You’ve heard warnings of bad DVD media, most likely. But how can you tell whether your stack of DVDs is a dud or good? Evidently, you can’t tell by a brand- you have to do some sleuthing to see if it’s good or not.

Sadly, this method only works after you have bought that stack, but at least you can tell whether to get the same kind again.

First, you’ll need to insert your blank media into your Mac (this method only works on Macs, and I can only say that it works on Leopard). Open up the System Profiler by choosing “About the Mac” from the Apple Menu, then hitting the “More Info” button. Then, choose “Disc Burning” under “Hardware”. This will bring up something like this:

What you’re looking for is the Media ID, which is highlighted in orange above. Take that code, and go to http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm. Search for the ID on the page (you may need to remove spaces), and see if it comes up under 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class media. Hopefully it’ll be under 1st class.