Verbatim at one point had the dark dye. Finding a place that sells sampler packs of their various discs might be an idea. That way you'll definitely know what you're getting as you'll get a disc to test.

The only drive I've ever had problems regarding discs is my Toshiba combo CDRW/DVD drive. It burns discs that don't always get recognised in certain CD players. The disc is fine and will work perfectly in every other player or drive I've tried. Luckily my NEC DVD burner doesn't have that problem.