Can anyone make a recommendation for purchasing DVD-R media to be burned in a G4--do the Apple discs work substantially better, or are there cheaper 3rd party discs that are fully compatible? How much should one expect to pay? Where to go for the best deals?

After well over a year living with a DVD burner, I'm finally getting around to burning discs! How friggin' embarassing. Any info is appreciated and welcome!

If you want the long answer go here (http://www.dvdtoday.com/Recordable%20DVD%20Test.htm). Or the short answer for compatibility:

DVD-R for General (4.7GB)

Maxell (76%)
Apple (73%)
Mitsui (69%)
Pioneer (65%)
Ridata (69%)
Ritek (71%)
Taiyo Yuden (63%)
TDK (67%)
Verbatim (59%

Thanks Jeff. Ugh.

What brand do you use? Recommendations for where to buy?

I buy the Apple brand because I'm fairly close to the Apple store in Tampa. It's just too convenient.. I've rarely had a problem with compatibility.. The few times I have, it's been Toshiba players. So, for me, compatibility with the Apple brand has probably been 95% or higher.

Charles,
I, too, have been mainly using the Apple-brand blank DVD-R media and never had a problem. I have also used some Maxell discs and did encounter a problem playing one back in my older Pismo Powerbook --- inexplicably --- yet it plays fine everywhere else.

I bought a pack of Fuji from Best Buy once... now I just use them to toss around teh room when I'm board. Now I'm all about using Maxell. Nott a problem (yet). I've got 2 p.o.s dvd players at home, and I know if it plays n both of them, it'll play anywhere. I purchase my media from taperesources.com ~ I think they're on of DVi's sponsor sites too.

some more fuel for the fire, not only have i had great results with the Apple discs, but they're also usually the cheapest at fry's where you can get a 5-pack for $14.99, the other's are usually around $20 for a 5-pack.

<<<--

Maxell (76%)
Apple (73%)
Mitsui (69%)
Pioneer (65%)
Ridata (69%)
Ritek (71%)
Taiyo Yuden (63%)
TDK (67%)
Verbatim (59% -->>>

Doesn't Apple use Pioneer drive Mechanism for their superdrive? It is very interesting to see the compatibility of all diff brands. I thought Pioneer would be more than 65%. I've been using Mitsui DVD-R and CDR media for last few years, and happy with it.

The compatibility is for playback on other DVD players, not the burn compatability.

I have only used the Apple DVDr and have burnt about 50 discs. But a few weeks ago I was gently putting a freshly made DVDR in an Amaray DVD case (gently as always and it made a sorta pop sound, I looked at the disc surface and the layers had split from the centre out about 20mm and made the disc unplayable. Bad disc, Bad batch? I dunno... maybe the centre button of the case was to blame

As far as I know, Apple doesn't own a disc manufacturing plant, so it would be interesting to know who is actually making them.

I have been using "no-name" plain white DVD-R from B&W, a 25 pack is $35, and I haven't had anyone yet report they didn't work, but I've also burned everything at 1X.

I bought a bulk Ritek DVD-R pack for $100 awhile back (100 blanks) and they've been working perfectly for both data and DVD players....

....one thing I did learn was, Apple's own older DVD-Ram drives wont play DVD-R's...that's ironic seeing as to how they were standard "upgrade" offering's via Apple and a costly upgrade- yet it wont play burned DVD-R's.....so my older 400MHZ G4 tower while running OSX great- can't get info from one of my archived DVD-R's.....I have to move data to a FW drive and move it to the 400MHZ- a bit of a hassel when you want to move tons of digital photos or DV footage.....well most of you guys don't use a DVD-Ram drive anyway so it's not much of an issue for you guys, but thought I'd mention it here.

Have fun.

I've been burning the Verbatim 2X DVD-R (for General) discs for about year now and have only had one client say it wouldnt play and that was a very old player he had. Best Buy has a 15 pack spindle of them for $30 now and I am on my 4th spindle of them.

I just recently upgraded to the new 4x burner when i got my new mac, so I assume I will switch to faster media when I am done with these.

Chris