Tag Archives: optical disc

Tested: DVD±RW Endurance Round 2 – Part 3: DVD-RAM Comparison & A Dying Drive

Posted on August 23, 2026 by lui_gough

Now, I know DVD-RAM is not a type of DVD±RW, but hear me out – I thought it was worth including in this round-up for a few reasons. The first is that it uses a phase-change recording layer, just a … Continue reading →

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Tested: DVD±RW Endurance Round 2 – Part 2: Results & Failure Modes

Posted on August 23, 2026 by lui_gough

In the previous post, I covered the contenders that would be taking part in this second round of DVD rewriting endurance tests. In this video-heavy post, I’ll be covering the results of a total of 4285 cycles of rewriting in … Continue reading →

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Tested: DVD±RW Endurance Round 2 – Part 1: The Contenders

Posted on August 23, 2026 by lui_gough

At the time I posted the results of the first round, it seems there was still some interest in the topic of how long a rewritable DVD could last, even though the technology is considered by many to be outdated. … Continue reading →

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Project: Extreme DVD Overspeed Writing with the Sony Optiarc AD-7280S

Posted on August 10, 2026 by lui_gough

In the last post, I described my glee at receiving a very competent Sony Optiarc AD-7280S. As it would turn out, in this post, I give it some torture as I relive a bit of a hobby from my past, … Continue reading →

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Tested: Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x CD/DVD Rewritable Drive (w/New Media & Quality Scan Tests)

Posted on August 9, 2026 by lui_gough

It’s fun being on the “trailing edge” of technology, when you get to catch-up on things you’ve always wanted to find out about, at a price you can afford. To that extent, I’ve been collecting optical media and drives, enjoying … Continue reading →

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90mm M.O. Adventures: Part 3 – Performance Tests, Sounds & Reflections

Posted on July 31, 2026 by lui_gough

In the first part, I managed to rescue a precious M.O. drive which allowed me to embark on this journey to experience 90mm M.O. firsthand. In the second part, I collected a bunch of media and perused the freely-available standards … Continue reading →

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90mm M.O. Adventures: Part 2 – A Range of Media, Capacities and Standards

Posted on July 30, 2026 by lui_gough

Now that I now have a working drive, let’s take a look at some media. Even if I didn’t have a working drive, I would have collected the media simply because I could – even when there’s no practical value … Continue reading →

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90mm M.O. Adventures: Part 1 – Acquiring a Drive

Posted on July 29, 2026 by lui_gough

In the mid-90s, there was a period when computer shops sold “optical drives”. That seemingly ambiguous name now referred to Magneto-Optical (M.O.) discs and Write-Once Read-Many (WORM) discs which were available in 130mm and 90mm cartridges at a range of … Continue reading →

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Speedy DVD Burns – Part 3: Burns Gone Wrong

Posted on July 5, 2026 by lui_gough

When you burn quite a few discs, especially at high speeds, there is always the chance of something going wrong. This post looks at some of the non-high-speed burns due to firmware bugs, slower burns from my ailing SOHW-832S and … Continue reading →

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Speedy DVD Burns – Part 2: Gotta Burn Fast

Posted on July 5, 2026 by lui_gough

In the previous segment, I examined scanning speeds for a few of my DVD writers that could perform quality scanning. While we didn’t exactly decide that deviating from 4x CLV scanning was a good idea, we did at least see … Continue reading →

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Speedy DVD Burns – Part 1: Introduction & Quality Scanning Speed Examined

Posted on July 5, 2026 by lui_gough

When it comes to burning discs, most people who knew anything about burn quality generally had an ingrained phobia of high speed. Common recommendations included burning at “half the speed your media/burner is rated at”, while others would stick to more … Continue reading →

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Tested: Unifino 4x DVD-R for Data & Video (UTJR001001), 8x DVD-R for Data (IMC JPN-R01)

Posted on June 6, 2026 by lui_gough

It’s been a pretty busy week (and a blog post about that is soon to come) but let’s kick off this long weekend with another optical media post, looking at some media IDs that I haven’t otherwise seen before, courtesy … Continue reading →

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Tested: Imation i-Pro 8x DVD-R, Mitsubishi 8x DVD-R, Verbatim 16x DVD+R & Generic 16x DVD-R

Posted on May 31, 2026 by lui_gough

This weekend, I’m back with some more optical media testing, as I’ve amassed a large collection just waiting for me to discover how well they work, or if they still work at all. This time, we’re looking at four different … Continue reading →

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Tested: Princo 1x 4.7GB DVD-RW General Ver 1.1 Disc

Posted on May 24, 2026 by lui_gough

Princo is a brand which might be quite divisive. On the one hand, they aimed to bring affordable high-quality recordable optical media to the market. But on the other hand, many of their recordable discs failed rapidly due to poor … Continue reading →

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A Strange Disc Tested – The Partially-Silvered CD-R

Posted on May 22, 2026 by lui_gough

A while back, a reader asked me what my favourite/strangest type of disc was. It is a tough question to answer, but at the time, my response would be the nearly-extinct black (substrate) CD-Rs which were made to look like … Continue reading →

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Project: BD & BDXL Archive (2026) – Media & Initial Scans (VERBATIMk, TDKBLDRNC, CMCMAGBA5, RITEKBR2)

Posted on May 2, 2026 by lui_gough

There comes a time when you’re starting to run out of storage, so you look to buy some more but look at those flash memory and hard drive prices! Yikes! I was fortunate enough to buy a brand-new 18TB Seagate Ironwolf … Continue reading →

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Tested: How Many Times Can a DVD±RW Be Rewritten? – Part 2: Methodology & Results

Posted on March 7, 2026 by lui_gough

Now that we’ve covered the contenders for this test, I will cover how this test will be performed and go through the results. It was a long time for me, but for you, it’ll just be a few hours between … Continue reading →

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Tested: How Many Times Can a DVD±RW Be Rewritten? – Part 1: The Contenders & ECMA Standards

Posted on March 7, 2026 by lui_gough

Previously, when examining DVD-RAM2, I noted the relative unpopularity of rewritable (or more technically re-recordable) formats owing to their slower speed compared to write-once formats, the increased cost-per-disc and the lower reflectivity causing potential compatibility problems. Thankfully, DVD-RW and DVD+RW … Continue reading →

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Project: DVD-RAM Testing feat. New-Old-Stock Ver 2.x (2x/3x/5x) Discs

Posted on February 22, 2026 by lui_gough

Recently, I made a post about the rare and difficult-to-obtain DVD-RAM2 discs, the fastest and most reliable form of rewritable DVD storage and previously I’ve also detailed regular DVD-RAM as well, albeit without actually showing any tests or diving deeper … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Acard ARS-2050B 1-to-11 CD/DVD/BD Duplicator Tower (ft. MSI DH-20AS 6 DVD±RW Drives)

Posted on February 21, 2026 by lui_gough

To the majority, optical discs are an obsolete and dead technology. But I still love them dearly – I still care for them, still maintain equipment for them and still discover new things about them all the time. Recently, I’ve … Continue reading →

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Tested: DVD-RAM2 – The Fastest, Most Reliable, Rare Rewritable DVD (ft. Asus DRW-1814BLT)

Posted on January 31, 2026 by lui_gough

When it comes to optical media, most users seemed to use write-once types a lot more frequently than rewritable types. Part of this was down to cost and another was due to compatibility. But perhaps another factor, one which personally … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Recordable HD DVDs – Few Recorders, Slow, Flaky Performance & Even More Shortlived

Posted on January 30, 2026 by lui_gough

In my last posting, I examined my HD DVD collection, which did not all survive the test of time unfortunately. But I suppose for most people, that was okay as the format only lasted around two years on the market. While … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: HD DVD – A Format Abandoned Soon After Birth

Posted on January 25, 2026 by lui_gough

While Blu-ray famously won the high-definition format war, its main rival HD DVD certainly didn’t go down without a fight. Launching first in early 2006 (but seemingly simultaneously with Blu-ray), the format had a few things going for it – namely … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Blu-ray, but Not As You Might Know It! (feat. BD-RE V1.0, Professional Disc)

Posted on January 25, 2026 by lui_gough

What if I told you that the Blu-ray you know and love was not the original Blu-ray? The Blu-ray that came onto the market almost 20 years ago in mid-2006 was, essentially, round-two for the technology which first launched as early as … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Blu-ray Disc – The HD Format War Winner (incl. LDC/BIS Scanning)

Posted on January 24, 2026 by lui_gough

It’s somewhat hard to think that the Blu-ray high-definition video disc format as we know it is essentially now (almost) 20 years old with the first AACS-compliant players hitting the market in mid-2006. The winner of a format war, Blu-ray … Continue reading →

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Tech Flashback: Archival Discs (Mitsui Gold, “Designed for Photo Applications”, Verbatim PhotoSave, Memorex Pro Gold Archival)

Posted on January 4, 2026 by lui_gough

A common use case for optical discs, at least when they were common, is for backup and archival. Recordable discs are (sort of) WORM media that could provide the ability to safely store vast amounts of data inexpensively. While these … Continue reading →

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Tested: Mitsubishi 2x DVD-R (DHR472U1/5, Made in Japan) [MID:MCC00RG200]

Posted on December 29, 2025 by lui_gough

My recent adventures with dye-based optical discs seem to suggest that quality of later-production discs could be problematic – whether this is due to poor processes or poor storage is unknown. In the meantime, I’ve been on the lookout for … Continue reading →

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Tested: Printable.2 “as seen on www.dvd-recordable.org” DVD-R

Posted on December 6, 2025 by lui_gough

Earlier, I wrote about the relatively rare and elusive DVD-Rs that carried the VANGUARD media identifier. One variant of these was sold under the “as seen on www.dvd-recordable.org” branding, named “Printable.1“. The donor of the disc, pepst, had the following … Continue reading →

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Where Are They Now? More Discs Uncovered ft. Pressed DVD9s, CD-Rs, DVD±Rs & BD-Rs (Part 3)

Posted on November 29, 2025 by lui_gough

I’ve been digging around a bit and found a few more random discs that had been mostly left, completely forgotten, in drawers. They’re not all pristine and they’re not necessarily stored in ideal conditions, much the same as the discs … Continue reading →

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Tested: Ritek 16x DVD±R ft. Traxdata Magic Silver, ValuePack, Maxell & Hi-Disc

Posted on November 23, 2025 by lui_gough

By the time the 16x DVD media era came about, it was the beginning of the end. By then, DVD recordable media was well and truly a commodity – produced in bulk and purchased with little care by most. The … Continue reading →

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