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.
I mean it's 2023, it's very possible the discs are junk. I got out of optical discs a long time ago but even then it was doom and gloom for the industry. Every other month an article about a plant shutting down or a brand changing discs from a good MID to a bad MID.
If a reader supports it, I would always use DVD+R over DVD-R. It's the superior format in terms of how it handles errors etc.
People who know a little about optical media will tell you to burn slow for better burns. People who know a lot will tell you to burn at the rated speed of the disc. If you are concerned about disc quality, go one notch below the rated speed (eg 12x for a 16x disc). Burning slow - such as 4x on a 16x disc - results in inferior burns. "Burn as slow as possible" is one of those stubborn myths that never goes away, you can even see it elsewhere in this thread.
You should always verify a burn, which means read it back and compare the CRC to the image file. Good burning software can do this automatically. If your burns are verified but they don't work in the PS2, it's possible that your PS2 optical drive is going bad or just not compatible with these discs.