DVD-DL is generally compatible with any drive as long as it can read DL and
the disc is set to DVD-ROM booktype. It's also advisable to use only
Verbatim DL media.
That said, I doubt that DL is anything close to a secure and cost-effective
method of archiving data. The cost per GB is well in excess of a hard drive.
No optical disc is suitable for long term storage unless it's backed up with
duplication, which again makes DL way too expensive. If you have that much
data to store, just go get a couple hard drives on sale. Put them in cheap
external cases and leave them unplugged except when in use.

Sony doesn't make drives, LiteOn makes most of them for Sony, and no they
are not very good, compared to NEC, Pioneer and Benq.


"Jim Higgins" wrote in message
...
Is the compatibility of DVD dual layer disks sufficient now to
consistently
read disks made on one machine to be read on another now? I am primarily
interested in data archiving and second ( a distant second) in
video/music.

Has anyone used the Sony dual-layer drives and what have your experiences
been?

--
"You can have peace or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both
at once."