Digital Home Thoughts: Verbatim Mini DVD-R: Little, Cute, and 1.4 GB of Data

There are things in this world that are cute, but don't really serve much purpose: Miata's, toy poodles, and miniature CDs. :lol: Verbatim's latest mini DVD-R's fall into this category - little, a clever design, but not as suitable as the "big" DVDs for all scenarios. Each disc holds 1.4 GB worth of data, or about 30 minutes for DVD-quality MPEG2 video. If you're using WMV or Divx, you can fit a few movies on there. The discs are coated with VideoGard™ (no, that's not a typo), a clearcoat layer of protection which Verbatim claims is 40x more scratch resistant than standard Mini DVDs.

So how well does the VideoGard protection work? I burned a DVD, then put it on my backyard patio and ground it into the stonework (check it out). I put it in my computer...and it didn't play. I tried it in another computer, and a DVD player, but it wouldn't work there either. I suppose I was hoping for a miracle, because that was one brutally scratched DVD! Next I tried another DVD burn and used a thumbtack to make a series of fairly shallow scratches. Dutifully I put the DVD back into the computer, and watched as it once again didn't play. The same disc was tested in my laptop and in a Samsung DVD player - no dice. So as far as the VideoGard is concerned, I wasn't terribly impressed. If this is 40x stronger than what was there before, the other discs must have scratched when coughed on. I tried using my skipDR scratch repair kit, but the disc wouldn't work in the rotating mechanism because it was designed for full-sized DVDs.

The discs themselves work like a charm - I was able to successfully burn a data DVD and a video DVD. One problem is the abnormal size: Nero Burning ROM, even when updated to the latest version, saw the Mini DVD as having the normal capacity of 4.3 GB even though using the "examine disc" tool pointed to 1.4 GB of space. Some applications that are hard-coded will be awkward to use, especially for DVDs where you're pulling in multiple clips - you'll need to add up the length yourself and make sure it doesn't exceed the 30 minute mark. The fault for this lies with Nero though - since it sees that the disc is 1.4 GB in size, it should calculate the capacity properly. It's worth noting that the 4x speed limit is a bit odd given that 8x is now the norm and 16x media is on the way. The good news is that since the capacity is smaller, even at 4x the burn completes quickly.

All in all, I can't say that I found this product terribly useful. I have some mini CDs that I use to store drivers and whatnot, but it's harder to fill 1.3 GB and justify the $3 price tag for each of these little discs. If the VideoGard had amazed me I might have found a redeeming feature in this product, but as it stands now it's expensive and offers little to no advantage over regular sized media. If they come out with a LightScribe version that burns at 8x, that would be significantly more interesting!