Blank Media sales for week of 8/10/03 - 8/16/03

[orbital517]

Does anyone know of any good sales for this week?

All I've seen is CompUSA 10 pack for 9.99

Are there any others? Post here.

[orbital517]

Or has anyone used or heard of HQ disks that are being sold at Meritline.com??? They are 4X disks and only $89.00 for a 100 pack. That's only .89 each!!!!! I'm thinking about it, but would like to know if anyone here has used them or know anything about who manufactors them.

Here's a link:

http://www.meritline.com/hq-dvd-r-4x-dvdr.html

[dafoe]

Notice the lack of the term "Certified 4x". Meritline is notorious for using deceptive practices like this.

As long as they can get one out of the 100 to burn at 4x they can legally call them 4x discs.

I would stay away from these discs. Or at the very least buy a 25 pack for testing- not a 100 pack.

Good Luck

[orbital517]

I was thinking about ordering the 25 pack first also. I'm not only concerned about the speed of the burn, but also disk quality. Like does the disk burn over 4gb without problems or are they like the princo disks that are horrible over 4gb. Has anyone used these disks yet?

[defense]

@orbital, you might want to check this link out. It is for yesbuy and they are selling both DVD-R and DVD+R media @4x for a very low price. The DVD-R disks are .82 cents a piece, and the DVD+R's are .88 cents a piece.

I have never tried any generic DVD+R disks...but all of the generic DVD-R 4x disks i've used simply aren't legit 4x disks. As dafoe said....these online sites can sell the disks as 4x because they may burn a very small amount @4x or they will burn @4x in like 1 out of 12 DVD burners. And even then, the 4x burns aren't consistent. Another problem is that because they aren't true 4x disks, even if you burn them @4x occasionally..that will increase your chances of disk errors. All sites do this and shop4tech is more notorious with this practice...but meritline does it as well.

Anyway, with that being said, if you are looking for inexpensive disks..the best way to go would probably be yesbuy. And even better would probably be to spend the extra .6 cents and go with the +R disks. I'd be willing to bet the 4x DVD-R's just won't burn at 4x consistently....so for that you mine as well get the cheapest 1x disks you can find. But I haven't seen too many generic DVD+R 4x disks....so MAYBE they will burn @4x. I posted about this and noone seems to have tried them here yet...so who knows what the manufacturer ID of the "SKY" disks are.

If I didn't have plenty of media on hand right now...i'd purchase 25 of the +R SKY 4X DISKS...but if you or anyone else purchases them...please keep us posted on the results.

Here's the link:

http://www.yesbuy.net/4xdvdr200pcs1.html

[orbital517]

Thanks for the input defense. I'll keep you posted on whichever I choose to go with. I'm definitely buying only a 25 pack first to try out though.

[defense]

Thanks for the input defense. I'll keep you posted on whichever I choose to go with. I'm definitely buying only a 25 pack first to try out though.

No prob...if you have a multi-format burner..and are only buying a 25 pack...I think those 4x +R's are your best bet. The reason is becuase all the generic 4x DVD-R's to this point have yielded the same results...not just for me...but for anybody that has used them.

I'm not saying that the +R's will DEFINITELY be consistent @4x...but the probability would probably be stronger when you consider much of this 4x generic DVD-R media is manufactured by the same company and being sold under a different name from different online sites. Obviously, that isn't the case with the +R 4X media...because it isn't that prevalent.

That's just my advice....you are the one purchasing the media...but also keep in mind for a 25 pack you are only spending an extra $1.50 over the DVD-R's.....either way....we'll look forward to hearing your results.

[mike83wvu]

What I know I have learned from these forums on Media so you guys can tell me whether this is a good deal. Just picked up 3x5pack of Maxell 4x DVD R in Jewel Cases at Office Depot for right around $21 with tax.

[defense]

mike83wvu said:

Just picked up 3x5pack of Maxell 4x DVD R in Jewel Cases at Office Depot for right around $21 with tax.

You sure your got "4X" disks...if so, where does it say 4X? On Office Depot's site, they show the Maxell disks on sale..but they don't show ANY of their "MAXELL" disks being 4x. According to their site, they don't even carry Maxell 4X DVd media. The sale is for 2x DVD-R and 2.4x DVD+R Maxell DVD-R/RW AND +R/RW disks.

So if you are positive you purchased 4x MAXELL DVD-R disks at that price...please advise where they disks say 4x.

[mike83wvu]

These were the only 3 boxes that had 4x on them. The rest were as u stated. They are at home, be happy to take a pic with my digital camera & send it to you. Looked for a box similar online & could find no pics of the exact kind I bought but again definetly 4x on the box. Thought I read where all Maxell's were made in Japan, these did say Taiwan.

[defense]

These were the only 3 boxes that had 4x on them. The rest were as u stated. They are at home, be happy to take a pic with my digital camera & send it to you. Looked for a box similar online & could find no pics of the exact kind I bought but again definetly 4x on the box. Thought I read where all Maxell's were made in Japan, these did say Taiwan.

I'm not doubting what you are saying...all i'm saying is that Office Depot's site only shows the sale for MAXELL 2x and 2.4x media.

I'm gonna have to go to my local Office Depot and see what they have there. If they have these 4x disks for that price...that's simply an insane deal. As far as the Maxell disks only being made in Japan. You can't believe what you read on here all the time. Too many people are misinformed and report fallacies. Maxell is ironically the only manufacturer who currently doesn't outsource production of their disks to another company. As a result, they are very strict with the quality and they are some of the best disks out there. If Maxell didn't do this..then i'd think there's a good chance that the disks manufactured in Japan are of a higher quality then in Taiwain...but not with Maxell.

You think you could report the media code of those 4x disks through DVDInfo? They should absolutely say MXL...but i'd like to see the entire media code of those 4x disks if you wouldn't mind.

Thanks

[mike83wvu]

No problem.I am just learning so just wanted to make sure you knew what I was seeing. Looking at them now. Maxell DVD + R up to 4X with a little yellow sticker " Please read warning statement before use". Warning is on back & relates to 2.4 burners. Not familiar with the DVD info , downloading it now.

OK..that was easy, under complete media code here is was it says

00000000 08 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
00000020 30 31 02 38 23 54 37 09 00 3C 67 00 AC 62 16 18 01.8#T7..<g..b..
00000030 0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

[defense]

oh, you purchased Maxell DVD + R disks. Interesting...the article from Maxell clearly said they produce their own disks, however, they must of been referring to DVD-R's. Ricoh has an extremely large client list for their DVD+R's which include but aren't limited to Memorex, TDK, Verbatim, Sony, and now Maxell.


Well, Ricoh produces extremely high quality media...and it seems like they produce most of the 4X media for the above mentioned manufacturers. Interesting to say the least and an excellent deal you got. It's the second best deal to date. A coulple of weeks ago, the same ricoh manufactured disks under the "MEMOREX" name were being sold for $1.20 a piece. So that deal was better then yours...but not by more then .13 cents a disk. You got a great deal.

[mike83wvu]

Thanks for the information . Just got notified from Best Buy that this backorder{ Memorex-25-Pack 4x DVD+R Spindle-32025571} is being completed , total was $32.76. So you are you telling me these are the same as the Maxell? Will run what you showed me when I get these in.

[defense]

yea, those Memorex DVD+R disks are from the same manufacturer and of great quality too. Just make sure you ordered the DVD+R and not the DVD-R Memorex disks. The -R's are CMC manufactured and have many negative issues.

[mike83wvu]

all i'm saying is that Office Depot's site only shows the sale for MAXELL 2x and 2.4x media.

BTW..The girl who checked me out was not too bright. I just told her I got one free. Never occurred to me that I might actually be buying the wrong Maxell buy 2 get one free deal but the correct price for each pack was $9.93.

[defense]

BTW..The girl who checked me out was not too bright.

What a shocker that is You should of told her to hold on while you went and grabbed that $2,500 3ghz hyper threading Computer...then tell her that was free with the DVD's too. It wouldn't surprise me if she rang it up free for you.

If the prices of the 4X DVD's rang up as $9.93, then you were entitled to that 3rd pack free, because that was the sale price. The retail price is about $20 per 5 pack.

[obiron]

Just got the 4x Maxell +R yesterday from Office Depot. The advertised media was 2.4x. I was prepared to get 3 of the 2.4x even though I wanted 4x. I didn't even know they made 4x. When I got there they only had 2 boxes of the +R on the shelf. The -R side looked like no one had bought any. I asked if they had another in stock. The sale person found a couple of boxes and opened one for me. The box contained 2 different packages. The 2.4x as advertised and another one that had a funky red, white, blue wrapper. It turns out these were 4x media or at least were labeled as 4x. I pointed this out and the clerk told me they were the same price. So I put the 2 2.4x packages back and got 3 of the 4x and I got them for about $21 with tax.

I burned one when I got home. I used DVDInfo to check the media code but it was blank. . The project burned ok as far as I can tell and about the same amount of time as the memorex 4x media I have. Don't know what the blank media code means but I'm happy with these discs.

[pfloor]

Bestbuy has a sale on Memorex 4X DVD+R at $1.40 each ($35 for 25). Online wharehouse is out but my local store has some.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051826237124&skuId=5403654&type=product&pr...oryId=cat01163

Best price around my city for "brand name" DVD's.

[BALLIN]

anyone know anything about the X-Treme DVD-R media from all media outlet?

They have a sale on them at absolutely the best price around for 4x dvd-r!!! The price is 85 cents each for a 100 pack!!!

heres the link:
http://www.allmediaoutlet.com/Xtreme.html

[-jsl-]

I burned one when I got home. I used DVDInfo to check the media code but it was blank. . The project burned ok as far as I can tell and about the same amount of time as the memorex 4x media I have. Don't know what the blank media code means but I'm happy with these discs.

I doubt your Maxell media have a blank media code. Their 4x DVD+R media should have code "RICOHJPNR01" or "MAXELL..001". Did you check the media code after you burnt the disc? Because few DVD+R/RW writers (only Sony's and Ricoh's) can check the media code on blank DVD+R/RW media.

[obiron]

jsl,

Thanks for the input; I just found the DVDInfo Discussion area where nicw explained nicely about the media code issues with +R/RW media. I must have tried DVDInfo on blank media; I just retried on a burned disc and the media code shows up as:

Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01

Regardless, I'm still happy with these discs.