How many manufacturers are there for DVD(+/-)R?

[dilutedsugar]

i was having a a debate w/ a friend this afternoon. he claimed that all media in the world is manufacturers by 4 companies.

dont get me wrong, i originally thought he was talking about the DVD-R vs. the DVD+R consortiums; but he was actually referring to the modern day production line creation of new Discs.

ive heard that i should only buy certain brands because they use higher quality inks. now i was under the assumption that each brand simply bought ink from one of the companies that produces it and then uses it to print on discs.

he claims that Fujifilm discs are made by verbatim, or maybe it was mitsubishi. dont remember whichi one he said it was.

anyways, if anyone can shed any insight on this (no matter how it relates or doesnt) i'll be much appreciative.

much thanks,
DS

[Cobra]

Moved to the Media forum.

/ Moderator Cobra

[djcc]

Check this site out.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

[dilutedsugar]

Check this site out.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

yhea i saw that site but all it did was confuse the issue more.

they say there are 4 main manufactuers, meaning there are more than 4.

but what percentage do they actually produce is it 95% so the other makers like Ricoh or Sony are trivial? or is it just a small margin more?

[Billf2099]

What, are you writing a term paper? Main means most. Its a fast growing market and one with shrinking margins. This site will guide you what people think are excellent choices. Its never steered me wrong with regards to that.

There are people with a bit of a fetish on this stuff. I guess it depends on what you consider is working. So you'll run into a lot of "buy nothing but *insert brand*" type statements. The one I see a lot is TY made disks. I agree, the ones I bought were fine. Pricey but fine. I've seen CMC stuff slammed as junk. But I never burned a coaster that was the disk's fault with CMC stuff branded as Philips. And all of my DVD players (5 of them, yes, 5) play them just fine. And my burner is proported to be a bit finiky about cheap media (I burn with a Lite-On 411S with no hacks, just the most recent firmware)

I've bought garbage and guess what, it wasn't made by the 4 makers that were discussed. Lord KNOWS who made it, but it was made in Taiwan. If you're interested it was Platinum for the brand and that stuff isn't a bargain if they PAY me to take it. One successful burn out of 10. The other 15 are awaiting reassignment to shimming duty.

Every media here (except probably this one) will have its fans and its detractors. Same with sellers. If I see another range war on Meritline or some other Electronic store being A. Good or B The worst thing since Saddam I might shoot myself. But if you want to sample a lot of peoples thoughts on media then go to the media section and look up a few of the choices you have on the shelves in front of you. Then wait for a sale.

I'm gonna try Ritek next because there's a great sale I read about here in the forum.

Have fun and good luck.

Bill F.

[dilutedsugar]

What, are you writing a term paper?.........................
.......................
.........................

Have fun and good luck.

Bill F.

thanks for the insight. well the main reason we were arguing about it is he was recommending Optodisc for DVDs since they're 30 cents a disc or some crap. said they're the same thing as the Verbatim discs at your local office store. i found it hard to believe. now i know regular CD-Rs/DVD+/-Rs and music CD-Rs/Movie DVD+/-Rs are the same thing just different prices, but that's a different issue.

myself ive only bought Fuji media when it was on sale at best buy. get them for around 60 cents a disc when the 50 or 100 bundles go on sale.

[samijubal]

Optocraps are garbage, worst discs I've ever used. Prodiscs are the same price and are excellent discs.

[hech54]

The old Ford Festiva of the 80's was a Kia and a Mazda in Europe.
The old Ford Probe was also a Mazda 626 in America and the rest of the world.
Chevrolet's are Opel in Europe.
VW's are also Skoda in Europe.
Some of the 80's Dodge cars were actually Renault's...the Dodge Monaco was one of them.
ALOT of the popular 80's Dodge cars were actually Mitsubishi's.
A new Ford van that will be released in America soon will be a VW (Sharan).
Old Plymouth Horizon's of the 80's had VW motors in them.

Shit happens man...and it happens everyday.

[kush]

Verbatim=MCC (Mistubishi Chemical Corp. - usually, sometimes they're TY - even better)...Check the Media link to the left.

FUJI's can be a number of manufacturers..Taiyo Yudens, MCCs, I even have a 100 pack of 8x -R's that are ProDisc F01s (IIRC), even crappy CMCs in some cases if I remember my Media guide correctly...

[dilutedsugar]

The old Ford Festiva of the 80's was a Kia and a Mazda in Europe.
The old Ford Probe was also a Mazda 626 in America and the rest of the world.
Chevrolet's are Opel in Europe.
VW's are also Skoda in Europe.
Some of the 80's Dodge cars were actually Renault's...the Dodge Monaco was one of them.
ALOT of the popular 80's Dodge cars were actually Mitsubishi's.
A new Ford van that will be released in America soon will be a VW (Sharan).
Old Plymouth Horizon's of the 80's had VW motors in them.

Shit happens man...and it happens everyday.

i knew all that already. it's a nice compairson, but it doesnt work the same way. partnerships & subsidiaries are not the same thing.

btw you forgot the new GTO is actually just a holden monaro.

[dilutedsugar]

Verbatim=MCC (Mistubishi Chemical Corp. - usually, sometimes they're TY - even better)...Check the Media link to the left.

FUJI's can be a number of manufacturers..Taiyo Yudens, MCCs, I even have a 100 pack of 8x -R's that are ProDisc F01s (IIRC), even crappy CMCs in some cases if I remember my Media guide correctly...

thanks for the info

how can i find out what discs are which? short of buying them opening them and testing them (in which case i cant return them if they're junky).

[hech54]

i knew all that already. it's a nice compairson, but it doesnt work the same way. partnerships & subsidiaries are not the same thing.

btw you forgot the new GTO is actually just a holden monaro.

Holdens are in GB now(again) too....with the Holden name though and the steering wheel still on the wrong side...

I've still not had enough guts to buy any other Verbatim's than the pastel color PLUS versions. Those are Taiyo Yuden's....but with no guarantee as to what I am getting...I'll steer clear of Verbatin spindle packs.

[samijubal]

Verbatim=MCC (Mistubishi Chemical Corp. - usually, sometimes they're TY - even better)...Check the Media link to the left.

FUJI's can be a number of manufacturers..Taiyo Yudens, MCCs, I even have a 100 pack of 8x -R's that are ProDisc F01s (IIRC), even crappy CMCs in some cases if I remember my Media guide correctly...

thanks for the info

how can i find out what discs are which? short of buying them opening them and testing them (in which case i cant return them if they're junky).

Buy Prodiscs, over 1000 of them I've seen 1 bad disc. They only cost around 30 cents apiece.

[glockjs]

Verbatim=MCC (Mistubishi Chemical Corp. - usually, sometimes they're TY - even better)...Check the Media link to the left.

FUJI's can be a number of manufacturers..Taiyo Yudens, MCCs, I even have a 100 pack of 8x -R's that are ProDisc F01s (IIRC), even crappy CMCs in some cases if I remember my Media guide correctly...

verbatim uses crappy cmc not fuji.

to i would just go to www.rima.com and order either prodisc for the good cheapies and taiyo yuden for the best(since they dont sell maxell's ) to avoid all this switchamaroe

[Gen-An]

Verbatim uses its own MCC media for most of its DVD spindles, not CMC codes (though made in Taiwan MCC is manufactured at the CMC plant, they aren't the same as CMC media).

[lordsmurf]

Check this site out.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

yhea i saw that site but all it did was confuse the issue more.

they say there are 4 main manufactuers, meaning there are more than 4.

Nowhere does it say there are "four main manu." Nowhere.
You must have been reading another site.

There are about a dozen or more. Found in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Hong Kong .. and sometimes Ireland, Mexico, few others.

Verbatim has not been CMC for quite a few months now.

Optodisc DVD-R media is quite decent, at least as good as Ritek (or better). Optodisc DVD+R is about as bad as it gets, terrible stuff. You'll find that some of your non-USA TY media is made by Optodisc.

[-jsl-]

You'll find that some of your non-USA TY media is made by Optodisc.

Optodisc with TY code is fake media which make Optodisc join the same club as Princo and Infosmart.

[lordsmurf]

You'll find that some of your non-USA TY media is made by Optodisc.

Optodisc with TY code is fake media which make Optodisc join the same club as Princo and Infosmart.

The cdfreaks article made it out to be an official agreement. The article sources seemed pretty legit too.

The fake TYG02 is being made by Infosmart in Hong Kong.

[-jsl-]

What article, link please? There are more than one manufacturer of fake TYG02 media, Infosmart is just one of them and I very much doubt TY would outsource production to Optodisc or approve the use of the TYG02 code.

The following info (from the beginning of June) I find rather credible indicates that Optodisc uses (or used) TY's MID code for the same reason as Infosmart, ie their media is too crappy to get 8x support by popular drive manufacturers:

"Well according to my contact at Optodisc, they have opted to use the Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-R code until drive makers have decided to support their own 8x DVD-R code"

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=16550&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc

[lordsmurf]

What article, link please?

Had to dig through browser history.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/10445.
It appears the info I got did not come from this thread.
I read about a dozen articles (not forums of people "saying" what they know, but actual verifiable news articles and press releases).

I'll have to dig around a bit more and see if I can find that again.
It's been several weeks.