DVD blank media: Price over Quality?

 When I got my new Samsung DVD writer I am excited to use it so I installed it immediately. But when I started using it and burn some data it always gets me an “Invalid Block Address” followed by a “Burn Process Failed” for the nth time. It is frustrating so I tried to googled it up and find some remedy for this annoying error. Many forum threads I have read said that it could be the ODD itself or the firmware, the software (I’m using Nero 8 OEM) or the media itself. So I checked it one by one, the ODD and its OK, the firmware is OK too. I tried to update Nero 8 and its successful and last I check my media. I always buy media disc at CD-R King, the one-stop media provider as the tagline says. This is where we can buy dozens of cheap branded and generic recordable media disc. The CD recordable/rewritable prices varies from PhP 5.00-8.00 while the DVD recordable/rewritable varies from PhP 12.00- 18.00. With these reasonable prices do we have to expect quality media disc? Some say choosing CD-R King product is Price over Quality. If you buy black DVD media disc a lot why don’t you check out the class of your purchased disc? What I found out that blank DVD media disc have their own media ID that determine their own media class. 

Fortunately when I checked out my recently purchased blank DVD media disc at CD-R King, Memorex 16x DVD-R and Philips DVD-R Lightscribe its media ID is both CMCMAG.AM3 which falls under the 2^nd Class Media.

According to digitalFAQ.com the three classes are the following:

1^st Class Media – Excellent Discs

2^nd Class Media – Okay Discs

3^rd Class Media – Crap Discs

But if you will go to the media disc related thread CMC Magnetics disc are low quality media. But so far with my experience in using CR-R King discs is not that bad and I think I got what I’ve paid for. Price=Quality.

You can check the media ID and media class by downloading this light and free DVD Identifier . And check out this site to find out where your blank DVD media disc belongs.