Well with respect to other brands, slightly going off topic, I will never buy Bush products as two TV's and a VCR lasted less than 3 months, took 8 repairs on each and quality was poor.

Others don't complain about Bush products; I understand what you are getting at however, where a new company join the market and provide quality, but, just need that lift into the mainstream.

What opened my eyes somewhat on that information page, was the fact that even branded DVDs, sometimes, are just the same as some cake/tubs as you call them. I've learned that just because a label on the package has a certain name, does not mean that other brands with other names on the label, are not actually made by the same manufacturer.

It happens all the time with other things like appliances, auto parts, etc.... I just never stopped to think that it happens with DVDs also. The lesson it taught me is this: Why pay high $$ for the brand name, if you can get another name that is lesser known, which is the exact same quality from the exact same manufacturer, at a lesser cost?

In the end, I guess it's like the difference between name brand medication, and generic brand. Same o, same o, just lesser price, yes??

Of course, you are right in that if one has the money to spend, you'll usually never go wrong with buying brand names!

It requires some homework, and the methods described in that article to find out which of the generic brands have the same quality, so that one can safely save some cash.

As for myself, I've been going with a brand that sells here in the US called Office Depot. I get a carousel of 50 DVD+Rs for $8.98 when they are on sale, and have an instant rebate. Now, that's a price I can live with! And it seems I've just been lucky, because after doing what I learned on that website, they rank in the second level of quality and reliability, having the ID of RITEKF1 and being manufactured by Ritek Corp. Just pure luck on my part, because I shopped by price only.

So, it would seem, that sometimes one can get a good deal without having the Cadillac emblem on the hood.... :-)

I choose Verbatim or Mr. DvD/CD, never let me down and are middle-of-the-road in cost.

I do have half a cake/tub of Sony CD-R's which also work fine, they came free with an order couple of years ago.

Generally, buy branded, don't buy cake/tubs of cheap ones as I once found out the whole lot (all 50) were faulty.

And now, for another entry in th eclectics' handbook of things you've probably never thought about before, but maybe should have.....

How many of you really know what the quality is of the blank DVDs that you buy and use? How many of you really care? I'll go out on a limb, and say that this probably isn't a subject that many people sit around talking about over their Saturday Night dinners, yes?

However, for those who really want the full story about how good their backup media really is, and how to find out for sure, you can visit the link below. A good read, and might just bring some things to mind that you really never thought of before. Things like how to get the hidden manufacturer's information from a blank DVD, and how to use that information to really find out how good or how bad your supplier is treating you!

The information certainly opened my eyes, and I now have a new program in the toolbox that I intend to use in the future. They say that Knowledge is Power, and by reading the information on this site, you will have more Power at your fingertips!

As always, enjoy the journey, you never can tell what you'll see along the way! :-)

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

The freeware program I went with is: http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com