What's the best bluray blank discs / media?

[cwescrab]

Just wondering what the best brand is to get? I have a new Asus blu ray burner. Me and my wife have a photography business and need to back up wedding photos. Want the most reliable media, least amount of coasters.

 

[Darkbreeze]

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/106-dvd-recorders-standard-def/1708209-blu-ray-blank-disc-recommendations.html

 

[yeskay]

Just wondering what the best brand is to get? I have a new Asus blu ray burner. Me and my wife have a photography business and need to back up wedding photos. Want the most reliable media, least amount of coasters.

Ok here is what I found:

In 2011, France's Ministry of Culture and Communication conducted a study on the suitability of data archival of LTH (low to high) discs compared to HTL (high to low) discs. The data they collected indicated that the overall quality of LTH discs is worse than HTL discs.

An interesting detail is that the researchers make a difference between LTH (low to high) and HTL (high to low) Blu-ray discs. The first are manufactured in a cheaper way and are therefor less expensive. While cheaper, manufacturers claim that the discs are of the same quality as normal HTL discs.

In this test they tested LTH Blu-ray discs from Verbatim and JVC and it seems the claims from the manufacturers are not valid. The tests revealed that the overall quality of Blu-ray LTH discs is worse than normal Blu-ray (HTL) discs. It seems that if you want to store your data for a long time, these should be avoided. The researchers recommend to use normal HTL Blu-ray discs and rated those of Sony and Panasonic as most reliable.

Only the Panasonic lasts until the end of the test.

Burn quality results they found with the different burners at different burn speeds. 4x-6x was certainly the winner.

Source: http://www.myce.com/news/french-research-avoid-blu-ray-lth-discs-for-data-archival-64265/

So get either Panasonic or Sony BD-R (HTL) and make sure you write them with lower 4x-6x speeds to avoid coasters.

Get this:

Panasonic Blu-ray BD-R Recordable Disk 25GB 4x Speed 30 Spindle Pack Printable Made in Japan
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Blu-ray-Recordable-Spindle-Printable/dp/B005RY6JCC/ref=cm_rdp_product
A user on Amazon had also confirmed Code MID: MEI-T02-001, the same Japanese made Panasonic Blu Ray Disk used in that french study.

(OR) you can also get the recent one with same quality and reliability with Code MID: MEI-T01-001
PANASONIC Blu-ray Disc 10 Pack BD-R DL 50GB 2x | Ink-jet Printable (2012)
http://www.amazon.com/PANASONIC-Blu-ray-Disc-Ink-jet-Printable/dp/B005RY6JBS/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1434875534&sr=1-3&keywords=panasonic+bd-r

How to check the media you buy is original?

'DVD Identifier' retrieves and interprets the pre-recorded information that is present on dvd (dvd+r, dvd+r dl, dvd+rw, dvd+rw dl, dvd-r, dvd-r dl, dvd-rw, dvd-ram), hd dvd (hd dvd-r, hd dvd-rw, hd dvd-ram) and blu-ray (bd-r, bd-re).

This information will allow you to accurately identify your disc's real manufacturer. Download here - http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/my_site/download.php

Update:

Panasonic Blu-ray BD-R Recordable Disk 25GB 4x Speed 30 Spindle Pack Printable Made in Japan
Model Number: LM-BRS25LT30
Code MID: MEI-T02-001 [This may or may not come printed on the box, but can be identified using "DVD Identifier"]

PANASONIC Blu-ray Disc 10 Pack BD-R DL 50GB 2x | Ink-jet Printable (2012)
Model Number: LM-BR50T10N
Code MID: MEI-T01-001 [This may or may not come printed on the box, but can be identified using "DVD Identifier"]

So you could see each product comes with a Model Number and Code MID.

MID means "Media IDentifier" Code, a code or digital signature indicating the real manufacturer of the media, version, media type, capacity, etc.

The "MEI" part in the code MID denote that these discs are manufactured by original Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd In Japan.

The current Panasonic Corporation, is formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Both are quality discs. Get either of them based on availability.

Cheers!

 

[cwescrab]

I'm kind of confused though, the links you posted for the panasonic discs have a different code on the photo on amazon then MEI-T01-001. Are these the same high quality discs, because on the amazon panasonic photo is shows LM-BR50T10N on the disc packaging.

 

[Darkbreeze]

This is the same garbage we went through with various DVD labels back when those were fairly new. If you pick a well known brand and don't buy anything that's a ridiculously low priced sale or "clearance", you'll probably be fine. Runs of discs that turn out to have a high failure rate are usually dumped off extremely cheap, which is why you see these kinds of sales. I'd probably trust most anything made by Memorex, Panasonic, Sony, TDK, Verbatim, Maxell, Falcon or Phillips.

One thing that's physically different out there in the BD-R world is "HTL" vs. "LTH" media. The original Blu-ray disc is "HTL" (High to Low), based on a non-organic technology. The disc starts out highly reflective ("H") and the laser burns the non-reflective pits ("L"). The original technology used a layer of copper and a layer of silicon. When heated by the laser, the two materials combine, forming the low-reflectance part. This is a very reliable technology (in theory, much longer lasting than the organic dyes used in CD-R and DVD-R), and it's also stable in sunlight.

However, everyone's after cost savings, so some time after the BD-R was introduced, some manufacturers introduced the LTH BD-R. This uses the same kind of organic dyes used on DVDs (more or less... some tweaks are needed to change the optical response); the disc starts out low reflectance, and the laser changes the dye layer to expose the reflecting layer (this is the opposite of the way HTL, CD, and DVD work, but the technology is similar to that of DVD). LTH discs have the same vulnerabilities as DVD. Older BD-R writers won't support LTH without a firmware upgrade.

More on that: http://blog.digistor.com/not-all-blu-ray-discs-are-created-equal-but-does-bd-r-quality-matter/

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm kind of confused though, the links you posted for the panasonic discs have a different code on the photo on amazon then MEI-T01-001. Are these the same high quality discs, because on the amazon panasonic photo is shows LM-BR50T10N on the disc packaging.

I probably wouldn't worry too much about what's on images. Images are almost universally generic in much of the computer and online advertising arenas. If the LISTED numbers are what you want, that's what I'd go by and if the parts you receive are NOT the same as the listed numbers when you receive them, return them. Don't buy from any a source that isn't highly reputable with a lot of favorable reviews either. These types of vendors and merchants tend to want to get things right, rather than make a quick buck dumping off inferior products. They're in it for the long haul, unlike fly by night individuals or sellers with poor reviews.

 

[The Original Ralph]

DARKBREEZE'S first response pretty well covers it - if you don't want to read it, go with any verbatim blanks that carry the "AZO Coating"