Maxell 4X legit or not?

[oldfart13]

Bought a spool of Maxell 4X from Compusmart Canada today. Media ID is TYG01 (Taiyo Yuden) and they burn flawlessly at maximum speed and DVDInfo Pro says no errors when tested. HOWEVER I'm trying to find out if these are legit Maxell, fake Maxell with stolen IDs or a parallel import that was not supposed to turn up in the Canadian market. The sleeve says that they are made in Taiwan. though Taiyo Yuden are a Japanese company and their product (at least 2X anyway) originates from there. The sleeve also lists Maxell company headquarters in Singapore, Shanghai, Taiwan and Japan. Unlike the old fake Maxell junk, these are actually branded Maxell. They also don't error out like the old fake Maxells did. Anyone know for sure just what these are??

[troyvcd1]

I dont think a company can put the tuyo yuden name for the dvd info of a dvd unless they are actually tuyo yuden. Tuyo yuden are supposed to be the "best" dvd media so they are legit I would say.

[lordsmurf]

I dont think a company can put the tuyo yuden name for the dvd info of a dvd unless they are actually tuyo yuden. Tuyo yuden are supposed to be the "best" dvd media so they are legit I would say.

Just because you are not supposed to does not mean it won't happen. I wouldn't call TY best (CD-R is a different story), but still excellent, and coming from a big store, and issued by Maxell, they may be legit. Maxell is now using OEM for spindles (RITEKG3 is one).

[oldfart13]

Well, I'm awaiting word from both Maxell and Compusmart (where I bought the discs) as to what these are. The reseller (Vortek Systems) has nothing about them on their website. True Maxells are not manufactured outside of Japan. That info comes from their websites in several countries, so these may well be counterfeit product. We'll just have to wait and find out for sure. Oddly enough, they burn just fine in my A05 (at 4X speed) as well as my E80 Panasonic. DVDInfo Pro reports no errors but I never burned one past 3.9 Gig either. Some of the discs have surface errors, which I have yet to see on any of the Maxell 2X discs I regularly buy. Stay tuned...

[QuaiBoy]

Just curious...
If they burn fine, then what's the problem? I'd understand if you purchased a cake of coasters, but if you aren't having problems then why worry? We should all be so lucky to find media that works 100% of the time without issue. Not a flame, just curiousity.

-Evan-

[oldfart13]

Because 1/2 of the discs seem to have surface imperfections when I inspected them (none of my real Maxells have any bubbles, scratches, etc.). The 2 I burned did not. Also, if they are rebadgered Taiwanese made discs, I want to know what the originals were and how much they were in comparison. I've seen cheap Taiwanese manufactured discs in Canada for a lot less than I bought these "Maxell" brand discs for. Deception is not the way to go to gain market share and customers.

[lordsmurf]

MXL discs only come in jewel cases. Spindles are being OEM'd out right now, and are legit Maxell products, just not Maxell-made ... and yes, they can come from Taiwan, RITEKG3 does.

[Lobe]

the worry would be how long will they last? who cares if they burn fine- that doesn't help much if you go to acces important data in a year or two and it's gone. I'd prefer they didn't burn fine than have unexpected problems later.

Which is what has happened with the FAKE Maxell's Meritline sold but don't want to take responsibility for.

[lordsmurf]

that doesn't help much if you go to acces important data in a year or two and it's gone.

This has not been proven to be possible. It's either there or not. The magic "fading away" syndrome is something of a mystery, with nothing to back it up.

Check the discs at burn if you want to verify the contents.

[vortens]

Get away from this garbage....I used to buy these and did a ton of research about these discs and in addition contacted Maxell about them via phone and internet....THEY ARE NOT MAXELLS. They are fakes (from Taiwan and outskirting countries) and Maxell is trying to nail these sellers. They press the illegal Maxell code on the discs so that disc program identifiers show them as being Maxells. Maxell had\has an alert to consumers on there website about these fakes and give you things to look out for. The reason I said to stay away from these is for the exact reason you stated about flaws\marks on the discs. This is dvd rot in progress and will continue to get worse as the disc ages. Trust me I am a heavy dvd burner addict and have ALOT of experience with this noise and have seen the timely results these have brought. Buy either Riteks or Princo version 2.0 dvd-rs.

[oldfart13]

Neither Ritek or Princo are available from local sellers. Compusmart isn't a small outfit either so why they get mixed up in !@#$ like this is beyond me. The tip off should be that Maxell (according to their numerous websites) doesn't manufacture discs outside of Japan. Neither does Taiyo Yuden which is the ID of these discs. The Maxell site in Canada only gives info on the silver topped 2X fakes. If these are indeed new bogus discs, then they need to update their consumers. According to laws in Taiwan (laws, hah! They didn't sign any international deals yet they want to be recognized by world bodies...) ripping off patents and making fakes is legal (inside their borders). The problem is that they then use loopholes in laws of countries like Canada to redistribute these fake products. They were never supposed to sell them outside of Taiwan...period. I watched a show on Canadian TV once detailing what Canada Customs has to do to try to stop this trade. It's pretty tough. They have to have search warrants to execute a search of a vessel and must know insider info like when the ship is docking, what the cargo is, where it is, etc. I don't wonder that they just don't give up on stuff that gets sent by ship since it would be darn well impossible to know that kind of info without inside people. I'm still waiting for Maxell and Compusmart to respond. We'll see what they say...

[lordsmurf]

Why do I keep repeating myself?

MAXELL IS USING VENDORS FOR THEIR SPINDLES. YOU WILL NOT HAVE "MXL" MEDIA CODES ON THE SPINDLED DISCS. SOME OF THESE VENDORS ARE FROM TAIWAN, INCLUDING RITEK AND TAIYOYUDEN. YOU WILL GET OFFICIAL MAXELL-APPROVED MEDIA WITH THE NORMAL BLUE MAXELL BRANDING ON TOP. THEY WILL NOT BE "MXL" CODE UNLESS THE PACKAGE IS OLD AND FROM JAPAN. NEW ONES ARE NO LONGER "MXL" MEDIA. BUT THEY ARE LEGIT MAXELL APPROVED VENDORS. IF YOU WANT "MXL" MEDIA, BUY SOME LEGIT MAXELL JEWEL-CASED DISCS. ONLY DISCS THAT USE "MXL" AND HAVE NO MAXELL BRANDING OR PACKAGING ARE FAKES.

I know I'm a little blue guy ... but maybe bigger blue words was all I needed.

[oldfart13]

Welp, got my first unrecoverable error using one of these discs in my E80. Never happened before. The E80 just shut itself off and it was a real bitch to get the disc out of the drive. I'm going to buy some real Maxell 4X discs tonight at the Futureshop customer appreciation night and see what they say their manufacture ID is. Still awaiting word from Maxell and Compusmart, so you can turn off your caps...

[ROBERT BLACK]

Neither Ritek or Princo are available from local sellers.

Actually, they're available here in Toronto, all over the city. Especially College Spadina area. I also saw both those brands at a couple computer stores in Montreal. Both are pretty well known in the top Canadian markets.


As for you're Maxell spindle, sounds like these Taiwanese triads are switching media Ids to from MXL to Taiyo Yuden, to further confuse people. I have a 5 pack of Maxells from Futureshop. Overpriced but I needed DVD-Rs in a hurry. They're branded, and come in sealed cases. They're the real thing. I tried samples of the silvertopped UNBRANDED fake Maxells and they are absolute crap. All kinds of playback issues. If you buy Maxells ALWAYS buy the BRANDED ones. No exceptions, unless you like junk.

[oldfart13]

The real Maxell 4X are yellow on top and have the ID of MXL RG02. The fakes are light green on top and don't have the man-in-chair logo on the right side of the disc as the legit ones do and have that Taiyo Yuden ID. Contrary to Lordsmurf who I do respect for a lot of stuff in this hobby, these legit ones are brand new right-out-of-Japan discs.

Since I'm about 1,300 Km from Toronto, I might have a wee bit of a problem getting down to College, Spadina and Yonge streets...

[lordsmurf]

Alright... look at this...

These are official MAXELL media, the JEWEL CASES are from Office Depot (February 2003) and Walmart (November 2003), and the spindle is from Fry's Electronics (a huge chain store) in November 2003.

Both are official discs with official MAXELL packaging. The only difference is the new MAXELL packaging denotes "Made In Taiwan" instead of the older spindles "Made In Japan".

These are the media codes. I believe the MXLRG01 write strategy is being misread, but all other data looks good:



This is a view of all the discs. They are identical in appearance. The VOLTRON discs are "RITEKG3" Maxell spindles, the JUSTICE LEAGUE discs are "MXLRG01" discs (from Office Depot) from cases and the unlabeled disc is a new unused disc (from Walmart) with a "MXLRG01" label.



Close-up:



Close-up:



Yellow MXL. I have NEVER seen a yellow-top MXL or Maxell disc. The only fake MXL discs I have seen or heard about are entirely devoid of Maxell packaging or branding. I have seen at least a dozen variations of fakes, none of them had MAXELL branding or packaging.

Let's face it. Maxell is now using vendors. And TY and RITEK discs are not too shabby. Not as good as MXL, but not CMC or PRINCO, thankfully.

MXL. If you are having problems, I would suggest cleaning the burner or looking at issues with playback/recording hardware, not the discs. These are confirmed official discs and confirmed to be TY or RITEK in make. Not fakes. Those are good brands. If you only want MXL media, again, only buy jewel-cased media or look for older spindles that are "Made In Japan".

MXLRG02. And let's not forget that Maxell is (or at least has been) a vendor for media. The only MXLRG02 I have ever seen are the APPLE-branded MXL discs:



And this is a sample of Maxell packaging. Both are official:
*Note: I had to remake the DVD spindle from a CD spindle image. But that is what it looks like. Trash went out Friday here already, so my packaging is now in the landfill.

[LanEvo7]

Maxell DVD-RWs are Yellow Topped. Most Japanese manufacturers contract outside companies to make the discs for them for lower costs. It eventually happens. TDK does it with both their DVDR and CDR, Maxell did it for a while with their CDRS. TY is a good company for dvd anyway.

[ROBERT BLACK]

The Futureshop Maxell's look exactly the same as Lord Smurf's Justice League disc. They have this code, MXLRG01. Made in Japan are on the package. I concur with Smurf. Those are the legitimate ones. As for the re-branding of Taiyo Yuden and Riteks,as Maxell, when I buy Maxell that's exactly the brand I want!! The only Maxell clones I've ever come accross are silvertopped with no print, on the packaging. These yellow discs must be new clones, if they have irregularities in the dye. The Taiyo Yudens I've bought were quite clean. No bubbles or specks.


If you need Riteks or Princo, locally(Ontario) give these guys a call, www.Sonnam.com, CanadaComputers.com,Inmax.com. They may handle mailorder.

[oldfart13]

Welp, I have at least 5 out of the pack that have errored out on either the E80 or A05. The ones I got from Compusmart don't look like the ones Lordsmurf posted pix of. The spool doesn't look like that either. Looks like I'll have to get out the digital camera and take some pix since i am unsure as to how to post them here. Maxell Canada doesn't know what these disks are either but they are checking into it for me. Compusmart tried to get me to talk only to the store that bought them rather than to their purchaser. Not nice.

[gmatov]

oldfart,

Why don't you jut scan the disk? Easier than the camera and conversion and such.

Hell, I've scanned broken golf clubs, and you can't tell it from a hi res digi photo.

Cheers,

George

[oldfart13]

I just did and sent them to Lordsmurf for his eval...

[lordsmurf]

The ones I got from Compusmart don't look like the ones Lordsmurf posted pix of. .

Ewww.... then maybe you WERE hit up with a new generation of fakes.... though I have never heard of fake TY-code discs as of yet.

[indolikaa]

Come on, Smurf. Post for everyone!

[ROBERT BLACK]

LordSmurf, please post the code. I'm curious to know the origin of these yellow tops.

[indolikaa]

No, not the code! I wanna see the pictures!

[lordsmurf]

My last post was written before I saw these images...

Here's oldfart's images he emailed me:







Based on these images, it is still my contention that the spindle is legit. The green/blue discs match the normal green/blue discs I buy all the time. The spindle is an older type of Maxell packaging label "from Taiwan", not the newer style, but appear to have non-MXL discs anyway.

I have actually never seen a yellow disc until now. If I had to take the "Pepsi Challenge", I'd have said the yellow one was fake, but I'll take his word that those are legit too, just a variation used by our neighbors up north. A lot of things are like that in Canada anyway, the same but different.

I would say the discs are still good, just not in your recorder. Recorders are known to hate certain discs. Optodisc and Riteks are certified for recorders, notably Panasonic models. TY may just choke in your machine. It happens. TDK still chokes in my oldest Pioneer 103, but the discs are great in my other two burners.

If those are fakes, they're the best fakes I've ever seen. Keep checking with Maxell, but be sure you call a few times, as not everybody at customer service is always "in the know" on their own products.

[ac1654]

I don't believe they are fakes either. I think that since the packaging looks legit and that you bought them at compusmart (a decent sized Canadian chain) should lead you to believe they are ok. Maybe there is a quality control problem since you see defects on them but there have to be some bad quality discs out there. They don't check every single pack at the factory.

Like the 3-apple-tall guy said there are many cases where some brands just don't work well with some recorders. In my case I had all kinds of problems after I bought my Pioneer 106D only to finally determine that the problems were mostly due to the 8-pack of Maxell DVD-R's I was using not working well with my burner (I still have read errors on all 8). They were branded TDK but had a media code of MXLRG01. I have since used many TYG01 DVD-R's (Fujis) and TDK DVD-R's (RITEKG04) without any problems at all. I have only had one DVD-R other than the original 8-pack of MXLRG01's that has read problems.

Most people claim that the Maxells (MXLRG01) are the best but in my case they just don't work. The only possible problem might be the 8-pack that I had was bad but I just avoid Maxell's now and buy Taiyo Yuden or Ritek G04's.

-Darryl

[ROBERT BLACK]

have actually never seen a yellow disc until now. If I had to take the "Pepsi Challenge", I'd have said the yellow one was fake, but I'll take his word that those are legit too, just a variation used by our neighbors up north. A lot of things are like that in Canada anyway, the same but different.

I buy DVD media every other weekend from mostly local Toronto retailers. I've never seen that yellow topped Maxell disc before. Only the ones Lord Smurf posted. And of course the fake silvertopped ones.

[matthewmalay]

I also saw both those brands at a couple computer stores in Montreal. Both are pretty well known in the top Canadian markets.

Do you mind PMing the computer stores that sell Riteks in Montreal.

Thanks

[oldfart13]

I decided not to take any chances when dubbing the new Battlestar Galactica show to DVD for friends, so I used the yellow top Maxells. Flawless burn. Of the spool of light green discs, I have 5 of the 25 being bad (I still have 11 left) and I get recover errors on the E80 or failure to burn on the A05, so I have to conclude that there is something wrong with at least some of those green top discs. They aren't completely the same as the 2X green top legit discs. The colour is a different green as well, the silk screen of the logo is all green while the 2X legit discs there is a clear space where the logo imprint is. The package for the yellow tops says made in Japan, REORDER #635042. Still waiting to hear from Maxell regarding the light green discs...