What the heck happened to Prodisc media?

[maldb]

Several months ago, Prodisc was the toast of the town so I purchased 200 of the Prodisc 8X DVD-R white inkjet hub printables (Media ID is MCC 02RG20). Was extremely happy with them - suffered no coasters, etc. Now I'm getting ready to buy more media and I find that Prodisc quality went down the toilet. What the heck happened?

Now I'm left wondering whether I should go with the Ritek 8X white inkjet hub printables - they're $48/100 at Rima. Is that a good price? I use a Pioneer DVR-108 1.10 (upgrading to 1.18).

So what's the story with Prodisc? Are they now untouchable?

[lordsmurf]

It's just the INKJET F01 that seems to be bad.
None of the others. All others are fine.

[samijubal]

I use Prodisc S03s every day, no problems ever.

[johns0]

I bought the inkjet white top prodisc r03 dvd+r and they burned real crappy near the last 200 mbs so i returned the remaining 91 discs to blankmedia.com who tested one disc with a simple read error test with dvdinfopro and said no errors found so i had to pay shipping.

[zanos]

I have four 50 spindles that are almost all bad! I would consider Taiyo Yuden. Problem is they're practically twice as much! Right now I have no choice but to continue taking my chances with prodisc. Ritek is more expensive for no particular reason and I don't think they're more reliable either.

[stiltman]

It's just the INKJET F01 that seems to be bad.
None of the others. All others are fine.

I'm burning coasters right and left with the S04 ink jets

[DVDDave]

i too was in love with Prodisc when it was MCC, this new F01 stuff is as bad as CMC. i have tried the Ritek G05 printables and they seem to hold thier own--just don't burn any faster than the rated speed and you should be fine with the Riteks.

[lordsmurf]

The Fuji F01 media is still fine.
Again, it appears to just be inkjet 8x media.

[stiltman]

The Fuji F01 media is still fine.
Again, it appears to just be inkjet 8x media.

S04 was first sold as 8x, but after problems with Pioneer drives, they started selling it as 4x media...

I was a loyal Prodisc fan, until I burned more coasters in one day than I did in the past year, all on S04s

[lordsmurf]

I was scared to use F01 and S04 with all this, but at 4x on my 4x burners, no problems whatsoever.

[stiltman]

I was scared to use F01 and S04 with all this, but at 4x on my 4x burners, no problems whatsoever.

Guess I just got a bad batch of 2 spindals.

BTW, I tried them on my new BTC/Emprex at both 8x and 4x, 2 good burns out of 10. Both good burns happened to be at 8x, go figure

I'm gonna try Ritek hub inkjet next, if they fail, I'll go to TY's
Luckily though, I finished my X-mas projects and have 1 spindal of S03s left along with 1 of my most favorite, Ritek orange landscapes.

[lordsmurf]

BTC and TY are not friends. Beware.

[stiltman]

BTC and TY are not friends. Beware.

Thanks for the heads up!
Really just got the driver to replace my failing ROM. Still use my 106 for most everything, but I thought I'd give it a chance (Emprex) on my bad batch of S04s.

[chas0039]

You know, for once, I made a bulk purchase and I didn't get stung. I bought a lifetime supply of S03s at 32 cents each and I feel better about it every day. On my 3500 all the burns are in the teens (PI). I barely even need to scan anymore. I certainly hope they work this out for the future.

[samijubal]

Rima still has S03s in the non-printables last I knew, bought a box of them about 3 weeks ago.

[freestyler]

You know, for once, I made a bulk purchase and I didn't get stung. I bought a lifetime supply of S03s at 32 cents each and I feel better about it every day. On my 3500 all the burns are in the teens (PI). I barely even need to scan anymore. I certainly hope they work this out for the future.

Lifetime supply?

[accountwiz]

By way of update to a different thread, I wound up wih 200 Prodisc F01 during the Staples Memorex sale. They burn and playback beautifully...35 out of 35 so far.

I think the issues with Prodisc F01 seem largely confined to the inkjet printables, as LordSmurf suggested.

[chas0039]

You know, for once, I made a bulk purchase and I didn't get stung. I bought a lifetime supply of S03s at 32 cents each and I feel better about it every day. On my 3500 all the burns are in the teens (PI). I barely even need to scan anymore. I certainly hope they work this out for the future.

Lifetime supply?

Lifetime of my burner.

[ringer]

I also had problems with Prodisk (MCC 02RG20) hub printables as well as Ritek G05 hub printables. They burned and verified sucessfully on my burner using either Nero or DVD Decryptor, but none of them would play on my Phillips standalone player. Some of the discs would experience heavy pixelation, stuttering and freezing. Some would not play at all.
I solved that problem by actually printing an image on the discs. I'm guessing that it affects the reflectivity of the discs. In any case, they all play flawlessly now on my standalone player.

I hope this is helpful to those having problems with printable media.

Cheers

[VamPYR]

recently got 500 prodisc F01 silver printable from rima,
burn 8x using pioneer dvr-108 (FW:1.18) over 100 now, no problem at all,
but NOT at 4x.
burn at pioneer dvr-107 (FW:1.21) 4X play flawless, but NOT at 8X.
strange result for this prodisc F01.

[cal_tony]

Bought some Prodiscs ,matte finish, for the first time they came from Supermedia and arrived in a blue shrink wrap with no physical identification other than saying they were DVD 4.7 GB. They will burn @ 8x sometimes but some will have dark little circles (causing a coaster). They will burn at 4x with good results in Kprobe and CD speed. So I'm happy with them. What I was wondering was, how can I really tell what kind of disks these are?
They have a printed # 4061E3713-02838B09 on the ring and show up with CD speed as Verbatim MCC01RG20. Are the codes always accurate or do some companies pirate these?
Mostly I use Ricohjpnro1. Never had a problem with these burning at 4x or 8x. All the Ricoh disks I've bought from different places have the Ricoh or Ridata name stamped on them as well as having their name on the shrink wrap. If I do have a problem with these disks at least I'm fairly sure who made them.
Am I overly suspicious or are the codes always accurate?

[chas0039]

Bought some Prodiscs ,matte finish, for the first time they came from Supermedia and arrived in a blue shrink wrap with no physical identification other than saying they were DVD 4.7 GB. They will burn @ 8x sometimes but some will have dark little circles (causing a coaster). They will burn at 4x with good results.
They have a printed # 4061E3713-02838B09 on the ring and show up with CD speed as Verbatim MCC01RG20. .
Am I overly suspicious or are the codes always accurate?

I can't speak to fakes of this code but what you have there are 4X media which is why you have problems with 8X. Another media's ability to burn at 8X when it is a 4X media is not generalizable. Most with these have reported good results. You might try scanning the disc if your burner supports it.

[lordsmurf]

The codes are NOT fake. Let's not start a false rumor. Prodisc has confirmed they have a relationship with MCC that allowed them the usage of the MCC media ID.

Those are 4x discs. Overburning will often yield bad results.

[cal_tony]

I don't want to start any rumors and I did know that the 1RG20'S were 4x. My only response to the prodisc question was that devoid of any other I.D. are the disk codes always accurate?. It's just that a while ago I used some 8x MATRIX disks and they were coded as Ty's. As for the overclocking of the 4x disks, except for the few that did not write without the circles, the rest gave the same burn results in Kprobe whether burned at 4x 6x or 8x.

[ajrecs]

Been following this with some interest. I just unwrapped the first of four 50 DVD spindles of Prodisc 4x (MCC01RG20) and have successfully produced enough coasters for my wife's next party. I had nothing but success with Prodisc before, but these just don't seem to work. Waiting for a response from Supermediastore, but suspect Sam's Club will be my next source. Thoughts?

[samijubal]

Get the 1631s from Rima, they are S03s and burn fine. I've done well over 1000 of them, I've never had a coaster.

[chas0039]

I don't want to start any rumors and I did know that the 1RG20'S were 4x. My only response to the prodisc question was that devoid of any other I.D. are the disk codes always accurate?. It's just that a while ago I used some 8x MATRIX disks and they were coded as Ty's..

The Matrix discs, from shop4tech as I recall, are sold as house brand not as TY and so there is no misrepresentation unless one really thinks that they are real TY for a crap disc price. If you deal with honest dealers then you will get what you pay for, especially when they are a TY distributor. I suppose someone could fake an ID other than TY but it would be like counterfeiting one dollar bills. Go for the big bucks as long as you are spending all the time and money. I have not seen any of the dealers used here by most of the posters, accused of selling fakes represented as something else. I have seen a ton of this on ebay. Your source is your best defense.

[freestyler]

Get the 1631s from Rima, they are S03s and burn fine. I've done well over 1000 of them, I've never had a coaster.

When's the last time you ordered some 1631s Samijubal? Were they in a blue wrapper?

I've been happy with my matte-top 1632 MCC. They seem to burn better than the blue-wrapped S03s I had before. The top is more resistant to fingerprints and scratches too - less cleaning.

[maldb]

Well, thanks for all of the replies. It seems some of you went off-course with your responses as I was soley asking about 8X white printables. I guess I can pretty much forget about Prodisc for now. I'm going with the Riteks.

[Bodyslide]

I ordered 300 of the prodisc's from www.rima.com before Christmas and received the S04. So far after almost 200 burns at 8X. No coasters.