The biggest scam about "name brand" is the fact that most of them don't make their own dvd's and a lot of generics are the same as the "name brands". In the CD world, companies like Taiyo Yuden make CD's for companies like Memorex and others. Even within each name-brand you'll see various CD's so that if you buy a 10-pack of Verbatims this week, they won't be the same Verbatims you buy next month. I have some cheesy generic CD-R's that I ended up with for free after rebate (200 of them). I got them from Circuit City. I haven't had a problem with them yet, but I only use them for temporary transfer of files. Anytime I need to store data for extended periods of time, I'll go with name-brands too... I guess I'm just superstitious even though I know otherwise.