On 09/04/2014 12:13, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Martin Brown
writes
On 09/04/2014 11:14, Tim Lamb wrote:
Hitherto, I have used R80 (700mB) discs in my computer disc drive.

The current offering from Viking is for a much higher storage capacity.
How do I tell if my fairly ancient drive will handle these discs?

Quickest way is go into device manager and post the DVD/CD ROM model
ident string for the drive or search online to get its capabilities.

What do you mean?

There are a few CD makers producing media that are not orange book
compatible and probably best avoided unless you like living dangerously.

Ah! Slight intelligence gap.

I searched for CD discs on the Viking site and their only offering was
the DVD+RW at 4.7GB.

Try Amazon they probably have better prices and a wider range of decent
brands. Specialist DVD/CD media sellers have an even wider range.

I guess this is a different animal?

Completely - they are DVDs and you can get them in + and - flavours and
with different dye technologies any one of which can be a cause of
difficulties in writing media that will read reliably on any machine.

Finding one that works with your kit and sticking to it is not a bad
idea. Choice of media is even more critical if you originate content and
don't want to be mithered by people who can't read your disks.

These days Bluray are the highest capacity storage media available.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown