Media deals this week - Page 96

So glad this thread alerted me to the excellent price of the AZOs earlier. Now Amazon is selling the retail and FFPs for $30

Wow, that is a big price fluctuation!!

Took a look at the cakeboxes of the discs I received - they have the packaging you showed in your earlier photo. Just "AZO" in typescript above "DVD-R", not the AZO logo. Probably just means a change in packaging, though I'll monitor to see how the discs perform.

And really nice to have gotten them at 18 bucks and change per box.

Weird. I paid just a bit over half that eight days ago.! What random number generator is selecting their prices I wonder?

The last 2 spindles arrived yesterday and they came with the old AZ0 logo packaging, as well as the other 4.

That is the highest I have seen the Verbatim AZ0 brand go for on Amazon.com. I went back & check when & how much & paid for these spindles. I brought 8 spindles in 2010, 2011, & 10 in 2012. Back in 2010 & before the floods they were $19.99 a spindle. After the floods prices climbed up. I paid $20.49, $20.99, $21.49, $22.99 and the highest I ever paid was $24.99 in 2012. The cheapest besides the $18.16 this past few weeks. Was Black Friday of 2010 for $14.99

You do realize that would be 2600 blanks not to mention other brands you may have purchased or from other sources than Amazon......Just kidding you I've probably purchased the same amount but they would be from so many different companies and brands it would be hard to get a count. Lately though I've been just purchasing AZO Verbs from Amazon(almost always from a tip by you ) or occasionally a spindle of 8x Tys when I need to get my Supermedia order up to $50 for free shipping. I did go through several thousand 8x Tys last year and the end of '11 but they were used exclusively for my VHS/Beta to DVD conversion project which thankfully came to a end in '12. I did purchase several 100 spindles of the Windata 8x +R DLs at Microcenter but they are used almost exclusively in my PCs and I'm not sure if I'll buy anymore. When on sale they are dirt cheap($29.99/100) but I worry about their longevity and a few of my players lock up or skip playing the second layer, other players play the same areas just fine......

Gettin' me inspired finally do my big VHS dub off this winter..... I got the blank discs (including the spare 300 Verb 16x AZOs discussed earlier in this thread), DVDRs for the job, even a wall-mount bracket for a little Toshiba LCD TV that'll be perfect as a monitor. Just need the time to set it up in the office bedroom. I'm getting to that side of my life where I want to start lightening ship and getting rid of excess stuff like VCRs and VHS+DVDR units.

^^^funny thing was my first DVDRs were purchased for just this use(back in '05) but it took me until '11 to finally get around to it I setup 3 Panasonic ES-30v's and 3 ES-15's(with 3 '04 Samsung VCRs) running at times 12hrs/day. About 1/2 way through 2 of the 3 ES-30v's developed tape transport issues and I stopped using them. Almost all my tapes were in SP with anywhere from 90 to 180 minutes with most being between 120 and 160 minutes long, the Beta tapes were almost all in BII with lengths between 2 1/2 to 5 hrs. Anything longer than 3hrs and I'd split the tape between 2 DVDs. At first I tried using HDD DVDRs but very early on I could see they were adding too much time, besides I just didn't have time to do things like add chapters and I didn't need to do any editing so simple HDD-less DVDRs worked quite well. Using quality DVDs I had less than a half dozen burn failures which required doing the tape over.
I'd suggest doing such a project now rather than later, not only are our tape players getting older and more fragile but our DVDRs aren't getting younger either

You chose wisely! Almost all of mine were in EP, with 6, 8, 9, and 12 hours per tape. Just getitng these super thin tape to track properly was the big challenge. :(

Boy! am I glad that THAT project is finished.

 

Those Mon.-Fri., 35 minute Korean Dramas run 130-170 episodes. The bi-weekly, 1:05 ones run 16-20 episodes (I know, because I watch many of them myself).

 

Depending on what channel he's recording them from (I think he said Hawaii, OTA, but I don't know the channel offhand), they can be showing a combination of quite a few of them at any one, given time.

 

He could be recording series' from streaming sites, too.

 

He probably goes through blanks at a pretty brisk pace. 

Edited by Rammitinski - 1/11/13 at 6:47pm

A Little History of what I burn to those 2600 AZ0 discs.

They are used just to put Korean Dramas that I d/l off the net. None come from streaming sites. In fact I seen some of those sites and from what I have seen I do not like the quality and also that episodes sometimes are broken down into 10 minute segments. Plus sometimes from what friends tell me there is all kinds of problems with streaming. I d/l the raw files that groups rip from the main 3 Korean Networks, and now a growing number of cable channels that are getting into producing Korean Dramas. And now there is many groups who are also English Fan subbing a lot of these dramas. I am d/ling 15 different Korean Dramas. As Rammitinski pointed out there are daily dramas (30-35) minutes a episode & run 120-170+. Usually 5 days a week. The Bi-weekly is 2 episodes each week. (3 dramas Mon-Tue & Wed & Thur). These run from 16-24+ episodes). Then we have weekend dramas. They are also 2 episodes per drama. But each main Korean Network (MBC, SBS, KBS) shows 2 dramas each. So that is a total of 6 dramas. Those run 50-80+ per drama. And now there are about 8 cable channels getting into the act. Lets not forget some Variety and Music shows that are also subtitled.

Besides all this is out local Korean station (KBFD) that started back in 1976. In 1988 they were the first Korean Channel to English subtitle the dramas they were showing. All subtitles were being done in house. Back then and for years to come when there was no such thing as fan subbing. People would die for these dramas. I started watching that station in about 1990. And I recorded a lot on VHS tape in the now the stupid low quality of EP. At one time I had over 700+ tapes. Then came the dvd recorder and I jumped on that band wagon. I was burning tons of stuff on 2 recorders at a time. Up until I could d/l the raw files. I now d/l them in 720P & 450P. The 720P files are stored away on HD's. Now my recording to my Panny E500H is only 3 dramas each week. Mostly SBS daily dramas. And once most times 2 KBS Weekend dramas. Since 2010 I burn over 700 8x JVC (TY) disc on my recorder from SuperMedia.com.

Here is a link to KBFD History.
http://kbfd.com/eng/history.html

Sorry this was so long.

Not at all! It's really cool to find out how other people are using these machines. Every Saturday night at 7:00, I record the Lawrence Welk show off the local PBS station for my parents. They live near a big city, but *none* of their PBS stations run LW. So every other week or so, they get a DVD in the mail from me with 2-3 shows on it. Fortunately, they decided that the DVD format appears to have some staying power, so they have a player. Still do all their own time-shifting on VHS, though.

As I've commented before, I have one of my DVDRs hooked into the stereo system with a Sony XDR-F1HD tuner feeding straight into one of the line inputs to time-shift music programs from the local NPR station. Sure, I could do all this with a PC and the Internet, but my present setup is easy to use and reliable and does exactly what I need.

So a lot of those Verb AZO discs will go on the Champagne Music Making trail to keep a couple of retirees happy!

And as of 32 seconds ago, those same 16x AZOs we bought for $18-20 last week are still going for $29.99 in both retail and FFP. It pays to keep an eye out and strike when the price is down.

 

For some reason, I completely forgot about the weekend ones.

 

(Possibly because those are my least favorite of the 3 types. Only rarely can I ever get into one of those.)

Edited by Rammitinski - 1/13/13 at 3:05am

just curious, whats one of the best sources for deals on blank blu-ray discs.

I'm surprised you would say that. Weekend dramas in general have the nighest ratings sometimes. I enjoy them, but I enjoy most of them. It does not matte when they are shown.

The FFP are now up to $33.04. How high will it go. I wonder how long it will take to drop back down to at least normal pricing. Glad I brought a bunch at the lower price.

I like supermediastore.com for BD-R. There seems to be much less quality variation amongst BD-R brands than there is for DVD-R. Maybe they are all made in the same chinese factory. I like Optical Quantum. I've been using them for a couple years. They burn great, I've only had 1 coaster and at $1/disk they are a great deal.

London Drugs has the Verbatim AZO 50-spindle for $12.99. Walk in or Internet. If you don’t have a LD store in your CDN town – most stores will match prices.


Verbatim must of changed packaging because as others reported my 50 spindle has the new big AZO letters and is missing the little AZO logo. This is good news – Verb must have no intention of discontinuing the AZO product and this means that most retailers must sell out fast as my local LD store usually has tons of AZO discs and today all I’ve seen is the new labeling. BTW, my new discs were made in Taiwan.


New Packaging


Made in Taiwan


Media ID

Best Buy Deal of the Day, today 3/14 Only:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Verbatim+-+50-Pack+White+16x+DVD-R+Discs/8672129.p?id=1218884670386&skuId=8672129&cmp=RMX&ky=2osewwzdCrbzQ1GSkGq8l2Pqc8Sa8YrUW

Verbatim Ink Jet Printable DVD-R 50 pack for $9.99 online only and Free Shipping
Doesn't say anything about AZO. Might be the cheapies, but for 20 cents apiece I'm trying 100

^^^ Microcenter B&M sells the same shrink wrapped spindle on sale for $8.99, regularly and now $12.99 and I've always been meaning to purchase a spindle. I was there a few days ago and wouldn't you know, they weren't on sale I did snag several spindles of Verbatims though, several shrink wrapped 50 spindles(labeled as Value Line, not Life MID RITEKF) for $7.99/50. They looked exactly like my AZO Verbs but again were RITEK. I also snagged a 100 spindle of the Life Series($15.99/100) CMC MAG AM3 MID. Interestingly enough unlike other Life Series Verbs I've purchased these actually had the words Life Series on the discs, other Life Series DVDs I've purchased looked exactly like the AZO discs so I used a Sharpie to write a L on each disc so I could easily identify them from the real AZO discs.
Lastly I tried a 50 spindle of the printable Life Series +R DL(going against my crumbling rule to only purchase AZO DLs ) which were $29.95/50 and UMEDISC-DL-64 MID. Ya I kind of over purchased I was looking for some more give-a-way discs. I hate to give a way the real AZOs for short term use.

Wow, super fast shipping! UPS delivered the discs on Friday 3/15

These DVD-Rs were NOT AZOs. They ID to RITEKF1

Oh well, cheap enough for my giveaways.

http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-95101-Branded-Recordable-50-Disc/dp/B00081A2KY/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1363818616&sr=8-16&keywords=verbatim+dvd+r+dl
Kind of a good deal for those who like to order 50 spindles instead of 100.
$11.99/50 for Verbatim -R AZO DVDs, free shipping on orders over $25

Kodak 16X DVD-R 100-pack cakebox for $20 at J&R.

Has anyone ever tried Kodak discs?

Staples Canada has Verbatim AZO + or _ 100 pack 1x to 16x for $20.

LINK

Thats nice, under $20 for the AZOs
Now if it were only September during my yearly Canadian vacation I'd be picking me up a couple spindles