Although there appears to be many manufacturers of blank DVD media there probably aren’t as many as you would think. Most of the high quality DVD media comes from just a few manufacturers. Many companies that brand and sell blank DVD media don’t actually manufacture the media themselves, they only buy the media in bulk and package it with their own brand name. The way to find out (in most cases) which company manufactured the media you have purchased is to view the pre-recorded data on the actual disk itself, this data includes the manufacturer’s details. A popular tool for viewing this information is DVD Identifier. DVD Identifier is currently free and can be downloaded here. Remember though, that the pre-recorded information on a DVD can be and is sometimes “faked” by unscrupulous manufacturers. It may sound a little strange but even blank DVDs can be pirated. When it comes to selecting blank media that is right for you and your DVD burner, do some research and try a few different name brands. CDFreaks.com has an extensive collection of test data and feedback from all over the world relating to blank DVD media and DVD recording equipment (burners). A recent (April 2006) article in a popular Australian computer magazine tested a range of blank DVD media from different manufacturers with the Verbatim 16X DVD+R media winning the day for quality and consistency in numerous DVD drives, followed closely by Sony and Ricoh media.

Generally speaking it is wise to stick to packaged name brand DVD media like Verbatim, Sony and Taiyo Yuden. Experiment with unbranded “OEM” DVD media at your own risk.