4X DVD-R lack of availability in higher end retailers?

[bebrewer1]

Why is it that all of the major retailers right now seem to have tons of DVD+R 4X branded media (TDK, Fuji, etc) on some type of special sale all the time and the retailer expects you to buy 2X DVD-R for the same price minus the sale offer?

Target charges you $44.99 for a 20 pack of TDK DVD+R 4X media and the exact same thing for 2X DVD-R TDK media. Same holds true for Best Buy and others.

Please don't give me that superior format BS either. I'm wondering if there isn't a glut of DVD+R 4X media and the market is softening or is it that 4X DVD-R media is in such high demand that it doesn't find its way to the store shelves of traditional retailers. Thoughts?

[kirpen]

I don't think the large retail stores look at speed but quantity. 20 2x is the same as 20 4x to them.

[defense]

the reason for the amount of sale prices I have already stated several times in other posts. It is one retailer responding to another retailers prices with their own sale. It wasn't conicidental that Best Buy had a sale on TDK media with an INSTANT $60 off just a week after Target started stocking TDK media and selling them for much less then Best Buy. Best Buy could of had a sale on ANY of its media..but chose TDK as a response to say "hey, our price and sale is the absolute BEST on this TDK media."

It's a chain and hopefully it will continue. The retailers have all followed suit from Best Buy to CompUSA, to Sam's Club, to Target, to Office Depot, etc..etc. The ONLINE stores have been the ones to think people are just morons and should buy their higher priced, lower quality, UNSTABLE media.

As far as WHY the 4x media with their sales are the same price if not LOWER then 2x media is because some people don't have a 4x capable burner. Not everyone has the newest Pioneer or Sony burners....and DVD burners have been around for a while. Some have older 2x burners and unfortunately for them, they can't take advantage of the 4x deals. The same holds true for people with "one" format burners.

That Best Buy TDK sale I was referring to took $60 OFF INSTANTLY on the TDK 100 pack spindles of DVD+R 4X MEDIA....but there was NO sale on the TDK 4X DVD-R media. So If a person had ONLY A -R burner during that sale...they couldn't take advantage of it.

Fortuantely, I have a multiformat burner and enjoy all of the sales.

[bebrewer1]

Excluding those who have dual format burners, I'd think that more people have 4X DVD-R burners than 4X DVD+R burners since it is a more mature format, ergo there should be more 4X DVD-R media available in the stores than 4X DVD+R media. Nothing could be farther from the truth as far as availability. I can find 3-4 different brands of 4X DVD+R in local stores but only 2X DVD-R in any brand other than Memorex (don't want the CMC media).

Oh well

[defense]

Excluding those who have dual format burners, I'd think that more people have 4X DVD-R burners than 4X DVD+R burners since it is a more mature format, ergo there should be more 4X DVD-R media available in the stores than 4X DVD+R media. Nothing could be farther from the truth as far as availability. I can find 3-4 different brands of 4X DVD+R in local stores but only 2X DVD-R in any brand other than Memorex (don't want the CMC media).

Why would you assume that more people have DVD-R 4x burners? The -R format has been around longer...that is true...NOT 4x DVD-R. To my knowledge, if anything is true, it's the other way around. The first 4x disk was a DVD+R 4x disk by Verbatim back in November. So it would be more likely that 4X +R "single" format burners are more prevalent.

[i-on-s]

I would assume more people have 4X dvd-r burners than slower dvd-r burners now cause the price drop in recent yrs i mean they went from 300$ to like 169$ in 1 1/2 yrs i got my 4X dvd-r burner in april for 129$ and it was retail box and now look at the price for dual burners you can pick up one for around 199$.

[defense]

@ ions, your missing the point. The post was regarding why "4x" media is often times less expensive then 2x media. You basically just repeated what bebrewer said which makes no sense. Yea, i'm sure more people have ANY type of burners these days due to price...but you keep mentioning "4x" burners as if they were around years ago. 4x is still relatively new...we're talking months...so their are ALOT of people who had 1x-2x burners prior to any 4x released burners/media.

So the majority of those people aren't just gonna shell out more money for a newer burner...yea...some will and some won't. The ones that will just end up with a couple of burners. That's why it's important to sometimes hold off a little while. Even with that being said...if I knew 8x burners would be available as soon as they are going to be..i'd still purchase my Sony burner and care less about 8x. 15 minutes to burn a full DVD is quite alright by me.

[bebrewer1]

Why would you assume that more people have DVD-R 4x burners? The -R format has been around longer...that is true...NOT 4x DVD-R. To my knowledge, if anything is true, it's the other way around. The first 4x disk was a DVD+R 4x disk by Verbatim back in November. So it would be more likely that 4X +R "single" format burners are more prevalent.

I think that 4X DVD-R has been around just as long as 4X DVD+R, Pioneer released the DVR-A05 in the US on 11/01/02 and I know that they had 4X Pioneer media to go with it. It's quite possible though that more folks have 4X +R burners than 4X -R since there seems to have been lots of sales on them lately.

[Synergy]

I compiled some name brands information of 4X - and +R based on the media list on this site:

4X DVD-R:

Imation (MCC)
Sony (MCC)
Verbatim (MCC)
Apple (MXL)
Maxell (MXL)
Pioneer (PVC)
Memorex (CMC)
Ritek (RITEK)

4X DVD+R

TDK (Ricoh)
Memorex (Ricoh)
Maxell (Ricoh)
Ritek (Ricoh)
Verbatim Data Life (Ricoh)
Verbatim Data Life Plus (MCC)
HP (MCC)

While this list may not be up to date, it is still quite apparent that only Mitsubishi Chemical and Ritek are producing both 4X -R and +R quality media. There is no doubt that most major retailers don't even carry 4X DVD-R media, let alone anything on sale. I suppose things may change once the 1-2X rated media are depleted, but right now there is definitely a lack of quality brands of 4X DVD-R media in the retail stores.

[VEFF]

Not directly related to the original topic, but:

BestBuy has been (possibly unintentionally) promoting +R media over - R for a while now, by selling the former for less, often substantially less, than the latter.

Some recent examples at BestBuy:

TDK 100 pack 4X +R was $60 cheaper ($129 on sale) than -R which didn't go on sale ($189).

Verbatim 2.4X +R 15 packs were always about $5 less than Verbatim -R 15 packs when there were sales.
This '+R cheaper than -R' happened on several occasions with Verbatim sales at BB.

Memorex 4X +R is currently on sale (out of stock online now) for $30 per 25 pack.
Memorex -R (2X) is still $50 per 25 pack!

Not once has -R been on sale for less than the same brand's +R, at BestBuy.

I don't know if it is a supply/demand thing, but this is what has been happening for a number of months now.

[Metaluna]

4X DVD+R

TDK (Ricoh)
Memorex (Ricoh)
Maxell (Ricoh)
Ritek (Ricoh)
Verbatim Data Life (Ricoh)
Verbatim Data Life Plus (MCC)
HP (MCC)

Virtually all the sales I've seen on the 4X +R media have ended up being Ricoh media. Since Ricoh also makes burners, it could be that they are giving price breaks and incentives to their OEM customers in order to gain market share.

[orbital517]

I just think that +R media is in higher demand out at these retail stores here in the U.S. Let's take for example Best Buy and Circuit City. You'll notice that most DVD burners that they sell are either dual format burners or +R/RW burners, I still have never seen a -R/RW burner out at any of these large retailers. Now in these same stores, they are selling HP computers that come INCLUDED with a +R DVD burner. So naturally if someone buys a computer from them, they will pick up +R DVD media to go along with their new computer with +R DVD burner.

[defense]

@VEFF..definitely a good point you made. Best Buy has had that trend over the last few months, however, I don't think it has anything to do with them indirectly promoting +R/RW. Regardless of what the single format "+R/RW" users say...the -R format is still the most prevalent and most popular. Although, with the advent of more and more single format + drives, the gap has been narrowed.

The reason I say this is because although you are correct in Best Buy having MORE sales on + media then - media...i'll tell you why I think they have done this. Because the - media is so much more popular and can't stay on the shelves, they want to get more people aware that + media is certainly excellent in its own right. Remember..for a long time Best Buy was limited in their DVD media choices...they only had Verbatim and Fuji...at least down where I am....then they started stocking other brands, mainly TDK, and Sony. They also never even had 50 pack DVDR spindles in ANY format up until a few months ago. And then all of a sudden, BAMM..they get 100 pack TDK spindles.

But what i'm getting at is that during this time where they were really only carrying a couple of types of DVDR media....the shelves were CONSNTANTLY EMPTY of -R media. I remember being PISSED having to take my first spindle of DVD+R 2.4x media because Best Buy was COMPLETELY out of -R Verbatims, while they had about A ZILLION VERBATIM DVD+R spindles. This didn't just happen once...it happened several times and didn't just happen at Best Buy...it happened at CompUSA and Office Depot.

As a matter of fact, the ONLY times i've seen a sale on BOTH TYPES OF MEDIA at the same time WHERE PEOPLE CLEARLY purchased MORE +R then they did -R...was because of the SPEED! I mean, think about it...if you have a multiformat burner and "OFFICE DEPOT' had that sale on Verbatim disks like they did...buy one get one free....why in the hell would anyone with a multiformat burner rather take the 2x DVD-R sale....over the DVD+R 4X disks? The 4x DVD+R Verbatim disks were also buy 1 get 1 free and that's why they went like hot cakes.

But I could gurantee you right now if there was another sale at Best Buy on BOTH TDK 4X -R AND +R media...both at the speeds of 4X..... THE -R TDK disks would be sold out at a feverish pace....while the +R's would probably get sold once for every 4 -R spindles sold. Watch what I tell you and watch when their is a sale from a major retailer on BOTH formats of the same media/speed....you'll see.

But back to the reasoning behind Best Buy having more sales on the +R media....it's probably because they want people to become more familiar with it. AS I said...there shelves were stocked with it while they were sold out of -R media...so i'd think they want more sales of their +R media...at least to closely resemble that of -R. People are becoming more and more aware of +R as are more and more +R burners being manufactured....but -R overall is still a much more popular format. Overall sales prove that alone.

[bebrewer1]

Case in point, both Best Buy & Office Depot have +R media on sale this week without even a mention of -R anywhere in the flyers. Guess it might be awhile before I quit ordering my 4X G04 from online vendors 8)