Media deals this week - Page 52

The 6105 526 +R is common to 3 DVDs I checked,
the rest of the string E E 16344 in this case, seem to be different for each disc.

The reversed characters on the outer silver (shown grey) part of the hub was very hard to spot - in fact I didn't see them until they were partly revealed in my first attempt at a scan - I then rotated the DVD so that the whole string could be shown - these seem to be the same for the 3 DVDs I checked.

At best, Memo-Dreks are still a crapshoot. And what do you get when you shoot crap? The same amounts of sh!t that you had before, just spread out into an even bigger mess. TY all the way!*

*With the exception of the 6 cent Playos for assinine people that don't appreciate your time, costs, and efforts.

That doesn't look like any Verbatim (=true MCC) media I've ever seen before. Is there a country of origin on the packaging? Perhaps it's some of the newer Indian media making its way into the US market.

Thanks for posting the scan, I don't think these are true good Taiwan-made MCCs. At best they're Indian made MCCs which are considered probably decent but inferior to the Taiwan MCCs; at worse they're fakes.

Edited to add: From a bit of digging the codes seem to match the general pattern of Made in India discs, which are considered lesser grade. So while they're probably better than the average Memorex disc (which as long as it's mostly shiny and sort of round they pass quality-control ) they're not as good as made in Taiwan Verbatims. Source: http://club.cdfreaks.com/f33/mbi-cod...s-goin-184434/

Many thanks for the good info.

Indeed the packaging does say "Made in India" -
so it looks like they are "genuine" MCC (Mitsubishi) made in India.......

Thanks -
not quite the stunning bargain - but still pretty good @ $10 for 50.
(but kinda moot since the sale is now over)

I've done a straight (movie 4Gb) burn - and the one sample gave no problems -
but then I've done straight burns on CMC and Ritek without much problem either.

They're probably better than most discs, and infinitely better than your average Memorex, especially as they have the MCC media code. People were complaining that some of them have the MBIL media codes which aren't done to Verbatim's QC standards.

My guess would be they'd be better than any CMC or Ritek media you'd buy. It's definitely interesting as it means Memorex media might be a good pickup if they go on sale, if you can find Made in India discs, as Memorex gets very cheap sometimes.

Once again thanks - I'll use these MCC(India) Memorex DVD+R for my more "important" burns - and the CMC and Ritek for the less

Since I don't normally have too much problems with DVD blank media -
I tend to just buy the cheapest well known brand -
the only other brands I have are Magnavox DVD+R (CMC Mag M01) @ $6/25, and TDK (Ritek R05) $12/50.

I knew Memorex seem to have a bad rep - but at $10/50 (20cents each) it was worth trying -
especially if I had problems I could always just take them back to Radio Shack.....
nice to know they were actually better than either of my other 2 DVD+R brands.

Thanks

Why are people taking chances on crap media when TYs regularly come on sale at only a mere penny to a nickel more? Throw in the added cost of gas to go buy the discs over having them delivered free and it turns out about even.

The lone exception is the tri-annual Staples' Playo sale at 6 cents per disc...or 15 cents savings / 75% off over TY.

I've had very good results with MII Verbatims, on sale for 26¢ ea. from Microcenter, until the end of the month, I think.

Maxell DVD+R "4x/8x/16x" are one of the discs that are recommended for a particular recorder. I don't recall having seen that exact description on any packaging (although I wasn't into DVD recording at the time). I believe that the current Maxell product has packaging with the description in a box with an orange background ("Up to Max 16x").

http://www.maxell-usa.com/index.aspx...a=info&pid=312

So can "4x/8x/16x" refer to previous Maxell products that had the descriptions "Up to Max 4x" and "Up to Max 8x" ?

P.S. I had posted a simular question in another thread but there seems to be more disc savvy people here than in the other thread.

Nov 1, 2007 - Imation now "handling" TDK consumer DVD sales and after-sales support, according to this posting. [TDK stopped making consumer DVDs in their facilities a couple of years ago (to concentrate their resources on HD).]

Spyder Alert: be forewarned, Imation bought Memorex in Jan 2006, officially "handling" TDK Nov 2007, and they're coming after Taiyo-Yuden next... maybe gobble up Verbatim on the way!?

Great information here. Question: Has anyone seen Verbatim (+R) 100 packs lately that are TNR LOCK----OPEN? I've only been seeing them in 50 packs and smaller. I'm not sure whether this means that the recent(?) change in packaging for the 100 packs means that the typeface is no longer an indicator of CMC/Prodisc or whether all new-style 100 packs are Prodisc.

This would include most (all?) Fujis, I assume, and do you know what else? I'll keep an eye out for the sales, since Verbatims are a little too much of a challenge at the moment.

Fuji DVDs are pretty much never TY anymore. I don't think there is a reliable supplier of TY discs in the B&M space at all, you have to buy online. (I think your only hope might be getting some old stock Sonys at Sears or Walgreens, some have reported still finding Made in Japan media)

Agreed with above post. I bought a bucketload of Fujis waaaaaay back, but won't touch 'em now. TYs are too cheap to pass up for roll-the-dice, second-guess, crapshoot media.

Last sale ad I saw for Verbs had 25s, and 50s, both with a new label. I have about 300 on hand, so I haven't looked at the ones with the new labels yet, but am anxious to know if this says anything about a change in their manufacture/quality...

Nice buy on Jewel Cases. 100 assembled with black tray for $20.99 delivered. I ordered 2-100packs. With the free shipping this was actually cheaper than buying the more heavily discounted bigger bulk packages. They arrived in good condition, and are of decent quality.

http://www.meritline.com/100pajecafor.html

I haven't seen this posted before, but Wiki has a nice entry on Taiyo Yuden with info I haven't seen before, esp. media and hub codes to tell which is real.

Here's the Wiki entry (updated 29 Nov 2007).

Office Depot has their store brand 25 disc spindles of DVD +RW for $9.99 (0.40/ea), excluding taxes. Anyone know what the latest code for these is ?

Last week they had the same quantity of "Ativa" brand +RW's for $12.99. On the package it says that they are also made for Office Depot. Is this their old line or perhaps a replacement for their "Office Depot" brand ? Anyone have the code for these ?

I agree. I haven't seen any MIJ DVD media in the store in well over a year. The only exception being the Panasonic branded TY media that you see aroound, always in packages so small (1-5) that you'd never buy them anyway. Now MIJ TY CD-R's can be gotten at Wal-Mart (Maxell Pro branded).

Try reading some of that cheap media a year or two from now and you'll regret going cheap.

On the ones that you do have, what is the coloring on the shrink packaging ?

The reason I ask is because I just went to BestBuy and saw two styles of packaging for 50 piece Verbatum DVD +R's. The apparently older one was purple with a blue upper portion of the package. The newer one uses just two shades of purple. I believe the older DVD -R also used blue on the upper portion of the package.

PS. Semaphoric (11-25-07) said:" I've had very good results with MII Verbatims, on sale for 26¢ ea. from Microcenter, until the end of the month, I think."

Did he mean to say those Verbatum were "Made In India (Mii)" ?

I am pretty sure that is what he meant. MIJ=Made In Japan.... MII=Made In India.

Office Max, Verbatim 16X +R/-R 100-pack spindle, $24.99.

Also Verbatim 52X CD-R, 100 pack, $19.99.

It seems Verbatim media has a pretty good rep here. Are these the ones?
I have had very good results with their MIS DVD+RDL.
Should these be MIJ, MIS, MIT, MI? or does it matter?

Verbatim DLs are the only thing I'll use. Mine are all made in India so far. Zero errors.

I was at OM today and saw the Verbatim DVD+R 100 pack in 2 different packages. The dark and light purple says 2006 and the purple with blue I did not see a date but it is the one shown on the Verbatim website. By this I would think the dark and light purple is the older but it doesn't seem to match what has been said. Plus what about the serif and sans serif.
Both are MIT but the purple with blue did say something about MKM-Mitsubishi Kagaku Media - which I believe is #1.
Can someone put this all together and tell me what is what and which I should buy without opening them and testing.

Scan from DVD burned on my Sylvania HDVR200F on my latest batch of Verbatim 16x MIT DVD-R.

Date : 1/3/2008 6:24:55 PM
Model : 2-0-0-0 J:LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165P6S MS0P
Disc : DVD-R , MCC03RG20 [Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation]
Speed : 4x
ECC blocks sum (PI/PIF) : 8/1
Scanned range : 0 - 2039598
Sampling count : 107097
Errors : 0
PI Max : 16
PI Average : 2.54
PI Total : 38883
PIF Max : 2
PIF Average : 0.10
PIF Total : 1503

Best Buy has a 20-pk. of Verbatim DVD+R DL on sale this week for $29.99. They are 2.4x and 8.5GB. The add shows what to me is the familiar packaging (light purple/blue with yellow lettering), but when I got to the store, I found them to be wrapped in dark purple packaging and I couldn't see the hub. The other difference I noticed is that these list US, Europe and Australia, whereas the 15-pk. (in the familiar packaging) says US, Europe and Asia Pacific. Anyone know if the ones in the purple packaging are any good? I've been reading that the MII are a crap-shoot, but I can't tell if the 20-pk. is MII or Singapore because I couldn't see the hub. Thanks!

It seems everyone is selling the ones in the latter package now, which has me concerned. Me, I only buy online, and have only gotten the old packaging to date. No fails yet. (All MiI media)

Playo DVD+R 16x scan with K-Probe.

Date : 1/9/2008 12:32:07 AM
Model : 2-0-0-0 J:LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165P6S MS0P
Disc : DVD+R , MCC004 [Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation]
Speed : 4x
ECC blocks sum (PI/PIF) : 8/1
Scanned range : 0 - 2179350
Sampling count : 114698
Errors : 0
PI Max : 20
PI Average : 4.70
PI Total : 77072
PIF Max : 4
PIF Average : 0.33
PIF Total : 5431