Caldisc 4x for under $1

[Faustus]

Just noticed these on RIMA.com

Here

No clue who manufactuers them, and I fear their quality because of the price, but it is interesting....

[hedstrosity]

i saw those too......
good price, but i wonder who manufactures them

[defense]

Flaystus, if you really want some of the highest quality media you've ever used...go get a batch of those Philips disks at Office depot. They are the 2.4x DVD+R disks for about $1 a piece...but I assure you,....the chances of you even having a single coaster would be very minimal.


Check out the Philips sale post on this forum (media) for more info.

And as far as these CALDISKS....i've checked out a bunch of these different "generic" named brand 4x media...and they are either LD or Long...Ten. Unfortunately...many of these sites just make up their own names and purchase tons of media from a particular warehouse.

I bet they are the long..tens too that shopo4tech was selling under the Speedy name...currently known as Matrix. Flaystus, check the bottom of that link...see where it shows DVD burner compatibilty and burn speeds...look at that..then go to shop4tech's site and look at their DVD burner chart....it's identical. Another thing I find humorous and shady at the same time..is how 3 burners out of 12 will burn these "4X" disks @4x. And out of those 3 burners, you still won't get consistent burns @4x. LMAO.....unreal.....oh, and look at how they tell the owner's of the Pioneer A03 AND A04 to update their "firmware"....even with the most UPDATED FIRMWARE ...those Pioneer owners can only get 2x MAX! Without the firmware...they get 1x! LMAO.....Everyone is out for a buck.....sad but true.


So you can have 10 sites with 10 very creative names for their 4x media....but when you get them....you'll see why they were so cheap.

I'm not just using my experience either...i've never read a single post where someone said...WOW...I got 25, 50, 100 disks for less then a dollar a piece. They burned each and every time @4x and the quality was terrific. Well, I did read a couple of posts like that...but they were all posted by shop4tech....so those don't count.

[Faustus]

Flaystus, if you really want some of the highest quality media you've ever used...go get a batch of those Philips disks at Office depot. They are the 2.4x DVD+R disks for about $1 a piece...

Those will not burn to well in my Pioneer 105, and I'm not upgrading my burner until a 8x-/8x+ Pioneer comes out. The reason being that 1) I hardly burn at 4x now so why upgrade so soon and 2) No offence to you sony owners, but your drive (though you never sent me the info on what exactly its doing) does that check to see what speed to burn... it suppose to save you disc. BUT if it will not let you for example burn a Ritek 4x at 4x, and I burn say 100 Ritek 4x at 4x with no issues, then to me I would feel ripped off.

[normando]

defense...
I read that you were ripping the websites about posting the Pioneer AO3 & A04 firmware upgrade notices.

The reason that they state this is because those 2 burners can be damaged permanently by attempting to burn 4X media if you don't upgrade the original firmware. These drives were made before 4X media was created. So I give them credit for at least trying to help their customers.

The silly part is that there are people that will actually waste their money on expensive 4X media for a burner that tops out at 2X. No folks, 4X media will not play magic tricks and transform it into an A05 or A06.

[defense]

flaystus wrote:

2) No offence to you sony owners, but your drive (though you never sent me the info on what exactly its doing) does that check to see what speed to burn... it suppose to save you disc. BUT if it will not let you for example burn a Ritek 4x at 4x, and I burn say 100 Ritek 4x at 4x with no issues, then to me I would feel ripped off.

Flaytus, I completely forgot about that post. I will find the info and pm you or update that post. Let me explain something though.

The Sony burners to my knowledge aren't the only burners that do this process. Basically, from what I read....I'll try to sum this up. Ok...burners BEFORE the burn process basically check certain information about the media prior to the burn process. When you put in a disk...the burners check information which in hard coded from the vendor in the disk...some of that info deals with the manufacturer of the disk, the dye type, write strategies, etc. So here is what happens. You throw in a High Quality Maxell disk....burners get this info and set the "laser power" accordingly. Now 4x disks usually have different write strategies....they don't just have a 4x W.S...they have 1x and 2x write strategies as well. So when Sony's burners for example...evaluate all the information from a TDK 4x disk for example.....it knows that it's safe to continue to burn this disk @4x. BUT...when you take media such as Matrix media....some burners evaluate the above info: dye type, vendor, ...and set the laser power INITIALLY @4x...however, after the initialization process.....some burners..like the Sony's....say....no...it's not SAFE to burn this disk @4x...so they Sony's reset the laser power to a safe 2x. And from what I read...alot of this info which determines this...is within the burners firmware.

A burner has its own write strategies...and with the Sony burners....within' certain firmware is a list of media which is considered stable.... usually those disks are the "certified" disks. Sony obviously has a very high standard for which disks it will burn @4x and which ones it won't. Now, you can look at this two ways. You can say...because Ritek isn't currently on their list..and Ritek are high quality..and can be safely burned @4x, then that sucks. Or, you can look at it like me and say...hey...with all the LOW QUALITY 4x media being sold from all these online sites....If I have a Sony burner and get stuck with some of this media....burning it @4x is usually going to cause some type of error...and thus, coasters. But burning it @2x will save me coasters. Pioneer is obviously more flexible within' it's own firmware and burners. It seems like the majority of 4x disks out there will successfully burn @4x...but that doesn't mean "safely"..and that's a big difference.


I prefer the approach Sony takes...it ensures that the lower quality 4x media will burn @2x, while every single certified 4x disk I've ever put in my Sony..(and that's been quite a few)... have burned @4x flawlessly. I haven't even had a single coaster @4x or playback issue....I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Anyway, I Hope this helps....I think the entire process is interesting...and i'm gonna find more info to link.


@normando....my post wasn't that long....I couldn't of confused you that much...could I? I was ripping the sites because of the media they are selling. They are selling 4x media which isn't 4x. That's one sentence...should make it easy to understand now, right? Good....what I said about the sites is not only are they selling this 2x media as 4x....they are listing the burners WITH firmware upgrades that will play it at 4x...and hardly any of the burners will. Not too bad for 4X MEDIA...huh? 3 outta 12 burners will burn the media @4x...and out of those 3...you still won't get consistent burns....lmao. As far as listing the firmware update notices...you say it's good for the site to do that?

This has nothing to do with helping Pioneer owners......the Sites SHOULD NOT sell this media as 4x PERIOD. And my point on the AO3 AND AO4 users is that EVEN WITH...WITH...WITH...the firmware upgrade, they still will ONLY...ONLY ONLY...be able to burn the media at 2 ....2.....2...2x. Still think the online sites are HELPING anybody?

[Faustus]

BTW RIMA answered my email. As suspected the disc code is LONGTEN001.

As far as the burn speed thing I guess to each their own. If a media is crappy 4x but burns fine at 2x then when I figure that out I'll set it to 2x manually. But maybe I'm the odd ball.

[defense]

flaystus said:

BTW RIMA answered my email. As suspected the disc code is LONGTEN001.

As far as the burn speed thing I guess to each their own. If a media is crappy 4x but burns fine at 2x then when I figure that out I'll set it to 2x manually. But maybe I'm the odd ball.

Just as I suspected when I posted this a few days ago:

And as far as these CALDISKS....i've checked out a bunch of these different "generic" named brand 4x media...and they are either LD or Long...Ten. Unfortunately...many of these sites just make up their own names and purchase tons of media from a particular warehouse.

I bet they are the long..tens too that shopo4tech was selling under the Speedy name...currently known as Matrix.

So they are...no surprise there.

As far as the long..tens go...there are two different plants..one in Hong Kong..one in Taiwain. The Taiwain disks are still not that good of quality..however, they are better then the Hong Kong produced long..tens. I will be posting my NeroCd and KProbe results with these disks soon.

As far as the entire 'burn speed' issue goes. The problem is that even @2x you aren't getting good burns much of the time. That's why the burners aren't burning @4x to begin with. Burning at a faster speed will only increase the chance for issues. But even IF the results were good burning 4x media @2x...why would anyone in their right mind purchase 4x media to burn @2x? For all that, purchase the variety of 1x disks out there which burn @2x and are of excellent quality.

Anyway, when you see the results for NeroCD speed....on the older long..tens...you'll see what i'm saying. Actually, I believe you have your own results...but mine were much worse. The old "long..tens" are the worst disks i've ever used...playback issues, sense issues...all kinds of burn issues. They not only had the worst KProbe and NeroCd results...they had the worst results by FAR.

But hopefully the newer formula is better...still have more testing to do....I've had mixed results burning 4.36 GB's onto the disks....but I should have three different forumula's of the long..tens tested by Friday.