Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R DL

[Dawn_fan]

Hey, I was just wondering if there was a good place to buy some Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R DL discs. I am not in the need of them right away but I am looking into buying them just to try them out for video projects and various other things for data storage. 

Previously, they used to be sold on Amazon and they were officially sold by Amazon.com. I always check for this because I like buying discs that are sold officially rather than 3rd party sources as it's more reliable I feel. I can't find them to be sold officially by Amazon.com anymore, but if they are sold on Amazon, it's by a 3rd party seller and I don't really trust those. 

If anybody knows a place or online retailer preferably that sells such discs, it would be helpful if it could be recommended here. Thanks for any help in advance. 

[dbminter]

Amazon.com still offers them for shipping themselves:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F2YPH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

If you're looking for inkjet printable labeled ones:

https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-98319-Datalifeplus/dp/B07GPTV77F/ref=sr_1_14?crid=3US12YPGDHO5O&keywords=verbatim+dvd%2Br+dl+inkjet&qid=1700321675&s=electronics&sprefix=verbatim+dvd%2Br+dl+inkjet%2Celectronics%2C242&sr=1-14

 

Although, I can't explain the super low price of the inkjet ones.  They're nearly half off the Deal price of the branded ones.  At that price, I'm tempted to get some for myself, even though I currently don't need any, and keep them in storage.  IF they're the MKM ones.  I have a feeling Verbatim might discontinue them or Amazon is trying to get rid of unsold stock.

 

The good news is if they're NOT the MKM ones, Amazon.com has a very good return policy.

[Dawn_fan]

Wow, I never saw the bottom link before, I wonder why I wasn't able to find it. I could always find those inkjet printables before but all of a sudden I could only see 3rd party sellers selling them. Good to know that they are still there though. 

And I agree, $25 for a 50 pack of those is a great deal, I thought they used to be like $47 or near the $50 price range. I think I may consider getting these as well if the price is that low. 

As for the branded ones, I usually never trusted those because I mainly thought that all branded verbatim media would be CMC and only the datalifeplus/inkjet would be the usual Mitsubishi Chemical Corp manufactured bunch. However, they do say AZO on the cover and I don't think CMC could possibly make AZO dye discs but you never know, I guess I could test those out and see whichever MID I get returned. 

Thanks for the info!

[dbminter]

It's weird.  My first search for the inkjet discs turned up only an entry with 3rd party sellers.  However, scrolling down through the list of hits, I did find another entry that was Amazon shipped.

 

I have ordered those branded AZO discs before.  They are Mitsubishi MKM.

[dbminter]

The order I just placed a few hours ago has already shipped.

 

Amazon appears to be going on a selling spree.  I already got something else I was monitoring because it dropped half in price and something else I also ordered went from $42 to $24, with the Prime shipping.

[Dawn_fan]

16 hours ago, dbminter said:

It's weird.  My first search for the inkjet discs turned up only an entry with 3rd party sellers.  However, scrolling down through the list of hits, I did find another entry that was Amazon shipped.

Yeah that's what I came across too when I was searching for them, but I can only find the one being sold for $25 via only your link. When I try and search for myself in amazon for "verbatim datalifeplus dvd+r dl" I can't seem to find it at all.

https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-8-5GB-DataLifePlus-InkJet-Printable/dp/B00DT6OWFG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=ZDU650E33OXQ&keywords=verbatim%2Bdatalifeplus%2Bdvd%2Br%2Bdl&qid=1700402175&sprefix=verbatim%2Bdatalifeplus%2Bdvd%2Br%2Bdl%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-3&th=1

I also found the above link which is both sold and shipped by Amazon but for some reason, this one is for $67.  I don't understand why one would be for $24 and the other for $67 when they are both being sold by Amazon???

16 hours ago, dbminter said:

I have ordered those branded AZO discs before.  They are Mitsubishi MKM.

Oh ok, yeah that makes sense since only Mitsubishi could make those good AZO dye discs.

[dbminter]

Yeah, I came across both Amazon entries, as well.  I can't explain it, either; it's really weird.  If you do a general search for those terms, the first hit is for the $67, but if you scroll down through the list of hits, you find the $25 one.

 

My order is supposed to arrive today.

[Dawn_fan]

16 hours ago, dbminter said:

Amazon appears to be going on a selling spree.  I already got something else I was monitoring because it dropped half in price and something else I also ordered went from $42 to $24, with the Prime shipping.

I think it's because of all of the deals going on. Amazon's website says it's having some early Black Friday Deals so that's the main reason why I would assume all of these price drops are occurring.

 

I usually am sticking to verbatim datalifeplus media for all of my discs, mainly CDs right now because I don't use DVDs too often, only every now and then. I actually still have some great Sony DVD+R SL discs that have an official MID of Sony Corp and they burn very well regardless if the spindle is well over 10 years old. I still have a good 40-50+ of those discs and since I barely use DVDs, I am sure they will carry me a couple more years.

Once they run out though however, I will probably get the verbatim datalifeplus media for DVDs. However, I am curious to try out other media brands that don't use CMC, well not exactly. I am captivated by the CMC PRO discs sold on amazon where while CMC may still own them, they use good ol' Taiyo Yuden's dye to make them. They make both CDs and DVDs and the prices aren't extremely high to test out.

I have also seen some discs of the name of "Ritek Pro" and I heard that Ritek is kind of good and better than CMC itself and they also make CDs and DVDs. However, their prices are quite high and I am not sure if it's worth testing.

 

If I were to obtain such discs and test them out, should I post my results with them on the forum? Is there a specific section for that like "Media" or should I just stick to "Chat" for now since well I guess I am only just a newbie on the forum.

[Dawn_fan]

6 minutes ago, dbminter said:

Yeah, I came across both Amazon entries, as well.  I can't explain it, either; it's really weird.  If you do a general search for those terms, the first hit is for the $67, but if you scroll down through the list of hits, you find the $25 one.

 

My order is supposed to arrive today.

Ah ok, I guess I didn't look enough.

Really shows how Amazon is quick with its work if your order is already arriving today, I hope you enjoy it.

[dbminter]

The CMC Pro discs are TY discs.  At least, the MID's say they are.  You can always fake an MID, though.  I tried out some of them and they all burned and played back on a PS3 without issues.

 

Sony used to make a quality DVD-R when they made it themselves.  Now, they farm out to Ritek, which is okay 2nd tier media in North America; in Europe, Ritek appears to be junk.

 

There's a section of the Forums dedicated to media reviews:

https://forum.imgburn.com/forum/15-media/

 

The most recent posts, in fact, appear to be from me.   

 

I underwent a task to check all of my recorded discs since some were burned before I knew what CMC was.  So, I took the opportunity to replace any MCC DVD-R I had recorded with MCC Verbatim DataLife Plus inkjet printable DVD-R.  While I was at it, I decided to post a list of discs that were still readable 15-20 years after they were burned.

[Dawn_fan]

27 minutes ago, dbminter said:

The CMC Pro discs are TY discs.  At least, the MID's say they are.  You can always fake an MID, though.  I tried out some of them and they all burned and played back on a PS3 without issues.

Ah ok, I will have to try them out sometime.

 

27 minutes ago, dbminter said:

Sony used to make a quality DVD-R when they made it themselves.  Now, they farm out to Ritek, which is okay 2nd tier media in North America; in Europe, Ritek appears to be junk.

Yeah I still have the ones that they made officially by themselves and they burn very well. I have some of them that are 10 years old as bootable images for different operating systems, and they read just fine.

 

27 minutes ago, dbminter said:

There's a section of the Forums dedicated to media reviews:

https://forum.imgburn.com/forum/15-media/

 

The most recent posts, in fact, appear to be from me.   

Ah ok, I will post there then if I come across some media that's good for testing.

Yeah you're one of the most active on the forum. It's mainly you and Lightning UK that have been the most active and helpful here when I have casually read other posts of the forum. I thank you guys for keeping this amazing piece of software working fine and keeping the community going as well.

 

27 minutes ago, dbminter said:

 

I underwent a task to check all of my recorded discs since some were burned before I knew what CMC was.  So, I took the opportunity to replace any MCC DVD-R I had recorded with MCC Verbatim DataLife Plus inkjet printable DVD-R.  While I was at it, I decided to post a list of discs that were still readable 15-20 years after they were burned.

Ah that's great, I just read it. I also have a LG WH16NS60 in a VanTec enclosure. It likes every disc I have thrown at it.

I recognize a couple of brands listed on your post. Aside from MCC/MKM, TDK sparks my mind. I think they used to make their own media before but they may have switched to CMC, I am not sure though but I have heard some pretty great things about them on forums related to discs in the early 2000s.

I have these ancient rewritables from 2003 or so that my dad had with an MID of Plasmon Data Systems. It was the first time I had seen such an MID and some of them aren't readable but some of them are. I saved the ones that work well and they have been continuing to work well notwithstanding the amount of rewrites I have put on those things.

I will for sure post on the "Media" section if I ever get the opportunity to buy certain media and test them out.

 

Thanks for all of the info!

Edited November 19, 2023 by Dawn_fan

[dbminter]

The NS60 has had a few read hiccups over the years.  Maybe 5% of what I've fed it won't fully read, but another drive, like my Verbatim Pioneer USB drive, will read.

 

It's a shame you can't find NS60's anymore.  Just the NS40.

[dbminter]

My order arrived and near as I can tell, even though they're like 4 times less in price, the MID does say they're MKM-003's.  So, they appear to be the good stuff.  Although I don't have anything in need of burning right now to a DVD+R DL, so I can't test to make sure they work okay.  If I can remember, I'll be sure to use one of these new ones first on my next need to burn DVD Video to a DVD+R DL.

[Dawn_fan]

On 11/19/2023 at 10:05 AM, dbminter said:

The NS60 has had a few read hiccups over the years.  Maybe 5% of what I've fed it won't fully read, but another drive, like my Verbatim Pioneer USB drive, will read.

 

It's a shame you can't find NS60's anymore.  Just the NS40.

Oh wait my bad, I actually do have an NS40

I get confused between them sometimes but what I said before still applies to the NS40. It has been doing  a pretty good job with the media I have thrown at it including DatalifePlus CDs, my Sony DVD+Rs, and the Plasmon Data Systems CD-RWs that I have mentioned before.

What discs haven't been reading on your NS60? I think I have heard of that verbatim USB drive before as I have seen it on Amazon when I was looking for some USB  slim writers. I think that one was a BD writer and I didn't use BD discs at all so I passed that drive and I got an LG GP65NB60. It writes a lot like my NS40 and I can tell LG did a couple of copy pastes in the firmware especially when burning DataLifePlus CD-RW by MCC.

I was originally trying to find an NS60 but it was out of stock everywhere I looked. I found an NS40 on deal and decided to just get that along with the VanTec NexStar enclosure. Been working well ever since and it will soon be a year since I got them.

[Dawn_fan]

On 11/19/2023 at 4:44 PM, dbminter said:

My order arrived and near as I can tell, even though they're like 4 times less in price, the MID does say they're MKM-003's.  So, they appear to be the good stuff.  Although I don't have anything in need of burning right now to a DVD+R DL, so I can't test to make sure they work okay.  If I can remember, I'll be sure to use one of these new ones first on my next need to burn DVD Video to a DVD+R DL.

Ah ok that's great. Whenever you get around to test them, I am sure they will still perform just the same since they are made by MKM so yeah.

[dbminter]

The problem with the NS40 was, for a long time, and it may have finally been fixed with a firmware update since I last checked, it did not write properly to DL BD discs.  It wasn't just my findings, either.  Others on this board and I discovered 9 times out 10, DL BD media would fail Verify.

 

There's never any rhyme or reason why an LG optical drive, and it's more than just NS40's and 60's, will fail to read a particular disc.  And it's not just DVD-R but pressed Blu-Ray and DVD Video discs as well.

[Dawn_fan]

4 hours ago, dbminter said:

The problem with the NS40 was, for a long time, and it may have finally been fixed with a firmware update since I last checked, it did not write properly to DL BD discs.  It wasn't just my findings, either.  Others on this board and I discovered 9 times out 10, DL BD media would fail Verify.

Oh yeah I remember now. When I was looking at the NS40 to buy it, I was reading up no some reviews on it online and also here at the forum. I recall that you posted some things in the past about it not writing to dual layer BD media. As for me, the NS40 works completely fine since I never really burned BD-R discs before so the primary problem with the drive wouldn't even apply to me. 

4 hours ago, dbminter said:

There's never any rhyme or reason why an LG optical drive, and it's more than just NS40's and 60's, will fail to read a particular disc.  And it's not just DVD-R but pressed Blu-Ray and DVD Video discs as well.

Yeah I agree, with the two LG drives that I have, the NS40 and the NB60, the latter being the USB slim drive, they both work well and read pretty much every disc I have given it. 

[dbminter]

I had a chance to burn one of those "cheaper" Verbatim DVD+R DL's I got last week.  I burned about 5.9 GB to one and it passed both Write and Verify.  Right now, I'm performing a Read test and then processing the ISO to "verify" its contents.

 

And the ISO read completed and processed fine.  So, these "cheaper" Verbatim DVD+R DL discs do appear to be the good stuff, just cheaper.

[Dawn_fan]

On 11/26/2023 at 10:19 AM, dbminter said:

And the ISO read completed and processed fine.  So, these "cheaper" Verbatim DVD+R DL discs do appear to be the good stuff, just cheaper.

Are you referring to the inkjet printables that were sold for $25 or the ones with the purple label and it said "AZO" on them? Did you also test those discs on your NS60 or your pioneer drive. I was just wondering because if they work on the NS60, I would hope that would have a good chance of working on the NS40 as well.

Also the price of the inkjet printables changed from $25 to now $33.

[dbminter]

I bought the inkjet printable ones.

 

I've used discs similar to these on the NS40 in the past.  MKM 003's.  They worked fine back then, but it's been years since I used the NS40.

[Dawn_fan]

On 11/28/2023 at 8:00 PM, dbminter said:

I bought the inkjet printable ones.

 

I've used discs similar to these on the NS40 in the past.  MKM 003's.  They worked fine back then, but it's been years since I used the NS40.

Ah ok, that's good now that I know the NS40 will work just fine with those kinds of discs. I haven't really found any discs that don't really work with the NS40 but I guess that's perhaps because I don't use a variety of disc formats.

[dbminter]

Well, I should preface that with they USED to work.  Firmware updates can bork disc compatibility all the time.  Just look at Pioneer.  They're constantly introducing borks into firmware updates that kill off support for discs.  So, last time I used the NS40, the MKM 003's DID work.  Can't say for certain now.

 

And, the NS40 is the only option now.  I've gotten official confirmation from LG for what I already suspected: the NS60 has been discontinued.  No more parts or refurbished models are available, they say... yet, they're somehow doing one final replacement for the one I just sent off Thursday.  I had suspected as much when you couldn't find the NS60 for purchase anywhere anymore, not even from LG's own web store.

[dbminter]

I burned a 2nd DVD Video disc to one of these "cheaper" MKM 003's.  The VIDEO_TS itself spanned across both layers, but, how much data was used, I don't remember.  The disc was burnt nearly full, but there was data in addition to VIDEO_TS burned to it.  I had a chance to watch this DVD Video from beginning to end and it played fine without problems on my Blu-Ray player.

[Dawn_fan]

On 12/9/2023 at 9:52 AM, dbminter said:

Well, I should preface that with they USED to work.  Firmware updates can bork disc compatibility all the time.  Just look at Pioneer.  They're constantly introducing borks into firmware updates that kill off support for discs.  So, last time I used the NS40, the MKM 003's DID work.  Can't say for certain now.

Yeah, I guess Pioneer could do a better job with testing out the firmware before they release it out, or else they would just be creating more problems for themselves and the users of their drives.

On 12/9/2023 at 9:52 AM, dbminter said:

And, the NS40 is the only option now.  I've gotten official confirmation from LG for what I already suspected: the NS60 has been discontinued.  No more parts or refurbished models are available, they say... yet, they're somehow doing one final replacement for the one I just sent off Thursday.  I had suspected as much when you couldn't find the NS60 for purchase anywhere anymore, not even from LG's own web store.

I guess LG's main option as a choice for BD writing is the NS40, I saw one other LG halfheight from Best Buy that I would like to try. It's not a BD burner and it only burns DVDs and CDs. Ah yeah, I found it on the LG store: LG GH24NSB0 https://www.lg.com/us/burners-drives/lg-gh24nsb0-internal-dvd-drive

This drive looks pretty captivating as LG advertises a 24X DVD write, I didn't know that was possible as I thought the only max speed for DVDs is 16X. If my NS40 dies somehow after all of the burning I do on it, I may pick this one up and see how it performs since I would still have my enclosure.

[Dawn_fan]

19 hours ago, dbminter said:

I burned a 2nd DVD Video disc to one of these "cheaper" MKM 003's.  The VIDEO_TS itself spanned across both layers, but, how much data was used, I don't remember.  The disc was burnt nearly full, but there was data in addition to VIDEO_TS burned to it.  I had a chance to watch this DVD Video from beginning to end and it played fine without problems on my Blu-Ray player.

Well that's great. Also quick recap, when you say the "cheaper" ones, are you referring to the ones that were priced extremely low or the non-printable ones that have colored packing instead of the inkjet printables?