Hey, you're welcome. It happens to the best of us. I've had what I thought was perfectly good media die, too. In fact I've had a couple Verbatims and Fujis die, and that IS good media!
The problem is that DVD media is currently undergoing the same process that CD media did - which is to say that companies are realizing that people won't pay $4 a disc for media that only works 50% of the time, and speeds are rapidly increasing (we'll see 8x DVD-R/+R by the end of the year, or so I hear).
So you end up with a lot of discs that sit around under less-than-optimal conditions which were only marginal to begin with.
You don't see REALLY BAD CD-R media much any more, although my brother-in-law got some at Christmastime that SUUUUUUUCKED even though it was supposed to be good and rated for 48x. It was OBVIOUSLY bad, too - had a nice wavy pattern on the shiny tops. YUUUUCK.
Glad to hear you found some good media though.
- Gurm