Did 9.4 GB Media just go out of production??

[Neishaverse]

I have been searching for dual sided DVD-Rs for a very long time now with no luck. Primedisc's are always out of stock or listed as "Out of stock untill July" on most of the online stores. News flash! It's August and still no signs of them. Verbatim 9.4s are very hard to find also, unless you want to spend more then what they are worth. I don't think I would ever buy the Pioneer's. I can get 10 DVD-Rs for what 1 dual sided Pioneer costs.

So I wonder, have the lesser priced 9.4 GB discs gone away forever, or are they still comming back again.

Barney

[mdubnik]

I don't think they have necessarily gone away, and I don't think they are really in need of a comeback tour...

The dual sided discs have not caught on in popularity like the single sided, and you actually pointed out why...they are too durn expensive. We the people, being big on intellect and small on cash payments, have realized that there is no reason for us to buy dual sided discs. They have quite a few drawbacks, such as:

High cost
High risk of being scratched
No writing surface
Low availability

As always this is just a personal opinion, but I don't think they are feasible for the majority of the marketplace at this point in time, especially with the rapidly declining costs of DVD-/+R and the proliferation of such technological discussions such as the ones this site encourages.

[mkelley]

Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would want a dual sided DVDR -- what's the point? I suppose if you are just the sort who *has* to only carry around one disk with you... but unless you are actually carrying these things around they hold zero advantages over two DVDRs and many disadvantages (and the previous poster didn't even list the worst one -- with two separate DVDs you can play them in a multi-disk player without leaving your armchair to flip a disk over).

They are a technology whose time has gone.

[poopyhead]

even with dual-sided DVD-Rs, you will still need to get up off your arse and flip the DVD over...so, it's basically the same as exchanging one DVD-R for another....

-------

since each side is single-layered....it still won't fix the DVD9->DVD5 problem...

-------

i'm guessing that because these DVD10 DVD-Rs are not produced nearly the same amount as DVD5 DVD-Rs...that 2 DVD5 DVD-Rs will always be cheaper than 1 DVD10 DVD-R.

[cocopugg]

Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would want a dual sided DVDR -- what's the point? I suppose if you are just the sort who *has* to only carry around one disk with you... but unless you are actually carrying these things around they hold zero advantages over two DVDRs and many disadvantages (and the previous poster didn't even list the worst one -- with two separate DVDs you can play them in a multi-disk player without leaving your armchair to flip a disk over).

They are a technology whose time has gone.

I beg to differ. I own 2 Sony 300 DVD Jukeboxes. This means that both my jukeboxes can play a total of 600 DVDs. However, I have loaded both my jukeboxes with double-sided DVD-Rs. This means I now have a total of 1,200 movies I can play. Since my player has a FLIP button, I can play whatever side I want, without having to get up and flip the disc. Since my discs always live inside my jukebox, I don't need any DVD cases to be piling up on my shelves, and I don't have to worry about getting fingerprints on my discs or them getting scratched. Because my jukebox can label each disc on screen, I can simply look at the screen and know what titles are on each disc. Because there are now many programs that allow you to shrink a DVD-9 to fit onto a DVD-R, while retaining excellent quality, I can now back up all my DVD-9 movies and actually put 2 or more titles on each double-sided DVD-Rs. Tell me again double-sided DVD-Rs are a technology whose time has gone.

[Bob W]

Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would want a dual sided DVDR -- what's the point? I suppose if you are just the sort who *has* to only carry around one disk with you... but unless you are actually carrying these things around they hold zero advantages over two DVDRs and many disadvantages (and the previous poster didn't even list the worst one -- with two separate DVDs you can play them in a multi-disk player without leaving your armchair to flip a disk over).

They are a technology whose time has gone.

I beg to differ. I own 2 Sony 300 DVD Jukeboxes. This means that both my jukeboxes can play a total of 600 DVDs. However, I have loaded both my jukeboxes with double-sided DVD-Rs. This means I now have a total of 1,200 movies I can play. Since my player has a FLIP button, I can play whatever side I want, without having to get up and flip the disc. Since my discs always live inside my jukebox, I don't need any DVD cases to be piling up on my shelves, and I don't have to worry about getting fingerprints on my discs or them getting scratched. Because my jukebox can label each disc on screen, I can simply look at the screen and know what titles are on each disc. Because there are now many programs that allow you to shrink a DVD-9 to fit onto a DVD-R, while retaining excellent quality, I can now back up all my DVD-9 movies and actually put 2 or more titles on each double-sided DVD-Rs. Tell me again double-sided DVD-Rs are a technology whose time has gone.

Does this Sony JuteBox thing play both DVD-R and DVD+R media? Is it a progressive scan player? I may want to get one of these myself.

BTW you can buy double sided media here.
http://store.yahoo.com/meritline/dvblanmed94d.html

[bartman]

Wow....$699 for 50 dual sided DVD-r's....to fill your two players will cost you nearly $8400

Although if you have two 300 disc DVD jukebox thingy's that can flip DVD-10's you probably have that kind of cash as well

[mkelley]

Nope, this is completely worthless technology.

At the very best it's a niche market -- you may be one of only two people in the *world* who can use double sided DVDR -- and that doesn't make it something that should stay around.

But if you have $10K to play with there are *lots* better ways to accomplish the same thing -- a pretty nice disk array could be assembled so there would be zero access time and you wouldn't have to waste any time burning DVDs at all. You may or may not have to assemble a SAN but nowadays that's no big deal. I do believe there are at least two or three people on this board who are doing this very thing, so it's definitely viable. With disk technology and density improving all the time it's a *much* better solution than 600 online DVDs.

[cocopugg]

"Does this Sony JukeBox thing play both DVD-R and DVD+R media? Is it a progressive scan player? I may want to get one of these myself. "

Hi Bob W. To answer your question, yes, this Jukebox player plays DVD-R/RW, as well as DVD+R/RW. I know because I have tested the player with all 4 different formats and they all play perfectly. It is also has Progressive scan output. It is a Sony and the model number of the unit is: DVP-CX875P. Here is a link where you can read about it: http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-LjnjGYD6GwF/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=6&g=54500&I=158DVP...=0&cc=01&avf=N

I bought both units for around $399 each but if you look around online, you may find it for an even cheaper price. I recently saw a newer model from Sony that is even cheaper, that holds 401 discs, so the technology is constantly improving and getting less expensive as well.

As for others' comments, let me just say that I am not rich. In fact I have been disabled for quite some time and am living on a fixed income.
I don't know where $699 for 50 discs came from because after shopping around online and finding the cheapest price, I paid about $200 for 100 of the Ritek "Primedisc" double-sided discs every time I bought a set of 100s. I have yet to burn a coaster, this is probably the best quality of double-sided discs available, and also the cheapest in cost. I doubt that I am one of only 2 people in the world burning to double-sided DVD-Rs, or else they wouldn't keep producing them But even if that were true, and they stopped making double-sided DVD-Rs, I would no longer care because I have filled both my players with every movie and TV show I will ever want to watch. Being an old timer, I don't really care much for today's movies or TV shows, so I would say every movie and TV show that I want to watch now live in my jukebox. I estimate the total cost of this hobby was about $2,000. I know this doesn't include my PC burner, but that was a gift from my son. I know technology continues to strive and eventually people will be burning to HDTV DVDs, and making fun of regular DVDs, just as today VHS is outdated. That's fine, I'll let others enjoy the technological revolution, as for me, I'm more than happy to have my favorite movies and TV shows living in my players

[arcorob]

But again...You are talking a 'niche' market. Yes, you own two DVD jukebox's that these benefit from. Great, gald for you. But I certainly am not going to market to you. I am going to market to the single disk single side market which will account for 90% of my sales.

The next 9.9 percent wil be the multi-disk players.

The next .1 percent will be people who want dual sides and for those I will charge a premium. Then, when I see how low the profitablity is I will eventually cut the product line altogether.

Its not about bells and whistles. Its about profit.....

[cocopugg]

"The next 9.9 percent wil be the multi-disk players.

The next .1 percent will be people who want dual sides and for those I will charge a premium. Then, when I see how low the profitablity is I will eventually cut the product line altogether.

Its not about bells and whistles. Its about profit....."



Looking around the net for prices, I see some single-sided DVD-Rs selling for as much as $1.50 per disc or $3.00 for 2. Oh well, I suppose you are right about the marketing though, most people don't see the benefits of not having to clutter their shelves with discs, instead choosing to let them live in their machines like a library. As for me, I guess I would rather pay $2 for a great quality Ritek double-sided Primedisc, instead of $1.50 for a named brand single-sided, but more importantly, I like the freedom of knowing where my entire collection is at all time, and not worrying whether I lost some discs somewhere. I love saving space. Perhaps someday someone will be able to squeeze all my 1,200 discs onto 1 new disk format. Wouldn't that be great?

[arcorob]

You've got that right ! I envision a self-powered rom type storage, you load the data in like a microdrive and it will hold a picobyte of data...All on a chip the size of a postage stamp.

We'll call them chipits ....

Can you see it ? Hey, I just bought the movies from the 80's chipit...awesome, every movie ever made in the 80's...Including directors commentary for Someky and the Bandit II ...LOL

[Bob W]

On the subject of doubled sided discs. I seem to remember someone here saying they had actually taken two DVDR discs and glued them back to back to make a double sided disc. Anyone ever try that?

[normando]

I found these DupEZ double siders for $2 each at www.rima.com:

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=1621-5...tegory_Code=GU

It says they are in stock.