For Frugal People $4.94 for 50 DVDs starting Sunday Feb 19th @ Staples

[unclebud]

Bought 1 pack of each.
DVD-R is UME01
DVD+R is AML002

[Jester700]

+1 on the "why the hell buy those things?"

If nothing else, the time and frustration to occasionally test & re-burn makes it unworth the money savings. With TY, I don't feel a need to test unless it's for a client.

[rnoski]

man some of you r so quick to bash someone who is just trying to report the facts on different brands of media. we all know anything made in japan for the most part is fine. but i have plenty of files uncompressed yes i said uncompressed!!!! THAT ARE 3.8 gb and less that burn perfectly fine on these so called "crap discs" aml...02. i have plenty MXL, TY, MCC made in japan etc... for archival purposes that were dirt cheap also. but 2.00 for 50 discs after 3.00 printer cartridge return coupon. thats almost free. and according to dvdinfo scans 2 discs out of a 50 pack scans below 80 on quality rating. that is acceptable by my standards. and im sure is acceptable for all the tightwads or thrifty people out there. i have plenty of dvdinfo scans on TY, MXL, and MCC that are in the 70's (2 or 3 out of a 100 pack spindle granted).

[rnoski]

i use to not worry about scanning TY's either for quality burns.......do not be lulled into that trap.....it may only be once or twice out of 100 but if that once or twice is impt info then u r screwed... i have seen plenty of them with bad sectors

[Noahtuck]

The only exception would have to be something TBoneIt wrote. If it's a temp disc, couple of files (preview something, transfer a file between computers), and you'll be throwing it away quickly, sure, go for it. You may still run into a ton of coasters, however. But $5 is probably worth the savings in time from having to burn a RW disc.

Actually it was me that said that :P

And i decided to keep my $5.00 :P
But there is a few more day's left so ya never know.....

[rnoski]

of course i think TY's quality control may be getting worse! i see more and more bad discs! Hey maybe we need to get some investors together and start our own new brand of media. lol.... do we have 1 in the usa? hmmmm i dont actually know the answer to that ? well unless infodisc still makes them? anybody know if infodisc is stilla round? and if so where can u buy them?

[pinetop]

I know someone is going to give me flak.....

I picked up some Nexxtech DVD-Rs from CC. They were UME01 media codes, 50 for $9.99. I had zero problems. They work in my Liteon burner and they work in my Sony recorder. Burned 14 so far.
This may shock some, but my Sony recorder doesn't like TY DVD-R x4 media, but is fine with these UMEs that are labled X8, but are really x4.
I used the Nexxtech's for disposal and give away use.
Considering, I've had bad Maxell, Fuji, and TY. Yes... TY.
I purchased 200 from the Supermedia store and had over a dozen bad burns. This was with the Liteon burner, not the Sony recorder. Maybe it was equipment and not media. I may be the only one, but I avoid TY media.

[lordsmurf]

It's your burner. I have an older BTC burner that refuses to burn TY DVD-R. Everything else is fine, however. So I feed it YUDEN DVD+R and anything MCC for the most part.

[ROF]

:P Call me a media snob if you wish - BUT; I would stay away from this Playo media. I love a bargain as much as the next guy but this stuff is destined for failure. If you just want to experiment then that is fine. But I guess even my trivial burns are too important to me to risk wasting my time. But that's just me!

You're not a snob and I'm not the type of person to pass up a bargain. I don't claim that media is good because it burnt completely and some testing software says it's good. The only true test of bargain media(or any media for that matter) is to recall all the data placed upon the media in the way you will be using it. If you burnt MP3s to it, replay every single MP3 from beginning to end on your choice of player. If you burnt a movie, watch it from beginning to end. If you burnt data, load all data back into your machine or even better a different machine.

The only true test of bargain media is to buy it, burn it, and play it back completely in whatever player/recorder/burner etc. that you will be using primarily to recall the information burnt. I wouldn't put an ounce of trust into nero verification, accu-burn or any of the other tests out there.

[OneSickPup]

The only true test of bargain media is to buy it, burn it, and play it back completely in whatever player/recorder/burner etc. that you will be using ...

I agree. Quality scanning, transfer rate test and disk scan all are excellent tools and have there place but they are not the be all end all that some people think. The ultimate test is and will remain to be playback performance. In my early days of burning, I had periodic playback problems that were always remedied by switching media. I have a small but growing list of media that I have success with consistently on all or most of my burners. MCC 03RG20 - MCC.....004 - MCC 02RG20 - TYG02....... - YUDEN000T02 all serve me well. I also find these on sale enough to keep my costs reasonable. I have from time to time tried other media codes (most recently Fujifilm03 - Fuji MIT -R 8x) and have for the most part ended up disappointed. Just my 2 cents.

[rnoski]

i agree totally with those statements. i have plenty of media that tested crappy quality scores 5, 10, 20 etc... and work fine on my dvd player. but then again my dvd player would probably play a cardboard box cut in the shape of a dvd. i have never seen it stutter or skip on any disc even ones with supposedly bad sectors. personally i dont put a whole lotta faith in those stupid scans but others seem to thats why i relay the info. i have time to kill and a spare comp to run only scans. guess im a nerd/ data collector.

[dipstick]

A bad scan does not mean that Your Player won't play them correctly. It means that Some Fusy Players will have problems. By the same Token, a Good Scan will mean that few or none will have a problem playing them. No, it's not perfect, but it's the best means you have outside of playing your disk on every single DVD player out there.

I do believe in scans and here's mine on the Playo:


Not a bad scan at all. It shows that my MadDog (rebadged NEC ND4550A) has no problems buning these disks. That may not be the case for your burner, so you'll have to test it out for yourself. That is if you can find any left, as they went about as fast as free beer at a football game.

[lacywest]

There is no financial savings. By the time coasters happen, your cost doubles or triples, not to mention all the wasted time.

I agree ... with Mr. Smurf ... I've got better things to do 8) buy them ... burn them ... and then run tests on them ... geez ...

I've got an antenna to mount to my chimney ... I'm preparing to go HDTV over the air ... Comcast is really pissing me off ... I got the MyHD MDP-130 HDTV PCI Decoder Card ... yesterday ... and I'm anxious to fire it up ... I also won one on Ebay ... [total of two of em]

HDTV here I come ... [I already view it on Comcast ... I'm trying to get away from the clutches of Comcast]

I have 3 days off and I am not going to stop off at Staples and start testing these el cheapo DVD disks [even tho the store is smack dab in the middle of Hanford]

Staples does have a good rep in our town ... they will beat Wal-mart prices too ... I use my cell phone and record the shelf price on to video and show it to the folks at Staples and they give me a discount.

[bmwracer]

Not worth the potential frustration they may cause...

[cal_tony]

LORDSMURF gotta luv ya. About bad disks, The truth is the truth.
But, I did by some of these. they burn nice and I wanted to reburn some stuff that I had already burned on Matrix disks.Another lord smurf no no brand. Should have also listened to him then. So I guess I'm still a dum dum even now.
At this time of the olympics on tv it's strange but my old Matrix disks burned 2 years ago are all turning on their backside from silver to gold begining at their outer edge and working inward. Its like magic. As they turn color they still can be salvaged. Once they are completely gold, theyr'e gone. No longer readable by anything that I have. Anyway, these Playo disks have to be better than those old Matrix.??? I'll be back in a couple of years to let you know just how bad they are.

[OneSickPup]

I do believe in scans and here's mine on the Playo:

Let me clarify my earlier post. I believe in scans also. I just think some people get carried away with the interpretation aspects and may rely to heavily on the results. I personally think a TRT is a better indicator of readability. I use quality scans for testing media/burner/firmware combos and for degradation/deterioration testing.

BTW - that's a pretty good scan - especially since that's a NEC 355x/455x family burner. My 3550a is horribly inconsistent at scanning. Does the Maddog give consistent scans? Just curious.

[Marvingj]

I broke down & buy a pack of Playo for $5.00. Like I said earlier they are shit bricks. I had at least 6 coaster right out of the pack. They are shit bricks. But its your money. I threw those away. I don't have time to worry about recording. When you use SHIT BRICKS you automatically have coaster. Spend the extra couple of bucks and get something that give you better odds the Las Vegas Slot machine!!!!!

[rnoski]

this thread gets way to much attention..lol i use them for the suv dvd player myself....works 4 me...to each their own... some body shut this thread down immediately....ha ha ha

[edDV]

I've got an antenna to mount to my chimney ... I'm preparing to go HDTV over the air ... Comcast is really pissing me off ... I got the MyHD MDP-130 HDTV PCI Decoder Card ... yesterday ... and I'm anxious to fire it up ... I also won one on Ebay ... [total of two of em]

HDTV here I come ... [I already view it on Comcast ... I'm trying to get away from the clutches of Comcast]

That's interesting, the only use I have for cheap DVD media is for time shifting HDTV MPeg2_TS. At ~30Min per DVDR I offload the PVR Machine for things I want to watch later then toss. At least a MPeg2_TS stream can recover from media issues.

[rnoski]

yep depends on the old burner/firmware...from my reports they work fine on litey 1653s, 1635s, 832s, benq 1625, nec 3540, and pioneer 110d (which instead of listing them all have newest stock firmwares) if anyone cares...

[rnoski]

since we r talking bout crap media officemax has 100 pack of 4x starlogic dvd-r for 10 dollars or princo 4x dvd-r basically (and if u have their 10 dollar off coupons if u spend 20 bucks or more) you can get 200 dvd-r's for 10 bucks plus tax.

[SingSing]

Most of the different of different brands of DVD blanks are the coating and not where they are made. The manufacturing of electronics is truely global.

The coating changes when they are "burn" by the laser. The matter of fact, it will also changed under heat, as well as aging. The bottom line is all burned DVD will lost contents after a while, just like burned CD.

So, most of us already figured out this and make multiple copies of important information, because the copy will go bad one at a time.

The debate of good vs cheap media is kind of overheated. The different is the good media maybe can last a year or so longer. But expect any burned media to last forever is not pratical. Only pressed media can do that.

[samijubal]

Nothing lasts forever.

[SCDVD]

For all you bargin hunters, here's another great money saving idea for you. The next time you go to the grocery store to buy meat, don't waste all you money at the meat counter. Just pass on by and head for the pet food isle. You can pick up some great deals on canned dog and cat food. Lots of good protein and added vitamins - umm, ummm good! All for less than a buck a can! Take some home to the family, cook it up and serve it over noodles and watch everyone chow down. Oh, don't forget to throw away the can; you wouldn't want anyone to see it.

Maybe you can find a forum somewhere on steaks and chops and post your money saving finding on eating dog food instead of steak. I'm sure your post will be a "smash" hit.

[dipstick]

SingSing wrote:

Most of the different of different brands of DVD blanks are the coating and not where they are made. The manufacturing of electronics is truely global.

The coating changes when they are "burn" by the laser. The matter of fact, it will also changed under heat, as well as aging. The bottom line is all burned DVD will lost contents after a while, just like burned CD.

So, most of us already figured out this and make multiple copies of important information, because the copy will go bad one at a time.

The debate of good vs cheap media is kind of overheated. The different is the good media maybe can last a year or so longer. But expect any burned media to last forever is not pratical. Only pressed media can do that.

That's the smartest thing anybody said in this thread. The bottom line is these are cheap media. They are not Great media, neither are they Crap media. It's a simple matter of weather or not they are compatable with your burner. They may last a couple of years or a couple of months. Who knows?

If your nervous, don't buy them.

[lordsmurf]

But expect any burned media to last forever is not pratical. Only pressed media can do that.

Actually, a lot of research has shown the opposite. Pressed discs will oxidize and "rot" much faster than dye. Be sure to back up important pressed discs.

[xxiangg]

For all you bargin hunters, here's another great money saving idea for you. The next time you go to the grocery store to buy meat, don't waste all you money at the meat counter. Just pass on by and head for the pet food isle. You can pick up some great deals on canned dog and cat food. Lots of good protein and added vitamins - umm, ummm good! All for less than a buck a can! Take some home to the family, cook it up and serve it over noodles and watch everyone chow down. Oh, don't forget to throw away the can; you wouldn't want anyone to see it.

Maybe you can find a forum somewhere on steaks and chops and post your money saving finding on eating dog food instead of steak. I'm sure your post will be a "smash" hit.

I cannot understand why someone got so upset just because someone
else bought some cheap/crap disks.

[rnoski]

if you really knew where the beef u buy and eat came from....esp chains u prob would buy the dog food.....its all about makin a buck.....buy the cheapest and sell it for a premium.....i had a buddy work at winn dixie i could tell u some unbelievable stories bu thats besides the point......dumn analogy

[rnoski]

well i cant spell tonight please..... somebody make fun of that everybody is a freakin critic....

[rnoski]

the coaster i sit my cold beer on costs more than 5 cents......lol