WARNING!! Shop4Tech media

[noki]

Just got my shipment of 100 DVD-R 4x. list price is @29.00. Less 10% with coupon code. Total was $28.10 including tax (free shipping).
Does not write on my NEC 1300, though this drive is listed on their website. CopyToDVD states in is illegal media. Nero 5.5 says I am starting to burn on a multisession dvdr, and subsequently refuses to burn. Tried 5 of their media from diffrent parts of the spindle. same results. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Now I'll have to deal with their customer service for a refund. will uopdate you as to what happens.
Noki

IMPT UPDATE>>>am now able to burn. please read rest of this thread.

2nd update>>>burn yes, but only playable on the PC. 1st burn was 4.10G and only the movie studio intro played (10 secs). after that disc freezes. 2nd burn was 3.48G. My Apex sees it as a DVD and then freezes. Also this 2nd burn freezes toward the end of the video (which is only about 55 minutes) on the PC.

[freestyler]

Sorry to hear that Noki. You could attempt to update your burning software and/or firmware and maybe you'll at least be able to burn on the media even if it may be at speeds lower than advertised.

If you want to burn "on the cheap" I highly recommend Prodisc.

[dosun]

What was the brand of them? You mind posting the media code of it?

[noki]

Sorry, forgot...

Made in Taiwan.
Media ID..now get this......YiJhan. Who the F___ is that
I bought this media cuz a number of posters this week (Tuesday I think) mentioned this "deal" and said the media was great. To be fair they also said the media ID was something like MUS___. I forget the numbers.
Guess they are now YiJhan. At least that's what I got .
Guess I will try a firmware upgrade (either Herrie's or the modified official one [1.0b]). Any idea which is the safest?
Thanks for all replys. Should I return these dvd-r's if my firmware upgrade fails I will report back with Shop4Tech's response.
Noki

[chas0039]

This is what Shop4Tech is known for... substituting media. Good luck with your return.

[Faustus]

Well when there are so many named medias out there that are bad I have a hard time buying a stores brand disk, especually when they are cheap. I mean it would seem like 9 times out of 10 they would almost have to be trash right?

[maldb]

Greetings. The media you ordered was probably the "Sonic 4X" mentioned a little while ago. I also ordered these hoping to get those with the MUST code, but received the YiJhan. To be fair, there was no bait-and-switch as Shop4Tech did not advertise the manufacturer ID.

With that said, I tried these out and they burn beautifully on both my Sony DRU-500a 2.1a, and my Lite-On LDW-411S FS0J. All of the discs play on my newer standalone players - my old Pioneer DV-500 won't play them though. With that said, and based upon my experience, I can honestly say that for the price, they are good.

For those of you having problems, please be advised that there are burners out there which DON'T like this media. You might want to check your instruction manual or the manufacturer's website BEFORE you order them. Additonally, you definitely should update the firmware for your burner(s).

Good luck.

[handyguy]

Easier to read this huge topic:
https://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia

[The village idiot]

Let me just add... shop4tech..DUH!

[onewaypockets]

Don't expect a fine French meal....if you pay for the price of a can of dog food.

[chas0039]

Here is a Kprobe of a 4X burn on a Liteon 812S. It speaks for itself.




credit to: Hypnosis4U2NV
CD Freaks Senior Member

[popeye1497]

can someone translate those two graphs lol

[noki]

UPDATE:
Yes, they are the Sonic DVD-R 4x media as mentioned. Also I updated my firmware with v1.0b and guess what...the media is burning, and fast. Shop4Tech's site indicated 1x and 2x only for my burner but after flashing my Nec 1300 I can burn @4x! And it plays nicely.
What can I say...I apologize to Shop4Tech for bad-mouthing them in this post. Though I did not get the MUST001 media I was hoping for I did get a media that burns, and plays. For how long well that will be another post.

BTW as a bonus since I flashed the NEC I can now rip at close to 7x. Pre flash the best I could get was 4.8x. Now, what use to take 30 minute I can accomplish in 17 Damn, why did I wait so long before flashing my burner.

Thanks, Shop4Tech .

[LLoyder]

noki, glad to see that worked out for you. I was gonna tell you that many people over at FW use those disks and most have very positive results. I've bought those Sonic disks on a few different occasions and they worked great. I've gotten the Must code and the YiJhan code and both work equally as great. For the price I doubt there's a better disk. I was concerned when I read your post b/c I was gonna buy more, but now that I see everything is fine, I think i'll do just that.

[dmagic1]

To be fair, there was no bait-and-switch as Shop4Tech did not advertise the manufacturer ID.

I'm glad you have your problems resolved noki.

As maldb pointed out, there was no bait and switch.
I see a lot of ppl getting pissed off when they order these kind of generic, "site specialty" disc and don't get the same media that some other guy got. With any site that sells their own special generic brand, the media make could change at any time.

[hedstrosity]

i love when people are cheap and then complain. then its their fault, and then they want to be sorry. jumping the gun is no excuse for bashing a company. the internet can hold alot of weight on these online companys. bashing goes a long way, and most people wont even read the whole thread to see the user was incompetent. if these companys go under then we all lose.

i order alot from shop4tech with not one problem. i use rima and meritline also with excellent results. as stupid as the people are that cant use their hardware right, theres someone just as stupid working at one of these companys taking your orders and messing up "AT TIMES".
i cant stand when people jump the gun to talk $hit. sounds like a high schooler trying to spread the latest rumor. take it up with the company next time.
a moderator needs to change the topic of the thread, or delete it all together

[chas0039]

can someone translate those two graphs lol

Very simply, the lower the better. The PI should be well below 280 to be readable. Riteks are in the 20s, Prodiscs are in the 60s and TY are often in the single digits. PIF should be lower than 4 as these are errors that are not correctable. See:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=80545

[ccbadd]

The bad part is when well known brands from local retailers change there MID codes to poor quality media. I loved when Memorex 4X -R's were ProdiscS03's, but now they are mostly CMCMAG.AF1's and much lower quality. As far as Shop4Tech goes, I have never had any problems with ordering from them, but I started buying from local stores as the internet shop prices are that much better anymore for quality media.

[noki]

i love when people are cheap and then complain. then its their fault, and then they want to be sorry. jumping the gun is no excuse for bashing a company. the internet can hold alot of weight on these online companys. bashing goes a long way, and most people wont even read the whole thread to see the user was incompetent. if these companys go under then we all lose.

for goodness sake, chill dude to apease your temperment I edited the original post. Have a great day

[noki]

Again I am now able to burn this disc but it's only playable on the PC (somewhat). Does anyone know whether Shop4Tech will give a refund if the resultant burned disc is not playable on a settop (mine)? My first burn seems like it might play in it's entirety (i just skipped thru it from beginning to the end and it is playable) on my PC. The 2nd dvdr I burned will freeze when I try to skip toward the end of the video.
But then again if I have to pay to ship it back and lose 10% in re-stocking fee I might as well keep the 98 left. Who know it might be playable in another settop. But usually Apexs will play anything.

[chas0039]

Send them back....now! They are not worth the trouble you will go through and the high error rates could lead to more trouble over time as they decay. Just write it of as a bad experience and pay more later to get quality. Don't forget to use media rate to send them back, less painful. You will probably get hit with the 10% (I got hit even though they were defective).

[DVD_Ripper]

Sorry to hear that Noki. You could attempt to update your burning software and/or firmware and maybe you'll at least be able to burn on the media even if it may be at speeds lower than advertised.

If you want to burn "on the cheap" I highly recommend Prodisc.

I second that... SO3's are pretty good... only a few freezes 12 months after burning

[indolikaa]

Again I am now able to burn this disc but it's only playable on the PC (somewhat). Does anyone know whether Shop4Tech will give a refund if the resultant burned disc is not playable on a settop (mine)? My first burn seems like it might play in it's entirety (i just skipped thru it from beginning to the end and it is playable) on my PC. The 2nd dvdr I burned will freeze when I try to skip toward the end of the video.
But then again if I have to pay to ship it back and lose 10% in re-stocking fee I might as well keep the 98 left. Who know it might be playable in another settop. But usually Apexs will play anything.

Ditto. If an Apex won't play it, that's not a good sign...

[noki]

thanks for the replies. I will just use them for data (not critical stuff). seems the PC read the burns well enough. just not movies.

[noki]

Just read on Shop4Tech's review of this media, and a poster stated if the burned DVDR will not play back on a settop the DVDR needs to be finalized first. I use CopyToDVD and Nero to burn and have never had problems with playing a burned DVDR w/o going thru a seperate "finalizing" process (my assumption is that these 2 programs finalize the dvdrs as its last step). any comments on this. How does one "finalize" a dvdr seperate from the burning progs? thanks.

[noki]

anyone? thanks. Okay another quick Q...does the creation of the Lead-In and Lead-out blocks constitute a finalized media? thanks.

[chas0039]

I don't think your problem is anything to do with finalizing the disc as I believe you are right that the copy program does this for you as part of the burn process. The problem is poor media. With Kprobe PI errors as high as 1100 it will definitly be unreadable in a lot of players.

I can also throw my support behind the reliability of Prodisc S03s. At 36 cents they are way ahead of the Sonics.

[noki]

chas0039,
thanks for the reply. I already use the S03 and like them. Just decided to take a chance on media fellow poster were excited about ( and at $0.28 ea delivered). too bad I did not get the MUST001 ID instead of the YiJhan.

[dosun]

Just got my spindle today. I only bought a 50 pack to see if it was garbage, and it doesn't seem that bad. I just tested my first burn on a 3.8 gig movie. Burned at 4x without any hiccups on my A05 and plays all the way to the end on my lite on lvd 2002 without any skipping. I don't have a liteon burner so all I could do for error testing was run the DVDinfo tool. No errors showed up, green all the way. I'll try filling up the whole discs and nero speed tomorrow. The code is the same as noki's discs, Yu....

[dosun]

Tested another disc this morning. Took one from the bottom of the spindle and it didn't burn because of a power calaboration error. Took another disc from the middle of the spindle.

File Size: 4.28gb
Nero @ 4x: Burn Successful
Media Info: Yi Jhan 001
Lite On LVD-2002 playback: FF to end of disc, no apparent problems
Apex 1500 playback: FF to end of disc, no apparent issues
Nero CD-Speed: Good curve until near the end of disc, chokes
DVD-info error test: Green until near end, chokes

This is probably my first and last time buying these discs seeing as they have issues. Not dissappointed though since it seems to play fine and I was expecting the quality to be low anyway.