Okay, so I've gotten back into burning PS2 games, right? It's overall been a great time, and I made sure to stick to decent brands like Verbatim, I remember them being the top dog back in the days before my PS2 laser died out.
So, I get the first batch, a simple 25 pack, they all work perfectly. Smooth topside. They're the kind that are so clear you actually see the verbatim logo on the readable side. No issue there.
Three months later, I get another batch, even contemplating getting a 50 pack. I got the 25 pack, same packaging, same exact description, but then I open the box and these fucking things are NOTICEABLY cheaper. Very scratchy topside, which is basically ALL white besides a tiny verbatim and dvd-r logo on the middle, somehow feels heavier.
Now, out of the first batch, I essentially got every game perfectly fine, and also a few homebrew applications. The SECOND BATCH was essentially half a box of duds. One game was not getting past a sony logo (not the system logo mind you), another gives me a black screen after the playstation logo while still clearly spinning and apparently finding nothing for minutes, and some even give me a DVD error, meaning the burn was so bad it didn't even qualify as a game backup.
SOME worked, haven't even checked all of them frankly so I might actually have even more faulty ones, but this is just a complete ripoff. Why the sudden downgrade? Some even downright gave me the deadly "uncorrectable error," a clear sign that these are complete garbage. I know the console's drive is fine, I know the computer's drive burned at least half of these correctly, and I know for a fact the games I ripped are not to blame.
I doubt I can get a refund for discs I've used, plus, probably not even worth it. But, maybe take it as a warning, some Verbatims have the same packaging, but are actually hunks of crap.
Wasn't it Verbatim also who started selling normal looking Blu-ray recordables but stamping them "M-Disc"? M-Disc is supposed to be glassy carbon and have that huge archival time. Honestly, Verbatim is looking like a scumbag company nowaydays after being sold and bought.
Physical media is sadly dying. It's stupid, there's no good alternatives for some applications. Very annoying.
Yeah I have no idea on bluray disks, I don't even have a bluray player really. It's honestly sad that even the gold standard for cheap archival and backups is in ruin. Even my old, nearly destroyed backups from 2008 worked better.