Verbatim DL on Sale again

[willrob]

Best Buy again has the 10/$19.95 sale on Verbatim Dual Layer disks.

[lacywest]

Best Buy again has the 10/$19.95 sale on Verbatim Dual Layer disks.

Sale starts this Sunday ... Feb 5th 2006 - Best Buy ... advertisement says

Minimum 3 per Store ... No RainChecks

hmm ... I haven't gotten into the four 10 Paks ... I bought 2 weeks ago.

This is great that Best Buy is doing this.

Also at Best Buy ...

Seagate 200 GB hard drive ... $89.99 .... $70 bucks instant savings
Western Digital 80GB ... $49.99 ... $35 bucks instant savings

[waheed]

When will there ever be deals for Verbatim DL in the UK?

[Wile_E]

Minimum 3 per Store ... No RainChecks

My store had about 20 packs on the shelf. Picked 3 up and used my $50 gift certificate. Plus they had a 10pk of Fuji DVD-R that was Made In Japan. Snagged that as well. Looked like the last Japan discs in the store.

[lordsmurf]

When will there ever be deals for Verbatim DL in the UK?

Import them. Get some USA friend to buy you blanks in quantity, and mail them to you. About $12 to get up to 4 pounds sent Global Priority in the GP box. Mark it as a gift under $40 on the customs form, and there you go. Pay your friend back with Paypal.

[lacywest]

Minimum 3 per Store ... No RainChecks

My store had about 20 packs on the shelf. Picked 3 up and used my $50 gift certificate. Plus they had a 10pk of Fuji DVD-R that was Made In Japan. Snagged that as well. Looked like the last Japan discs in the store.

I glanced at the Fuji disks ... Made in Taiwan ...

[lacywest]

When will there ever be deals for Verbatim DL in the UK?

Import them. Get some USA friend to buy you blanks in quantity, and mail them to you. About $12 to get up to 4 pounds sent Global Priority in the GP box. Mark it as a gift under $40 on the customs form, and there you go. Pay your friend back with Paypal.

Good one Smurf ...

I received a MSI mother board from a Ebay auction ... the seller was in the UK ... it arrived quick ... I was surprised. Until I opened the box ... I didn't know where it was from

[bmiller]

Beware the fujifilm.I order all mine online,and about 20% of them turned out to be riteks.The rest are ricohjpn.I don't know how you tell from looking at the box.I think i'll only buy verbatim from now on.

[progrocktv]

Minimum 3 per Store ... No RainChecks

My store had about 20 packs on the shelf. Picked 3 up and used my $50 gift certificate. Plus they had a 10pk of Fuji DVD-R that was Made In Japan. Snagged that as well. Looked like the last Japan discs in the store.

I glanced at the Fuji disks ... Made in Taiwan ...

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on.

Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

[Noahtuck]

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on.

Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

#1, i'd be totaly F'n amazed if ANY salesperson at BB had a clue about anything, espc. the diff. in media codes or manufacturers, let alone what they will be phasing out

[handyguy]

If you post a dvd deal you need to give the speed of the disks. Slower disks are, of course, cheaper.

[Gen-An]

Minimum 3 per Store ... No RainChecks

My store had about 20 packs on the shelf. Picked 3 up and used my $50 gift certificate. Plus they had a 10pk of Fuji DVD-R that was Made In Japan. Snagged that as well. Looked like the last Japan discs in the store.

I glanced at the Fuji disks ... Made in Taiwan ...

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on.

Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

It's not Best Buy's doing, it's Fujifilm's.

[lacywest]

If you post a dvd deal you need to give the speed of the disks. Slower disks are, of course, cheaper.

Quite a few months ago ... Best Buy or CompUSA ... I bought 6 or 8 ... 50 packs of TDK DVD-R disks ... made in Japan.

And days later ... a few made in Taiwan ... I no longer no which is which ... no problems have occured. The labeling is not on them ... most of them are used up and just sitting around gathering dust :P

Feb 7th 2006 - Since I'm being quoted ... I will go into more detail ...

When I bought all those MIJ TDK DVD-R 50 Packs [6 of them] ... a lot of them were in the trunk of my car ... still in the original shopping bags with the labels saying in small print ... Made in Japan ... and the Made in Taiwan 50 Packs [bought several days later] were in my apartment.
... as time went on ... they were unwrapped and they all started looking the same ... 50 silver TDK disks on cake pack spindles ... for a little while I wrote on the clear plastic lids ... Taiwan or Japan ... but ... that was back in March 2005 ... there are still some around ... but I've bought ... Verbatim 100 Packs [Office Depot] and TY 100 packs [online] ... Maxell [Staples] ... I don't buy CompUSA EL Cheapos anymore.


I burn at 4X ... regardless ... There has been a few times at 8X ... but only because I'm in a hurry to take it with me to work.

I use to burn a few at 6X ... and I saw a lot of pixel breakup on my JVC DVD Player ... could have been the JVC doing it ... but I stopped burning at 6X and went back to 4X

As for burning CDs ... I burn at 16X ... Nero Express default speed on my system is 48X ... [I have to pay attention to what the settings are set at] I tend to wory when that happens ... and I burn another at 16X

By the way ... the Best Buy Sale this week ... I did buy one the Western Digital 80 GB Hard drives ... for $50 bucks.

[ROF]

Quite a few months ago ... Best Buy or CompUSA ... I bought 6 or 8 ... 50 packs of TDK DVD-R disks ... made in Japan.

And days later ... a few made in Taiwan ... I no longer no which is which ... no problems have occured. The labeling is not on them ... most of them are used up and just sitting around gathering dust :P

I couldn't agree more. I'm glad there are people who are biased though because I'm quite sure I've gotten some great deals on media that is still on the shelves because some people actually pay attention to where a disc is made. Leave the MITs those who are biased, I'll buy'em, use'em and not worry about where it's made. Quality discs are those discs which burn without error, read back without error, and last a lifetime. It doesn't matter where they are made but when they don't perform I'll either return them or give them to someone else.

[bmiller]

Ritek dual layer d01 discs are not very compatable.Tried them and they have a 60% compatability rate.Some discs are inferior to others regardless of what you say.Single layer discs may not have as many problems,but dual layer certainly do.

[handyguy]

"Tried them and they have a 60% compatability rate."

With what? 60% is about right for the percentage of dvd players that play DL.

[ROF]

I picked up two packs last night with plenty more left on the shelf. These were Made in Singapore -r DL x4 Discs with a media code of MKM01RD3. I burnt one disc last night without any problems and will be burning a few more today.

Thanks for the tip willrob.

[Wile_E]

Quite a few months ago ... Best Buy or CompUSA ... I bought 6 or 8 ... 50 packs of TDK DVD-R disks ... made in Japan.

And days later ... a few made in Taiwan ... I no longer no which is which ... no problems have occured. The labeling is not on them ... most of them are used up and just sitting around gathering dust :P

I couldn't agree more. I'm glad there are people who are biased though because I'm quite sure I've gotten some great deals on media that is still on the shelves because some people actually pay attention to where a disc is made. Leave the MITs those who are biased, I'll buy'em, use'em and not worry about where it's made. Quality discs are those discs which burn without error, read back without error, and last a lifetime. It doesn't matter where they are made but when they don't perform I'll either return them or give them to someone else.

You will be eating your own words 1-2 years from now, when they start going bad on you. It doesn't matter what country makes the discs, as long as they use quality dye and a quality manufacturing process! Sure, we will have Blu-Ray/HD-DVD and will start using those to archive stuff. But I still don't want my DVD-R's going bad after a short period. I've had enough problems with Memorex CD-R's that are CMC. They sucked. I made copies of a lot of my CD's and some of them went bad after only a year. They deteriorated even though I had them stored in my closet in a CD binder.

I want quality media! I'm tired of people thinking that $2 is too much for a disc. I payed more for VHS tapes and so did everyone else! Yet I never heard anyone complain about them! I'm tired of manufacturers getting away with releasing crap media. I should not have to make 4 copies of every disc I have, plus buy hard drives to store an extra copy. They should also write the media code on the outside packaging, so people can tell what they are buying.

[ROF]

So far I'm not eating anything and I've been burning DVDs this entire decade. I have yet to have a single DVD or CD go bad after being burnt correctly. Sure I've heard the horror stories related to CDs falling apart and such and the myths about how DVDs can die after a certain number of years. While this may all be true I've not seen it. Yes, I've seen CDs fall apart due to neglect and I've seen DVDs not being able to read because of scratches, but to say a disc that has been taken care of will eventually die on it's own, I've not seen this.

Most people write off a hard drive as dead and data unretrievable when in fact it's the drive that died not the platter. The only tape media I've ever seen destroyed is either because of magnetic intrusion, neglect, or player destruction of the tape. The same goes for DVDs and CDs. I've never seen one just die after a certain of years.

While certain brands might be quality for you, they will not be quality for others. Price does not guarantee quality, price guarantees profit(or loss) and nothing more. If you buy your media based on it's price as compared to others on the same shelf you are either a bargain shopper or biased towards a certain media. Neither of those types guarantees quality.

If you are only using media to backup originals you have nothing to fear if the backup fails. You should still have your original which you can again make a backup copy of.

If you are relying on a single media to support your precious(non-backed up) data you are not really doing a service to yourself or the data. Important data should be backed up to not just one source of media but several sources(and several copies on each) such as you suggested. If it's important you should be utilizing hard disk space, backup tape, and optical media. This will guarantee your precious data is retrievable from at least one of these sources. Of couse, you should also store these different media at different locations in case of natural disaster, war, or other disturbance that causes a loss at the medias location.

If you think a Made in Japan TY disc is more reliable than a Made in India Supra Disc you are mistaken. They are both vulnerable to same circumstances.

[Gen-An]

I'd say it's pretty much proven TY uses a better dye on its discs than most (see PI/PO tests and real world experience), and has good manufacturing (run an FE-TE test on a TY disc, you'll see generally they're pretty flat). Some say TY has bad bonding, but I've used thousands of TY discs and never had the layers fall apart on me, but then again I don't try to separate the layers with a knife or similar object TY discs are among the few you can use on pretty much any drive and get good results; there's a reason for that. Japanese disc manufacturers simply have better R&D; I don't think that can be argued. The main thing is you're less likely to get a coaster burning a disc from one of them (TY, Mitsubishi, Ricoh, TDK, Maxell).

[ROF]

@Gen-An

You had me convinced until your last sentence. I've found TDK to be the most unreliable disc available today.

[Gen-An]

There isn't anything inherently wrong with TDK's dyes. In fact, the discs that TDK makes itself in Japan are excellent, especially TTH02 which is arguably the highest quality 16x DVD-R media. The problem is the discs with TDK dyes manufactured by CMC in Taiwan; TDK doesn't seem to have as strict a quality control policy as Mitsubishi does, since MCC discs made by CMC are by and large very good media. I haven't used enough of the TDK discs made by TDK in Luxembourg to comment on those.

[bmiller]

The verbatim and fuji-ricohjpn dual layer discs i have burned have played in every dvd player i have tried them in.The riteks never play in everything.so far i'm 12 for 12 with the better discs.

[lordsmurf]

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on. Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

#1, i'd be totaly F'n amazed if ANY salesperson at BB had a clue about anything, espc. the diff. in media codes or manufacturers, let alone what they will be phasing out

Agreed. Salespeople (especially at Best Buy), don't know shit. They usually tell you whatever they can, the first thought they can pull out of their ass, to make you go away. This way, they can go back to BS'ing with their buddy coworkers, or play games on the computers.

[lacywest]

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on. Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

#1, i'd be totaly F'n amazed if ANY salesperson at BB had a clue about anything, espc. the diff. in media codes or manufacturers, let alone what they will be phasing out

Agreed. Salespeople (especially at Best Buy), don't know shit. They usually tell you whatever they can, the first thought they can pull out of their ass, to make you go away. This way, they can go back to BS'ing with their buddy coworkers, or play games on the computers.

A couple of weeks ago ... they had a sale on Seagate 160 GB drives [$69 bucks] ... in Fresno, CA ... they were all sold out ... So ... I went to the Best Buy in Visalia ... 20 miles from my home ... they were in stock but no where to be seen ... as I was leaving a sales person there asked me if he could help me ... I told him what I was here for and he brought me to the back where I came from ... he bent down and gave me one.

The guys working there were hiding them ... so they could buy them later for them selves and the guy who helped me didn't like the guy that was hiding them.

[Gen-An]

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on.

Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

#1, i'd be totaly F'n amazed if ANY salesperson at BB had a clue about anything, espc. the diff. in media codes or manufacturers, let alone what they will be phasing out

I was in a local BB recently and a customer was asking one of the employees about CD-Rs and he told him the best ones they had were the Fujifilms and points to the 50 packs and 30 packs of Fuji TY CD-Rs That was quite surprising, but in a good way.

[ROF]

Spoke to a salesperson about this on Saturday, he said Best Buy is phasing out ALL Fuji Japan media, they'll only be carryong Taiwan from now on. Yet ANOTHER reason why to stop buying from Best Buy!

#1, i'd be totaly F'n amazed if ANY salesperson at BB had a clue about anything, espc. the diff. in media codes or manufacturers, let alone what they will be phasing out

Agreed. Salespeople (especially at Best Buy), don't know shit. They usually tell you whatever they can, the first thought they can pull out of their ass, to make you go away. This way, they can go back to BS'ing with their buddy coworkers, or play games on the computers.

This can occur anywhere and isn't exclusively a Best Buy problem. Our local Best Buy has about 2 or 3 salespeople who have been there for quite some time. Why they aren't managers I have no idea. They are quite knowledgeable and when I need someone to test something I always seek out these employees. They are quite helpful and very knowledgeable in some areas of the store. Granted, they don't know everything and I probably know more but being a tech person I can quite often tell when I'm being fed a line of BS and I'm not the customer who sits back and listens to it. I allow it to flow freely until I've heard enough and then I call them out on their BS and ask to speak to their supervisor. The next time I come into the store this person either doesn't work there anymore, they avoid me, or learned their lesson and tell me that they will find someone with the answers I need.

I just wish all merchandise had either complete specs or even better a browsable user manual instead of a 5 line shelf tag.

[willrob]

Just to bring this thread back on topic (which wasn't so much about Best Buy, but about a sale on Verbatim +DL disks)

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0201238

[lordsmurf]

....I can quite often tell when I'm being fed a line of BS and I'm not the customer who sits back and listens to it. I allow it to flow freely until I've heard enough and then I call them out on their BS and ask to speak to their supervisor. The next time I come into the store this person either doesn't work there anymore, they avoid me, or learned their lesson and tell me that they will find someone with the answers I need.

Good for you, ROF. I've done the same thing myself, with Fry's, CompUSA, Best Buy and Circuit City. You're right, it's not a "Best Buy only" problem, but rather a problem with any tech store that only minimally trains employees. The only way to combat BS is to report it to those in charge. Sometimes the manager is not enough, you need to contact the regional office and speak to a GM. "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer, if it's honest. I don't know why people are so afraid of it. You can follow it up by offering to do some research, asking others who would, or refer them to somebody who does know.

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ANYWAY....

For Verbatim DVD+R DL sales, watch Microcenter, Best Buy and OfficeMax for good sales. They all cary 10-packs, often on sale for $20-25.

[lacywest]

Just to bring this thread back on topic (which wasn't so much about Best Buy, but about a sale on Verbatim +DL disks)

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0201238

Cool ... that guy over ... England or somewhere ... can take advantage of these prices ... I made a shortcut in my favorites ...

Feb2006 - Micro Center - DVD Media ... Verbatim DL Disks - $20

I catorgize all my Favorite links by the Year-Month ... I have a lot of links