Media deals this week - Page 79

Your link got mangled in the posting process...doesn't work.

I saw those too, around 50 cents/disc for DL media is dirt cheap but after my bout with some cheap DL media, I've swarn to Verbs. My guess is they are made by CMC(Memorex).

try this link

Sorry, I should have checked it.

Any Kodak media that I've encountered has been manufactured by MBI.

What the heck is "MBI?" The Malaysian Bureau of Investigation? I haven't heard of them. Not good, I assume?

Moser Baer India. And before you are ready to condemn (as I was initially), they are actually capable of making quite a respectable disc. Their OEM media is quite reliable and produces some very excellent scans in the various batches I've tested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moser_Baer

I didn't really mean to condemn, I was just being skeptical of such cheap DL discs. Guess I should have bought some, but they are probably all gone by now. Thanks for the info though. Next time, I'll jump on them.

TODAY ONLY (11-29-10)

Verbatim DVD-R 16x AZO for $15.99 delivered. B&H Photo is a reputable dealer.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...tim_95102.html

Great deal, my DVD shelf is overflowing but I couldn't help myself at this price
Thanks for the tip

You're welcome, jjeff. Same price for Verb DVD+R 16x AZO, and Verb CD-Rs are $12.45 shipped, or something like that. All quantities are the 100 count spindles.

Funny thing, after I ordered a couple spindles from your link, I checked my email and I got the same offer. I generally check AVS before my email great deal!

NewEgg: Verbatim DVD+DL, 50 spindle pack.
$50 with free S&H.
Don't know how long it will last.

Do you know the country where they were manufactured?

Sorry, no.

A few reviews state they're made in Singapore. All of the newegg DLs I've bought were from there.

Singapore would be the "Good Stuff". India and other countries have been less reliable. I don't know if they have fixed their problems at those manufacturing locations yet.

I surfed over to supermediastore.com to buy some blank CD-Rs, after finding only Memorex at the nearby Walmart, and noticed they have JVC/TY 8x premium line DVD-Rs at $24 for 100. Not quite as low as the $22.99 reported just before Thanksgiving, but still pretty good. So I bought those along with 100 of their 52x CD-Rs at $26.99.

I was a bit surprised to see DVD-Rs selling for less than CD-Rs from the same company. I suppose that reflects the market nowadays, with more and more people using iPods and other media players instead of CD players. I use an iPod with headphones in the car and with an old stereo receiver and speakers in the office, but I'll still use a CD/SACD player on my main sound system at home, until something comes along that allows me to access easily the contents of a few thousand classical-music CD's (after ripping them all ). Interfaces designed for pop music simply don't cut it for classical music. I have to "reinterpret" some of the fields in the iTunes/iPod system, and edit the data accordingly, to get something that works for me, and I hesitate to use that for a long-term solution.

Yes, I've noticed that for a while. My theory for the price diff is economies of scale: more people are burning DVDs nowadays than CDs.

Of course, I'm still operating in the world of MUSIC CD-Rs--the special ones you need for standalone audio-gear CD recorders. In the end, it's still the tool that works best for my needs. I thought the discs would be scarcer by now; only Sony is a reliable source now. I get my supply (and I have hundreds stockpiled) at Target, though I've even seen smaller retail packages at Walgreens. Unfortunately, SMS doesn't offer the MUSIC variety.



A lot of serious music/audiophiles will agree with you, this one included. In another life, I write for a classical music periodical, and while my editor bemoans the impending doom of downloads, they really haven't affected that end of the business much. I go to Amazon.com and find the CD selling for a few bucks more than the low-bit-rate MP3s that I have to download, process, convert, and burn to my own CD, all for sound that's not even as good as the CD. Why would I go through that hassle if I can just buy the disc?

iTunes and other MP3 downloads are basically for the kids to get their "songs," which they'll play nonstop for a week then forget about.

Actually, I consider the CD to be the bare minimum of acceptable digital sound quality, at least one that I'll pay for. Whenever there's a choice, I want the SACD. You can get hi-rez SACD-quality downloads, too, but not the artists I usually want. And I don't want all that schlepping with the PC, which already runs my life 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM every day.



Anyway, $24 @ 100 is still a decent buy on TY 8x DVD-R, not a steal, but think of how much data you can put on that 24-cent disc......

doswonk1 --- Same here. Either I get the Sony Music CD-Rs packaged with the slim color coded cases only when on serious sale or the 100 count spindles. I'm now using a dual tray Harmon Kardon CDR2 and still have a an HK CDR20 with a faulty player side deck which still allows for external dubbing on the record deck. Figure between the two I can keep things going for a good while.

Somewhat OT, I have to agree with the rest of your post as well. Personally, I have avoided all MP3 downloading up till now and do not stream Music but know that eventually I will have to succumb to the Dark Side and leave Redbook behind. I stayed on the Analog side for many years but with Audyssey MultEQ XT I find the digital side to be more inviting of late. As always, YMMV.




jtbell --- thanks for the heads-up on the DVD-R deal. Just ordered a Magnavox 515 and haven't done any burning in a long while (XS32 went weird on me even after replacing burner and wouldn't recognize a fair amount of pre-recorded material from the old burner, even with finalization). My supplies are very low and some perhaps even out of spec so the JVC-TYs will come in handy.

Same here. The vast majority of the music I buy is still on SACD or CD. This week was an exception, because I stumbled onto passionato.com and found that they had a couple of my favorite labels on sale at $27 for three albums in FLAC (lossless) format ($22 in MP3). $9 per album is significantly cheaper than I'd pay for real CDs from those labels, so I bought a half-dozen.

???

These hub-printable, AZO-dye, 16X Titan DVD blanks might be good for "Aunt Mabel" copies? Anyone have any experience with these and maybe know the media ID? With "AZO," maybe a Verbatim product from one of their farmed-out factories?

$20.98 per 100, free shipping, supermediastore.com.

Wikie says this on Verbatim's production sources:

"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."

???

Looks like Office Max will be running Verbatim DVDs on sale next week. 50/$9.99 100/$17.99. The photo shows AZO which would be a pretty good deal, but the last time I was at OM all I saw was the poorer quality life series for the 100 spindles.....

Newegg.com has a 10% all blank media sale underway, ending Sunday the 19th.

A tad more than 50 cents/disc for TDK 8x DL media at Newegg, free shipping through Jan 3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-17131081-L08C
They also have Imation 16x -R blanks for $16.99/100 also through Jan 3, delivered.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-17132549-L08D
Lastly they have Verbatium AZO 16x Rs for $19.99 delivered.

Still have a 50 pack of the TDKs I scored for $15 months ago. Haven't even used one yet, so no idea if they're any good or not.

Today is sunny but cold. The metro area Frys ad had two interesting media items so I took one of my infrequent road trips down to Wilsonville Oregon to do some shopping.

The first item of interest are Verbatim AZO series blank DVDs at $16.99 per spindle of 100, see the first photo. These MCC03G20 spindles are of Indian manufacture, see the second photo.

The second item of interest was a Hitachi SATA 500GB hard drive for $39.99. Wajo has identified two preferred models for use as replacement hard drives in Magnavox 2160A, 513, and 515 HDD/DVD recorders. The first choice would be a hard drive in the HDT series and the second choice would be a hard drive in the HDP series. Since the ad, seen in the third photo, and the item number at the Frys website doesn't identify the Hitachi model number, I wanted to check the actual model number before buying some model that Wajo doesn't recommend. I found that the Frys sale hard drive is from the HDS series so I passed up that model.

When I got home I gave one of the three Verbatim spindles to my daughter.

The first photo shows the 7 January 2011 Frys Wilsonville Oregon ad with Verbatim Life Series media on sale for $12.99 per spindle of 100 discs.

The second photo shows a Verbatim Life Series DVD-R spindle manufactured in Taiwan.

The third photo shows the Verbatim Life Series DVD-R spindle card, a Life Series DVD-R disc, and the Roxio 9 report that a Verbatim Life Series DVD-R is CMC MAG AM3 media.

The first photo shows two examples of CMC MAG AM3 DVD-R media, both recently priced at $12.99 for a spindle of 100, Verbatim Life Series and Magnavox.

The second photo is a screen shot of a Memorex DVD-R report. The third photo is a screen shot of a TDK DVD-R report.

Whatever happened to retail media manufactured up to a standard, not down to a price?

They all realized they can sell crap media for a much greater profit margin and most buyers wont even notice as long as the price is at least the same or a bit cheaper I think.
I wont buy that Life series stuff, I have 4 100 Azo spindles from the last of the good sales at Office Max and I'm mostly doing stuff to my networked media player now anyways.
If I need a hard copy then I burn a disk so not going through them like I used to.

Wow, no deals in a while......
This one seems like a good deal, $7.99/50 spindle of Sony 16x +/- R printables. Wednesday Jan 26th only at Staples, no limit that I saw.
Sorry I couldn't find a link to post but it was in a email to me where Staples is having one day sales all week and according to the ad "valid in store, online or phone". No coupon or rebate required. I know where I'll be this Wednesday