Okay, so I recently recieved an external DVD+-RW (manufactured by Sony, 4x writes, using FireWire) and a bunch of unopened, shrink-wrapped DVD+RW discs. Bunch of Memorex discs, no idea how old they are.

Imagine my surprise when I open up one, and the underside of the disc looks like it's covered with water-spots. Open up another one, same thing, but looks more serious than the first disc. Looks pretty bad, too.

Telling Nero to 'Erase Disc' results in it screaming, "Illegal media!" and stuff. Windows doesn't even know that it's a disc.

So, my stupid n00b-ish question is: is this "discoloration" of the underside of the disc normal? I have no idea if it is, since these are the first DVD blanks that I've ever encountered, but I'm guessing that it's not.

Thanks to those who reply with their insight.

Are you sure the discs aren't DVD-RAM?

Yes.

I opened up a few other discs, which turned out to be perfectly normal unlike the mentioned - freak occurance, I guess. Never mind.