DVD writers and writable media in Japan

[Kennyshin]

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20020525/price.html

DVD+RW drive such as Ricoh MP5120A - Under 30,000 Yen

DVD+R/+RW drive such as Ricoh MP5125A - 40,000 Yen +- 100 to 200

DVD-RAM drive that can write to 9.4GB media - Under 20,000 Yen

DVD+RW media - Around 1,000 Yen

DVD+R media - 5 discs for 2,850, that is, 570 Yen per disc

DVD-R media - 4.7GB Princo as low as under 300 Yen

DVD-RAM media - 9.4GB as low as 1,159 Yen, Some of the cheap DVD-RAM from Prodisc of Taiwan

[resnullius]

well the prices of the dvd-r aren't bad... but not incredible. same with most of those prices.

[Kennyshin]

well the prices of the dvd-r aren't bad... but not incredible. same with most of those prices.

Japanese people do not record as much as North Americans and Europeans do. You know, it's their culture. Same here in Korea, people spend less on media and software than drives and hardware.

Ricoh and Pioneer DVD writers are cheaper in Japan than anywhere in the world. Both DVD-R/-RW and DVD+R/+RW discs are relatively expensive in Japan.

DVD-R costed over 500 Yen and DVD+R around 1,000 Yen two months ago.

As Japanese DVD writer manufacturers transfer more facilities to mainland China and build new factories only in China, it is likely that US prices will become cheaper than Japan prices by the end of this summer. Taiwanese manufacturers such as Benq (former Acer CM) and LiteOn will soon produce millions of DVD+R/+RW drives in Shenzhen and other industrial cities in the mainland and the average price of DVD+R/+RW drives will drop under 200 USD - even Ricoh MP5125A and AOpen RW5125A have already been sold under 300 USD in Japan.

I am quoting Japanese prices only because DVD+RW is still very rare in Europe and US - comparatively, I mean.