Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Velocity, like several other OEM brands, exists solely on the label that comes with your discs. Distributors purchase huge quantities of blank media and repackage them for retail sales using generic names like Velocity. Unfortunately, the media contained within the cake box is subject to change as suppliers change, and that is precisely what has happened with this media. Using tools like DVD Identifier (available free from: [...] anyone can learn the true origin/type of media used, and early purchasers identified the media they received as branded MCC (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation) which is one of the world's most recognized manufacturers of quality media. Purchasers almost universally gave high ratings for this media. In the late fall/early winter, the distributor changed their supplier (probably because they managed to cut a better deal), and recent purchasers have received media labeled Optodisc OR8. Optodisc is, frankly, a second tier manufacturer of low cost media. They simply refuse to burn properly in several burners (in particular Plextors, which insist on high quality media to start with), and although they may initially burn properly on burners that are tolerant of a wide range of media (NEC, LiteOn, Opto, etc.), purchasers may discover data integrity problems (unreadable discs, frozen/pixelated video), especially towards the outer edges of the disc (with video, this generally shows up as progressively worsening video towards the end of your recording). Unfortunately, your burned media may become completely unreadable within weeks to months later. That is the risk you take when using lower grade media. After burning more than 2,000 DVD's since April 2004, I have learned some important lessons: 1) Don't buy cheap quality media and expect it to work well, especially six months after you burn it. Spend a few dollars more to buy media that is compatible with your burner (check your burner manufacturer's web page for recommended media). My Plextor, which is infamously fussy about media quality, has been quite happy with Ritek/Ridata media, also available from Amazon and at a reasonable price. 2) You roll the dice when you purchase media from labels such as "Velocity." If you get MCC media, you win. If you get Opto media, you probably lose. Thankfully, you can return media to Amazon if it doesn't work well for you. I personally wouldn't keep Opto media. 3) You risk the longevity and integrity of your burns if you try to burn at a speed faster than the media was rated at. In fact, I burn everything at conservative speeds (2x or 2.4x for media rated 4x, 4x for media rated at 8x, etc.) Since doing that, I've never had pixelated/frozen video, or disc reading problems. 4) For critical backups, I recommend burning two copies on different types of media (example: burn one copy on Ridata media, the other on MCC). This reduces the chance that your data will be lost if one of your burns turns out to become unreadable in the months/years ahead. Make sure you don't store them together - a calamity that could destroy your first backup (fire, etc.) would have also destroyed your second.