Fuji Branded 8x DVD-R (ID = FUJIFILM03) - Literally STINKERS

[OneSickPup]

My wife dumped a weekend project on me about a month ago where I had to burn 60+ dvd's for student video contest entries. The school was basically out of media and all I had on hand at home was about that number of my beloved TYG02's and Yuden000T02's which i didn't really want to part with. I saw a Sunday paper BestBuy ad for 100 count cakebox's of Fuji 8x on sale. Ran to my local store and as luck would have it - not a MIJ box to be found. Bought a MIT box thinking it would be Prodisc and not worrying too much as all this material is easily recreateable, short-term longevity, limited plays before being discarded and the bulk of the burns don't exceed 1.5gb. They id'd as FUJIFILM03 which I have no experience with. Completed all 65 burns with no coasters and after 4 weeks have had no returns or reports of bad media. My wife had several students test play all dvd's and no problems found - EXCEPT these things SMELL AWFUL. What is up with that??? One of her students testing these things (in a small closed off area) complained of dizziness, headache and nausea after an hour of testing. I remembered the things having an unusual smell when I burned them but just thought nothing of it at the time. Went back to the cakebox where the 35 remaining disk are and sure enough these things still stink to high heaven.

I'm not saying these things are a Bio-hazard, but if you have a weak stomach you may want to avoid these blanks...

[INFRATOM]

maybe the didn't get a chance to dry off leave it in open air see if the smell goes away. If some chemical doesn't smell good it is hazardous one way or another . On MIJ Bestbuy's sale on Thanksgiving Friday was all MIJ for +R 50 packs this time was only MIT. I could only find 2 of them by going to 2 bestbuys. The cake box looks different too.

[lordsmurf]

I've experienced this on both DVD and VHS in the past. The plastics are not good is the issue, often they'd smell like oil/gasoline because they contain an oil by-product of some sort. I think the last discs I had that smelled funny were RITEK discs, back in the RITEKG04 days. I really don't remember what discs they were. I didn't think much of it. I may have posted about it, then again, maybe not.

I just did a forum seach, and it looks like we're not alone. A lot of people have had funny smelling media in the past, from various makers.

[zod5000]

yah i had a few batches of ritekg04's back in the day that smelled really really bad. so i just put the spindle lid on when i wasn't using them.. kept the smell down (of couse since i bought them in boxoes i just used left over spindles from cd's).

the discs still play fine, so i always figured it was a result of whatever process they were using.

[ROBERT BLACK]

i just picked up a spindle of these FujiFilm03 on sale at Futureshop. The guy above is correct. They smell BAD. The reports have been quite mixed with this media code. I was hoping to get more Prodisc F01. This doesn't seem to be the case any more.


Question: Who the hell makes these? They are Taiwanese discs, but as I've had 98% very good experience with Prodisc these leave a bit of a question mark.

[Gen-An]

Prodisc makes FujiFilm03 for the most part. As far as I cna tell, there is little difference between Fujifilm03 and ProdiscF01 as the F01s use a dye develped by Fuji.

[ROBERT BLACK]

According to Lord Smurf's site FujiFilm media(I assume this means FujiFilm03 as well) is worse than Prodisc. It's ranked just below Riteks. NOT good.

[Super Warrior]

Heh i've experienced smelly media for quite awhile now with Ritek the only DVD±R brand i buy.

However its not a bad smell at all, but rather they usually smell like pancakes strangely enough. Mmmm pancakes with syrup! :P

[ROBERT BLACK]

Well, I've had several of these stinky FUJIFILM03s error out on me tonight. All from a 25 pack. Definitely NOT the same quality as the Prodisc F01s. I have the latest firmware installed, and no changes to my burning apps.(Nero 6.6,Record Now 7.1) Too bad. Quality media is getting seriously tough to find at a good price. And when you do it's sold out.

[Mawdryn]

I remember reading a pretty funny thread here about a year and a half ago, where people were trying to describe the smell of various disks that they had. At the time, I had a particularly stinky 100-pack of Ritek 4x DVD +Rs. I can't really describe the smell - it's like nothing else I know. I guess the closest thing I could think of was formaldehyde - that stuff from biology class that they used to preserve all the dead animal specimens. Nasty stuff. I've had other smelly ones over the years, but nothing like that one pack. The disks all burned fine and are (thankfully) long gone.

[FulciLives]

I remember reading a pretty funny thread here about a year and a half ago, where people were trying to describe the smell of various disks that they had. At the time, I had a particularly stinky 100-pack of Ritek 4x DVD +Rs. I can't really describe the smell - it's like nothing else I know. I guess the closest thing I could think of was formaldehyde - that stuff from biology class that they used to preserve all the dead animal specimens. Nasty stuff. I've had other smelly ones over the years, but nothing like that one pack. The disks all burned fine and are (thankfully) long gone.

I remember that thread ... as I recall it seems that Ritek was the brand most talked about and that most thought it smelled something like maple syrup LOL

I bet doing a search on maple syrup will bring that thread up

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ROBERT BLACK]

I've had two more error out on me since my last post. These FUJIFILM03s are ending up worse than any 4th class media. I burned a Daxon016s disc with no problems immediately after. My Burner is a Pioneer 105 with the latest firmware.