Imation Corp. DVD+R 4.7 GB 16x

...I decided to go with Imation as they are cheap, and because of past experience with their CDs being good.

The Verdict

Storage/Packaging: The DVDs come in a fantastic spindle device, which enable you to quickly grab a DVD burn something onto it and but it back, without faffing around with cases and stuff. It also has a nice cover to go over the top to prevent any dust ruining your DVDs. It's not flimsy either, its very ...
...makes of DVD on the Imation discs the space used is very small, well compared with the size of the disc anyway!

Reliability: These discs have been as reliable as an old dog so far, they have not yet failed me, and some have had nearly 10 writing sessions on. I have only had a problem with one disc which appeared to be a dud when it came out of the box.

Compatibility: Sadly unlike many other DVDs I've experienced these ... more

Introduction

This is my first review in quite a few months now, so apologise if it's a bit on the rusty side! Anyway, I decided to re-start with something simple - DVDs!

Over the past few weeks I have been trying to put as much of the rubbish on my computer onto storage devices. The only problem is that an external hard drive is far to expensive, and a USB drive is frankly to small as were CDs as each file was approximately 200MB resulting in only two or three per CD. DVDs were my only option.

I decided to go with Imation as they are cheap, and because of past experience with their CDs being good.

The Verdict

Storage/Packaging: The DVDs come in a fantastic spindle device, which enable you to quickly grab a DVD burn something onto it and but it back, without faffing around with cases and stuff. It also has a nice cover to go over the top to prevent any dust ruining your DVDs. It's not flimsy either, its very strong and durable plastic. The cover is also designed so that instead of falling off and allowing all your DVDs to fall out and get damaged it "locks" in place, allowing you to store your DVDs without worrying about them get carpet dust on if they accidentally fall off the desk onto the floor.

Burning: Well depending on the speed of your writer these DVDs are pretty much like normal DVDs and write at a maximum speed of DVD-R x4, which is pretty fast in my opinion. Usually a full 4.7GB data disc will take about 1 hour to put on perhaps more or less depending on how many files and how big each file was.

Disc Space: Well like all discs there is 4.7GB, despite formatting sometimes eating up a lot of space on some makes of DVD on the Imation discs the space used is very small, well compared with the size of the disc anyway!

Reliability: These discs have been as reliable as an old dog so far, they have not yet failed me, and some have had nearly 10 writing sessions on. I have only had a problem with one disc which appeared to be a dud when it came out of the box.

Compatibility: Sadly unlike many other DVDs I've experienced these DVDs were not compatible with my Matsui 225 DVD player (This is a standalone DVD player for TV not the one in my PC!), very much to my disappointment as I had many family videos I wanted to burn to DVD and show on it. Obviously this may not be the case for every DVD player, but my experience so far is that most DVD-Rs have worked on my player.

Manufacture Support: Well as they are only DVDs and cost 44p each, I was not really that bothered that 1 was a dud, but like all respectable companies there is a warranty and many ways to contact them written on the cardboard surrounding the DVDs when first purchased, including snail mail, website and phone.

Instruction Manual: Well they are DVDs so really, there is no instructions, just shove in the disc drive and then get the instructions out to your DVD Burning Software!

Design: They have pleasant design on the front, which is not obtrusive, and is really very useful in telling which way up the DVD is. I have found in the past some companies give you totally blank DVDs and you haven't a clue which way to put it in the drive, and it can be a really pain!

Where to Buy: Amazon is the best place, at £11.06 for 25 DVDs and the spindle stick its very much worth the money!

Small Problems: I have had two problems so far with these discs, one as I previously mentioned was a dud disc, and seconly was once or twice the DVDs crashed my PC and I had to wipe them and start putting data on the all over again (hence losing a large amount of disc space), although this second problem I beleive to be the problem of Nero, my writing software - but thats a whole other story!

Overall

These are cheap, quality DVDs, and they are certainly very reliable. If you are on a budget, or not, consider purchasing these to store your data on, if its anything from backing up you PC hard drive, to your collection of music or home videos.

A definite recommendation. 

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