I don't see the price difference.
Compare prices as listed here:
http://www.digitalFAQ.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm
A 100-pack of Verbatim DVD-R or DVD+R is $24, compared to $25 for 100-pack of Taiyo Yuden media.
Inkjet discs are similarly priced, in the $35-40 range.
If anything, TY media tends to be priced slightly higher than the Mitsubishi/Verbatim.
Quote:
their archival grade is almost 10 times more than JVC
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"Archival grade" is a marketing term -- not a certification of any kind. I could hand write "archival grade" on a dog turd, and it means about the same thing. It's just what somebody's chosen to write on it. There have actually been several posts here in recent months, discussing Verbatim's various "Archival" medias -- be it the Century Disc sub-brand or others.
For example:
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Archival-grade DVD-R Media by Mitsubishi/Verbatim [archived]
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Differences between "archival grade" and standard DVDs?
In the Verbatim archival discs, they (1) use a so-called "tweaked" [or some similar non-specific non-jargon term] version of its metallic azo dye, (2) add a gold sputter layer above the reflective silver layer, and (3) run the machines in a batch of no more than 25,000 discs at one time. But aside from those three unimportant things, the discs are virtually the same as their non-"archival" DVD media.
Edit: The "tweaked" dye was called a "new variation" by MKM.
It's basically a product that sold because people insist it be made. And it's not a logical/scientific demand, but one born completely out of societal myth that gold=good and silver=inferior. Remember that this isn't jewelry -- it's blank media. Sadly, some cannot discriminate this. Thus it's made, and thus it's sold, to the benefit of only the disc makers, who charge insane/asinine sums of money for said discs.
So no, it's not worth it -- not at all.
In fact, there has been some research that shows the Verbatim archival discs performed poorer than the non-archival versions. However I would note that this research was not double-verified, and I doubt such results could be easily duplicated. It
was amusing and interesting, but I wouldn't put too much faith in the one-off analysis. More trivia than anything else.