Crappy Princo's - wish I'd listened!

[sagalout]

Doh! Backed up my entire DVD collection (110 films) onto datawrite yellow top 1 speed princos. Not one single coaster when burning so I was well chuffed. I tested them after each burn and they were fine, but now, 3 months later, I go to play them and half of them wont play (I store them in proper dvd cases)

Its not a huge problem for me as I still have all the opriginals, but I'm annoyed at the amount of time I wasted copying them, plus the £80 or so cost.

So, this is just a warning to others using princo discs - they might appear to burn fine, but check your discs in a few months and you might be dissapointed.

From now on, I'll be spending the extra £7 per 25 tub on riteks.

[freestyler]

My Princos have been sittin pretty for 6 months and work fine. I am a fan of the almighty White-Top Princo and will not stand idly by bearing witness to such injustices toward the Princo name...

Or maybe Datawrites suck... Hmm... Datawrite anyone? Any good?

Care to mention your computer specs? OS? Filesystem? Burner? Software used? Place of purchase?

[sagalout]

it appears to be the ones that were written close to the edge that have the biggest problems.

As for specs,

Athlon XP 2600,
Windows XP Pro SP1
Pioneer 104
Burnt at 1 speed using CopytoDVD
Purchased from ebuyer

On another matter, although I dont *think* its related, I cant burn anything on copytodvd at 2 speed. I have some ritek 2 speed discs, and copytodvd says that its buring at 2 speed, but it still takes an hour :/ Nero and recordnowmax wont burn anything at all at any speed.

[SLK001]

This is a known problem with the cheaper discs (Princo's ain't alone in this catagory). Sorry that we didn't scream this loud enough for you to hear.

[sagalout]

No, you did, but I was too stubborn to listen, as I was burning, then watching movies straight after and they were fine.

Learn from experience and all that...........

[SLK001]

Learn from experience and all that...........

At least it wasn't too expensive of a lesson (you didn't actually loose anything - 'cept money).

[overloaded_ide]

I'll have to try mine and see how there doing I suppose.
I have the Whitetop Princos and I don't think I have any troubles yet.
Ya, I too still have the originals, on VHS! Deleted all the captures though!

Most of mine are a right around 3-5 months old now.

Hey freestyler,
Never thought of that. I think it would be one food? Never thought of it before
But IF Chily on a hotdog were two foods, then what if you chopped up a hotdog and put it IN the chilly, would it still be? Or would it become part of the chile like the tomatoes and beans do?

[LanEvo7]

This is a known problem with the cheaper discs (Princo's ain't alone in this catagory).

What other manufacturers have this issue? From what I've read Princo seems to be the only one with consistant reports of this.

[smearbrick1]

I've had about 175 princo white tops and no problems... even after 5 months. Everything is just peachy. Where are these people storing their backups? Even if they are in proper cases, you still can't store them in the trunk of a car or in the sweltering heat of an attic.

[normando]

I bet your DVR-104 can still read your failing discs.... if so, use DVDDecrypter to copy as an ISO and reburn this ISO onto your new RITEK discs. This could save you tons of time. Give 'er a try and let us know how it goes.

[sagalout]

no luck DVD Decrypter starts timing out on the latter tracks and eventually gives up. Looks like I'm gonna have to re-rip.

As for storage, proper DVD cases stored vertically on bookshelves in my living room. I'm always very careful about the way I handle them too.

Could be specific to datawrites, as I have a few unbranded whitetops that appear to be fine.

[DVDEmperor]

There are lots of people who have had Princos fail on them from 1 - 6 months time, all sorts of Princo types.

I have tested out several Ritek discs that I burned 1.5 years ago and they are still working 100%. I have always used this brand and will never quit.

When a dvd-r media starts to fail it makes everyone nervous about their discs... and there should be none of this. First, Princo should not make crap discs and second, dvd-r media should last a very long time when stored properly.


Princos are the Gray Davis of dvd-r media... they claim to save you money but in the end they break you! (sorry for bad pun).

[Vejita-sama]

I've been buying Princo media (1x, 2x and now 4x) from allmediaoutlet for more than a year now and all my discs are fine (white top). Maybe I'm lucky, maybe there were problems that have since been correctly, I don't know.

Sometimes these things seem random, but I personally have no trouble recommending Princo discs. With that said, all the reviews seem to point to Pioneer being the best, and Retek as number 2.

[Svuppe]

I just got some fresh rumors about Princo. But please take it as no more than rumors until proven otherwise. I too would like to hear if this is real or not:

Letter supposedly sent from Princo:

Dear customer,

IF you suddenly get a very good offer for DVD-R X4 from Princo, please
be aware!

DVD-R pirate copies from Princo


During the past weeks it has come to our attention that Princo
products are being illegally copied by producers in Hong Kong. These
pirated DVD-R copies are being sold at extremely low prices – and
correspond in no way to Princo’s quality standards.

These pirate copies are alarmingly faulty in terms of compatibility.
Please do not be fooled by any allegedly cheap offers. Of course, you
understand that our product guarantee applies only to certified Princo
products.

Because these pirated discs copy even the details – such as the
manufacturing code – we suggest that you pay very close attention to
the authenticity of the DVD-R discs you purchase in the near future.

It goes without saying that we will continue to supply you with
products of a consistently high level of quality that you expect from
Princo. Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any questions in
this matter.


Kind regards,

Princo

Is this true or not? It this really from Princo? I don't know.

[Faustus]

Well in this instance it doesn't matter of its real or not. This problem with Princo disc has been going on with some for a very long time. I have never burned a princo disc myself, but thats simply because of all the horrible results people reported even back when I got my first DVD-r.

Some people always have no problems with them it seems, but being on the board as long as I have and seeing all the bad reports its just not a gamble I'm willing to take. Most disc with as horrible as rep as Princos have it for a reason.

[LanEvo7]

Ohhhhh so all the bad Princo's were the bootleg ones...

[MachineMan]

I have burned many Princo 1x White-Top's with any problems. Even the ones I burned to 4.4gb still work after a few months. However becuase of all the bad crap I hear about Princo Im switching to Ritek after I finish with my current stock.

[thefox149]

I have princo white tops that i brought from an online shop and i took a gamble because of the bad press. But i have not made 1 coaster yet. I honestly believe that the majority of the people reporting bad media might not have the right balance of firmware, system software and hardware...touch wood these are really good I have had great success with them. Although i will be buying riteks cause i believe the g04 are the shit (plus the 4x factor as well) and i use those for customers and never once had a complaint or non function ...but saying that i have not had those reports on the princos either.....there must be something going on here more than just a bad batch of media. I had always thought princo made good CD-r so why not DVD-r....

[Saminai]

Nope. the people reporting problems with Princo do not have a bad mix of firmware or hardware :P Sorry to say but its the media.
I have used several different media types in the past year and a half. Last week I pulled out several DVD-R's from their jewel cases which were stored inside the house. Some of them were older Ritek G01's and some were Princo. The Princo had a almost translucent top. They were sold by Meritline over a year ago, and I think they called them DVD PRO. whatever their name, DVDINFO reports that they're Princo disks.

None of the Princo's work anymore! I can't even get them to be recognized by my DVD-ROM drive. I tried them in my DVD Burner, and it couldn't recognize them either.
I tried the Ritek G01's which were burned with the exact same drive, same firmware, same computer around the same time and stored in the same location, and all of them WORKED just fine. No problems!

SO that is enough for me to avoid Princo for life. GO ahead, try them if you want, be a sucker...but don't say I didn't warn you.
How many warnings do you have to see before you get a clue and stop buying their shit? IF we all stop buying it, they'll be forced to change and produce better quality media.

[Vejita-sama]

Again there are lots of people that have never had a problem with Princo media (myself included). It seems to be almost random.

[nanz1]

I have only used Princo cdrs and have found that 8 of the 10 vcds that I made on them no loger can be read and the 2 that can have had labels put on them. I don't know if having labels on them makes any difference but in these cases it has for me.

[tawnyag75]

I wonder if there's a difference between the Princo "clear tops" and the Princo "White tops." Then there's the question of re-packaged Princos with "who knows what color" top.

I have twenty CompUSA DVD-R at $1/piece said to be "Princo" by DVDINFO with a silverish top, and have burned them flawlessly (up to 4.5 gigs). I can play them on my Panny RP 91 with no problems what so ever. However, I am cautious of the fact that they're only a week old and who knows if they'll still work in six months. But here's hoping .

[LanEvo7]

Whether it was Princo does have some good batches and some bad batches doesn't matter. Obviously from the reports, they aren't consistant enough in making good batches for me to trust them. If you like playing games with your media, go ahead and buy Princo. I'll pay a couple pennies more for better discs.

[Savant]

I sent out over 250 Princo jobs last year, I only had one person come back and complain about a disc that 'went bad'. My original reference discs still work as good as the day I burned them. I keep them all in the black DVD movie cases though, not in binders or jewel cases. Exposure to light is a bad idea for any media, no matter how insignificant.

I'm using the white tops.

Regards,

Savant

[robrosen]

For what it's worth, I've been burning with Princo's for over 15 months with no real problems with the media. Some that were burned with Nero many months ago could not be read by my set top DVD player, but were readable by my DVD-R and my DVD-ROM. I ripped them back to my hard drive, created ISO images with Imgtool and burnt new DVD-R's using DVD Decryptor. No more set top read problems.

[Bob W]

The first DVDR I burned way way back was a pack of 10 Princo 1x. They still play and that was at least seven months ago. I use RecordNow Max to burn however I have also used NeoDVD and MF2.

[zanos]

I have 3 princos made by other ppl that still work and it's been several months to a year but that doesn't mean I'm going to keep them on those discs or buy princos in the future. Not everyone will experience problems with princo but so many reports of failures you are just setting yourself up for a huge fall when they do fail one day. Why risk it just to save like 20 cents per disc for the 4x and maybe less than 10 cents for the 1x/2x. It's just not worth it in the end. Btw I compared those prices to optodisc which has a much better reputation.