I no longer use or support Princo

[lordsmurf]

Before the naysayers and I-told-ya-so's begin, understand that you may have only a SMALL part of the Princo story. See that poll on the front page? It says, as I suspected, that most people only recently started using DVD-R. I'm in the 5% category from 2001. Here's the true Princo history:

Back in the early days, Princo was actually more reliable than RitekG1. Of course, that's not saying much. You had two choices in media: A) the MXL/PVC/MCC group at about $10 each at 2x speeds.. and then B) was everything else at 1x and lesser prices. The A's were great while B's were no-so-great. But the B's were more affordable, being about $5 per disc, which was a great deal. Princo came out with the $3 disc! Amazing price. And it worked fairly well, save a few problems past 4GB, and the occasional fail (that all other brands liek Ritek, Lead Data, etc, suffered from too). It was worth $7 in savings to just burn under 4GB and deal with some coasters from time-to-time.

Time moves on, everybody goes to 2x, officially or not. Again, here was Princo with about ½-price 2x media, often using TDK G2 codes to spoof the burners. Was hit-n-miss, but worked. In the long run, still cheapest and works fine.

Time moves on again, media get more reliable, more brands like Optodisc, Ritek finally gets good, and then 4x comes out. Again, some minor problems, but Princo has ½-price discs that still function. That was about 10 months ago.

Fast forward to now. Princo's are no longer burning 4x, and problems have degraded. At this point, you're now getting what you pay for. At ½ price, you're getting ½ quality. With inkjet media hovering at about $1.25 from Ritek (all I need is white surfaces), I'll spend the extra 25-50 cents per disc for twice-quality media. I don't live on a dirt ranch, so I can spend the extra $25 per spindle.

Princo had a good run, but it's no longer working. I've been dealing with problems for about 1-2 months now with their media, from different orders from different places, and enough is enough. They fail in both of my burners, I get coasters, and they won't balance (power calib errors). It seems they are digressing, not PROgressing as needed.

Princo, just say no!

All my old Princos are fine. It's the new ones I have no faith in.

And FYI, I use all kinds of media. I only used these for my white-top needs.

[Faustus]

Another Princos customer bites the dust. Now we are one step closer.

[chill007]

I'm not for Princo or against Princo and am fairly new to burning DVD's but I've used about 50 Princo DVD-R's and they have all burned perfectly well at 4X (I've never had a dud/coaster).

My next purchase of DVD media will most likely be Ritek but my question is: do you suspect that my Princo's will give me problems in the future?

Also, why is it that I can burn these Princo's at 4X on my LG-4040B (with the most current firmware) but lordsmurf has had problems burning at 4X with his burner?

[lordsmurf]

Different batches may have different chemicals/constructs and the quality control is suspect. Until recently, all my Princo 4x were great.

[CaseyComb]

Awwww...Poor guy he can't burn at 4x. I've had no problems with princos. Look at burner statistics even burners that claim they will burn at 4X will only do so with certain media. Some burners will only burn 4x rated discs at 2x on 4x listed burners. Yeah you may have been duped by them concerning the speed, but they burn fine at 1-2x. Calling them crap is a bit silly. You should be more patient when copying your netflix rentals, after all...you get what you pay for.

[holistic]

....You should be more patient when copying your netflix rentals...

Yah what's wrong with Princos .I mean really - I had a few coasters, but once I figured out I bought the 3.5Gb variaties and not the 4.38Gb ones all was OK.
Princos .. indeed . Never again for me also. Spend a little more get a little better .

][

[lordsmurf]

Awwww...Poor guy he can't burn at 4x. I've had no problems with princos. Look at burner statistics even burners that claim they will burn at 4X will only do so with certain media. Some burners will only burn 4x rated discs at 2x on 4x listed burners. Yeah you may have been duped by them concerning the speed, but they burn fine at 1-2x. Calling them crap is a bit silly. You should be more patient when copying your netflix rentals, after all...you get what you pay for.

1. A Pioneer 105 should burn 4x at 4x.
2. Crap is crap. Princo was great for a long time, but not any more. Sort of like my opinion of Ford cars and trucks. Ford Explorer anyone? Mustang?
3. You may rent and copy from Netflix, but that's not what I do.
4. I didn't get what I paid for. I paid for 4x 4.7GIG discs.

[Bob W]

I have some Princo 4x inkjet pritable discs and of the ten or so I have burned no problems so far and this is on my Pioneer 105.

[freestyler]

Princos aren't bad, if that's what you can afford, I'd say they work fine if your burner handles them appropriately. I've used Princos with no problem, but I question their durability. Since I make legitimate backups, I have my original discs - if some cheap Princos go bad - screw it. The bonding on them is not the best, and on a majority of their batches, the edges of the discs are a bit jaggy / flimsy (you can EASILY stick in your fingernail and separate the layers of plastic.)

Another caveat: if you've noticed in DVD Decrypter, Princos aren't rated at 4x - they are rated at 3.9X - odd eh?

I'm now doing large file backups of what I consider "important" high res imagery and video source material that has accumulated and now need what you would call more "premium" media to suit my needs. I've looked into Ritek G04s other folks recommend them from their own experience. I've got an order of 100 printables coming Monday, hopefully they perform well as expected

on a side note, caseycomb, do you make warez references in ALL of your posts? or just this one and about a dozen others?

[zanos]

Princos are horrible. I've had errors on almost every cmc/princo disk I've tried to burn. The discs that came out fine aren't worth the headache or the savings.

[stk]

princo sux big time

[kzPhaze]

I use to have a Sony DW-U10A (sucks anyhow) and my whole 50 spindle of Princo 4x discs would always default to 2x. Drove me nuts.