Futureshop cheap discs: Cicero and E3. What are they?

[oldfart13]

I don't see the Cicero discs listed here, so I have no idea what they are. I see the E3 Works discs are also on sale this week at 100/$80CAD but the cake boxes listed at the site here are the 25 box and not the 50s that FS tends to sell (2 pack). So, what are these discs and how reliable are they?

[ROBERT BLACK]

The Eworks discs are AN32 media.(Sky brand) Good for some drives. Pioneers especially. But have been known to go coastercity on a few burners like Sonys. I've burned them to 4.4 Gigs and have yet to encounter any real playback issues. But ask me again in 6 months. If they play problem free then, that will be the real test.


The Cicero brand I was wondering about as well. I couldn't get a straight answer from even the FS manager. They're probably CMC.

[oldfart13]

E3 -R are Leaddata01 and work flawlessly in my Panasonic E80H and Pioneer A05. I use them for non essential and throw-away recordings (sports, news spots, movies). Works just fine...

[kiki]

I just picked up a hundred pack of e3works from futureshop. I was expecting an32 media. That is what the 25 packs were.
They turn out to be AML. Reviews here are mixed on this media.
My nec 2500a seems to like them just fine, but, the nec 2500
seems to like everything I have thrown at it. Even princo.
Media scan with dvdinfopro has shown flawless with the first ten disks.
Eighty cents a disk and they seem to work. In canada that's a miracle.

Best of luck

kiki

[ROBERT BLACK]

The 10 pack I bought were AN32s. I just naturally assumed the 100 packs were as well. But they're still seems to be a discrepancy here. Are the E-3 100 packs Leaddata01 or AML? Or both for different lots?


EDIT: Did a search on these AML coded discs. They sound like total shit. Leaddata discs I've had mixed results on. But some have been okay. I think if I'll be buying E-3, I'll stick with the 10 or 25 packs.

[Scottie]

I bought a 100 pack of the Eworks DVD+R's and I don't like them towards the end of the big movies they skip and freeze, I have 20 left and will only use them for Movies under 4 GB now, I'm pissed because I bought these and won't ever buy them again.

Stick with Memorex and Maxells !!

[Scottie]

Oh I forgot the mention 8 out of the 80 Eworks I used where coasters these are Shiny top with nothing on them,

I used a 25 pack of these with writting on them and they were fine but I was using X copy so the were really small per disc.

and I bought a 10 pack of these slim cases they were complete garbage I still got 4 of them I won't use for movies.


Like I said these seem to be ok for Smaller movies under 4 GB but factory in the coasters, and the fact tthe most movies are bigger then 4 GB Stick with Memorex or Maxells !!

[oldfart13]

The largest movies/TV shows I do fill the discs to 4.3 Gig and I have yet to have one skip or stop unless I FF greater than 8X on my DVD players. The content for most of the discs I do is under 4 Gig, so they work just fine. If you are ripping and copying to fill out the discs, then maybe these aren't the discs for you. In my case, they are perfect for stuff I'm giving away to people anyway, especially movies since most of them are under 4 Gig with my Panasonic E80H set to FR mode...

[ROBERT BLACK]

So no idea what these Cicero discs are? I'll try and investigate further if I have time.

[zod5000]

friend of mine gave me come of the cicero's he bought last week from future shop in Victoria, BC. The media code is:

VDSPMSAB 01

at least thats what dvd decrypter says under manufacturer ID

i looked it up on here and they seemed to be used for alot of manufactures, mostly positive reviews.

however my lg-4040b only burns them at 2x

[zod5000]

oh wait the reviews for that media code are rather mixed. my bad. I guess there not all that great.

btw e3works disks are bad. When i first got my burner in september i bought a 25 pack. about 60 percent of them weren't good enough to play til the end on a few dvd players i tried. I think they do a pretty bad job spreading out the dye.

[oldfart13]

E3 media is like Memorex...they buy lots of whatever is cheapest that week and relabel them as their own. The E3 works 50 packs that are Leaddata01 work just fine for me with no coasters in 40 burns. I just finished a disc of 3 episodes of Stargate SG-1. The Disc is 4.2 Gig according to DVD Author and plays flawlessly right through to the end of the 3rd episode. These are the DVD-R discs. If you are using +R, then things may be different...

[oldfart13]

Also, the Cicero media is REALLY dependent on the burner. People using a lot of low quality or generic name burners with no firmware support seem to report the most problems. Again, your mileage may vary...

[richdvd]

Maxell 25pks -/+ R on sale this week for $29.99 at Futureshop.

[Sam Ontario]

I bought some jewel cased e3Works 4x DVD+R from Future Shop some 2 months ago. They were Prodisc I think. All burnt fine in my PC DVD burners. Only 2 discs burnt by my Philips DVDR75 resulted in coasters. I believed that were due to DVDR75 old firmware did not support this media and some other media like Fujifilm (Taiyo Yuden 5 coasters on my DVDR75). After firmware upgrade, Fujifilm +R recorded OK but I did not try another e3Works +R again.

[richdvd]

The Eworks discs are AN32 media.(Sky brand)

According to Lordsmurf..those (AN32) are 4th Class Landfill material.

[mcorpse]

Two things:

1) The e3works -R 100-pack spindles come in both AN32 and Lead Data media codes. The way to tell between the two is the Lead Data comes in a standard 100 spindle and is visibly unbranded through the transparent top of the package. The AN32s come in a fancy spindle with a flip-handle built into the top. They also can be identified by the fact that they are branded.

2) I deliberately bought the AN32s because I like them very much. They burn quite well with my Sony DRU-530a using 2.0c firmware (at least as far as I can tell without a Kprobe scan - bottom line is, they don't have any noticable playback errors, and scan perfectly with Nero ScanDisc and when being verified with DVD Decryptor) and play quite nicely in my fault-tolerant Apex, my really picky Panasonic, my other not-so-picky Panasonic, and my mother's Philips. The only thing they refuse not to play with is an older DVD-ROM drive owned by a friend, but that could very well be that it isn't much of a fan of DVD-R media in general.

Anyway, the only complaint I have about these discs is that they come horribly filthy. All of them have dust on the write surfaces of the discs, and some of them have very small scratches as a result of sliding around with this dirt underneath them. This isn't really a big deal, though, when you consider that you're getting semi-decent (if you have a good burner) DVD-R media for only 80 cents CDN a piece.

[ROBERT BLACK]

The Eworks discs are AN32 media.(Sky brand)


According to Lordsmurf..those (AN32) are 4th Class Landfill material.

I read that on the Nomorecoasters website, too. Yet, they're probably one of the very few cheap generic brand discs that I have burned problem free, and played on various players without issues a couple months later. Can't say the same for Leaddata or even worse Longten. if you have a Pioneer with the latest firmware , I'd recommend the AN32s. For guaranteed long term(years) data storage or mastering, without question stick to the Maxells.

[oldfart13]

The Leaddata01s I have came in 2 50 pc cakeboxes that were shrink wrapped together. Again, I am using these for "throw away" material like TV shows that are likely to be released on DVD in the near future and old cartoons for friends' kids. If I'm doing something special for people, like family events, etc. I stick to Maxell -Rs. Too bad they haven't been on sale much of late. If they are back down to $29.95/25 then I'll be picking some of them up with that filthy money I won at the casino last night...

[ROBERT BLACK]

If they are back down to $29.95/25 then I'll be picking some of them up with that filthy money I won at the casino last night...

Appropriate. Since you're current post number is 666.

[DTSL06]

:

This isn't really a big deal, though, when you consider that you're getting semi-decent (if you have a good burner) DVD-R media for only 80 cents CDN a piece.

I use the E3 a while back when good media was hard to find at a reasonable price and had mixed results. I am getting prodiscS03 (silver/pearl) printables for 50 @ $40 and RidataG04 (red paq) printables for 50 @ $50 locally (Ottawa) so the E3 are not that great of a deal esp compared to the prodiscs.

[richdvd]

If they are back down to $29.95/25 then I'll be picking some of them up with that filthy money I won at the casino last night...

I just bought a bunch...awesome deal.
They are regular $54.99 for a 25pk.
Yellow tops with MXLRG02 media ID.