Showing my age again.... (Verbatim DataLifePlus Printable CD-R 700 MB 52x)

Member Name: kingseany

Product:	Verbatim DataLifePlus Printable CD-R 700 MB 52x
Date:	15/03/05 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 100% Reliable - so far, Printable, Branded

Disadvantages: Not cheapest

Verbatim is a name I remember way back to the times of the 5.25" floppy disk - yes I'm showing my age I know. I bought a pack of 10 of these when I was at school and they stood up to a lot of use and abuse. Those even older than myself may even remember Verbatim as a company, even before I was born - in fact they go back as far as 1969. Many years later, I find myself with the same brand, only this time CDR media, each disk with a storage capacity of more than 1500 times those original floppies.

I'll spare you the rest of my trip down memory lane, and get straight to the point, which is of course to tell you about the Verbatim CDR media I've got here - Verbatim DataLifePlus (Fast Dry Printable) 700Mb CDR - reorder code 43325 to be specific.

There are many different products in the range, catering for differing needs of data storage. I am choosing to use 700Mb CDR media, rated as 52x writing - this seems to increase each time I buy a new pack. Those of you with a reasonably new CD-writer can make use of it's fast write speed, myself included. It doesn't mean though, that those with an older writer, can't use them - you can of course, but at a slower speed than me (down to 1x speed). 700Mb is a lot of space. I can store around 300 5 megapixel digital files, or maybe 175 MP3's - and using my writer can do this in around 4 minutes. If you are using these disks for music storage to be played on a standard CD-player, you can fit 80 minutes, however Verbatim offer a MusicLife product, particularly suited to this type of storage. You are of course not limited to storing what I have mentioned, you can backup anything you want.

These disks come with full jewel cases, packed in boxes of 10, but again other options are available. Each one is shrink-wrapped in plastic, and those useful easy open tags are included - which sometimes make it easier to break into them - except when you are in a hurry. The boxes themselves seem to be sturdy enough, not cheap and easily breakable.

As well as being a quality CDR, the Verbatim DataLifePlus product I'm using has a white printable surface. Having an Epson R300 printer, capable of direct CD/DVD printing, I might as well use it. Epson actually recommend this product for use with the R300, so using them for some time, and having trouble free operation, I'm buying them regularly. They work beautifully together - great colour reproduction on the disk, sharp images, no smearing, smudging or blurring - perfectly aligned, what more could I ask for? In fact you'd have trouble teling the difference between one of these and a professional print job.

As I said, I've been using these for a year or so now, and even though I've expected the odd one to fail, the reliability rate has still been 100%. I'm confident that with the Verbatim brand, and it's own "Super Azo" recording dye technology, they'll last longer than I will. This technology offers protection against UV light, although I'd still recommend you don't leave them in the back of a car in summer. I'd also not recommend trying to scratch them, even though the coating on each disk supposedly offers good resistancy. Verbatim actually give each disk a lifetime warranty, and quote 100 years archival life - that's good enough for me, I'm hardly likely to live longer than 130ish....

The re-order code for this particular product is 43325 - and it's particular recommended for use with the Epson R300 printer. Price for a box of 10 is between £4 - £6 inc VAT, available from Dabs or ask at your favourite computer shop. Whilst you may say this isn't cheap, what price do you put on your data?

More information on Verbatim products can be found at http://www.verbatim-europe.com

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