I have been on a quest for the perfect recordable DVD. In the past, I had very good luck with 8X blank DVDs from Maxell. I use blank DVDs primarily for backing up my extensive DVD collection (which is legal). My problem with the blank DVDs that I had previously used was that to label them, you either had to use a Sharpie (very sloppy and unprofessional looking) or print out a label on them. I discovered to my horror many discs would not play or had many problems playing after I put labels on them. I found out that it was the labels I was putting on the DVDs that caused them to mess up.

I read about Printers that would print on blank DVDs that were compatible, and purchased an Epson R200 Photo Printer which I found, not only to be an exceptional photo printer, but also the solution to labeling my DVDs in a professional attractive manner.
I first bought a spindle pack of Memorex 16X printable blank DVDs At first I thought I had found my ideal solution, but after burning a few backups I found that the Memorex DVDs had more errors in them than the labeled DVDs that had caused all the problems I was seeking to avoid.

Enter the 8X Memorex Printable DVDs
A Bit about Disc Speed

I assumed that perhaps the FAST SPEED was the culprit, my old Maxell 8X DVDs still made excellent DVD movie backups. Off to Staples I went, and found a package of 20 Printable 8X DVDs by Memorex. The reason I thought that it might be speed, is because many times if you burn a disc at the fastest speed possible, its more likely to have errors. Since we are talking about Speed, we should also talk about

Compatibility
What Burner will these Discs Work in?

Well, first of all, ideally, an 8X disc is the perfect disc for an 8x burner. However, most faster burners are also backwards compatible with slower discs. In other words, having a fast burner means that it will burn fast when you use the fastest rated discs, but it will also burn slower discs. To an extent, this also works in reverse. An 8X disc will also work in a 4X speed burner, but not one slower unless it has software updates to bring it into compatibility with at least 4X. My understanding is that as long as your burner has a manafacturer that provides updated software, you should be able to use the higher speed discs. My advice if you have a slower DVD burner? Go ONLINE FIRST, find out what software updates are available, and then order the appropriate speed discs.

Testing One Two Three

I fired up my Memorex DL 16X DVD burner (ironic, you'd think a Memorex blank DVD would be beautiful with a Memorex DVD burner) and made a back up copy of Eminem E This is a pretty short DVD, and required very little compression. I had already made a few backups on the 16X Memorex DVDs (all frisbee quality) and a few more on Maxell 8X (but non printable DVDs) which came out excellent. Well, the DVD burned in record time, but when I threw it in my Pioneer 45A player, one video (Stan) was missing entirely, and the others wouldn't play all the way through without excessive pixelation, dropout, and freezing. Completely unacceptable. I tried a few more times with different DVDs, and had the same problems. A burn of my newest DVD - Dresden Dolls at the Paradise had an unexplained disc error and didn't work at all.

Suitability

These printable DVDs are NOT suitable for DVD Video backups. Alright, having that rant off my head, how does it work for data? Well, just fine actually. I have a lot of jpeg photos and mpeg short movies that I made with my Canon Powershot SD10 Digital Camera, so I used NERO to burn a backup of my "My Pictures" photo. The data burn was very quick, and all my photos and mpegs were copied without problems.

Printable Tops

This is my favorite feature of the Memorex discs. Each disc has a shiny white surface compatible with ink jet printers like the Epson R200 Photo Printer (which prints right onto discs), so you can print a really professional looking cover for your disc, instead of writing on it with a sharpie or using a stick on label. They really look professional, and the color and detail that can be placed on the disc (at least in my experience with the R200) is incredible.

Other Stuff

They hold 4.7 gigs of data, the cost of the 20 pack was $20.00, or a dollar per coaster. It comes in a spindle pack that holds 20 DVDs. Ironically my pack include a DVD marker in it. What is the point of a DVD marker, if the labels are printable on a photo printer? It is capable of holding Mp3s or other data (so far), but not video

I have lost my faith in Memorex as a solution to DVD recording needs, and I will continue to search and review for the perfect blank printable DVD for quality DVD video backups.

For backups of your data, these Discs work just fine. However since I bought them primarily to back up video, for my purposes, I had to give them one star.

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 (50 spindle pack
Memorex Printable 16X DVD Rs (50 spindle pack)
Maxell 8X DVD-Rs (25 spindle pack)
TDK Printable 8X DVD-Rs (25 spindle pack)



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