VerbatimVerbatim BD-RE SL 25GB 2x 10pk: 43694 (43694)

I was dithering which brand to buy to use with my Panasonic hard drive TV recorder and in the absence of Panasonic's own brand (I can't find those anywhere) decided to try these. I haven't had any failures yet and that is what matters for archival purposes. I have also started to use them with a Pioneer external disc writer and they seem very stable with that, too. I wouldn't waste money trying a lesser brand. These do seem to work very well.

I was wondering if these were LTH (worse) vs HTL (better) but it was not officially mentioned anywhere. The underlying surface colour is blue-ish grey, which usually indicates an HTL disc. ImgBurn reports them as "Recorded Mark Polarity: HTL" and the Blu-ray Disc Association website also reports them as HTL by providing the disc manufacturer and media id "CMCMAG-BA5".This means that these discs are excellent value for money from a renowned brand!

I bought these discs to store video and data files on my pc. The 2x disc speed is not fast, as expected, but it is stable and reliable; there is certainly less risk of errors during the burning process! I was pleased with the discs. However, I bought a 10-pack spindle of which only 8 was functional. I found 2 plastic disc-shaped 'Protect Disc' slotted in between the 'real' discs! I suppose it is always best to check that your getting what you pay for.

Ok, so you'll need a blu-ray burner to burn / read these discs. But that said...They are great for data backup storage. They say there are two kinds of people - those who have haven't yet experienced data loss, and those who have. External hard drives can fail, whether solid state or disc based. So I like to back up important family movies, memories etc on something else as well, and blu-ray discs are a great option.These ones can store up to 50GB each, so enough for tons and tons of photos (my entire back catalogue in fact, and that's quite a few from years of travelling). They can also hold lots of .mov files, great for family videos etc.Longevity, I'm not sure. Too soon to say. We were told back in the 80s that CDs were indestructible. It turned out they weren't. If these last me 10 or 20 years, with care, I'll be happy, I'll have made new copies by then, assuming I'm still around to do so! I don't much mind if they outlast me, or not. I looked into it and did a bit of research to see how long we can expect DVDs or BLU-Ray discs to last. The answer turns out to be "long enough for most purposes, but not as long as we thought"!If anyone needs to archive really important material for future generations, they might wish to use the highly stable and reliable MABL-discs. These have passed rigorous quality controls and are supposed to last 1,000 years (assuming they're kept carefully in good conditions). My understanding is that Verbatim's BluRay discs were 'MABL' though it's not clear to me if this set of discs are.

Super

Original review 25th December 2009I bought a 5-pack of these only very recently, about two weeks ago. Therefore my comments are very preliminary, but I have had no problems with them so far, neither formatting, recording, nor playing back from them. They seem good value compared to the cost of the Panasonic equivalent.I have not yet erased nor re-recorded to any of the discs. This is not because I intend to use them for archiving, but because I have not finished watching the recordings I made.Update 9th January 2014:I am still using these discs, re-using each one approximately every month or two, I have not experienced any failures. I'm so pleased, I've bought one or two more packs of them which have joined the original lot for re-using.Highly recommended.

Bought these discs to back up files etc. and used my 2012 Pioneer BDR-206DBK Blu-Ray Recorder to do the writing. I've had no issues so far, they seem good Discs and I haven't had any coasters at all. As for longevity, I cant comment - only time will tell. As with any Blu-Ray disc, I would advocate handling them with care and avoid getting finger marks, grease or dirt etc on the surface of the disc as it will make them difficult to read for any reader; I always grip discs on the very outer edge and/or wear gloves to alleviate the possibility of causing issues relating to reading the disc.I know its stating the obvious but, you'd be amazed how many people think discs are indestructible !!!! LOL!!!

why are blank blurays...in 2025...still so expensive?im half tempted to set my archiving to split into 4.7gb chunks and just use DVDs.sure, way more burn time, but they're far cheaper and burn faster. or go tape/LTO?rant over. they're discs, good brand, no coasters so far. *mumbles about price*