WinData DVD+R DL

[kwebster]

MicroCenter is pushing WinData DVD+R DL's for a bone ($1) apiece (10 for $10). Anyone had any experience with these things yet? Since they were only 10 bones, I went ahead and picked up a pack, but I'll tell you: I ain't expectin' much. I've never bothered to even look twice at their SL WinData offerings because I'm still smarting from that garbage they used to sell 3 or 4 years ago (what was the name of those disks? The SL ones that you could only buy at MicroCenter??). Anyway, I'm testing one now (one of the DL's) and will report my findings.

[sc4300]

These DL disc by WinData is garbage.
Just bought them a week ago at Micro Center. 10 disc for $9.99

4 of them didn't work at all and I thought my DVD burner was broken.
I continued to use the rest of the 6. They works GREAT on 1st layer till the second layer was burned. I now have 10 coasters sitting on my desk.

Bought Verbatim DL disc yesterday and they work perfectly, so there is nothing wrong with my Sony DVD burner.

[kwebster]

Yeah, I agree. But I'm not at all surprised. Like I said, MicroCenter doesn't exactly have a stellar record with their own DVD media. I burned one of these discs and although the burning went flawlessly, the finished product was unwatchable from the very beginning. I knew this would be the case so I wasn't bent over spending the 10 bucks. Long live Verbatim!!

BTW, has anyone used the Fuji DL's?

[zrdb]

You know the old saying "You get what you pay for"-I got a 10 pack of these worthless coasters-only 2 out of 10 were successful burns-the rest went into the trash can-better to have spent 6 more bucks and gotten a 10 pack of Ridatas-never had any problems with those.

[RKelly]

WinData used to be called Platinum Series.

[zrdb]

They can call them any name they want-they're still garbage.

[Capmaster]

Verbatim +R DL are fairly good. They're more expensive ($2.40/ea.) but you won't have many coasters

[zrdb]

I know-all that I ever use are Verbatims and Ridatas-aka Memorex-never had 1 coaster from these brands. I get my Verbatims for about $1.50 each-you're paying too much.

[CrayonEater]

BTW, has anyone used the Fuji DL's?

I used them few awhile a year ago. They code as Ritek D01. No problems burning or playing, though I haven't tested them in awhile. I burned on an NEC ND-3550a, FW 1.05. I still prefer Verbatims though.

[zrdb]

It's really funny how everyone says that they have problems with Ritek/Ridata-the very first dvd+dl media I ever burned were Memorex that were Ridatas and never one problem from any of the 50 or so I've burned since then.

[Dr. DOS]

Ditto on the Verbatim DL's. So far about 50 burns and 1 coaster (my fault)

[zrdb]

Interesting thing-the 1st 10 spindle pack of these things that I got were rated at 2.4X burn speed and they were all garbage-but I decided to give them one more try so I got another spindle of 10 rated at 8X burn speed and all 10 of them burned perfectly-they are identified as Ricoh media-same as the the 1st spindle rated at 2.4X-go figure?

[dmagic1]

Ok, if we're going to blast the disc, lets at least name the make.
What are the 2.4x and 8x makes?

Is there any indication on the package which are the 2.4 or 8x? UPC? Dates? Place Made?

[zrdb]

Did you read the whole post-I said they were idenfitied as Ricoh media?

[dmagic1]

Ok I went and picked up two packs of the ones marked up to 8x.

I ended up with two different media IDs.

RICOHJPN D01-002 --- Lot # 021206
RICOHJPN D01-067 --- Lot # 231206

The 002 I can't get to start or if they do start they never finish with out errors in two different burners. So far 4 coaster.

The 067 are a little better but not much. They finish but unreadable.

[zrdb]

Like I said before-the first 10 pack yielded 2 successful burns and 8 coasters, the second 10 has given me 5 out of 5 so far-one thing that I've found is that NEC burners don't seem to have much if any trouble with these discs-all of the bad burns were done on my Samsung burner-I have a NEC sourced Maddog burner-no problemo.

[Krispy Kritter]

I've had good luck with Playo 2.4x DL media (1 coaster out of 10), but that doesn't mean I endorse or recommend them. If only 20% of the first spindle actually worked...I'm not rushing out to try them hoping I get a good spindle.

[zrdb]

I think that we're all trying to find good cheap dvd+dl media-I"m on my 2nd 10 of these 8X Windata discs and still not one bad burn yet out of the 15 that I've used-is it good karma or what?

[SCDVD]

It's really funny how everyone says that they have problems with Ritek/Ridata-the very first dvd+dl media I ever burned were Memorex that were Ridatas and never one problem from any of the 50 or so I've burned since then.

The biggest problem with Ritek is their variable quality. They are capable of making good media but they let the flaky stuff slide through. Careful QC costs money and disposing of bad or marginal media costs money too. I believe that is money that Ritek is reluctant to spend / throw away. The result is that one batch of media may be good and the next one bad. Verbatim is obviously more in tune with the importance of shipping consistently dependable media.

I have heard that Ritek's DVD media doesn't have a stable dye formulation and that it tends to break down over time resulting in burns that seem OK this year but won't play next year because of dye deterioration.

[zrdb]

Aii that I can tell you is that the very first dl dvds that I burned 2 years ago were Memorex/Riteks and they still work perfectly and I've never had a bad burn with one yet.

[[_chef_]]

A look into the media database will easily reveal that only Verbatim DL is good media.

[Birck]

It is many moons later (June of '08), and Windata disks are still garbage. I bought them at MicroCenter months ago and had problems from the first attempt. Considering that the number of brick-and-mortar computer stores is decreasing, it seems counterintuitive for Micro Center to continue to sell these worthless coasters as DL disks. There are more DLs on the market now than a year ago; Sony and TDK now sell them, although 9 months ago that was not the case, at least not in the western hemisphere. Granted that the DL format seems to be trickier than less compressed formats, it's time for those producers who can't rise to the occasion to drop out or be pushed.

[pepegot1]

Fuji DLs are good. I had no problems with a cake of twenty that I bought awhile ago. I mostly use Verbatim though.

[zerman]

These DL disc by WinData is garbage.
Just bought them a week ago at Micro Center. 10 disc for $9.99

4 of them didn't work at all and I thought my DVD burner was broken.
I continued to use the rest of the 6. They works GREAT on 1st layer till the second layer was burned. I now have 10 coasters sitting on my desk.

Bought Verbatim DL disc yesterday and they work perfectly, so there is nothing wrong with my Sony DVD burner.

>>>
You WRONG ! ... I burned almost 50 dvds Windata DL and all of one works perfect, but one thing... you must use 50% of rec. speed or 2.4x , NEVER 8x speed !
<<<

[Noahtuck]

WOW!!!


2 one post wonders digging up an old post for some crappy media

See how well they play or rip in a year or two

[rr6966]

I've burned probably 60 of these at 6X, not one bad burn. I'm using a pioneer burner ( can't remember model 1 year old ). Now Ridata, I have to burn at 4x or less, if not I will have problems.

[jman98]

Man, they are all coming out of the woodwork now.

Let us know in a couple of years if all these Ridata, WinData, and so on discs still work. We've had plenty of posts over the years from people who try to save money on bad quality media and they reported how in 1 year or less from the time of burn the disc was unplayable.

[SCDVD]

That's OK jman98. Let them learn the hard way - and they will. I suspect that zerman in the post above is a WinData shill. He posted just once and was VERY aggressive in his wording. The final tip off was his lousy grammar. I will give you one guess on where he is from. If anyone wants to believe a poster like that, go ahead - knock yourself out.

[zerman]

>SCDVD "shill" ? , what for ? I'm not "cheap media" salesman
BTW, I didn't pay attention to 2nd post date, so my fault, sorry... probably 2 years ago that was true (technology)

I'd like just to say - sometimes cheap DVD, CD not equals garbage and vice versa... for example, 3 years ago I bought very expensive SONY DVD+R and actually is unreadable... anyway I prefer Verbatim too, but i'm using for important data only

and excuse for my grammar if you're so shocked
(how many languages do you know ?)

have a good day gentlemen
cya

[tmacan]

Actually, I have to agree with Zerman.. it's true that the Windata dvds are probably inferior to many other brands, especially Verbatim.. not much doubt about that, but I think it's a matter of knowing your expectations and using the appropriate tool for the job. I've had very acceptable results with the Windata dvds recently and, you have to admit, they're VERY inexpensive (I bought 20 for $12). As far as whether the dvds will be readable a year or two from now, well I think that's where knowing your expectations come in. I would certainly use Verbatim for anything I really was concerned with preserving, but there are also times when I know that the dvd I'm burning may not be important to me 6 months down the road. Ever backup to dvd? If you periodically do a full backup, then how important is the previous one? I'm sure you can think of other examples of when longevity isn't essential, and I'm hoping I'll be burning blue-rays in the not too distant future.. It's nice to have DL's for the capacity at a reasonable price. Again, I say it's all a matter of realistic expectations. I think you might find a niche where they could serve you well, and you might be pleasantly surprised at the results. I've had a few burn failures, but at less that a buck apiece, it's much easier to swallow.. but then again, everyone's entitled to their opinion, right? Just because someone may not agree with you doesn't mean that they're "working for the man".