This model looks like it's a player only --nice, though .... and it has vieracast but *cannot* do streaming netflix?
I was thinking of another roku box, but this approach is more flexible in that you can play BR discs and stream video (well, not netflix, yet, but amazon and yt)No NetFlix streaming. There is a Samsung and an LG player that do NetFlix but for substantially more money. I don't need NetFlix streaming in a BD player since I have it with my TiVo.but since we already were discussing BR media and players, I'll ask the obvious questions -- how many hours can be recorded on one of these discs in 'high def' ? From the file sizes I get from my TiVo for OTA HD recordings I would say ~4hr of HD/5.1 on a 25GB BD-R. And that is leaving the bitrate the same as the original broadcast. So, after you edit out the 20 min of commercials per hour, one should be able to comfortably fit 5 x 1hr episodes on a BD in HD5.1. And more importantly ... from what sources?In my case, TiVo+PC. TiVo ignores any broadcast flags from OTA and only honors the cable "CCI 0x02" copy bit. Anything recorded OTA or without the "CCI 0x02" can be transferred over a home network to a PC where it can be edited and burned to BD or transformed into AVCHD or SD and burned onto DVD-R. It's not a single stand-alone unit, but then there aren't any for HD/5.1.

can be transferred over a home network to a PC where it can be edited and burned to BD or transformed into AVCHD or SD and burned onto DVD-R. It's not a single stand-alone unit, but then there aren't any for HD/5.1.

Are BD and AVCHD about the same in quality, ie. what do you mean by transformed? Can you put AVCHD on BD disk, or is it for dvd only?

Thanks,

Are BD and AVCHD about the same in quality, ie. what do you mean by transformed? Can you put AVCHD on BD disk, or is it for dvd only?

Thanks,AVCHD is the hi def format developed for camcorders. AFAIK it is for recording onto DVD-R media but has to be played back on a BD player. AVCHD is capped at 18Mbps whereas BD can go much higher. Broadcast channels with multiple sub-channels are usually well below that limit on their HD channel. You can fit about 40 min of broadcast HD/5.1 on a DVD-R -- more if you are wiling to transcode and lower the bitrate

That's used. I don't buy used.

I see that the price is for used now. When I posted the link, it wsa for brand new units via Amazon directly.

You can get more capacity with DVD-R DL. I can fit about an hour and a half from my PBS HD channel which runs about 13 Mbps. Normally this isn't economical because DVD-R DL costs about 4x regular DVD-R from places like Supermediastore. In my case it's worthwhile because I can usually record an opera or classical concert all the way to an intermission without interruption. For individual half-hour shows (PBS or commercial), I'd use regular DVD-R, put one episode on a disc, and live with the wasted disc space. At least until BD-R media drops to about half the current cost.

Can you put AVCHD on BD disk, or is it for dvd only?

Thanks,

AVCHD is the hi def format developed for camcorders. AFAIK it is for recording onto DVD-R media but has to be played back on a BD player.

I wonder why one couldn't put AVCHD on a BR disc? Is it a limit of the player? after all if the BR player plays BR and AVCHD on DVD I wonder why not. It would be great to get >10 hours of HD on a BR disc, although since Sony developed BR they probably cripple things:rolleyes:

I wonder why one couldn't put AVCHD on a BR disc? Is it a limit of the player? after all if the BR player plays BR and AVCHD on DVD I wonder why not. It would be great to get >10 hours of HD on a BR disc, although since Sony developed BR they probably cripple things:rolleyes:I guess I wasn't too clear on it so I checked. You can record AVCHD on a BD-R -- in BluRay format. AVCHD format is for DVD-R and SDHC memory cards -- so the camcorder records directly in AVCHD format. If you want to record an HD/5.1 program you recorded on your TiVo onto BD-R, there is no reason or need to convert it into anything else in the first place. It's only if you want to put it on DVD-R or SDHC that you have to burn in AVCHD. AVCHD was developed by Sony and Panasonic so all their BD players support AVCHD playback.

I don't see what you read in my post to extrapolate to getting >10hr of HD/5.1 on a BD-R. AVCHD is a hi-def format that goes up to 18 Mbps. Broadcast HD won't exceed that so it's conversion to AVCHD will keep the same bitrate. I guess you can always shrink it and lower the bitrate if you want to squeeze more on a BD-R. But then shame on you.

An analog to the difference between AVCHD and BD recording formats would be the difference between DVD-Video and VR recording formats.

My misunderstanding. I thought AVCHD was a HD compression format that was more efficient than what's on a regular BR disc, hence I thought by using the more efficient compression one could gain more hours of real HD on a standard 25gb BR disc, I wasn't talking about limiting bitrate.

That's used. I don't buy used.

DMP-BD60 is back at Amazon, now with Snow White BD for just $122 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001V9LA44/?tag=slickdeals

Brand new item, direct from Amazon.

DMP-BD60 is back at Amazon, now with Snow White BD for just $122 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001V9LA44/?tag=slickdeals

Brand new item, direct from Amazon.Sorry. But clicking on your link shows a price of $143.

Sorry. But clicking on your link shows a price of $143.

Nothing for anyone to be sorry about here. :) You are correct. It does not show as $122 as of now. Amazon deals can often disappear within a few; weeks, days, hours, or even minutes. (It doesn't even show as the $143 you reported just a few short hours ago...it's $157 for me now.) That said, I'm more than certain that the BD60 will be back down to <$125 very, very soon.

$132,57 now :)

Best Buy hasn't had a DVD sale for quite some time, but this week, they have 50 Verbs for $12.99, and 20 Verb +R DLs for $29.99.

Best Buy hasn't had a DVD sale for quite some time, but this week, they have 50 Verbs for $12.99, and 20 Verb +R DLs for $29.99.

Wife starts working at BB next week. Even with her discount, I can get the DLs cheaper elsewhere. :(

I think I have paid $25 for 20 DLs, and that's a bit better. But where, pray tell, do you get them, and for how much?

newegg.com typically has Verbatim (the only brand to use) every 8-10 weeks for about $20/20 pack.

They are the 2.4X media, not the 8X...which is a good thing. :)

The last ones I got were from buy.com. $20/20. Ordered them and they arrived just a couple of days later. Got the Verbatim rebate last week. As promised, I used the forgotten cash to buy a Carl's Jr. Portabello Mushroom Burger. :D

Link to the original post when I ordered: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17115747#post17115747

I think I have only seen the 2.4x kind. What's wrong with the 8x? Sure wish I could find Verb -R DLs, and for a reasonable price...

Spyder, just got my Verb rebate today from the Newegg link you posted a while back:) Rebates are slow and somewhat a pain but for $10 I'll go through the hassle.
Oh and while not a dollar a piece and a rather large quantity, if you've got a Sams club membership (or a good friend who does) they regularly sell the 50 pack Verbs 2.4x DLs for $59.99, probably the best B&M price going. This would equal $24 for 20 + tax.
While personally I haven't heard anything bad about 8x Verb DLs I guess I'd tend to stick with the slower 2.4x, at least with regular R discs the impression is the slower the better and with the cost of DL discs I'd rather spend more time if it meant even a small chance less of a coaster.

I know they're basically Memorex DVDs:eek: but for those who like to mock Kelson's sig;) Office Depot has 50 PK spindles of TDK(memorex) R discs for $9.99 this week

Office Max has 100 Verbs @ $25.99 this week.

where r best dl bd roms

Hot deal on Verbs at Office Max this week, $19.99/100.

Stopped at Fry's (IL), they had a few different DVD-RAM discs. Panasonic 5-pack for $7.99, Panasonic hard coating 5-pack for $9.99 and 10-pack for $19.99, and Fuji for $12.99. These were all in jewel cases. While nothing special about the pricing, at least they still carry RAM discs.

SuperMediaStore has a sale on the 600 pack of TYs. Total is $139 with coupon code and with free shipping, and has many extras included. Comes to about 23 cents a DVD. See pic.

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-600-cake-box

http://www.elirion.net/~tomwil/avsforum/TY600.jpg

I went looking locally for ANY good deals on decent-quality -R/+R blanks. Office Max specials are for Memowrecks and Walgreen's special is for Sony 25-pk for $9 (MIT, no MIJ), so I went to Big Lots.

Not a special, but they had Verbatim 16X -R/+R 50-pks for $15, and the media code is MCC03RG20. Good discs for my post-Xmas emergency! :D

I went looking locally for ANY good deals on decent-quality -R/+R blanks. Office Max specials are for Memowrecks and Walgreen's special is for Sony 25-pk for $9 (MIT, no MIJ), so I went to Big Lots.

Not a special, but they had Verbatim 16X -R/+R 50-pks for $15, and the media code is MCC03RG20. Good discs for my post-Xmas emergency! :D

Plenty of stock in Nevada. Good B&M source.

Now till this Sat. Staples has a sale on Sony 50 count spindles DVD -R or + R for $12.98 and 100 count for $22.98.

Unfortunately, the -R discs are made in Malaysia which according to Digital FAQ's media guide are rated as 2nd class.
But the +R's were made in Taiwan and considered 1st class media.

If anyone buys either of those please post the media code.

Staples has this album on sale this week:

http://www.staples.com/Targus-208-CD-DVD-black-album/product_703733#revs_content

You can take a look at the reviews (4.4/5 stars), but this looks like a decent deal if you need one soon. The pages are sewn in, rather than a 3 ring binder style, which may or may not bother you.

This is an online only deal, but you can have it shipped to your local store for no charge.

I only use TY (premium). After my experiences using other makes in my DVD recorders I've "had" I have learned the hard way. Two things about using other brands other than TY or Verbatim (I currently don't use verbatim, but would if had to):
1) data corruption after a short time..I know this all too well unfortunately.
2) does something to the laser that makes it not read anymore and gives error messages. (I've had 2 Pannys die that way).

Not spectacular, but good.

100 DVD-R at newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-SlickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA&Item=N82E16817507005

Office Max this week: 100 Verbs for $19.99. 'Bout as cheap as it gets from a B&M store...

I picked up a pack last time they had them on sale, and got another pack this time as well. they still burn pretty well considering they are usually made in Taiwan by CMC these days.
Staples also has Memorex 8x Dual Layer disk 15 spindle for 12.95 which turn out to be Ritek SO4 and depending on the burner you have they burn well enough to play at 8x.
My Optiarc 7240 did a good enough job with one to play fine even burned at 8x, and I think some of the other LG and NEC based drives like the earlier Pioneers would do OK with them as well.
The Verbatim DL disks are still the best of course but these are great for giveaways and non critical stuff if your burner likes them.

I was at Office Max on Sunday & saw the Verbs, but they were NOT made in Taiwan like the ones I previously bought. I looked at a couple packages & they were made in United Arab Emir. I don't know how this affects their quality.

The UAE disks can be top notch stuff. I have some falcon media I got a while back in a sample pack that did excellent quality burns with most of the burners I own.
I'd say they are better quality anyways and I'd like to try some but all my store had was the Taiwan ones and they said they just get a big batch and that was what they were sent this time.

I was at Office Max on Sunday & saw the Verbs, but they were NOT made in Taiwan like the ones I previously bought. I looked at a couple packages & they were made in United Arab Emir. I don't know how this affects their quality.
UAE has been added as a recommended mfgr of Verbatims on digitalfaq.com (http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm).

UAE has been added as a recommended mfgr of Verbatims on digitalfaq.com (http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm).

Yeah, but just watch out if you try to record something with people drinking alcohol... ;) :eek:

I only use TY (premium). After my experiences using other makes in my DVD recorders I've "had" I have learned the hard way. Two things about using other brands other than TY or Verbatim (I currently don't use verbatim, but would if had to):
1) data corruption after a short time..I know this all too well unfortunately.
2) does something to the laser that makes it not read anymore and gives error messages. (I've had 2 Pannys die that way).

Not entirely accurate -- but you're actually very close! :)

A DVD-/DVD+R does not experience data corruption very often -- that's a real rarity. (DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM are another story, for another time.)

The DVD-R or DVD+R is simply very inferior in a number of ways, making it harder to read/write. While many people assume data as "disappeared" or "gone bad", the actual fault lies with the player/reader/recorder. As the machines age and degrade, they read poorer. Poorer discs can also stress a drive out, as lasers are forced to re-focus and alter power to attempt read/write of the media.

Although some like to use "the disc used to be fine" is the reason for blaming the disc, it's an easy misunderstanding. It's really a simple matter of the player/reader/recorder no longer being in mint condition. It's really that easy.

And then usual response of "well it won't work in my new player/reader/recorder, either" is a sad statement about the falling quality of optical drives in general. Modern drives simply don't read very good, compared to some of those older 4x/8x drives. The commonly-used LG drives are simply awful at reading.

People often worry about how long a disc lasts. That's the wrong question. We need to be asking if players/readers will still work in 25-50 years. Otherwise we'll be stuck with a lot of coasters. Data good, but nothing to read/play it. Think of all those non-VHS tape formats out there, and how hard it can be to locate a good player!

A lot of this has been discussed at http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/forumdisplay.php/blank-media-19.html in past months, and other related topics.

Again ... you were very close. Keen observations on your part. :D

JVC has introduced a new version of their CPRM disc. You can purcase @ COMPUSA.COM (5-Pack, 5X, Gold Lacquer Branded) $9.99

JVC has introduced a new version of their CPRM disc. You can purcase @ COMPUSA.COM (5-Pack, 5X, Gold Lacquer Branded) $9.99
That 5-pack is $7.50 at Rima.com (http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=VD-W47HG5&Category_Code=JVC)

and $14.99 for a 10-pack at Supermediastore.com (http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/jvc-taiyo-yuden-premium-grade-gold-lacquer-2x-4x-dvd-rw-media-10-pack?max=15&search=VD-W47HG5&offset=0)

$14.99 shipped is a pretty good deal for anyone wanting a 100 spindle of HP +R discs from Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817292028&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL012210&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL012210-_-CDDVDRRWMedia-_-LO1D-_-17292028). Looks like the special is good through 1-28-10

They're doin' it again... Office Max has 100 Verbs @ $19.99.

^^Ack! I was in my local OM this afternoon looking fora deal, and they didn't have those on sale. Whine...

Well, it was in their regular Sunday ad.

Same here, they probably just didn't have the sign out yet.

My local OM must not being doing terribly well. They stopped the Sunday newspaper flyers over a year ago. And they don't make them available in store either.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130040&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL020910&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL020910-_-CDDVDRRWMedia-_-LC2A-_-17130040
$1.16 a disc shipped is a pretty good deal for Verbatim 8x DL discs in 30 spindle for $34.99 promo ends 2-15-10

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130040&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL020910&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL020910-_-CDDVDRRWMedia-_-LC2A-_-17130040
$1.16 a disc shipped is a pretty good deal for Verbatim 8x DL discs in 30 spindle for $34.99 promo ends 2-15-10

Damn. Verb DLs only go on sale once in a while and these are the crappy 8X ones. :(

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130040&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL020910&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL020910-_-CDDVDRRWMedia-_-LC2A-_-17130040
$1.16 a disc shipped is a pretty good deal for Verbatim 8x DL discs in 30 spindle for $34.99 promo ends 2-15-10Just checked and their listed as sold out.

I just added it to my cart and it went through:confused: at least it let me add it but I didn't actually purchase them. Are the 8x DLs not that good? I admit I've only used the 2.4x discs and have no experience with the faster ones.

Newegg has 8x RiData -R DVDs for $8.99/50 with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817132073&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL021610&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL021610-_-CDDVDRRWMedia-_-LA2B-_-17132073
Only good for 11 more hours so I'm a little reluctant to post it, basically order now or it will be over.
Sale ends 11:59 PM PT 2/16/10

I just added it to my cart and it went through:confused: at least it let me add it but I didn't actually purchase them. Are the 8x DLs not that good? I admit I've only used the 2.4x discs and have no experience with the faster ones.I've only used the 2.4X +DL because my burner only goes up to 6X and they were a lot cheaper than the 8X. I'm patient and don't mind the long burn times. It encourages me to only use them for selective recordings. I get the feeling that 2.4X are on the way out and 8X are the new norm. Verbatim 2.4X are getting harder to find.

Newegg has 8x RiData -R DVDs for $8.99/50 with free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817132073&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL021610&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL021610-_-CDDVDRRWMedia-_-LA2B-_-17132073
Only good for 11 more hours so I'm a little reluctant to post it, basically order now or it will be over.
Sale ends 11:59 PM PT 2/16/10

Do these have a good reputation? Who makes them, don't see their name listed in the media chart at digitalfaq.

edit-I see that Ritek makes them...listed as 2nd class media at dfq but still, are they good?

I personally don't know about the quality but I was surprised to see 8x instead of the more common 16x.
I'd be more inclined to go with Verbatim or even Sony(not to mention Ty) but the price is quite good for people that mainly look at that.

Do these have a good reputation? Who makes them, don't see their name listed in the media chart at digitalfaq.

edit-I see that Ritek makes them...listed as 2nd class media at dfq but still, are they good?Last time I used a Ritek 8X was 4.5-5 yrs ago -- I had a 50 pk of them. They were the last non-TY DVD-R media I've used. I don't know about today's Ritek 8X, but those from 5 yr ago were crappy as far as burn quality goes. The error scans were very high. However, although I've had several of them not play for me any more and had to be re-burned to T-Y, the vast majority of them seem to play just fine on my Oppo 981HD after 5 years. So, who's to say. In all fairness, based on their 5 yr life, I can't really say anything bad about them. Actually, I'm impressed. I still wouldn't use their DVD-R anymore since I'm a 100% T-Y shop (for DVD-R). But, now I wonder what their +DL is like. People seem to like their 8X as much as the Verbatims and they sell for just over $1/disk in quantity. I may get a spindle and give them a shot.

Last time I used a Ritek 8X was 4.5-5 yrs ago...now I wonder what their +DL is like. People seem to like their 8X as much as the Verbatims and they sell for just over $1/disk in quantity. I may get a spindle and give them a shot.

Better to listen to your own advice in your sig, don't you think? ;)

Verb +DLs can be had for $1 each on a regular basis without much effort.

Better to listen to your own advice in your sig, don't you think? ;)

Verb +DLs can be had for $1 each on a regular basis without much effort.I have yet to find them for $1 each. The cheapest I see them for is $1.33. If you see them as cheap as you say, please post it.

Do these have a good reputation? Who makes them, don't see their name listed in the media chart at digitalfaq.

edit-I see that Ritek makes them...listed as 2nd class media at dfq but still, are they good?

Buddy of mine bought some ritek dvd-r from newegg "on sale". It is a mistake he will not repeat. Horrible scans, massive errors, many times the failed burn of verbatims in his system. Also more problems with video "hanging" and skips and pixelation. I would not use ritek dvd for anything but giveaways, and then only if I got them for free to start with.

I saw this posted on Slickdeals today. Outstanding* DVD-R's at a great price:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?max=15&brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&offset=0&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=cj

* - Assuming the quality hasn't dropped since JVC took over operations.

I saw this posted on Slickdeals today. Outstanding* DVD-R's at a great price:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?max=15&brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&offset=0&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=cj

* - Assuming the quality hasn't dropped since JVC took over operations.

Actually, Taiyo Yuden took over JVC's DVD media division in 2008, not the other way around.

Some time ago Wajo posted this link to a May 26, 2008 Reuters news story:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST13450420080526

The Reuters news story, in its most relevant part (for our interest) reads, "The two companies said the new company would keep JVC's production base of magnetic media but would switch to Taiyo Yuden for the supply of optical disks." (emphasis added)

I saw this posted on Slickdeals today. Outstanding* DVD-R's at a great price:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?max=15&brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&offset=0&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=cj

* - Assuming the quality hasn't dropped since JVC took over operations.

Newegg has the same, and free shipping. :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817294013

Newegg has the same, and free shipping. :)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817294013
These are Value Line.

These are Value Line.

Beginning in 2008 I've purchased several thousand Taiyo Yuden Premium Line TYG02 8x DVD-R discs. These Premium Line discs provide outstanding performance with my Magnavox, Philips and Panasonic recorders.

In the spring of 2009 I purchased 600 TY "Value Line" discs. Most of these Value Line discs performed satisfactorily. Two of the Value DVD 100 disc packs had some problematic discs, most of which were of the TYG03 16x variety even though they were advertised as "8x" media.

TY "Value DVD" discs are from those TYG02 and TYG03 lots that do not meet Taiyo Yuden's quality control standards. In other words, "Value Line" discs are "seconds." With Value Line quality issues such discs are a gamble ("are ya feeling lucky--PUNK?") and not cost-effective.

With so little price difference between Premium Line and Value Line discs, I've not purchased any more Value Line discs. The on-hand Value Line discs were used for non-essential recordings or were given away.

The first photo shows a shipping box with 8x Premium Line DVD-R discs in cake box spindles. The second photo shows a shipping box with Value Line DVD-R discs in tape wrapped stacks.

I saw this posted on Slickdeals today. Outstanding* DVD-R's at a great price:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?max=15&brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&offset=0&utm_medium=aff&utm_source=cj

* - Assuming the quality hasn't dropped since JVC took over operations.

I have seen a couple of posts about SuperMediaStore:

Fake TY (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/what-is-up-with-quot-fake-ty-quot-linkyo-from-supermediastore-com-t354508.html)

Thin TY (http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/315640-Taiyo-Yuden-Premium-is-getting-thinner-any-insight)

As a purchaser of TY media from SuperMediaStore, should I be concerned?

For dubbing from the DVDR, I stick to TY Premium 8x. If it's worth saving for posterity (or to watch again, whichever comes first), it's worth spending a few extra cents on high-quality media.

I will sometimes settle for cheaper stuff to make copies on my DVD duplicator. But the "master" disc gets the good stuff.

I have seen a couple of posts about SuperMediaStore:

Fake TY (http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/what-is-up-with-quot-fake-ty-quot-linkyo-from-supermediastore-com-t354508.html)

Thin TY (http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/315640-Taiyo-Yuden-Premium-is-getting-thinner-any-insight)

As a purchaser of TY media from SuperMediaStore, should I be concerned?

After actually reading through those threads - probably not.

I noticed a while back that Verbatim has gone to thinner DVD-R Discs. They still burn and playback perfectly on my equipment.

This week, locally at OfficeMax, you can get non-archival quality TDK DVD-R (RITEKF1) media. Good for duplicating something that is easily replaced. ~20 per 100-pack. I bought 200 discs for some dupe work, should last a week or two.

SMS has some JVC discs on sale through 3/8, including JVC Premium Gold Lacquer DVD-R (http://www.tkqlhce.com/email-3235990-10280737?url=http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/jvc-taiyo-yuden-premium-grade-gold-lacquer-16x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?utm_source=emailSonic&utm_content=Common&utm_medium=campaign&utm_term=DV 001 2906&utm_campaign=100302 JVC) for $25/100-pack --- that's new! I guess it was only a matter of time before TY start to do the "gold" thing too. Unlike MAM-A, which sells crappy gold-foiled discs, I bet TY is just using a gold lacquer layer, keeping the more-reflective silver foil. Verbatim started making something very similar a year or two ago, although the have an upper gold foil layer pair with a lower silver.

Concerning the above TY fake/real conversations, read these:
- JVC takes over Taiyo Yuden? what's this about? (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showthread.php/jvc-takes-over-1760.html)
- TY "Valueline" -- Is this a lower grade? (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showthread.php/ty-valueline-lower-370.html)
- Also: What is a "shiny top disc"? (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showthread.php/shiny-top-disc-1766.html) and Dangers of "shiny silver" discs? (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showthread.php/dangers-shiny-silver-1590.html)

As a Panasonic DVDR owner I'd be very concerned about a thinner disc. Something about the way a Panasonic DVD drive holds the disc makes it very vulnerable to spindle slippage. Keeping the spindle clean prevents most all spindle slippage but my guess is even if the disc is a fraction thinner it could cause slippage in a Panasonic which could lead to burn failures.
With a slightly dirty spindle I have always wondered why some brands/types of discs slip while others do not, thickness of a disc would sure explain the slippage.

How do we know the discs are actually thinner? is it so drastic that you can actually see or feel it? short of a micrometer it would have to be pretty severe to notice it with your naked eye. Also I would have thought disc thickness along with diameter would have been in the DVD standard and not be allowed to deviate from the standard:confused: Could it be the discs just feel flimsier but are actual the same thickness? IOW a stack of 100 is the same physical height as any other disc brand?

On a side note, an acquaintance had a Panasonic ES-15 DVDR which had never been cleaned and had such severe spindle slippage that even some commercial discs refused to play, it would just grind and finally error out. On a hunch I tried a commercial disc I had borrowed from a local library. This library attaches a round paper sticker to the spindle where it writes a number for inventory control. Sure enough this disc played just fine with no slippage. Now I don't know if this was because of the slightly thicker spindle, due to the sticker, or the increased friction from slippage caused by the paper. I'm leaning towards the thickness which wouldn't bode well for a thinner disc.
Needless to say after giving the spindle a good cleaning it once again played/recorded all discs.

Meritline

TY 8X Silver Premium @$0.26/each

http://www.meritline.com/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-r-silver-thermal---p-18321.aspx

How do we know the discs are actually thinner? .
I think a lot of it is imagination and impressionability of people. People who don't really know about something (media, in this case) are easy to influence. You can ask them "Gee, these sure seem thinner than they used to, don't they?" and some doofus will agree.

Another issue that is often overlooked is sometimes media made in years past was too thick. This was a real issue with overprint media in UK, because they kept slopping that "hard coat" surface crap on the top of discs to cover over the previous brand markings. That's just one example -- but I've seen it where the polycarbonate layer was definitely thicker than it should have been. Thickness adds weight, weight can affect balance, balance can determine coasters and errors.

Remember that the various DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD-Video specs all have tolerances in them. This includes physical characteristics. Being "thinner" isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But again, a lot of people don't know any of this, they just start (or pass on) silly BS myths and rumors. Rumors from years past included things like the "purpleness" of dye, or how "100 packs are worse than 25 packs" -- it's all silly stuff, about on par with boogeymen under the bed or the moon being made of cheese. Every year a new myth adds on, and an old one finally fades away.

- Also: What is a "shiny top disc"? (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showthread.php/shiny-top-disc-1766.html) and Dangers of "shiny silver" discs? (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showthread.php/dangers-shiny-silver-1590.html)With respect to your links on "shiny silver" disks. Does that also apply to the T-Y premium "silver thermal lacquer" disks (both CD and DVD)? Is the "thermal lacquer" an actual coating on the disk that provides some protection, especially for the foil of a CD-R. I've always used the T-Y Premium "silver thermal lacquer" DVD-R's and write on them with a Sharpie. If I buy the T-Y Premium "silver thermal lacquer" CD-R's, will I be writing directly on the exposed foil or on a lacquer coating.

Not sure about Ty discs, but I had a spindle of generic shinny top CDs and mostly used them up before I noticed the top layer would occasionally flake off, making the CD useless for the most part:( you could actually see light through the CD.
I also have a spindle of Comp USA DVD +RW discs that are shinny on the top, I very rarely use them(mostly for testing) but I've never noticed the top layer flaking off. Maybe it has a lacquer coating??
Other older -R DVDs I have, Philips immediately comes to mind are shinny except for the brand, disc type and speed which are silk screened to the top. I wonder if they are also unprotected? Lately I've been liking the Sony -R DVDs which have a matte white printable surface. When they get low I'll probably switch to Ty when they have a good deal including free shipping. Aren't the white top Ty's slightly more expensive? I would think since Ty's specifically say lacquer top they are coated.

Lately I've been liking the Sony -R DVDs which have a matte white printable surface. When they get low I'll probably switch to Ty when they have a good deal including free shipping. Aren't the white top Ty's slightly more expensive? I would think since Ty's specifically say lacquer top they are coated.

Jeff,

It doesn't get any better than this:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack

Supermediastore has free shipping on orders more than $25.00 so you may want to order two cake box spindles or something else, say a DVD wallet album, to get free shipping. I just started a new album today. The old album, started on 12/19/2009, is full this morning with 520 home-recorded DVDs. I usually like to keep at least 2,000 TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R discs on hand. Anything below that number means that I'm getting low on discs.

I'm expecting more of these TY cake box spindles to arrive in a day or so.

Notice that this sale is through today only.

Thanks DD, I just ordered 2 spindles and a wallet, my first Ty's:D BTW what does Cake box mean? Is it just another word for spindle?

Thanks DD, I just ordered 2 spindles and a wallet, my first Ty's:D BTW what does Cake box mean? Is it just another word for spindle?

I assume "cake box" refers to the design where the clear plastic upper part matches up with the non-protruding base. The cake boxes have tabs along the lower rim of the upper part that mates with a groove running around the base part.

Maxell also uses a cake box spindle but most other brands have a protruding base with locking tabs. In my opinion the protruding base spindles are easier to open and close.

As the TY 100 disc cake boxes are a bit clumsy I repackage my TYs into 25 disc spindles once I've opened the TY cake box.

The attached photo shows a 50 disc protruding base spindle, TY discs in a Maxell 25 disc cake box, and an empty TY 100 disc cake box. The combo recorder seen in the photo is an early production example (March 2007) of a Magnavox ZV450MW8 set up for dubbing to a Philips 3576. Somewhat obscured behind the Maxell cake box is a TriQuest 3-device A/V selector from Big Lots.

O.K. that makes sense. I actually prefer the case to be flush with the bottom but I've only ever purchased one 50 spindle years ago with that style which I reuse. All my other spindles including Maxell, Verbatim, Sony, Philips etc. have the style where the bottom is quite a bit wider than the main body. Another small + for Ty's, at least for me:D

I just ordered 2 spindles and a wallet, my first Ty's:D Wow, a T-Y virgin. I would of never figured you as one of those.

BTW - I already have enough T-Y 8X Premium in reserve from the last SMS sale. However, SMS also has Verbatim 8X +DL's in a 30 pack for $1.29/disk, in case you are interested. That's as cheap as what I was paying for the 2.4X +DL on sale. I just picked up a spindle (cake box) of the 8X. Sale ends tonight.

With respect to your links on "shiny silver" disks. Does that also apply to the T-Y premium "silver thermal lacquer" disks (both CD and DVD)? Is the "thermal lacquer" an actual coating on the disk that provides some protection, especially for the foil of a CD-R. I've always used the T-Y Premium "silver thermal lacquer" DVD-R's and write on them with a Sharpie. If I buy the T-Y Premium "silver thermal lacquer" CD-R's, will I be writing directly on the exposed foil or on a lacquer coating.
Yes, that includes TY.

Think about what a lacquer is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacquer -- it's a clear coating that is polished on, and can dry matte or shiny. With DVD-R/DVD+R, most times this is a shiny coat. In fact, the only discs I recall NOT being shiny were PRODISC media, with their pearled finish. The lacquer coat used by TY is just a fingerprint magnet. If it has a "silver inkjet surface", then it has an added surface to absorb ink, and unprinted it is matte silver in nature.

Last time I saw bulk TY CD-R, the discs were foil-exposed like any other. The problem is stores are using "silver lacquer" as a generic term now. Europe and USA stores both.

Cake boxes don't stack as well as the other type.

As a Panasonic DVDR owner I'd be very concerned about a thinner disc. Something about the way a Panasonic DVD drive holds the disc makes it very vulnerable to spindle slippage. Keeping the spindle clean prevents most all spindle slippage but my guess is even if the disc is a fraction thinner it could cause slippage in a Panasonic which could lead to burn failures.
With a slightly dirty spindle I have always wondered why some brands/types of discs slip while others do not, thickness of a disc would sure explain the slippage.

How do we know the discs are actually thinner? is it so drastic that you can actually see or feel it? short of a micrometer it would have to be pretty severe to notice it with your naked eye. Also I would have thought disc thickness along with diameter would have been in the DVD standard and not be allowed to deviate from the standard:confused: Could it be the discs just feel flimsier but are actual the same thickness? IOW a stack of 100 is the same physical height as any other disc brand?

I noticed it when Verbatim went to the most recent style of DVD-R. They feel flimsier and look thinner than the "old style" Verbatims. I do not have a micrometer and I have not weighed a stack. Anyone who decides to weigh them needs to take them out of the cakebox to do so, as the weight of the containers might vary. As I mentioned above, they burn beautifully in my equipment, so it was not a complaint. In fact, the "new style" Verbatim DVD-R burn better than any other media I have tried in my Sylvania HDRV 200F, and they Burn great in my Philips and Magnavox DVDrs as well.

Cake boxes don't stack as well as the other type.

Cake boxes with wide bottom side center hubs stack well with most other types of spindles. I've found that it's the narrow bottom side center hub spindles or those with a wide area between bottom side outer rings that do not stack well.

Here’s a quick photo study that demonstrates bottom side center hub and outside ring variations that affect the “stacking ability” of various spindles.

The pencils point to two bottom side center hub designs that have much to do with “stacking ability.” The narrow bottom side center hub on the Maxell 50 disc cake box spindle (seen at the front center) does not stack well with spindles with wide bottom side center hubs such as the unknown brand 50 disc protruding base spindle (seen at the left). Contrast the narrow hub Maxell 50 disc cake box with the wide bottom side center hub on the Maxell 25 disc cake box spindle (seen at the front right).

The back row left stack shows a TDK 100 CD protruding base spindle atop a Memorex 25 disc well-type protruding base spindle. The back row right stack has a Maxell 25 disc cake box (containing TY discs) atop a TY 100 disc cake box.

Another design characteristic affecting "stacking ability" is the relation of the bottem side outermost inboard ring in relation to rim on the top section of another spindle.

The second photo demonstrates that these various spindles may be stacked effectively when arranged in a certain manner.

Anybody familiar with the British sitcom "Coupling"? Diga's "These spindles stack up" foto reminds me of the episode where Jeff Murdoch explains the "giggle loop" ;)

I couldn't resist the latest SMS sale of TY 8x Premium Silver Themal Lacquer DVD-Rs for 25 cents a piece. Don't want to get snowed in or something and run out of blank media.....

Also toyed with trying the JVC Gold Archival blah-blah whatever 16x discs for use in my DVD duplicator, but they seemed overpriced. Until some reliable members of this forum give 'em glowing reviews, I'll wait.

Although they're more expensive, I like to use the white-top, printable discs in my DMR-E85 because the matte white coating seems to provide a little more "tooth" for the hub to grab onto. It does still burn shiny-top discs just fine, too, but I figure, why stress it? Plus, the written labelling on the white discs is easier to read.

It's been a couple of years ago now, but I bought a Memorex 25-pack -RWs from Walmart for about $15. Because I use RWs mainly as proofing media or transferring (PC and Pio550) and sometimes temporary storage of DIVX to watch on the DVD player, they've served me very well. There's maybe still half the spindle unused. It's a good deal.

Cake boxes don't stack as well as the other type.

Well I received my 2 "cake boxes" of Tys today. They weren't the same type of cake box that I had experienced years ago. In fact during shipping one of the spindles separated from the bottom and the thin shrink wrap broke lose and the bottom separated from the top. This allowed some small pieces of packing peanuts to get in the spindle:mad:
When I lifted the other cake box out of the peanuts the top also separated from the bottom almost causing me to drop the whole spindle in the peanuts:(
Now count me in the camp who doesn't like the cake boxes, I would never trust holding the cake box by grasping the top, it's just to flimsy of a locking mechanism. I guess if this is what current cake boxes are like I'd rather have the wider bottom spindles and just not be able to fit as many on a single layer shelf.
The discs look and work great though and I like my little 48 single size wallet I also bought:)

Well I received my 2 "cake boxes" of Tys today...during shipping one of the spindles separated from the bottom and the thin shrink wrap broke lose and the bottom separated from the top...When I lifted the other cake box out of the peanuts the top also separated from the bottom almost causing me to drop the whole spindle in the peanuts:(

Now count me in the camp who doesn't like the cake boxes, I would never trust holding the cake box by grasping the top, it's just to flimsy of a locking mechanism. I guess if this is what current cake boxes are like I'd rather have the wider bottom spindles and just not be able to fit as many on a single layer shelf.

The discs look and work great though and I like my little 48 single size wallet I also bought:)

Jeff,

Here’s a portion of one of my TCM message board posts from last week:

“While I usually purchase my TY discs in the very sturdy original TY 600 disc shipping box I sometimes purchase TY discs in smaller quantities. Two cake boxes from SuperMediaStore arrived yesterday. One of those cake boxes had its upper portion compacted down over the base section making that spindle difficult to open. The small SMS shipping box hadn’t evidenced any kind of shipping trauma. The compacted cake box wasn’t actually damaged nor was there any damage to the discs themselves. I’ve also found a few cake box center shafts that have snapped after leaving the factory but that didn’t damage the discs. My practice has been to place TY discs on non-TY spindles as soon as a cake box is opened. TY puts quality into the media, not the cake box.”

My practice has been to place TY discs on non-TY spindles as soon as a cake box is opened. TY puts quality into the media, not the cake box.”

Ditto. When they're available and the price is right, I go for the "tape wrap" packaging and transfer the discs to "good" 50-disc cake boxes leftover from the old days (I think they originally came with Maxell CD-Rs....)

Well I received my 2 "cake boxes" of Tys today. They weren't the same type of cake box that I had experienced years ago. In fact during shipping one of the spindles separated from the bottom and the thin shrink wrap broke lose and the bottom separated from the top. This allowed some small pieces of packing peanuts to get in the spindle:mad:
When I lifted the other cake box out of the peanuts the top also separated from the bottom almost causing me to drop the whole spindle in the peanuts:(
Now count me in the camp who doesn't like the cake boxes, I would never trust holding the cake box by grasping the top, it's just to flimsy of a locking mechanism. I guess if this is what current cake boxes are like I'd rather have the wider bottom spindles and just not be able to fit as many on a single layer shelf.
The discs look and work great though and I like my little 48 single size wallet I also bought:)

I ordered 2 of the 100 ct. TY cake boxes from Supermediastore. When I came home one evening, the box was on my front porch, upside down with the bottom of the box busted wide open. Great packing job there SMS, and great handling job UPS.:mad: At least the discs seem to be OK. I agree that the current cake boxes are pretty lousy.

Well I received my 2 "cake boxes" of Tys today. They weren't the same type of cake box that I had experienced years ago.The cakeboxes that T-Y 8X Premium silver lacquer come in appear to be just dust covers for shelf storage (their silver CD's come in the same cakeboxes). I keep a stack on my desk with the cover unlatched for easy access. When empty, I toss it; I would never consider it suitable for long-term storage of burned media. I've never had problems with SMS packaging or the cakeboxes coming apart during shipping so maybe I've just been lucky.

Many years ago, when I was still buying T-Y 4X, the disk stack on the spindle was itself tape-wrapped which provided the utmost in security. Even if the cakebox top separated during shipping the disks could not spill out into the carton. It was pretty easy to find the end of the tape-wrap and pull it off the disks while still on the spindle -- kind of like unwinding toilet paper. It was actually kinda' fun; sort of a "starting a new 100 disk spindle" ritual.

The 20-30 count cakeboxes that Verbatim +DL come in are pretty sturdy. I keep all those.

This week at Office Max, 100 Verbs @$19.99.

This week at Office Max, 100 Verbs @$19.99.

Thanks man. I need some more of these. Any online or store coupons available?

I haven't checked, but I will, before I go buy some.

I purchase my Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R discs here:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack

There are occasional price reductions bringing the price down to 26 cents per disc, including shipping. SuperMediaStore also sells duplicators.

At the moment SuperMediaStore is selling the above-linked Taiyo Yuden 100 disc spindle for $24.99. They're also offering an entry level duplicator for $99.00, shipping included:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/linkyo-copypal-dvd-duplicator-tower-dvd-duplicators-1-to-1

Notice that the duplicator "deal" applies to the first 100 purchasers. I just ordered one of these duplicators.

The Taiyo Yuden "deal" includes a "freebie," a 24 disc wallet. Yesterday I ordered three spindles with three wallets thrown in, a total of $74.97, shipping included.

What a deal!

A duplicator is great, especially at that price! Saves your DVDR's burner from the extra wear-n-tear caused by making extra copies of the same program. It should also give your more flexibility in choice of media; if you're making non-archival copies, you can use cheaper big-box-store 16x media, etc.

At the moment SuperMediaStore is selling the above-linked Taiyo Yuden 100 disc spindle for $24.99. They're also offering an entry level duplicator for $99.00, shipping included:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/linkyo-copypal-dvd-duplicator-tower-dvd-duplicators-1-to-1

Notice that the duplicator "deal" applies to the first 100 purchasers. I just ordered one of these duplicators.

The Taiyo Yuden "deal" includes a "freebie," a 24 disc wallet. Yesterday I ordered three spindles with three wallets thrown in, a total of $74.97, shipping included.

What a deal!

I finally took the plunge on these blank discs. I ordered 2 spindles on Friday and arrived at relatives house in CA Monday. Had to pay CA Tax but no biggie. Why have I not ordered from Supermedia before. Because their shipping to HI is ridiculous. What ever my order cost they charge that same amount to ship to HI. Of course that is 2nd day air. My cousin will ship to me USPS in a Priority Mail Flat rate box, which should cost about $10.40.

These will be used on my Panny E500H but for now it is down for the count. I think I burned over 3500 dvd-r's on it and it is shot. So it's in for repairs under extended warranty.

SuperMediaStore is also offering an entry level duplicator for $99.00, shipping included:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/linkyo-copypal-dvd-duplicator-tower-dvd-duplicators-1-to-1

Notice that the duplicator "deal" applies to the first 100 purchasers. I just ordered one of these duplicators.

I missed this deal, so I went with the newer model at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Spartan-CopyPal-Duplicator-without-D01CLCOSASSO/dp/B0026MBP22/ref=sr_1_5) for $110.

I have a lot of DVD recordings from around 2001 on less-than-quality DVD-Rs (I was a little price wary when DVD-Rs were around $5 each), and am hoping the duplicator can copy these to TY media accurately.

I hope this duplicator can recognize 8X media and burn at that rate, rather than just using the highest speed of the burner at 20X blindly.

I have a lot of DVD recordings from around 2001 on less-than-quality DVD-Rs (I was a little price wary when DVD-Rs were around $5 each), and am hoping the duplicator can copy these to TY media accurately.

I hope this duplicator can recognize 8X media and burn at that rate, rather than just using the highest speed of the burner at 20X blindly.

My CopyPal arrived yesterday at 6:30 p.m. By 8:15 p.m. I had copied nine DVDs. It's very fast, but I didn't think to time it. I used TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R blank discs.

Come to think of it I have an unused 100 disc spindle of 16x Sony Inkjet White DVD+R media so I might use that with the CopyPal.

I would think that a duplicator should have the ability to configure the burn to the specification of the media and the burner.

My CopyPal has a burner with SuperWritemaster and SpeedPlus+ logos so I assume the burner is made by Samsung. There are no brand-specific logos on the DVD ROM drive. The case has warranty-voiding tamper tape so I'm not going to open it.

In an earlier thread there were links to the 2008 announcement that Taiyo Yuden had bought the rights to produce DVD and CD media under the JVC name, not the other way around. Notice this sentence in the announcement:

"The two companies said the new company would keep JVC's production base of magnetic media but would switch to Taiyo Yuden for the supply of optical disks."

The earlier thread title also got the TY buyout of JVC backward...

During 2009 each time supermediastore.com had promotions for 8X Premium Line DVD-R discs I observed a "while supplies last" notice in the listing...

The last supermediastore.com sale of Taiyo Yuden 8x Value Line discs again mentioned "while supplies last." Those TY 8x Value Line discs sold out early. TY 8x Value Line discs haven't been offered by supermediastore.com since that time.

Since that time the only TY Value Line discs that supermediastore.com has offered are of the 16x varieties with JVC/Taiyo Yuden packaging:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-r-media-value-line-200pk?max=15&brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&offset=0

Supermediastore.com continues to offer the TY 8x Premium Line DVD-R media with Taiyo Yuden packaging:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack

I found a decent source of DVD media, somewhat by accident. It's not media that I'd use normally, but in a pinch it's very good. The actual manufacturer of the media is Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (with an Media ID of MCC004). The source? The Aldi discount supermarket chain, which as you may or may not know, is a German-based company - Albrecht Discount. Their Tevion brand DVD+ and DVD- are manufactured by Mitsubishi, and the prices for non-bulk packaging is excellent.

My CopyPal arrived yesterday at 6:30 p.m. By 8:15 p.m. I had copied nine DVDs. It's very fast, but I didn't think to time it. I used TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R blank discs.

Come to think of it I have an used 100 disc spindle of 16x Sony Inkjet White DVD+R media so I might use that with the CopyPal.

I would think that a duplicator should have the ability to configure the burn to the specification of the media and the burner.

My CopyPal has a burner with SuperWritemaster and SpeedPlus+ logos so I assume the burner is made by Samsung. There are no brand-specific logos on the DVD ROM drive. The case has warranty-voiding tamper tape so I'm not going to open it.
I really put my CopyPal to the test this weekend. I think I made nearly a hundred duplicates. Many of these (well, maybe ten or so) were Verbatim +R DL disks. It worked flawlessly. One of the disks had a "blemish" on the data side. I thought for sure it would fail because of a bad source disk, but it copied fine, and the copy played back fine. A really great find for the money, so THANKS for bringing it to my attention!

Mine is configured with the same drives as yours.

Well I received my 2 "cake boxes" of Tys today. They weren't the same type of cake box that I had experienced years ago. In fact during shipping one of the spindles separated from the bottom and the thin shrink wrap broke lose and the bottom separated from the top. This allowed some small pieces of packing peanuts to get in the spindle:mad:
When I lifted the other cake box out of the peanuts the top also separated from the bottom almost causing me to drop the whole spindle in the peanuts:(
Now count me in the camp who doesn't like the cake boxes, I would never trust holding the cake box by grasping the top, it's just to flimsy of a locking mechanism. I guess if this is what current cake boxes are like I'd rather have the wider bottom spindles and just not be able to fit as many on a single layer shelf.
The discs look and work great though and I like my little 48 single size wallet I also bought:)

Got my 2 cake box of Ty's from my relative late last weekend. They shipped them in a flat rate USPS box. Not sure what condition it arrived to them when they received it from Supermedia. But when I got it both had the shrink wrap broken lose and the bottoms separated from the tops. As well as one of them had the spindle broken from the black base. They had each cake box wrap with bubble wrap. But I think they could of done a better job of packing them. There was to much room in the flat rate box for them to move around. I immediately transfer them to some non ty 100 spindles. Have not been able to test these yet since I have not gotten back my E500H dvd recorder yet.

Well, I will probably be returning my CopyPal DVD Duplicator. For whatever reason, it insists on burning everything at a 16-20X speed, even if I feed it 1X, 4X, or 8X TY media. And, it is not reliably copying my older DVDs.

I am going for the upgraded model (the one with the LCD control), which gives you the option to select the burn speed.

As for SuperMediaStore's packaging, my first order with them came with loose DVDs and broken cake boxes. In subsequent orders, I placed a message in the memo field asking that they pack very carefully. Since then, they have been very good at packaging, having the cake boxes wrapped in bubble wrap and packed tightly with peanuts so that there is no movement in shipping.

Well, I will probably be returning my CopyPal DVD Duplicator. For whatever reason, it insists on burning everything at a 16-20X speed, even if I feed it 1X, 4X, or 8X TY media. And, it is not reliably copying my older DVDs.

I am going for the upgraded model (the one with the LCD control), which gives you the option to select the burn speed.

The CopyPal's fast burning and your report points toward use of 16x media with that machine.

I have on-hand one unused spindle of 100 Sony 16x discs and I ordered two 16x spindles of 100 TY/JVC Value Line discs for use only with the CopyPal. At the moment these Value Line discs are attractively priced, 200 for $40, including shipping:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-r-media-value-line-200pk

When copying discs with my computer I would sometimes encounter the "difficulty reading from source disc" error. Since then I've usually checked to make sure that fingerprints or other soiling has been removed before copying a disc.

My circa 2005/2006 computer has been slowing down with a number of operations, especially DVD burning--even though the DVD burner (LG) was new just a few months ago.

I've started to discuss getting a new computer with my Chief Financial Officer (wife).

A couple of days ago I went computer shopping with a buddy who wanted my advice. We looked at several models and agreed that one model was the best buy for his needs. Then he called his Chief Financial Officer (wife) and reported that (DigaDo) approved of the computer he found. She gave her approval and he purchased the computer. Now I want the same model/deal he got. So far, "DigaDo" hasn't made much progress in the new computer discussions.

My circa 2005/2006 computer has been slowing down with a number of operations, especially DVD burning--even though the DVD burner (LG) was new just a few months ago.

I've started to discuss getting a new computer with my Chief Financial Officer (wife).
While you may still try to get your CFO to approve a new computer purchase (good luck!), in the interim you might want to check your CD/DVD drive's DMA status, as described here? (http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=61905)

The drive might have auto-switched to PIO status due to previous "errors" and that's a very inefficient (slow) op process.

Got my 2 cake box of Ty's from my relative late last weekend. They shipped them in a flat rate USPS box. Not sure what condition it arrived to them when they received it from Supermedia. But when I got it both had the shrink wrap broken lose and the bottoms separated from the tops. As well as one of them had the spindle broken from the black base. They had each cake box wrap with bubble wrap. But I think they could of done a better job of packing them. There was to much room in the flat rate box for them to move around. I immediately transfer them to some non ty 100 spindles. Have not been able to test these yet since I have not gotten back my E500H dvd recorder yet.
Supermediastore has, in my opinion, been very poor at packing in general, and I always dread opening their boxes. Because of that issue alone, I have moved many o fmy purchases to RIMA. Supermediastore, in the past, could really pile on the shipping charges. That's why many older posts in this forum used to recommend the free shipping option for items. If free shipping wasn't available, then I wouldn't buy it. As has been suggested, I recommend you specify extra padding in your somments. That suggestion seems to work.
Well, I will probably be returning my CopyPal DVD Duplicator. For whatever reason, it insists on burning everything at a 16-20X speed, even if I feed it 1X, 4X, or 8X TY media. And, it is not reliably copying my older DVDs.

I am going for the upgraded model (the one with the LCD control), which gives you the option to select the burn speed.

As for SuperMediaStore's packaging, my first order with them came with loose DVDs and broken cake boxes. In subsequent orders, I placed a message in the memo field asking that they pack very carefully. Since then, they have been very good at packaging, having the cake boxes wrapped in bubble wrap and packed tightly with peanuts so that there is no movement in shipping.
I only have one question. Is your older media reliable? If it's questionable, then the duplicator might not be able to read it, um, them.

I opened a new cakebox of T-Ys yesterday, and realized that I now have LESS THAN 2000 blank disks left! I'm feeling a little nervous about my personal lack of supply.:D

I opened a new cakebox of T-Ys yesterday, and realized that I now have LESS THAN 2000 blank disks left! I'm feeling a little nervous about my personal lack of supply.:D

That's the same number that prompts me to watch for the next sale of TY Premium Line discs.

While you may still try to get your CFO to approve a new computer purchase (good luck!), in the interim you might want to check your CD/DVD drive's DMA status, as described here? (http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=61905)

The drive might have auto-switched to PIO status due to previous "errors" and that's a very inefficient (slow) op process.

Thanks for that link.

I'm a little confused now that I recheck my computer. I have two Primary IDE channels and one Secondary IDE channel.

The first Primary IDE Channel Device 0 is Ultra DMA Mode 5.

The second Primary IDE Channel Device 0 is Ultra DMA Mode 2. The Device 1 is Ultra DMA Mode 4.

The Secondary IDE Channel is "DMA If Possible" but it doesn't appear that IDE channel is populated.

The only DVDs I'll be computer burning in future are those that need a DVD Shrink re-encoding before burning with Roxio. The old Sony DVD ROM and new LG DVD burner have been slow, perhaps 25-35 minutes (as the content is "staged" or "restaged" to hard drive) for a single or first copy, but a second copy is usually in the seven minute range. Perhaps the Sony DVD ROM is the weak link and replacement will improve performance.

The old Sony DVD ROM and new LG DVD burner have been slow, perhaps 25-35 minutes (as the content is "staged" or "restaged" to hard drive) for a single or first copy, but a second copy is usually in the seven minute range. Perhaps the Sony DVD ROM is the weak link and replacement will improve performance.It's likely your software is doing an image copy of the source to the HDD and then burning the target from the HDD. For whatever reason, I've noticed that burning is an inherently faster process than reading. If you try to do a direct disk to disk copy it is always much slower than if you were burning an image from the HDD and is limited by the read rate of the source disk. You might want to try something like ImgBurn to first rip an image to the HDD then burn the image to disk. If your LG drive is new, just use it for both the rip and the burn. If the Sony drive came with the PC as original equipment, a 5 yr old reader is going to be especially slow.

I'm a little confused now that I recheck my computer. I have two Primary IDE channels and one Secondary IDE channel.

The first Primary IDE Channel Device 0 is Ultra DMA Mode 5.

The second Primary IDE Channel Device 0 is Ultra DMA Mode 2. The Device 1 is Ultra DMA Mode 4.

The Secondary IDE Channel is "DMA If Possible" but it doesn't appear that IDE channel is populated.
That is "odd" and the tutorial doesn't mention the poss. of having TWO Device 0's... Device 0 is supp. to be the HDD, and Device 1 is the CD/DVD drive.

His later instructions on uninstalling and reinstalling Device 0 and/or Device 1 with the Driver > Uninstall menu might be something you'd want to consider for BOTH of your Device 0's in Primary and Secondary channels... altho I'm not sure if reinstalling the drivers for the Primary Channel fixes/changes the settings for the Secondary channel as well... just have to see what the Secondary menu looks like after doing the Primary?

That should force your computer to recognize the one-and-only true Device 0 HDD... unless you've got two HDD's?

That is "odd" and the tutorial doesn't mention the poss. of having TWO Device 0's... Device 0 is supp. to be the HDD, and Device 1 is the CD/DVD drive.

His later instructions on uninstalling and reinstalling Device 0 and/or Device 1 with the Driver > Uninstall menu might be something you'd want to consider for BOTH of your Device 0's in Primary and Secondary channels... altho I'm not sure if reinstalling the drivers for the Primary Channel fixes/changes the settings for the Secondary channel as well... just have to see what the Secondary menu looks like after doing the Primary?

That should force your computer to recognize the one-and-only true Device 0 HDD... unless you've got two HDD's?

Yes, that might be worth trying.

This is a Dell Dimension E510 with a single Western Digital Caviar WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive.

The Sony DVD ROM and LG DVD burner are both IDE on the same cable (both set cable select) with the Sony at the end and the LG on the middle connector.

I've noticed that burning is an inherently faster process than reading. If you try to do a direct disk to disk copy it is always much slower than if you were burning an image from the HDD and is limited by the read rate of the source disk. You might want to try something like ImgBurn to first rip an image to the HDD then burn the image to disk. If your LG drive is new, just use it for both the rip and the burn. If the Sony drive came with the PC as original equipment, a 5 yr old reader is going to be especially slow.

I hadn't really given this much thought as I always assumed it was more efficient to have a separate reader and writer. The Sony DVD ROM is original equipment. I've yet to use the new LG burner for reading and writing but that now sounds like the best procedure.

Yes, that might be worth trying.

This is a Dell Dimension E510 with a single Western Digital Caviar WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive.

The Sony DVD ROM and LG DVD burner are both IDE on the same cable (both set cable select) with the Sony at the end and the LG on the middle connector.
Ah, one of the two DVD drives must be seen as another Device 0, and the other as the Device 1?

Maybe that's how your laptop configs itself for two DVD drives, and it may be normal???

Ah, one of the two DVD drives must be seen as another Device 0, and the other as the Device 1?

Maybe that's how your laptop configs itself for two DVD drives, and it may be normal???

Concerning your first thought, that's my thought as well.

This is the desktop computer seen in this photo:

I hadn't really given this much thought as I always assumed it was more efficient to have a separate reader and writer. The Sony DVD ROM is original equipment. I've yet to use the new LG burner for reading and writing but that now sounds like the best procedure.Diga,
From your quote below, it read to me that you were referring to making multiple copies of the source disk. In that case the copy software would first rip an image of the source to the HDD and make the multiple copies from it. The first copy is slow for the reasons I stated above. The fact that your second burn takes only 7 min means your LG burner is not running in PIO mode. This is verified by the data you cite.

The referenced link, while useful, is dated and does not take into account SATA channels. My work PC is similar vintage to yours and has a SATA HDD. I also see two primary IDE channels. The first primary IDE channel is SATA and has your HDD on it as device 0, running in DMA mode 5. The second primary IDE channel, and in your case the secondary IDE channel, are both IDE. Your OEM Sony drive is running as device 0 in DMA mode 2 and the new LG drive you added is running as device 1 in DMA mode 4 (it's faster). Your second IDE channel is unpopulated. And yes, all channels support 2 devices, "0" & "1". Nothing is running as PIO mode, so you do not need to mess with your drivers. The best way to speed up the copy process would be to just use the new LG drive for read/write and a fast image ripper/burner like ImgBurn. Even though I have 3 burners on my home PC, I never do direct disk to disk copies -- just too slow.

The old Sony DVD ROM and new LG DVD burner have been slow, perhaps 25-35 minutes (as the content is "staged" or "restaged" to hard drive) for a single or first copy, but a second copy is usually in the seven minute range.

The best way to speed up the copy process would be to just use the new LG drive for read/write and a fast image ripper/burner like ImgBurn. Even though I have 3 burners on my home PC, I never do direct disk to disk copies -- just too slow.

Thank you for clarifying these technical matters. I'll use the new LG burner for read/write operations with this computer.

Concerning your first thought, that's my thought as well.

This is the desktop computer seen in this photo:

For a minute there I thought that was the same Dell I had. But it just the same case. I have a Dell Dimension 9150. It's about 5 years old and knock on wood has served me well. About a year ago I upgraded the ram from 1 to 3 gigs and also upgraded to a better video card. I have replaced the original dvd-rom drive with some after market ones. I have a Lite-on model, and LG in the desktop and a Pioneer in a external case. The LG is the newest but the ripping speed is slow as hell. Been like that since I brought it a year ago. The Lite-On is 4 years old and is going to be replaced. The tray has a hell of a time opening. I have a new Samsung 22X sata drive in the closet to replace the Lite-On. For now the Pioneer external is my fatest ripping drive. This computer is only used for encoding all those Korean Drama episodes I d/l using ConvertXtoDvd4 and then all the ripping and burning I do. I also rip all my dvd-r's I make on my Panny E500h on this computer also.

I also have a old Compaq computer which is used to surf the web and also used to d/l all those 720P and 450P Korean drama episode files. The 450P files are 700-800mb in size and the 720P files are 1.5gb. Sometimes I d/l the 1080p ones but those are about 8.5gb. I am serious thinking about getting a new computer and moving the Dell over to replace the Compaq and then use the new one to convert files using that ConvertXtoDvd4 program.

The CopyPal's fast burning and your report points toward use of 16x media with that machine.

I have on-hand one unused spindle of 100 Sony 16x discs and I ordered two 16x spindles of 100 TY/JVC Value Line discs for use only with the CopyPal. At the moment these Value Line discs are attractively priced, 200 for $40, including shipping:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-r-media-value-line-200pk

When copying discs with my computer I would sometimes encounter the "difficulty reading from source disc" error. Since then I've usually checked to make sure that fingerprints or other soiling has been removed before copying a disc.

My circa 2005/2006 computer has been slowing down with a number of operations, especially DVD burning--even though the DVD burner (LG) was new just a few months ago.

I've started to discuss getting a new computer with my Chief Financial Officer (wife).

A couple of days ago I went computer shopping with a buddy who wanted my advice. We looked at several models and agreed that one model was the best buy for his needs. Then he called his Chief Financial Officer (wife) and reported that (DigaDo) approved of the computer he found. She gave her approval and he purchased the computer. Now I want the same model/deal he got. So far, "DigaDo" hasn't made much progress in the new computer discussions.

If I may ask what computer (brand & model #) did you pick out for your friend?

I only have one question. Is your older media reliable? If it's questionable, then the duplicator might not be able to read it, um, them.

Well, the older DVDs read and copy fine on my computer. Of course, I can choose the burn speed to match the media.

I'm wondering if I put slower drives in the duplicator it might be more reliable? However, that would void any warranty and return privileges.

This computer is only used for encoding all those Korean Drama episodes I d/l using ConvertXtoDvd4 and then all the ripping and burning I do. I also rip all my dvd-r's I make on my Panny E500h on this computer also.Do you have any links or ideas where I could get Dae Jo Yeong?

Thank you for clarifying these technical matters. I'll use the new LG burner for read/write operations with this computer.I use my DVD burners a lot to rip the main titles from commercial DVD's to my disk farm. I put them in, start the process and walk away without regard for the time it takes. Out of curiosity, I selected a fully burned DVD-R (no copy protection to slow things down) and did a straight image rip with DVD Decrypter to the HDD. My two internal burners are circa 2004 (LiteON) and circa 2006 (LG). Both are IDE running in DMA Mode 2. The LiteOn did the rip in 9:44 and the LG in 7:36. Your newer LG should read even faster. An 8X image burn takes about 8 min; the faster read time helps speed up the verify cycle.

If I may ask what computer (brand & model #) did you pick out for your friend?

Actually, my buddy found this computer on his own but wanted my opinion. After looking at several others we agreed that this one is "the best bang for the buck," er, actually $499.98:

http://www.staples.com/Dell-Inspiron-570MT-Desktop-PC-Bundle/product_845700?cmArea=SEARCH

After additional discussion with my CFO it appears that I'll continue using my Dell E510.

...My two internal burners are circa 2004 (LiteON) and circa 2006 (LG). Both are IDE running in DMA Mode 2...
Out of curiosity, what are the model numbers of your Lite-On and LG?

Over the past few years, I bought a Lite-On SOHW-832S and a LG GSA-H55N (based on forum recommendations and good sale prices) but due to health issues, didn't get around to installing them until recently. I put the 832S into a Gateway 6400 Server and it would only see CDs. For every type of DVD±R/RW I tried, it reported "No Media in Drive". I went to the CDFreaks Forum, d/l'd some utilities and verified that the firmware was indeed capable of viewing the also several year old media so I moved it to an old homebuilt FC VA-503+ MB (VIA) w/K6-III/400 and still NG. The VA-503+ also didn't like the Lite-On LTN-486S CD reader (pulled from a Dell 400SC) so I guessing it may be something to do with the VIA Chipset. IIRC, all my PCs have the 4.60 ASPI instead of the 4.71 and Device Manager says "DMA if available". (I know about errors and reverting to PIO mode.) Years ago, I had all this info in my head. Nowadays, sometimes I feel like I've forgotten more than I knew. :o

The LG worked fine in the Gateway so the Lite-On is a problem for another day. I have two Dells (4100 and 400SC) with crashed boot HDDs to repair. Then, I can try it there.

Any idea / suggestions?

Thanks!

Out of curiosity, what are the model numbers of your Lite-On and LG?

Over the past few years, I bought a Lite-On SOHW-832S and a LG GSA-H55N (based on forum recommendations and good sale prices) but due to health issues, didn't get around to installing them until recently...

Years ago, I had all this info in my head. Nowadays, sometimes I feel like I've forgotten more than I knew. :o

The LG worked fine in the Gateway so the Lite-On is a problem for another day.

Any idea / suggestions?

Years ago I read very favorable reviews of LiteOn DVD burners in the 16xx series. I bought three or four of these and installed them in various family computers. At first they performed well but within a few months (usually with light use) they developed read and write problems. I went back and read more recent reviews where others reported very short life-spans for the same 16xx models I had purchased.

To make a long story short, I replaced all the LiteOn DVD burners with NEC 3500 series DVD burners (the last of the "genuine" NEC DVD burners) each of which gave around five years of outstanding service, sometimes with very heavy use. The next series of NEC DVD burners were actually mediocre Sony products marketed under the OptiArc name.

Do you have any links or ideas where I could get Dae Jo Yeong?I had these K-Drama download sites bookmarked - you can try them:

Aja-Aja.com
dlaznmovies.com
MySoju.com
Viikii.net.

Never any guarantees of English subtitling, although I would think someone would have them for something as in demand and popular as that.

If you want to buy it on DVD, I can probably find that out, too, but most K-Dramas are generally way overpriced. I'm guessing a longer, extremely popular series like that will cost some insane amount like $300.00 for a good print (with English subs) - but I could be wrong.

Out of curiosity, what are the model numbers of your Lite-On and LG?LiteOn DVDRW SOHW-812S; LG DVDRAM GSA-4136B. They each have their advantages.

The LiteOn is the better reader -- not in terms of speed but in terms of reading any less than pristine or faded disks I put in it. It also can read disk information and has the error checking capability to work with the Nero CD/DVD Speed utility for disk scans. I use the LiteOn as my primary ripping drive.

The LG is the better burner. It's a 16X burner (although I never burn over 8X) that has RAM R/W capability. It can't do error checking, but then that's what I have the LiteOn for. I do all my DVD burning on this drive; never burn with the LiteOn.

If I could only pick one drive, it would be the LG.

I had these K-Drama download sites bookmarked - you can try them:

Aja-Aja.com
dlaznmovies.com
MySoju.com
Viikii.net.Thanks, I'll check them out. I found D-J-Y on the local PBS station 2 yrs ago when they played the whole cycle, 2 episodes per week. Problem was I came in at episode 40, so I would like to see what happened in the beginning.

I had these K-Drama download sites bookmarked - you can try them:

Aja-Aja.com
dlaznmovies.com
MySoju.com
Viikii.net.

Never any guarantees of English subtitling, although I would think someone would have them for something as in demand and popular as that.

If you want to buy it on DVD, I can probably find that out, too, but most K-Dramas are generally way overpriced. I'm guessing a longer, extremely popular series like that will cost some insane amount like $300.00 for a good print (with English subs) - but I could be wrong.

Ok Aja-aja.com is a great site to d/l from but they went private because were linking from their megaupload links. I have no idea what dlasnmovies.com is but the other 2 are streaming sites. As far as I know who can watch korean dramas online with subtitles. The Viikii site also does a lot of their own subtitling and also if you look hard enough they provide soft subs for korean raw files you can d/l from other sites. Other subbing groups and one of the best is from WS2 and Haru Haru.

Here are a couple of other sites you can d/l K-drama files from.
1. AM-Addiction.com - they also offer direct links to the 3 sites I mention that do the english subtitles.
2. Lets-look.com - I believe you must register with this site to see the files. Also the site is in english and french I believe.

Yes you asked for the grand daddy of all dramas. At least when it aired it had a 30% rating and is 134 episodes in length. Very popular historical drama. If you can find it it will be on over 40 dvd-r's if the person recorded 3 episodes per dvd-r. Or if they went the 2 per episode route that would be over almost 70 dvd-r's. All the sites posted above do not have it posted. The only way to get it with subs is from some one who recorded it when it aired in their local area and some places never aired with subs. There is a message board below that has a lending club but you must register to see how you can join their lending club. They claim they have this to borrow from their club.
Korean Drama Group
http://forum.koreandramas.net/

Actually, my buddy found this computer on his own but wanted my opinion. After looking at several others we agreed that this one is "the best bang for the buck," er, actually $499.98:

http://www.staples.com/Dell-Inspiron-570MT-Desktop-PC-Bundle/product_845700?cmArea=SEARCH

After additional discussion with my CFO it appears that I'll continue using my Dell E510.

Thanks for the info. I saw this posted on some deal sites. Unfortunately Staples does not offer free shipping to my location. Plus it looks like they are out of stock now.

I found a decent source of DVD media, somewhat by accident. It's not media that I'd use normally, but in a pinch it's very good. The actual manufacturer of the media is Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (with an Media ID of MCC004). The source? The Aldi discount supermarket chain, which as you may or may not know, is a German-based company - Albrecht Discount. Their Tevion brand DVD+ and DVD- are manufactured by Mitsubishi, and the prices for non-bulk packaging is excellent.

Be careful with those, VERY VERY often cheap media uses fake media IDs to fool both buyers and DVD burners into thinking it's "good" media.

I'm located in the US so have no idea how trustworthy those discs are, but if you have known "real" MCC discs, compare what they look like-- do the dye colors look the same? Patterns of dye? are there any codes stamped in the plastic around the inner hub? Do they follow a similar pattern of codes? etc, etc.

You might want to ask at Cdfreaks.com if anyone has experience with the media as well.

Yes you asked for the grand daddy of all dramas. At least when it aired it had a 30% rating and is 134 episodes in length. Very popular historical drama.I know. I was glued to it, even having to read the sub-titles. I have a wishlist on my TiVo HD set up to scan the guide for D-J-Y. If it is ever broadcast again, I'll get it.

You can buy Dae Joyoung from the network that aired it, KBS: http://www.kbsworldi.com/estore/Catalog/AllProducts.aspx

The designation "EOR" means "Episode on request". They burn a DVD and send it to you, one ep per disc.

Five hundred clams to buy the whole thing:eek:

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
Deal of the decade if your Sams has the same pricing as mine,
Verbatim 50 spindle of 2.4x DLs for $39.88:cool:
That's $20 off the regular decent price of $59.95
Don't know if they are clearancing out 2.4x(which I'd personally prefer over 8x) or what, but at that price I had 2 then 4 and I finally decided on 3 in my cart. Still $120 but for 150 great DL discs it just couldn't be beat.
Again I'm not guaranteeing all Sams will have this deal but mine(Shakopee MN) probably had 2 dozen spindles after I bought 3.
Now I'm having second thoughts I should have got more for this great price but truthfully I don't use that many DL discs, basically only in my PC.
Good luck:D
SKU# 65008 made in Singapore
I'm sure this is in-store only, I didn't see it on-line.

Edit: Wow this is the week of DL deals. Office Depot has a 25 spindle of TDK(Memorex:eek:) 8x DLs for $19.99(same price as the Verbs I got) and regular Rs for $19.99/100 and even 4x RWs for $13.99/25. Great prices indeed:)

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
Deal of the decade if your Sams has the same pricing as mine,
Verbatim 50 spindle of 2.4x DLs for $39.88:cool:
That's $20 off the regular decent price of $59.95
Don't know if they are clearancing out 2.4x(which I'd personally prefer over 8x) or what, but at that price I had 2 then 4 and I finally decided on 3 in my cart. Still $120 but for 150 great DL discs it just couldn't be beat.
Again I'm not guaranteeing all Sams will have this deal but mine(Shakopee MN) probably had 2 dozen spindles after I bought 3.
Now I'm having second thoughts I should have got more for this great price but truthfully I don't use that many DL discs, basically only in my PC.
Good luck:D
SKU# 65008 made in Singapore
I'm sure this is in-store only, I didn't see it on-line.

Edit: Wow this is the week of DL deals. Office Depot has a 25 spindle of TDK(Memorex:eek:) 8x DLs for $19.99(same price as the Verbs I got) and regular Rs for $19.99/100 and even 4x RWs for $13.99/25. Great prices indeed:)

Pretty decent for the Verbs what with them being under $1 per, but the TDK pricing isn't that great. I got 50 a few weeks back from Amazon for < $30 shipped. Haven't tried these out yet, so...

FWIW... I bought 100 pcs. of Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 8X Premium discs from SuperMedia.com, and so far, one and sometimes two out of ten discs are bad. This is my first experience with Taiyo Yuden DVDs and SuperMedia, and so far, it's not been a good one.

I just noticed your reply of April 10 to my post on the Tevion-branded media distributed by Aldi. I compared them to real Mitsubishi media, and dye colors and patterns, and codes are exactly analogous to the real Mitsubishi (MCC) media. The one thing that's interesting about Aldi, if you're not satisfied with any of their products, whatever it may be, they give you 2X your money back. If they were selling cheap, rip-off media, they would soon learn that it's a losing proposition. They have too much to lose by doing this. I've never had a bad burn with any of the Tevion-branded media, unlike a recent purchase of Taiyo Yuden Premium 8X DVD-R media.

FWIW... I bought 100 pcs. of Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 8X Premium discs from SuperMedia.com, and so far, one and sometimes two out of ten discs are bad. This is my first experience with Taiyo Yuden DVDs and SuperMedia, and so far, it's not been a good one.

Last October I had two spindles of TY Value Line discs, one TYG02 (8x) and one TYG03 (16x), that had some problematic discs. There are several posts where this was discussed, beginning with this post and continuing with a few other posts to the end of that thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17350780#post17350780

My H2160MW9A won't even load the problematic discs. The screen prompt is "Defective Disc." I haven't tried it on a older Panasonic ES10, but it would be interesting. What's frustrating is that TY DVD-R 8X Premium are generally highly-regarded, and recommended on this forum, but I guess any company can have a bad manufacturing run.

Note that I found any DVD inserted in a Funai DVDR will no longer record in a Panasonic DVDR. I believe when a unfinalized recordable disc in inserted in the Funai it immediately records the empty title to the disc, because of this the Panasonic balks at the disc until it's been finalized.
So what I'm saying is, don't be suprised if your discs also don't work in your Panasonic, at least if you tried them first in your Maggy.

BTW I checked 2 other Sams clubs today and both had at least a dozen 50 spindles of Verb DL 2.4x +R DVDs for $39.88, one heck of a deal for Verb DLs.

Here's how my Philips 3575 (+VR recorder) handled discs between it and my Pio 640, which records in same Video-mode as a Panny.

See Option 2 here. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298483&postcount=18#RecDVD5)

I would agree with your link. Since I mostly use - DVDs I didn't have any luck using a couple -R DVDs I had put in a Magnavox 2160a in my Pannys. Of course the -RWs could just be reformatted.

What's the verdict on these DVD-R's?

http://www.meritline.com/showproduct.aspx?ProductID=39112&SEName=verbatim-16x-dvd-r-97016

Here's how my Philips 3575 (+VR recorder) handled discs between it and my Pio 640, which records in same Video-mode as a Panny.

See Option 2 here. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298483&postcount=18#RecDVD5)

Wajo,

Finding a functional "Make Recordings Compatible" feature is not necessarily consistent or universal between Funai-built recorders.

I noticed that you mentioned "late model Toshiba" recorders. I assume you mean the Funai-built Toshibas that began appearing in the marketplace in 2006/2007. I've compared some of the Owner's Manuals for 2006 model year Toshiba recorders, finding some recorders were (obviously) Funai-built and some were Toshiba-built.

I've been tinkering with a Funai-built Toshiba D-RW2 (manufactured in February 2006). That entry-level model doesn't have the Make Recordings Compatible feature. It also lacks the 2.5 and 3 hour recording modes. But an entry-level Maganvox MWR10D6 (of October 2006 manufacture) and a PYE PY90DG (of September 2006 manufacture) have the Make Recordings Compatible feature and it is functional as I routinely swap unfinalized discs between those recorders for additional recording or finalizing. Those Magnavox and PYE recorders both have the 2.5 and 3 hour recording modes.

The mystery (for me) was a Sylvania ZV450SL8 (of April 2007 manufacture) that had the Make Recordings Compatible "feature" in the Setup menu under "Recording." The feature could be set to "ON" but the feature was not functional. Buried on page 43 (and perhaps elsewhere) in the Sylvania ZV450SL8 Owners Manual there is this statement, "'Make Recording Compatible' in 'Recording' menu does not work on this unit." I found that true in practice. That Sylvania ZV450SL8, like the earlier Toshiba, also lacked the 2.5 and 3 hour recording modes. By way of comparison a Magnavox ZV450MW8 (of March 2007 manufacture) and a Magnavox ZV450MW8A (of August 2008 manufacture) both have a functional "Make Recordings Compatible" feature, as well as the 2.5 and 3 hour recording modes.

Not all Funai-built recorders are created equal.

Diga,

Great info and I assume you know I'll be linking my Option 2 help file to your post for "more detailed info" :D

Oops. I actually have to link to your post in the Option 1 discussion cuz that's where "Make Rec Compatible" is (between +VR machines) and modify Option 2 text cuz that applies to all +VR machines vs DVD-Video machines (generically incompatible).

Well, I went to my local Sam's Club, hoping for the 50 +RDLs for $40 deal, but no such luck. Worse yet, it looks like they are dropping Verbatim and switching to Memowrecks.

I just started a new cakebox of 100 Verbs that I bought on sale at Office Max a few weeks back. They are made in the United Arab Emirates! Anyone know if these are up to normal Verb quality? I've burnt four so far, and no coasters.

UAE is one of the preferred mfgrs listed on digitalfaq.com for Verbatim, along with India, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Thanks, I feel better now!

They are probably the best quality of whats left of A grade Disk makers. they are made By FTI who is a fairly new blank disk maker who are really serious about quality.
I specifically look for UAE disks now when I go out when there's a deal on.

Well, I went to my local Sam's Club, hoping for the 50 +RDLs for $40 deal, but no such luck. Worse yet, it looks like they are dropping Verbatim and switching to Memowerecks.


:(
I was wondering why the big drop in price. If they had more I'd think about it but in my 5+ years of DVD burning I've probably only used 25 DL discs, I bought 150 the other day at Sams.
Last I looked, Thursday I think, my closest Sams still had a dozen or so left. Of course all it would take would be one person who copies a lot of DVDs and uses DL discs and they'd all be gone.
For the most part I'm quite satisfied with getting 2-3hrs on a SL DVD and it's very rare for a movie to exceed 3hrs. Of course for PC copying DL discs make more sense.
Memowrex, yuck! Sams is getting like W/M now.

I use DLs less than I would if my Pio 640 could make HS copies of them. As it is, I use them for most things longer than 140m. If I'm recording a new anamorphic WS color film, I'd rather have more GB than less.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
Deal of the decade if your Sams has the same pricing as mine,
Verbatim 50 spindle of 2.4x DLs for $39.88:cool:
That's $20 off the regular decent price of $59.95
Don't know if they are clearancing out 2.4x(which I'd personally prefer over 8x) or what, but at that price I had 2 then 4 and I finally decided on 3 in my cart. Still $120 but for 150 great DL discs it just couldn't be beat.
Again I'm not guaranteeing all Sams will have this deal but mine(Shakopee MN) probably had 2 dozen spindles after I bought 3.
Now I'm having second thoughts I should have got more for this great price but truthfully I don't use that many DL discs, basically only in my PC.
Good luck:D
SKU# 65008 made in Singapore
I'm sure this is in-store only, I didn't see it on-line.

Edit: Wow this is the week of DL deals. Office Depot has a 25 spindle of TDK(Memorex:eek:) 8x DLs for $19.99(same price as the Verbs I got) and regular Rs for $19.99/100 and even 4x RWs for $13.99/25. Great prices indeed:)
I FINALLY took advantage of this JUST before it was gone forever. The Sam's closest to me showed in stock on the web site, but then out of stock just before I was set to go. the next closest one was in stock, but a lot further, so I had to come up with a good enough excluse to go the extra distance. When that was accomplished, THEY showed out of stock, so I had to go to the third option, about the same distance, opposite direction.

(Okay, I Live in Ridgecrest, CA, so I am really far from ANYTHING! We who live here are used to it. By the way, Shakopee is is part of my old stomping grounds. Who knew?)

I had to convince the wife it was worth the trip. "How much are you going to save? Uh huh... Are you sure this is less than you could get on-line? Uh huh. Well, it's your hobby." That kind of thing.

I was a little paranoid by then, so I ordered them on line for in-store pickup. According to the web page, they had four in stock, which is what I wanted. Well, when I got there, they had my four removed from stock and in the back, but they had two more on the shelf in the club.

I still think it was worth it. As jjeff said, made in Singapore--the good ones. The 200 of these will likely last me as long as the 2000 T-Y 8X Premium blanks I have.:eek:

I think I am now officially obsessed.:eek: Is there a ten step program for this?:confused: maybe it's on a DVD I could get?:p

I can't believe at these price that they weren't all gone the first day, or at least snatched up by employees.
For anyone who uses DLs and knows prices of quality DLs it's a no brainier to stock up:) Memorex:( bla, Sams will no longer be a good source for DL media. I wonder if they will drop Verb Rs in favor of Memorex? If so they may blow out their 100 spindles, I'll have to keep checking back.
I think they must have clearanced out the 50 spindle of Verbs, for the longest time the Shakopee Sams had the 50 spindle for $10.88 right next to the 100 spindle for $29.99:confused: I always wondered who would opt for the 100 spindle:rolleyes:

When I did my duplicating project, I realized that I have used a lot more DL disks than I had thought. I used up almost all of my stock in that project, and I really needed to get some more, so this was perfect, if it weren't for the 100+ mile distance. The closest Sam's Club is 80 or so miles.

...I had to convince the wife it was worth the trip. "How much are you going to save? Uh huh... Are you sure this is less than you could get on-line? Uh huh. Well, it's your hobby." That kind of thing...

"Macey's is having a shoe sale! By spending just $2300, I'm going to 'save' $40!" :eek:

"Uh-huh. Are you sure you couldn't just make do with the 482 pairs you already have?" :confused:

I can't believe at these price that they weren't all gone the first day, or at least snatched up by employees. For anyone who uses DLs and knows prices of quality DLs it's a no brainier to stock up:) Memorex:( bla, Sams will no longer be a good source for DL media...
I think you, and I , may have misunderstood the lack of popularity of DL disks in general. I agree, had they been in demand, at these prices, they would have disappeared from the stores immediately. The conclusion I draw from them still being on the shelves after almost two weeks at that blow-out price is, the DL disk is just no that popular.

I also conclude from much of what I see: People don't seem to know or care about CD/DVD blank media quality. I regularly see people with media I wouldn't spit on in their carts (Okay, maybe I WOULD spit on them:D) and I attempt ask whey they are buying the cheapest, lowest quality blanks, and the answer I usually get is, "It's all digital, so why pay more?" :( I can only roll my eyes:rolleyes: and shake my head.

Been away for a while.

I have been using some TY media for quite some time that I purchased several years ago.
But it was mostly for non-archival purposes, just watch a few times and put back into its box for occasional (if at all) use. I know all here never do that but watch everything that they have ever recorded every day :)

But now I am recording home movies that I had transferred from 8mm film to dv tapes and now to my computer. (I also have backed them up in avi format to HD for the real archive.)

What is the current best dvd medium for long time storage and who sells it? I used supermedia store for the TY purchases, but see some recent issues on this forum with TY. I know that too often it is not the media but incompatibility with different machines that causes problems, so not sure how much weight to give the issues.

I am looking for standard dvr with white printable top.

Any help appreciated.

GA

The only media that remain that I would use for something I value are Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim. Both make a white printable top dvd blank. As even good DVD blanks are relatively cheap I suggest making several copies of anything you truly value, and Hard Drive back up as well. That is what I do with stuff I truly value. Best of luck to you.

...As even good DVD blanks are relatively cheap I suggest making several copies of anything you truly value...
I agree with this completely, and I have been following this policy for quite a while, $0.30 being cheap insurance. That's why I bought the CopyPal. It's a very nice device for backup copies. It keeps wear off my EH55's laser. I have my recorder make the initial copy, and let the CopyPal make the backups. I have been watching a lot of the copies recently, and they all look as good as the originals. For $100 I have no complaints.

The only media that remain that I would use for something I value are Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim..

I guess nothing changed much in the past several years. They are the same brands I bought back then.

What I did with some VHS home movies was just what you recommended- one copy for use and one for storage plus the original on an external HD. Also keep the original media (film, tapes).

As far as TY, does more expense give better quality or just faster burn speeds? I like 8x so speed is no big deal. Plus, back then, speed did not often equate to quality.

As far as TY, does more expense give better quality or just faster burn speeds? I like 8x so speed is no big deal. Plus, back then, speed did not often equate to quality.Stick with T-Y 8X Premium, avoid Value Line media. 16X media of all brands has issues and is better suited for more robust PC burners. Even though I primarily use PC burners, I avoid 16X.

Stick with T-Y 8X Premium, avoid Value Line media. 16X media of all brands has issues and is better suited for more robust PC burners. Even though I primarily use PC burners, I avoid 16X.

I use TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R media in all my Magnavox, Philips and Panasonic recorders. All this recording is archival. Archival copies burned with my CopyPal duplicator are also TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R media. The same media is used for data backup with my computer.

I use TY/JVC 16x DVD-R media in my CopyPal for burning give-away discs.

My thought is that 16x media should be good for one viewing before it's discarded.

I use TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R media in all my Magnavox, Philips and Panasonic recorders. All this recording is archival. Archival copies burned with my CopyPal duplicator are also TY Premium Line 8x DVD-R media. The same media is used for data backup with my computer.

I use TY/JVC 16x DVD-R media in my CopyPal for give-away discs.Can you select the burn speed with your CopyPal?

Can you select the burn speed with your CopyPal?

No. My CopyPal is the entry-level model. The source disc is placed in the top drive and the tray is closed. The burn disc is placed in the bottom drive and the tray is closed. The copy pops out in around seven minutes. There are no controls other than the power switch on the back.

Can you select the burn speed with your CopyPal?

I also had purchased the cheaper $100 CopyPal, which seemed to burn everything at 20x no matter what I fed it. I still have TY 4x DVD-Rs and was not getting a successful burn at 20x. It was returned.

The upgraded CopyPal I purchased afterwards does let you select both the read and write speed, and has a copy & verify function to compare the burned copy with the original.

Thanks, all. It is nice to see the same group is around from back in the day. Truth does survive.

Can you select the burn speed with your CopyPal?
As has been stated, there are no controls except for drive open/close buttons on the $100 entry level copyPal. The price has been at $140 for quite a while, but I noticed this morning that it is on sale for $120. There are some other duplicators on the Supermediastore web site at the $144-$150 price point, then it jumps to $175 or so and on up. I hav eto say, even though it has no ajustments, for $100 it has been a reliable and handy device.

I was unaware that you could get a CopyPal with options like write speed. I suspect that those here who bought one, did so at the $100 sale price and were not so worried about selections and options. The "better" ones have a hard drive, this one does not.

I also had purchased the cheaper $100 CopyPal, which seemed to burn everything at 20x no matter what I fed it.

At the risk of adding to the OT talk:o someone with a $100 CopyPal could verify that statement by copying one disc to 16x media and make another copy to 8x media.
If they both take the same time I'd be a little leary of that model. AFAIK the 8x should take roughly 2x as long as the 16x media, if the Pal is indeed burning the 8x at 8x.
I'd be interested to know the outcome of the test.

This week at Office Max - 100 Verbs@ $21.99, less a $5 coupon available on line, $16.99/100. That's the best deal I've ever seen at a B&M store!

Better stock up with the better Azo disks while you can as they are going with the new cheap life line. My store had both the old style good disks in stock and the newer cheap ones at the same price of course. When they are gone I doubt we'll be able to find a grade disks in a regular store again:mad:
I also picked up 100 CDR's for 11.99 from the same printable coupon if anyone still needs or uses em.

What, a lower grade of Verbatim? :eek:

less a $5 coupon available on line...
Do you have a link for the coupon? I went to OM.com but couldn't find anything.

Better stock up with the better Azo disks while you can as they are going with the new cheap life line.

How can you tell the difference, which are the better ones?

Here's the link for the coupon. You must put in your email address and your zip code. I bought 800 discs today.

http://officemax.ed4.net/enroll/blackfriday/signup.cfm




Here are the good (AZO) discs:



http://www.nierle3.com/pic/2993p.jpg

If anyone's interested in Verbatim 16X, deals maybe not great but OK for some?:
White printable DVD-R 16X from Meritline, 50-pak cake boxes, $33.xx/100 shipped: http://www.meritline.com/verbatim-16x-dvd-r-media-white-inkjet-hub-printable-95079---p-18346.aspx?source=nl100517&hq_e=el&hq_m=1969637&hq_l=37&hq_v=480124debb

(for ~same price you can get Verb +R 8X white-top from Amazon, also DataLifePlus)

"Purple Pack" Verbatim DVD+R 16X, 100-pak spindle, $19.89 shipped from Buy dot com: http://www.buy.com/prod/verbatim-dvd-r-4-7gb-16x-100pk-spindle-95098-verbatim-16x-dvd-r-media/q/loc/101/10412813.html?adid=17070

So is it safe to assume only the spindles with the initials AZO are good?
Your photo is of +R discs, I assume the same follows for -R DVDs?

Interesting Wiki info on Verbatim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbatim_Corporation), indicating the best Verbatims are prob. made in Japan and Singapore where Mitsubishi has its own plants.

"Those products are partly produced in Verbatim/Mitsubishi's own plants in Singapore and Japan, and partly under license by Taiwanese and Indian manufacturers.

Verbatim also resells relabeled products from Japanese, Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, Malaysian and Indian factories (Pearl White DVD series in Europe, some CD-R not labeled Super Azo), including but not limited to products by Taiyo Yuden, Ritek Corporation, CMC Magnetics, Prodisc, Moser Baer, Daxon/BenQ." :eek:

Here's the link for the coupon. You must put in your email address and your zip code. I bought 800 discs today.

HA! Amateur!:eek:

I have 1800 T-Y premium 8x blanks in unopened cake boxes at home. 800 indeed--small potatoes.:D



My vast number of disks was not on purpose, but due to a math error.:rolleyes:

So is it safe to assume only the spindles with the initials AZO are good?
Your photo is of +R discs, I assume the same follows for -R DVDs?

The problem is that Verbatim DVD-R and DVD+R discs made by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media with the MKM and MCC media ID’s are being replaced by Verbatim Life Series which are made by CMC and Ritek. The MKM and MCC discs are known for their high quality and reliable recording results while discs made by CMC and Ritek are known to be of second class quality.

The current fear is that once the AZO discs are gone from retail stores, we may not see them ever again. Some of us are stocking up. It could turn out to be bomb shelter mentality but at these low prices, why take the chance?

Sam's Club is dumping all their Verbatim media in favor of Memorex.

HA! Amateur!:eek:

I have 1800 T-Y premium 8x blanks in unopened cake boxes at home. 800 indeed--small potatoes.:D



My vast number of disks was not on purpose, but due to a math error.:rolleyes:

I don't use SL discs very often so I just bought 800 to add to my existing inventory. My main stock is of DL MKM-001-00. :D

Sam's Club is dumping all their Verbatim media in favor of Memorex.

:( Sams went from a decent backup place to buy media to a place I'll probably never use:mad:
My local Sams still has about a dozen 50 spindle Verb DLs for $39.88 and many spindles of the 100 SL Verbs left. Sounds like when they're gone, that will be it. I just can't believe how long the DLs have been marked down, sure shows how few DVDs they actually sell. They had the 50 pack of regular Verbs for at least a year before they finally ran out and only stocked the 100 pack(for 2.5x the cost of the 50 pack:rolleyes:).
Thanks for the scoop on Verbs, I joined the email club and instantly received my coupon. I don't see a limit so I may just have to grab 4 spindles(:oI know, a real amateur) but I keep waiting for Costco to have their BOGO coupon on Sony DVDs (which brings them down to only $14/100). I really prefer the white sided discs but can get by with the Verbs. My least favorite is the shinny side Tys(shows fingerprints very badly) but I guess it's the quality of the media that's the most important, not the packaging.

I have 1800 T-Y premium 8x blanks in unopened cake boxes at home. 800 indeed--small potatoes.:D

Right now I've got around 2,200 TY 8x Premium Line DVD-R discs on hand for use in my stand-alone recorders.

For computer or duplicator use I've got around 380 TY 16x DVD-R, around 96 Sony 16x DVD+R discs and today I added 600 Verbatim ASO 16x DVD-R discs from Office Max (with the coupon). The two spindles at the left are from Taiwan and the four spindles at the right are from the UAE. The photo is mistitled, "UAR" should read "UAE."

The problem is that Verbatim DVD-R and DVD+R discs made by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media with the MKM and MCC media ID’s are being replaced by Verbatim Life Series which are made by CMC and Ritek. The MKM and MCC discs are known for their high quality and reliable recording results while discs made by CMC and Ritek are known to be of second class quality.

The current fear is that once the AZO discs are gone from retail stores, we may not see them ever again. Some of us are stocking up. It could turn out to be bomb shelter mentality but at these low prices, why take the chance?

SonicLogic,

Today's visit to Office Max found a total of nine spindles of the Verbatim AZO DVD-R, all Taiwan or UAR--I bought six--but I didn't count or examine the AZO DVD+R spindles. There were also the Verbatim Life versions in stock.

SonicLogic,

Today's visit to Office Max found a total of nine spindles of the Verbatim AZO DVD-R, all Taiwan or UAR--I bought six--but I didn't count or examine the AZO DVD+R spindles. There were also the Verbatim Life versions in stock.


I had a similar experience at my Office Max with the Verbatim AZO DVD+R (all Taiwan) spindles. I bought all 8 spindles that were in stock. They had both AZO DVD-R spindles and Verbatim Life, but I didn’t pay much attention to them. I only keep a small number (about 300) of Verbatim AZO DVD-R on hand since I seldom use those discs for anything other than giveaways for people with older equipment

At the risk of adding to the OT talk:o someone with a $100 CopyPal could verify that statement by copying one disc to 16x media and make another copy to 8x media.
If they both take the same time I'd be a little leary of that model. AFAIK the 8x should take roughly 2x as long as the 16x media, if the Pal is indeed burning the 8x at 8x.
I'd be interested to know the outcome of the test.
I had fully expected someone to have done this by now and reported results. I got a few 16x disks from my church on Sunday, and if no one had done it, I was going to do this test. I guess I'll give it a try and see what results I get.

ChurchAVGuy, most casual users here have found the -R DL to be much flakier and variable than the +R DL, and even +R DL to be not-so-hot aside from Verbatim. Some have done OK with -R DL, hell even I have a handful of Memorex () -R DL from 2006 that still seems fine. But the trend of reports over the last few years is to avoid DL in standalone recorders unless absolutely necessary, then only use Verbatim +R DL. Standalones don't seem too good at burning -R DL discs that maintain broad playback compatibility, computers manage this much better but the +R DL variant still hold a bit of an edge.
I have some further information on my -R DL disks. First, they are larger then the Verb +R DL disks (NO! Not physically! Sheesh!:D) On my Panasonic recorders, the Verb +R DL blank disks format to 8028 MB. The T-Y -R DL disks don't need to be formatted, and are 8064 MB in size. Yeah, I know, it's less than 1/2 of 1% increase in size (really, 1.0044843) but they aren't the same.

Yesterday, I attempted to duplicare a -R DL disk on an older Microboards duplicator, and it failed. This was odd to me, but when I examined the original, it looked "perfect" but the failed partially written blank showed numerous bands of color change, indicating record speed changes. I probably should have just used my CopyPal instead. I wonder if the age of the machine is the issue. That same duplicator has made duplicates of Verb +R DL disks in the past without incident.:confused:

A nice deal for Canadians who are looking for DVD-RAM:

https://www.blankmedia.ca/proddetail3.asp?id=1478

At the risk of adding to the OT talk:o someone with a $100 CopyPal could verify that statement by copying one disc to 16x media and make another copy to 8x media.
If they both take the same time I'd be a little leary of that model. AFAIK the 8x should take roughly 2x as long as the 16x media, if the Pal is indeed burning the 8x at 8x.
I'd be interested to know the outcome of the test.
Okay, I ran home and did the test over lunch.

First, I created a disk T-Y 8x premium with my EH55. This disk was not 100%full. These disks are listed as 4409 MB by my recorder. The content I recorded was right about 4000 MB. The 8x disks I use start out at a slower speed, and when the progress bar reaches 18% to 20% (depending on the amount I am burning) I can hear it speed up to what I assume is 8x. I have never burned a 16x disk in my EH55, so I don't know if there are speed changes, or how many. I did not check the time required to make this disk since it wasn't germane to the test at hand.

I put this disk in the top drive of my CopyPal, closed the door and then let it go for about a minute. I then put another T-Y 8x premium in the lower drive and closed the door. As you know, there are no buttons or controls on the CopyPal, just the drive open/close buttons. I started the timer as soon as the door closed. I marked the time to the single beep, and then the double beep when the lower drive tray opened. When this test was finished, I did the same thing with a 16x disk. Then, for completeness, I put the 16x disk in the top drive, and another 16x disk in the lower drive.

Results:

1) 8x to 8x Time to first beep: 0:26 Time to completion: 7:26
2) 8x to 16x Time to first beep: 0:23 Time to completion: 5:42
3) 16x to 16x Time to first beep: 0:26 Time to completion: 5:53

I assume the first beep is the time it takes to read and verify everything is okay to copy, and the copy operation itself starts at the beep. The time to completion (above) includes the time to the first beep. If you want the time from the beep to the tray opening, you have to subtract the numbers.

As you can see, the 8x disk took more than one and a half minutes longer than the 16x disk. I'm not sure about the eleven second increase in time between test 2 and 3. Maybe I didn't let the 16x source sit in the top drive long enough?

this is one test, if anyone else wants to duplicate it, please do so. The more data, the better.

I am satisfied that the CopyPal does not burn everything at the same maximum speed.

Thanks for testing Luke, sounds like the copypal is doing as it should.

BTW I stopped at Office Max A.V. today with my coupon and picked up the remaining (4) 100 spindles of AZO Verbs(made in UAE). They also had (4) of the life series which I ignored. The sales lady questioned if I could get more than one spindle with the $5 off but they all rang up for $16.99 each:cool:
Sams Apple Valley was out of the Verb DLs any only had (4) 100 spindles of AZO Verbs for $21.99 each.
No Memorexes in site yet:)

edit:BTW enclosed in my bag was a coupon book which included a coupon for Magnavox(probably memorex) +/- 16x DVDs(100 spindle) for $14.99. No thanks, for the extra $2 I'll take the AZO Verbs.

Thanks for testing Luke, sounds like the copypal is doing as it should.

BTW I stopped at Office Max A.V. today with my coupon and picked up the remaining (4) 100 spindles of AZO Verbs(made in UAE). They also had (4) of the life series which I ignored.....

I just printed the office max coupon and am planning to pick up a 100 spindle of the Verbatims.

Forgive this newb question, but how do I tell if I am purchasing "AZO" ones????

If you look at post 2166 or 2174 it will show a photo. Basically you will see the AZO logo on the spindle.
The new questionable life line will look very different.

I just printed the office max coupon and am planning to pick up a 100 spindle of the Verbatims.

Forgive this newb question, but how do I tell if I am purchasing "AZO" ones????

The "AZO" logo is found on the outside wrapper as seen in this cropped version of my earlier photo showing the DVD-R spindles:

If you look at post 2166 or 2174 it will show a photo. Basically you will see the AZO logo on the spindle.
The new questionable life line will look very different.

The "AZO" logo is found on the outside wrapper as seen in this cropped version of my earlier photo showing the DVD-R spindles:

Thanks guys!! :)

If you look at post 2166 or 2174 it will show a photo. Basically you will see the AZO logo on the spindle.
The new questionable life line will look very different.

The "AZO" logo is found on the outside wrapper as seen in this cropped version of my earlier photo showing the DVD-R spindles:

Didn't realize it was that obvious and already pointed out. For some reason I thought I would need to check some obscure mfg code or region.

Thanks guys!! :)

I'd grab some myself, but I don't really use 16x if I can help it.

I've still got a hundred 4x and 8x Japanese Maxell -R's that I haven't gotten around to yet, plus a batch of 8x Verbs and a bunch of other, various blanks (quite a few Panasonic RAM's, too - maybe 30, which were mostly bought when Wal-Mart was clearing them out a few years back).

That is a damned good price for those with the bomb shelter mentality, though. It's just that I don't use them at the rate that some of you fiends do. ;)

I don't know - if I happen to be near the store and I go in there and they have them, I might be inclined to just grab a cake anyway, to use for "giveaways". Suppose I can get the e-mail coupon, too (might as well - what's one more company constantly filling my mailbox up with useless e-mails every day, after the 12 or so that already do).

Suppose I can get the e-mail coupon, too (might as well - what's one more company constantly filling my mailbox up with useless e-mails every day, after the 12 or so that already do).

Yes I've already got one email offer for inkjet cartridges which I trashed, I'm a laserjet guy myself.
I figure if the emails get too bad I can always add them to my SPAM list.
I've been tempted to put Newegg on that list but after trying to unsubscribe I was asked why and I said I didn't want daily offers, rather weekly. Since then it's been about twice a week. which I can handle.
Note I grabbed the last 4 AZOs at my O.M. so by now they may be out, offer does say while supplies last.

Yeah, I have Newegg, too, and they're a nuisance, along with Amazon, Buy.com, Sears, Borders, Classmates.com, Solid Signal, Audio Advisor, blah blah blah. And I only expect it to get worse since physical stores don't carry much of anything worth jack anymore.

I bought the Hanns-G monitor I'm using right now on this computer from Newegg a couple of months back after the power button on my original HP monitor finally broke (I believe you're using that brand these days, too, right? Possibly got yours there, too?).

I noticed the AZO deal was still on the OM website.

I bought the Hanns-G monitor I'm using right now on this computer from Newegg a couple of months back after the power button on my original HP monitor finally broke (I believe you're using that brand these days, too, right? Possibly got yours there, too?).

I noticed the AZO deal was still on the OM website.

I have a Hannspree, but I get those two mixed up also:o
It may still be on the Web but that's not saying the store will have any and wanting the AZOs their is probably no way to tell what the store will have. My guess is they are the same sku#.

...That is a damned good price for those with the bomb shelter mentality, though. It's just that I don't use them at the rate that some of you fiends do. ;)...

I'll second that. I bought 4 packs of 100 DVD-R Verbatims at OfficeMax for $5 each (Score! :D) 2-3 years ago. I just counted...I still have 394! :eek:

I never was much a fan of the letter "Arrrrr." :p

I have a Hannspree, but I get those two mixed up also:oI also have a HanSpree. 23" widescreen full 1920x1080 with 2 HDMI ports. It's not the greatest for watching video but for PC work its just fine and it was 60% of the cost of a nice LG or Samsung.

I just looked them up and they're actually the same company (which is kind of what I suspected with the names being so close).

Well, we have two Office Max stores in my town. The one nearest me only had the "Life" verbs. So, I went to the other one, and got their last 100pk of Verbs with AZO dye. They only had one.

I guess I'll finally have to step up to Taiyo Yuden. So, please, next time they are on sale, or available with free shipping, someone please post it! Either 8x or 16x.

I guess I'll finally have to step up to Taiyo Yuden. So, please, next time they are on sale, or available with free shipping, someone please post it! Either 8x or 16x.

When ordering from supermediastore there is free shipping with orders of $25.00 or more. Now and then these go on sale for $24.99, so it's best to order two (or any additional item) to get free shipping:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&max=15&offset=0

There used to be hundreds of customer reviews for this product. When supermediastore added the JVC name to the product description it must have deleted all the customer reviews as if this is a different product. Since that time I've purchased more of these Premium Line discs. I find that this is the very same product it was before Taiyo Yuden's late 2008 takeover of JVC's optical media operation. Taiyo Yuden manufactures all the optical media sold under their own brand name, as well as the JVC brand name. JVC continues to make its own magnetic media.

When ordering from supermediastore there is free shipping with orders of $25.00 or more. Now and then these go on sale for $24.99, so it's best to order two (or any additional item) to get free shipping:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&max=15&offset=0

There used to be hundreds of customer reviews for this product. When supermediastore added the JVC name to the product description it must have deleted all the customer reviews as if this is a different product. Since that time I've purchased more of these Premium Line discs. This is the very same product that it was before Taiyo Yuden's late 2008 takeover of JVC's optical media operation. Taiyo Yuden manufactures all the optical media sold under their own brand name as well as the JVC brand name. JVC continues to make its own magnetic media.
Meritline (http://www.meritline.com/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-r-silver-thermal---p-18321.aspx) has a couple of interesting items for the Mfg. Part# listed in that linked SM page:

"Effective Oct 2009: Taiyo Yuden Brand Name Has Formally Changed to JVC (JDMR-ZZ-SB). Products May Be Shipped in JVC Packaging."

"Manufacturer Part#: DVD-R47ZZSB8 (JVC Manufacture Part No.#JDMR-ZZ-SB) (Made in Japan)"

i picked up 600 TY for 130 shipped at shop4tech...it was not on the website, i called and the girl on the phone offered the deal...i was actually just wanting to buy 2 of the 100 packs and she suggested the 600 pack instead.

I guess I'll finally have to step up to Taiyo Yuden. So, please, next time they are on sale, or available with free shipping, someone please post it! Either 8x or 16x.As long as I had the choice, I'd always go with the 8x myself.

i picked up 600 TY for 130 shipped at shop4tech...it was not on the website, i called and the girl on the phone offered the deal...i was actually just wanting to buy 2 of the 100 packs and she suggested the 600 pack instead.

Not to rain on your parade, but at that price you probably got TY "Value Line" discs that TY grades as "seconds." But Value Line discs are still better than most media found in retail stores.

Premium Line discs usually come in "cake boxes." Value Line discs usually come in shrink wrap labeled "Value DVD."

I thought $21.66 shipped with no tax sounded too good to be true for regular(not value line) Tys.
For people interested in B&M or smaller quantities(and don't mind 2nd or even 3rd class media) Staples has a couple deals.
$8 for a 50 spindle of Staples brand 16x + or -R DVDs.
$19.98 for a 100 spindle of HP 16x + or -R DVDs

Well Digado didn't get all the AZO disks in town as I went to my next closest store Friday on 82nd close to the Johnson Creek exit and they had a bunch of the UAE plus media hidden on the top shelf and behind the new Life crap white spindles so I reached up and managed to grab 2 more and bought them with my second online coupon printout.
The clerk wasn't busy as it was early afternoon so we talked about geek stuff and he likes to backup and burn movies too and he had no idea that Verbatim was now selling CMC made crappy quality disks for the same price as the azo disk they used to sell as he really likes their quality too.
I'm sure after his shift he stocked up on a few as well;)
The other store closest to me only had the minus in the good UAE disks left and I already have 2 spindles of those so I'm all set for a LONG time now.
I think the coupon was only good for last week so we'll have to wait and see if they do another sell before all the good stock runs out.:(

Well Digado didn't get all the AZO disks in town as I went to my next closest store Friday on 82nd close to the Johnson Creek exit and they had a bunch of the UAE plus media hidden on the top shelf and behind the new Life crap white spindles so I reached up and managed to grab 2 more and bought them with my second online coupon printout.

On Friday I went out to Oak Grove to get my PT Cruiser serviced so I stopped by that Office Max. They had perhaps a dozen of the + and - AZO spindles, as well as the Life series. I bought one more spindle of AZO - discs but left the rest for others. Then I went into Milwaukie to get a yummy Pietro's Pizza and then I made my way home to north Portland. The Office Max not far from Johnson Creek (actually located at 82nd and King Road) would have been a little out of my way. Earlier in the week I pretty much cleared out the Mall 205 Office Max of AZO -R discs.

The Frys in Wilsonville has been offering the Maxell + or - spindles of 100 for $9.99, with a limit of one per customer. I think my last Maxell - spindle had a ProDisc MIT. Frys would be a 45 mile round trip for me unless I happened to be going that way.

Not to rain on your parade, but at that price you probably got TY "Value Line" discs that TY grades as "seconds." But Value Line discs are still better than most media found in retail stores.

Premium Line discs usually come in "cake boxes." Value Line discs usually come in shrink wrap labeled "Value DVD."

yup...still using the value line all these years. My pio is about 6-7 years old and those first disks burned still play like a charm. Hands down the best BFYB!

I wasn't sure where your based but from the Philips threads I thought you were closer to SE area then you are.
I'm in the Rockwood area so the one at 205 is my closest one and I guess the other one is second closest but a bit outa my way too just to look for stuff. I got off work early Friday and was just in the same area Thursday looking for a deal on a new phone that didn't happen at that Best Buy. I forgot to print out my coupon so wasted the trip twice, seeing how I could have hit the OM store before heading back and salvaged part of the trip the first day.
I was also at fry's wednesday getting a deal on a lens for my camera and did look at the media while there just in case but didn't notice the Maxell disks on sale. I have gotten some before that were made in Japan and turned out to be great media though that type has rarely shown up lately. I like fry's but same deal, too far away unless they have something I really want, then I make a road trip outa it and spend a few hours poking around the store. Maybe we should coordinate trips to the 205 store so we both get some disks:D, I manged to find a few minus UAE ones left when I went there first of the week, so I bought 1 and one CDR pack.

As long as I had the choice, I'd always go with the 8x myself.

Yeah, I realize that is the accepted advice around here. I have a Pio 640, and have been burning Verb -R 16x, with no problems. Guess I'll probably order some of both, assuming the cost difference isn't too great, and see how I like the 8x.

I'm not sure what the exact differences are in these two listings, aside from the "inkjet printable" and the more detailed listing of the more expensive spindle. The cheaper one's picture shows YUDEN000 T02 ID yet the more expensive ones show AZO in the description.

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-plus-r-media-100?brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&filter=Speed%3D8X&max=15&offset=0
JVC Taiyo Yuden Shiny Silver Thermal 8X DVD+R Media 100 Pack in Cake Box
$35.99

Format Speed Packaging
DVD+R 8X 100-PK CAKE BOX
Printable Type Surface Type Hub Printable Capacity
N/A SHINY N/A 4.7GB

These Taiyo Yuden 4.7GB General Purpose DVD+R are for data and video and come on 100 disc spindle. These disc are compatible with DVD+R burners that use DVD+R media for general purpose. These DVD+R's are are very high quality and reliable.

Media Type: DVD+R
Native Capacity: 4.7 GB / 120 Minutes Video
Format: DVD+R General Purpose (8x)
Remarks: Taiyo Yuden DVD+R with Silver Thermal on 100 disc spindle.

versus:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-plus-r-4-7gb-silver-inkjet-50-disc-spindle-100-pack?brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&filter=Speed%3D8X&max=15&offset=0
Taiyo Yuden Silver Inkjet Printable 8X DVD+R Media
$41.99

Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R, Silver Inkjet Printable Surface Over AZO Dye, 4.7GB 120-minute capacity, 100 Disc Spindles, No Stacking Ring.

Authentic Taiyo Yuden DVD-R media, made to the highest standards. Highest quality, suitable for duplication and public distribution. Features archival quality AZO metal dye for today's longest archival playback capabilities. Should last up to 100 years or longer in normal cool dark storage conditions.

Additional INKJET or THERMAL (as specified in product title above) printable surface has been added over Taiyo Yuden's high reflectivity layer. Works in Rimage Liberty, EZCD, Microboards Printfactory or Primera Inkjet printers (not recommended for Everest printers, nor screen printing). Disc features no stacking ring -- this means it can be printed by today's high speed disc production systems.

Office Depot has dual layer TDK DVD+R 25 packs on sale for $14.99 this week. A pretty good deal considering how expensive dual layer discs are. No rain checks but they will substitute Memorex if they are out of TDKs.

...they will substitute Memorex if they are out of TDKs.

With these CMC brands that's a comforting thought?

Yeah, Memorex and TDK are the same company now as far as I know so no difference with either media as it's all crap now, BUT you might have a burner that does OK with them anyways.
I've had OK results with the last pack of Memorex DL 8x disks I bought with my Optiarc 7240 and 7260 drives.

Yeah, Memorex and TDK are the same company

That's right:

http://www.imation.com/en-us/Our-Brands/

As you know, there are no buttons or controls on the CopyPal, just the drive open/close buttons... I marked the time to the single beep, and then the double beep when the lower drive tray opened...

Results:

1) 8x to 8x Time to first beep: 0:26 Time to completion: 7:26
2) 8x to 16x Time to first beep: 0:23 Time to completion: 5:42
3) 16x to 16x Time to first beep: 0:26 Time to completion: 5:53

I assume the first beep is the time it takes to read and verify everything is okay to copy, and the copy operation itself starts at the beep. The time to completion (above) includes the time to the first beep. If you want the time from the beep to the tray opening, you have to subtract the numbers.

As you can see, the 8x disk took more than one and a half minutes longer than the 16x disk. I'm not sure about the eleven second increase in time between test 2 and 3. Maybe I didn't let the 16x source sit in the top drive long enough?

this is one test, if anyone else wants to duplicate it, please do so. The more data, the better.

I am satisfied that the CopyPal does not burn everything at the same maximum speed.

Lately I've been duplicating a variety of discs with the CopyPal. I've just timed the process with four examples duplicated from the same master DVD.

The master disc is a Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R (TYG02) with five one-hour TV programs recorded at LP (three hours per disc recording mode) on the hard drive of a Magnavox 2160, but edited of the commercials before high-speed dubbing to produce the master disc. Each of the edited TV shows has a running time close to 39:30 minutes. The total programming content of the master disc is right around 3:17:30. (Before the master disc was finalized the "empty title" showed right around 2:30 minutes.)

The copy-to discs were Verbatim AZO 16x DVD-R.

From the CopyPal's first beep to the opening of the disc tray with a finalized disc averages 5:15 minutes.

Lately I've been duplicating a variety of discs with the CopyPal. I've just timed the process with four examples duplicated from the same master DVD.

The master disc is a Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R (TYG02)
The copy-to discs were Verbatim AZO 16x DVD-R.

From the CopyPal's first beep to the opening of the disc tray with a finalized disc averages 5:15 minutes.
This agrees with my CopyPal data pretty well. I expect that the actual numbers also reflect the amount of data on the disk, which accounts for the minor differences.

I have been watching a lot of disks duplicated by my Copypal, and they have been as perfect as the source disks. I will say it again, for the $100 I paid for the thing, it has been a very good investment. I recommend it, though not for copying commercial disks with CP.

For use with my Magnavox, Philips and Panasonic recorders I use only Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R media (TYG02) purchased at a $0.25 to $0.28 price per disc. I'm running low on these TY discs with only around 1,400 on hand. It's well past time to reorder. I usually order one box of 600 TY discs at a time from SuperMediaStore. SuperMediaStore has free shipping for orders of $25 or more.

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-100-pack?brand=TAIYO+YUDEN&filter=Speed%3D8X&max=15&offset=0

For the next several days SuperMediaStore has those Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R discs on sale, a box of 600 for $152.99. SMS also has a good deal on DVD white paper sleeves, 100 for $1.99. Today I ordered one box of TY discs and 500 white paper sleeves.

For the next several days SuperMediaStore has those Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R discs on sale, a box of 600 for $152.99...
I cannot easily process 600 for $152.99 when I'm used to seeing 100 for $xx.xx, so, for the folks like me, it's 100 for $25.50 OR (from the SuperMedia website): 100 Pack $029.99 $0.30 ea.
200 Pack $056.99 $0.28 ea.
600 Pack $152.99 $0.25 ea.

For the next several days SuperMediaStore has those Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R discs on sale, a box of 600 for $152.99. SMS also has a good deal on DVD white paper sleeves, 100 for $1.99. Today I ordered one box of TY discs and 500 white paper sleeves.

If you use coupon code CJTY07 on any Supermediastore TY order, you get 100 DVD paper sleeves with windows (http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/cd-dvd-paper-sleeves-white-80-gram-clear-window-100pk) free.

Lately I've been duplicating a variety of discs with the CopyPal. I've just timed the process with four examples duplicated from the same master DVD.

The master disc is a Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R (TYG02)...

The copy-to discs were Verbatim AZO 16x DVD-R.

From the CopyPal's first beep to the opening of the disc tray with a finalized disc averages 5:15 minutes.
I noticed that you are using 16x disks with the CopyPal. You have mentioned it in a few places now. With all the comments about 16x being (for lack of a better term) too fast an angular velocity to create the "best quality" disks, why are you not staying with the 8x disks? I use 8x T-Ys for all of my DVDs. In order to do the test a few posts above, I had to get some 16x disks from a friend.

I noticed that Supermediastore does not have the CopyPal any longer, it's now selling the CopyPal II. Giving it a quick glance, I didn't see any real difference or improvements. It's now $130, but at least until July 5th it comes with a 50 pack of DVD-R disks, specification not mentioned.

I noticed that you are using 16x disks with the CopyPal. You have mentioned it in a few places now. With all the comments about 16x being (for lack of a better term) too fast an angular velocity to create the "best quality" disks, why are you not staying with the 8x disks? I use 8x T-Ys for all of my DVDs. In order to do the test a few posts above, I had to get some 16x disks from a friend.

Luke,

As you've mentioned in earlier posts you have lots of TY 8x Premium Line discs on hand. My view is that one can never have too many TY discs.

So far, most of my CopyPal duplicates have been give-aways. For that use I'm not so concerned with archival quality burns. For give-aways I expect to continue using Verbatim, TY and Sony 16x discs that are already on hand. At the moment I have somewhat more than 1,100 of these 16x discs. (My recent Office Max purchase of 700 Verbatim AZO discs had a per-disc cost less than $0.17.)

As a test-run I made perhaps twenty CopyPal Verbatim or TY 16x back-ups of randomly selected circa 2006/2007 Memorex and TDK CMC media from my DVD archive. These duplicates appear satisfactory. I expect to use TY 8x Premium Line DVD-R media for future archival duplication (once I determine how I want to accession duplicated discs). When my new SMS order arrives I'll have around 2,050 of these TY 8x discs on hand. Golly, it's almost time to reorder more TY discs!

This photo shows my blank DVDs of choice. At the upper left is a Taiyo Yuden 8x Premium Line DVD-R (TYG02). Notice that the area near the center hole is clear. At the lower left is a Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R (TYG03). Notice that the area near the center hole is silver. At the right is a Verbatim AZO series 16x DVD-R (MCC). While the AZO logo doesn't appear on the DVD itself the AZO logo is found on the outer wrapper and the round card insert atop the spindle as seen at the upper right.

As you've mentioned in earlier posts you have lots of TY 8x Premium Line discs on hand. My view is that one can never have too many TY discs.

So far, most of my CopyPal duplicates have been give-aways. For that use I'm not so concerned with archival quality burns. For give-aways I expect to continue using Verbatim, TY and Sony 16x discs that are already on hand. At the moment I have somewhat more than 1,100 of these 16x discs. (My recent Office Max purchase of 700 Verbatim AZO discs had a per-disc cost less than $0.17.)
Well, the first bolded section, I could not agree more. It seems I can never have too many T-Y 8x premium DVD-R blanks. I am just short of 2000, and am feeling like I need to top-off my cache.:eek: Is that obsessive? I think Supermediastore has a really good deal going now (mentioned earlier) 25.5 cents a disk, with 100 free paper sleeves.

I wonder how long these 8x premium disks will be availalbe?

As far as the second bolded statement goes, your explanation makes a lot of sense to me. At 17 cents (not sense) a piece, they would be very good for give-aways. Since they are non archival disks, the use of non T-Ys isn't an issue. I concede the logic of your actions, oh wise one!:D

At my local Big Lots I found Verbatim Life DVDs (both + and -) at $10 for a spindle of 50. Is Verbatim clearancing these inferior (to their AZO) discs? Are they good enough for non-vital/giveaway use?

At my local Big Lots I found Verbatim Life DVDs (both + and -) at $10 for a spindle of 50. Is Verbatim clearancing these inferior (to their AZO) discs? Are they good enough for non-vital/giveaway use?At the HH Gregg near me they had stacks of Verbatim DVD-R 50 spindles for a similar price. Upon inspection, though, I noticed they were clearly marked "Value Disks". I had never seen a Verbatim Value line before -- perhaps others have. So one must be careful of these super cheap disks.

I've worn my signature for many years and still stand by it.

Probably fine for giveaway disks, but I wouldn't want to trust anything to last a long time or play properly in every machine with them.
I try to buy the good ones when on sale but I've got around 400 now so I'm OK for a while on DVD media I think.
Now to find some good deals on Quality BD media...

Now to find some good deals on Quality BD media...Just make sure you are conscious of the BD-R vs. BD-R LTH format types. If your burner and target players are BD-R LTH compatible, Verbatim BD-R LTH can be had for $1.50/disk. That's half the price of Verbatim BD-R media -- which at $3/disk is a good deal in itself.

I have the multi format LG GGW-H20L that burns or reads all the HD formats and surprisingly it is listed as supporting that newer format.
I don't think it's had any updates since late 2008 but it is on the supporting drive list.
I did notice they had some really good prices for it, just haven't sprung for any yet.

SuperMediaStore (http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-silver-thermal-8x-dvd-r-media-600-cake-box) is having a small sale of TY-JVC DVD-R, $52 for the 200-pack, and $156 for the 600-pack, through 7/14. Comes to $0.26 a disc.

Promotion code CJTY07 still works for the free sleeves.

I just got my first shipment of Ty/JVC -R 8x discs. All have burnt fine so far, and take exactly the same amount of time as Verb 16x do to burn, in my Pio 640.

But, I am quite unimpressed with their physical appearance. There is no label, no lines, no markings of any kind on the discs, except the hub codes. In a dim light, it is impossible to see which is the dye side. Also, on the non-dye side, there are what look like abrasions - short silver streaks - near the edge. Close examination shows that they are not abrasions, but seem to be under the lacquer.

Earlier in this thread, some have said that Ty cake boxes were flimsy, and SMS didn't pack them well. For me, at least, that was NOT the case. Cake boxes are solid, were well-packed in styro peanuts, double boxed.

After you get used to them it's easy to see which side is which. There is a distinct reddish or copper cast to the recording side if you look at it at an angle.

I can see the difference in daylight, but in a low light living room, the difference is hard to detect. Both sides of the DVDs I bought have a sort of purplish cast, but the dye side is just a bit more purple.

For use in my CopyPal duplicator I purchased four more 100 disc spindles of Verbatim AZO series DVD-R discs (MCC) for $16.99 per spindle at Office Max.

Be sure to visit the Office Max website to have the $5.00 coupon sent to your email address, print the coupon and then visit Office Max.

I visited two Portland Oregon Office Max stores (105th and Washington Street, 82nd and King Road) that didn't have AZO series DVD-R discs, before finding four spindles at the McLoughlin Blvd store in Milwaukie.

I suppose the same pricing applies to Verbatim's new "Life Series" retail DVDs (if one can settle for DVDs of lesser quality).

I find it interesting to visit the Verbatim website where AZO series media is characterized as "superior" while the Life series media is characterized as "good."

Well sounds like my 2 closest stores are all out now then:( I have about 400 now of plus and minus so I think I'm OK for a while though:cool:
Now if only Blu-Ray media would get down to usable prices.
When I went to the 82 store during the last sale they still had a bunch but it all was on the overstock top shelf and the new crap was down low.
I couldn't get the coupon thing to go through earlier today.

I suppose the same pricing applies to Verbatim's new "Life Series" retail DVDs (if one can settle for DVDs of lesser quality).
"

They really should call them the shorter Life Series. :rolleyes:

Does Officemax have a limit per coupon of how many spindles you can get with one coupon? I had forgotten about the sale but think I should try to check it out in the morning; my local store seems to strangely turn over blank media pretty fast so I want to see if there's any chance of still finding some of the "old guard" Verbs even though it seems to be disappearing pretty fast.

I may even just try to get Best Buy to PM the pre-coupon price since I know they still have a couple of the old type discs floating around, and that's what's pictured in the ad...

..I have about 400 now of plus and minus so I think I'm OK for a while though:cool... I couldn't get the coupon thing to go through earlier today.

The 82nd and King Road store had a few spindles of AZO DVD+R media when I visited. If you can't get the email coupon just print out the photo that has the coupon. The Milwaukie store couldn't get the coupon to scan so they looked it up and manually entered the code.

Hi, today while shopping around for blank media i ran into this: Verbatim shiny silver datalife plus dvd-r 8x discs. These are a 50 pk. spindle for $7.85 plus s/h. I found this deal at www.antonline.com but am wondering if there might be something about these discs that make them so cheap,or is this just a damn good deal. Any opinions? G.

Hi, today while shopping around for blank media i ran into this: Verbatim shiny silver datalife plus dvd-r 8x discs. These are a 50 pk. spindle for $7.85 plus s/h. I found this deal at www.antonline.com but am wondering if there might be something about these discs that make them so cheap,or is this just a damn good deal. Any opinions? G.

DataLifePlus is Verbatim's premium line of products. You must have found a special deal. All the DataLifePlus 8x media I could find are these:

http://www.antonline.com/antonline.php?op=inventory&st=Verbatim+DataLifePlus+8X

DigaDo,i see your problem not being able to find the right page on their website.I tried the link you provided and got nowhere. Last night when i first found this website and page i bookmarked it so i can go right back to it. Unfortunatley i can't tell you how to find it. I don't know what to do!:confused: G.

DigaDo,i see your problem not being able to find the right page on their website.I tried the link you provided and got nowhere. Last night when i first found this website and page i bookmarked it so i can go right back to it. Unfortunatley i can't tell you how to find it. I don't know what to do!:confused: G.

The DataLifePlus media you found is a good buy.

I've got plenty of blank DVDs on hand so I don't need to purchase more at the moment.

Well, my trip to the local OfficeMax was a success-- barely. They had ONE spindle left of the "old style" 100 pack DVD+Rs and none of the DVD-Rs. (which is ok, I've had some issues with the -Rs so I lean towards buying the Verbatim +Rs) They did have a mixture in the 50-pack sizes but they don't seem to go on sale at OM very often.

Makes me think if you're interested in being picky as to what kind of disc you end up with, it's worth trying to go sooner-than-later to your local OM to check their stock.

(I only had one coupon with me so I didn't get to see what the quantity limit was)

Well i ordered 2 spindles (50 each). Cost:28.95 incl. S/H. for the Verbatim Datalife plus 8x -R blank discs from antonline.com That's the best price iv'e seen anywhere. :D G.

Their ridiculous shipping price kills the deal.

Their ridiculous shipping price kills the deal.

Their shipping price is high but,if you check out the prices anywhere else,their total price is still better than anywhere else. I checked prices at all the familiar spots and even tho some of those places have free shipping,the price at antonline.com STLL BEATS 'EM. Do the math! :D G.

Looking for 25GB BDR discs media. Best price/service. What do u guys think, which one is better writer Pioneer for $180, or LG for $120?

thanks

Their shipping price is high but,if you check out the prices anywhere else,their total price is still better than anywhere else. I checked prices at all the familiar spots and even tho some of those places have free shipping,the price at antonline.com STLL BEATS 'EM. Do the math! :D G.

Yes, it's a decent price. You can get 200 "shiny" 8x Verb DVD-Rs from Supermediastore for $60 total or the same (apparently) from these guys for $50 plus change.

Just use the old eBay trick: don't look at item price and shipping separately--combine them to make apples-to-apples comparisons of what you'll really pay.

OK, I couldn't resist: I plonked for 200 of 'em--just as, you know, back ups for the 2,000 or so (i.e., about 90 days' worth of recording for DigaDo!!) TY 8x Premium I have on hand. You guys are a bad influence on me. Dratted enablers all of you!!

Their shipping price is high but,if you check out the prices anywhere else,their total price is still better than anywhere else. I checked prices at all the familiar spots and even tho some of those places have free shipping,the price at antonline.com STLL BEATS 'EM. Do the math! :D G. Yes, you are certainly correct. But for me, the high shipping still kills the deal. I would rather buy TY at the final cost per disc instead of verbs from antonline. To me, to show an outstanding price on the dvds but then to gouge on shipping seems almost like the old "bait and switch" routine.

Be that as it may, this is the best price for these verbs, and I am glad you are happy with the dealio.:)

Looking for 25GB BDR discs media. Best price/service. What do u guys think, which one is better writer Pioneer for $180, or LG for $120?

thanksCan I assume you know the difference between BD-R and BD-R LTH and the implications that has on compatibility with burners/players?

On-line prices for (http://www.supermediastore.com/category/u/blank-recordable-blu-ray-bd-r-re-disc-discs-media?brand=VERBATIM):
Verbatim BD-R is running $3/disk in the standard 10 packs.
Verbatim BD-R LTH is running $1.75/disk in the standard 40 packs.

On-line prices for (http://www.supermediastore.com/category/u/blank-recordable-blu-ray-bd-r-re-disc-discs-media?brand=VERBATIM):
Verbatim BD-R is running $3/disk in the standard 10 packs.
Verbatim BD-R LTH is running $1.75/disk in the standard 40 packs.

Looks like Verbatim puts the same huge price premiums on DL Blu as they do DVD. :(

Verbatim DVD+R DL at Meritline (Made in Singapore)

30 discs for $30 with coupon code MLC104305072125NL1: http://www.meritline.com/verbatim-8x-dvd-plus-r-dl-branded-on-spindle-96542---p-27286.aspx?source=s2010&hq_e=el&hq_m=2011139&hq_l=34&hq_v=0d43a82b01

Good for only the first 100 orders, so this will likely go quick.

Looks like Verbatim puts the same huge price premiums on DL Blu as they do DVD. :(One can always buy memorex. After all, only suckers pay more for something that actually works.

One can always buy memorex. After all, only suckers pay more for something that actually works.

Um, OK? :confused:

I wasn't even so much as hinting that one should buy a different brand (particularly Memorex) but I don't get your snarky attitude at my wondering why the premium is so high for DL media, either DVD or Blu. 2X the capacity, 4X - 6X times the price. I was simply saying I didn't understand the cost factors involved or if DL media was that much more difficult to manufacture.

While I'm certianly no media snob by any means, I do know enough to use TY and Verbs only...unless it's for giveaways or curious research for the sake of either myself or the masses.

Flame away, if you must...though I don't think I've done or said anything to warrant such a thing. :o

Well every time something new and different comes out they jack up the price so early adopters pay for it, then slowly drop it as they realize Joe six Pack wont pay those kind of prices to buy whatever it is and the early guys have stopped buying on impulse becuase most of them have it by then.
With DL and BD disks I'm sure some of it is pressure to keep the prices high so the evil consumers don't go around pirating every thing they can get their hands on :rolleyes:

While it's the value line, and 16x(not the well loved 8x) for $19.99 shipped, they are a far site better than Memorex or even the new Life Verbs.
Ty 16x value line silver thermal lacquer, under $20/100 shipped.
http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/taiyo-yuden-8x-dvd-r-media-value-line-100pk?utm_source=emailSonic&utm_content=Media&utm_medium=campaign&utm_term&utm_campaign=100722%20One%20Day%20Bargain%20Bonanzas!