No more MADE IN JAPAN Dvdr's at Bestbuy?

[yoda313]

I was at Bestbuy this evening looking for extra blanks. I couldn't find any that were "MADE IN JAPAN". Every single brand was MADE IN TAIWAN. What gives??????

The last time I bought a pack of FUJIFILM dvdrs in the spring they were MADE IN JAPAN tayou yuden (spelling???). Now none of them are! Not even the SONY discs.

Anyone else having trouble finding them in US retail stores??? I'd hate to have to pay shipping on discs that I can pick up in a store.

[lordsmurf]

No trouble here.

[BobK]

I was at Bestbuy this evening looking for extra blanks. I couldn't find any that were "MADE IN JAPAN". Every single brand was MADE IN TAIWAN. What gives??????

The last time I bought a pack of FUJIFILM dvdrs in the spring they were MADE IN JAPAN tayou yuden (spelling???). Now none of them are! Not even the SONY discs.

They were just on sale from last Sunday until yesterday. Around here the Made in Japan sells out every time they go on sale (at least they sell out at the 3 Best Buys close enough for me to go to). They always get more in though.

So I'd just check back in a few days or a week.

[yoda313]

Ohh... ok.

Thanks. I was just hoping they weren't phasing them out or something. Thanks for the feedback.

[D.A.R.J.R.]

I have notived this. Its just cheaper for companies to outsource to Taiwan and most consumers(who arent members at videohelp.com) dont care about where the discs are made or what media code they are. It was kinda the same with cdrs at first the "cheap" ones werent the best of quality but now most of them are the same. Sure there are bad ones but because production has been "perfected" even the cheap ones are now of higher quality and it wouldnt make sense to make them in Japan anymore where the prices would be much higher to produce them.

I guess all of us videohelp members will still be buying media online

[negritude]

Made in Japan DVD-R5 is being phased out at the retail level. You're not imagining it. However, you can usually find MIJ DVD+R5 without much trouble, especially Fuji. Also, Sony -R5 50-packs are often MIJ. And of course, Made in Taiwan Verbatim is equivalent to MIJ.

[mazinz]

Check out Sears. They still have older maxell spindel packs with the top burn speed of 4x, however they are all made in Japan, so i snagged them by me.

I too noticed a long time ago that the "made in Japan" disc were virtually near impossible to find in my area

[lumis]

my local office depot has gone so far as to put "MADE IN TAIWAN" stickers over the "MADE IN JAPAN" printing on the spindles.

[budz]

my local office depot has gone so far as to put "MADE IN TAIWAN" stickers over the "MADE IN JAPAN" printing on the spindles.

Yup I've also seen that at WALLY WORLD's!

[lumis]

maybe they got a buncha fake ID taiyo yudens.. because that was the media code on the disc's i bought before the changed the labels..

[lordsmurf]

maybe they got a buncha fake ID taiyo yudens.. because that was the media code on the disc's i bought before the changed the labels..

No. FAKE TY is made in China or Europe and does not get branded as Maxell. Those TY Maxells are official MADE IN JAPAN media.

My hunch on TAIWAN stickers is they overprinted the Japanese paper packaging and wanted to salvage.

[dvdwatch]

You still can find MIJ media here
http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden-dvd-r-media.html

They are MIJ Taiyo Yuden (Japanese only manufactuer) and now I've found the price is even cheaper than MIT media (8x DVD-R $0.299). I've been using them for a while, top notch media.

[ROF]

Made in Japan, Made in Taiwan, Made in bangladesh, what does it matter.

If it's one thing I've learned is to never trust what someone says here about a particular disc or a drive model. They usually are biased or got a solitary "Bad Batch" and have decided to bad mouth all of them. I've had no problems with either Taiwan or Japanese made disc. The only ones I did have trouble with were South American made(I forget the country) and India. The Indian discs slowly died over a matter of years. Japanese and Taiwan disc have been in my collection since the last millenium and still work just as good today as they did over half a decade ago.

If I were to give three tips: Buy your media ignoring country of manufacture, buy it it name branded, and always buy it on sale.

[lordsmurf]

Made in Japan, Made in Taiwan, Made in bangladesh, what does it matter.

If it's one thing I've learned is to never trust what someone says here about a particular disc or a drive model. They usually are biased or got a solitary "Bad Batch" and have decided to bad mouth all of them. I've had no problems with either Taiwan or Japanese made disc. The only ones I did have trouble with were South American made(I forget the country) and India. The Indian discs slowly died over a matter of years. Japanese and Taiwan disc have been in my collection since the last millenium and still work just as good today as they did over half a decade ago.

If I were to give three tips: Buy your media ignoring country of manufacture, buy it it name branded, and always buy it on sale.

This is the most horrible advice I've seen on videohelp in months.
I seriously hope nobody listens to it. Or that you're joking.

Read up about media at www.nomorecoasters.com
Or merely search this forum for myriad information on the topic.

[ROF]

Read it all. Most of my media is Japanese Made, some is Taiwan, but quite a few come from other countries such as countries in Europe. I've never had a single problem with Japanese manufactured discs. Your mileage may vary, but just because someone opposes your viewpoint you call it horrible advice? I could point you to a bad Antec 430W Powersupply I just replaced after 4 months of operation. I have another Antec 430W Powers Supply going on 4 years now. Do I bad mouth Antec? Do I bad mouth their 430W power supplies? Nope, I realize that sometimes it doesn't matter who the company is or where the product is manufactured. Sometimes you get a good one, sometimes you get a bad one. Doesn't matter if it's identical packaging.

[lordsmurf]

You fail to recognize trends and tests. When large numbers of people have issues with a certain media, there are legitimate problems.

"Bad badges" are also largely a myth. That's a poor excuse for a crap product more often than not.

If you have "great success" with media from anywhere, I would suggest you're either not testing it, don't care about glitches, not filling a disc, or simply super lucky.

[ROF]

Data Critical for work Applications use Japanese Discs for the most part. These are also used for reports which fill and span several SL Discs. I have yet to report a problem from a client or myself. I admit I find testing to be tedious for the most part. My testing involves retrieval of info from the discs. When retrieval is sucessful, I call it a good disc. Maybe you measure it differently. It's always good to take advice of others, especially when alot of people have the same issues, but I've learned one thing in life is to trust your own testing and never someone elses. They may be doing things similiar but quite different from you and therefore are achieving inferior results. In most cases, I'd say bad media burns come from fast burns. Everyone knows if you want stability you must not max out your rated media speed and god forbid you try to burn higher than it's rating. That's where most people experience problems in burning. They buy 8x media and expect every disc in the batch to burn correctly at 8x. Try slowing it down. I'll bet those japanese discs will work 100% better by doing so.

[Gen-An]

If optical media can't burn reliably at its rated speed, either the drive has problems or the media is bad. Japanese discs work fine in good burners at their rated speed, and at times even above it.

[jdizzy40]

Let's hope someday there will be no more "Crap Buy" stores.

[ROF]

Let's hope someday there will be no more "Crap Buy" stores.

I agree. Crap stores are bad. Better to visit Best Buy, Staples, Comp USA, or Fry's and buy quality media at dirt cheap prices.

[lordsmurf]

CompUSA is a shit sty of a store. They pretty much only sell low grade media, and their return policy completely blows.

Staples is alright, sells good media.
Best Buy is fine, sells good media.
Fry's can go both ways.

[ROF]

Gotta agree with you on the CompUSA part. If you're in a pinch, you can sometimes find a good deal there though. Staples has been one of the most reliable local stores for purchased media. Their DL media is quite pricey though.

[Gen-An]

CompUSA is the only retailer I know of that carries TDK-branded TYG02, though now they probably have switched to the 16x TDK media.

[Wile_E]

Let's hope someday there will be no more "Crap Buy" stores.

I agree. Crap stores are bad. Better to visit Best Buy, Staples, Comp USA, or Fry's and buy quality media at dirt cheap prices.

Here's hoping Fry's goes along with them. I don't see what everyone sees in Fry's. You mention the name, and everyone goes crazy. It's a very overrated store that treats people like cattle. They have a stall you have to walk thru to get to the damn cash registers. Then you have to wait until someone tells you which register to use. Very bad way of treating people IMO. Fry's stores are just too damn big too. Fry's has a lot of unbranded cheaply made generic stuff like there cables and stuff. Yuck. CompUSA IMO is a much better store. Media may suck, and prices may be a little higher, but at least I can go grab what I want and be out in 10 minutes.

For media, I previously bought Memorex or anything cheap. That was a big mistake. I put a lot of discs in storage(mostly backed-up games/dvd backups). A lot of Memorex MIT went bad with C2 errors. These discs were all tested before storage and showed no C2 errors. Dye type is very important if you want to archive stuff. Who wants to lose digital pictures or other important data? Now I only buy MIJ TY, Maxell MIJ or discs with better dye. But even this may not last 10 years in storage. If I can't get it in Retail, I'll start buying online.

Disc Manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for distrubuting crap media. People in the future are going to look back on the technology and laugh at the crap media we had to use! I want discs for archival purposes that can last 20+ years in storage without decomposing! Maybe someone should make a portable disc pressing machine for the consumer to press their own high-quality discs. I have pressed CD's that are over 20 years old, and they are still good.

[ROF]

Fry's has a lot of unbranded cheaply made generic stuff like there cables and stuff. Yuck.

CompUSA IMO is a much better store. Media may suck, and prices may be a little higher, but at least I can go grab what I want and be out in 10 minutes.

My local CompUSA treats people just like you say Fry's does. At least Fry's has competent sales people when compared to CompUSA. They are huge and the unbranded stuff is both good and bad. You need to know what to look for when it comes to quality. Some people pick up cabling by name, feel how heavy it is, quickly look at the connectors, and consider it good enough. It's the quality of the connectors, the quality of the sheaths and the specs on the back which should determine whether you want Belkin or no-name for half the price. I've even seen people looking for blue USB cables and pick up the cheapest they find without looking at quality construction or even turning the package over. I wish we had a Fry's locally. It's quite a drive to them, but everytime I'm nearby I always spend some time looking around.

[davideck]

Here's hoping Fry's goes along with them. I don't see what everyone sees in Fry's.

Best selection. Best prices. Best RETURN POLICY!

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, it's good.
Not comfortable using word "best" though.
Not a store for the clueless, they do sell junk too.

[ROF]

The thing that makes them great is you can return the junk with little worries of having to make a scene or argue loudly about the crap you accidently purchased. Returns are handled in a professional and competent manner with your satisfaction guaranteed.

[bbanderic]

My local Staples has MIJ 8X Sony DVD+R discs, anyone tried these out before? Could they be Taiyo Yuden?

[Bodysurf]

I don't see what everyone sees in Fry's.

Decent (sometimes great) prices, great selection for a B&M, and great return policy.

Also, if you buy "high-end" hardware, like dual processor motherboards + CPUs, their performance guarantees can make a lot of sense.