original review with some updates based on further experiences using these attractive frisbees (to be fair, you may also use them to make attractive coasters if you don't like frisbee).

ONE - SPEED: These blank DVDs can be burned at speeds up to 16 X. In real world terms, that means that a movie can be read in 8 minutes and burned in another 8 on your 16X DVD burner. I would not use these DVDs to back up video however. On the other hand, I have not had problems with MP3 back up or other data backup. On occasion, burning at 8X, from a pristine DVD, I have made a good back up DVD.

TWO - STORAGE CAPACITY: Although these discs are not Dual Layer, they still hold the standard 4.7 Gigs. Again, in real world terms, that equals one standard movie (possibly with compression) or one hell of a lot of data! Keep in mind that an Mp3 compressed at 128 khz is about 3 songs per 10 megabytes. Thats over 1400 songs. With no compression, (i.e. WAV files) a DVD is still capable of holding almost 7 CDs worth of music. I'm not good enough at math to tell you how many of your Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, or Access databases will fit on a DVD, but its a lot. DVDs offer a great portable data format. Unlike removable drives, you can also reproduce data for masses.

If you want to distribute a large amount of data to your employees or your customers, a DVD is a cheap and easy way of doing it. You could put a whole catalog of products on a DVD for distribution.

THREE - PRINTABLE = PROFESSIONAL: What I like BEST about these DVDs by Memorex is that the top of each DVD has a blank white face that is printable. If you have the appropriate printer (I have an Epson R200) you can print right on the DVD. Why should you do this? First, Sharpies DO NOT convey an image of professionalism or style in any way shape or form. Two, traditional stick on DVD labels have been known to screw up the playback of DVDs, especially in DVD video players. Because DVDs are spun back at a much higher rate than CDs, something about the labels interferes with the spinning process and causes pixelation, skips and freezes. (however, don't burn these at their top rated speed of 16X, it results in the same type of errors) On the other hand, when you print right onto the DVD, you have a very professional looking DVD. Imagine for example, handing out a DVD with your company logo, contents and graphics smoothly printed directly on the surface of the DVD. Or imagine giving a family member a DVD with a nice cover labeled "YOUR FAMILY" album with a table of contents in sharp crisp text and realistic photos and graphics on the cover. It beats the heck out of sharpies! Printable DVDs are also much more reliable than DVD Labels that you stick on.

FOUR PRICE = VALUE: Memorex DVDs don't even cost more than non printable DVDs. The first package I got was on sale for 17.99! They regularly sell at my local COMP USA for 45.00 a 50 pack. That is less than one dollar a DVD. If you shop around, thats pretty competetive. If you are in business, which is cheaper, a 50 page color catalog? or a one dollar DVD? Keep in mind, since you are not buying labels, the label is included in the cost. (well not the ink, but..) However, if want to use these to back up DVD video, shop around and get a different brand. I am in the process of searching for the perfect printable blank DVD.

FIVE - COMPATIBLILITY: These are DVD-Rs. Most any computer with a DVD drive will play them, but you should make sure your computer or DVD drive is compatible with the 16x speed. Many of todays DVD players will also play movies that you have backed up onto DVD-Rs.

(this paragraph added after a couple weeks use and experimentation)

ERROR RATE At the highest speed these discs are capable of, they really don't perform the best. I made several frisbees and some just poor quality backups of movies when I attempted to burn at 16X. I had a lot of problems with freezes, pixelations and dropout when I recorded at my Memorex 16X burner at the top speed with this media that I did NOT have when using Maxell non 8X DVD=+Rs. Reducing the recording speed to 8X reduced the errors on these discs, but DID NOT elimate them!

Other stuff: This is a spindle pack, if you want cases, you have to go out and buy them separately. The PRINTABLE Memorex DVD packages are also slightly harder to find than their non-printable bretheren. Again, after discovering the error rate at the higher speed, I rerated this product as 2 stars instead of five. If the media is rated for 16X, I don't expect frisbees or poor quality burns, especially since the sole reason I purchased printable DVDs was to avoid the problems that I had with labels.

Review equipment: I use a Memorex DVD burner to record with these, and an Epson R200 photo printer to print on the DVDs.

Other Blank Media (DVD+/-Rs, CD+/-Rs)
Here you can read about my quest for the perfect blank media to burn back up DVDs, CDs and data.

Verbatim 52 X printable CD-Rs (50 spindle pack)
Verbatim 8X Printable DVD-Rs
Memorex Printable 8X DVD+Rs (20 spindle pack)
Maxell 8X DVD-Rs (25 spindle pack)
TDK Printable 8X DVD-Rs (25 spindle pack)



Recommended: No