Now that Apple branded DVD media (DVD-R/-RW x2, 4, 8) No Longer Exists.....

Question

I've had my Powerbook G4 for about 3 years now and have only been successful burning DVDs with Apple's own branded media. Other branded media has had a fairly high fail-rate with my UJ-816 Superdrive and there are no firmware updates for the model. Apple-branded media is just short of a ZERO fail rate (maybe 2-3 lost out of 200-300 DVDs and many hundreds of CDRs - honest, it's been that good).
Apple branded DVD-R/-RW media compatible with x2/x4/x8 (I have an x2 but it's been fine using x8) IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. I've dug through Apple stores, Best Buy, online stores, eBay, MacMall, J&R Electronics, etc. and nothing.
So, does anyone else with one of these slower burning Superdrives have any recommendations for other branded media that they've found works successfully?
Thanks - I'm desperately trying to complete backup of a 30,000+ track audio library to DVD and this is really the wrong time to find the only media that worked is no longer marketed.
G4 Powerbook 17, 1.33 Ghz, 512 RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

Answer 1

Sorry to hear that, but there's surprising hope: you want to shop by manufacturer, not Brand. Indeed, check www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm. Apple sold Mitsubishi discs. These are currently sold as Mitsubishi-Kagaku Media (MKM) by Verbatim & Infiniti (of England). You can shop by 'brand' locally, if you rewrite the 'brand' table on 'digitalfaq' by replacing the manufacturer by those manufacturers it subcontracts to (I assume the worst). :-[ Sony, Kodak, Panasonic, & Verbatim sell only the best, often Taiyo Yuden: reportedly the best manufacturer! But Taiyo Yuden can be bought directly from such internet stores as www.supermediastore.com/, where 200 8x Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs in black, plastic sleeves are currently on sale for $40: that's US$ 0.20 each. Internet superstore like this are supposed to list the media codes, but all I've ever found is MKM listed. Other codes just list the brand's name: some brands don't even manufacture discs, and others that manufacture even the best discs subcontract to poor manufacturers when the company is in need. Taiyo Yuden doesn't subcontract. If you buy a mystery brand (which I don't believe is economical), check the return policy: they will replace discs that fail from visible damage, but who has the time for that? As a final note, many drives burn my MKM001s at 8x (because, I suspect, they consulted Verbatim when writing their firware table), whereas my LaCie writer (Samsung OEM) writes it at 2x (because, I suspect, they more responsibly consulted MKM for their table). If you burned Apple's DVD-Rs at 8x, check with Apple or http://www.cdfreaks.com/ and ask what speed your drive will burn the Taiyo Yuden DVD-R or the Verbatim DVD-RW, claimed to burn at 4x and currently selling for about US$1.00 each. I've a list of reputable internet stores selling blank media which I initially found, then added to from Germany (which are bilingual stores) & France (which wouldn't think of it). Apple likely prefers I offer such lists by e-mail. You're welcom to write, from a .Mac alias. PS. Check out 'Office Depot' brand on the first website.