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Who makes the disc: Brand vs. Media ID
The thing that must be realized is that most media is produced by a relative small number of factories, located in several different places. These factories are present in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Hong Kong, India, and Ireland... maybe a few more, but not many. The best media generally comes from Japan and Singapore. The worst typically comes from Taiwan (in stores) and Hong Kong (online).
This being said, understand that the media brands means nothing. Apple is a great brand, but they do not make their own discs, instead outsourcing to MXL (Hitachi/Maxell), MCC (Mitsubishi Chemicals), and PVC (Pioneer). Verbatim became infamous by switching from high-quality MCC to ultra-cheap CMC (CMC Magnetics) media, although they have since returned to using MCC. Companies like Memorex, Fuji and Imation all outsource to media vendors.
Always be aware of fake media too. Fake media is normally sold in flea markets, on eBay and online. This fake media normally has no brand markings and the company being faked normally only sells branded discs.
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