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  1. Member Krispy Kritter's Avatar
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    Newegg has lowered their price to $32.99 for Verbatim DL 20 pack spindles (with Free shipping at the moment) and there is currently a $8 MIR for a total of $24.99. (limit 1 per household).
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    Futureshop Canada has them on again for $30CAD/20 pc. spindle. Still haven't used up the last batch I got when they were $20CAD/20 pc. spindle...
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  3. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Krispy Kritter
    Newegg has lowered their price to $32.99 for Verbatim DL 20 pack spindles (with Free shipping at the moment) and there is currently a $8 MIR for a total of $24.99. (limit 1 per household).
    Yeah, but if it is the India-made ones I think I'd pass. BB still has MIT &/or MII packs on the shelf, but you have to go through them to know what you're buying. I will probably do that, the next time they have them on sale. The 8x MIT Verb DL spindles that I had in the past bought at Micro Centre -- haven't seen those in a long time.
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    Originally Posted by Seeker47
    Yeah, but if it is the India-made ones I think I'd pass. BB still has MIT &/or MII packs on the shelf, but you have to go through them to know what you're buying.
    Consider yourself lucky. Whether I buy at Best Buy or through the mail (I use a variety of sources), all of the Verbatim DVD+R DL discs that I have bought recently have all been made in India. So far they seem OK. I think in the very immediate future there won't be any place that you can buy these discs from where they aren't made in India.
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  5. ...C O P Y L E F T JohnnyBob's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jman98
    Originally Posted by Seeker47
    Yeah, but if it is the India-made ones I think I'd pass. BB still has MIT &/or MII packs on the shelf, but you have to go through them to know what you're buying.
    Consider yourself lucky. Whether I buy at Best Buy or through the mail (I use a variety of sources), all of the Verbatim DVD+R DL discs that I have bought recently have all been made in India. So far they seem OK. I think in the very immediate future there won't be any place that you can buy these discs from where they aren't made in India.
    I bought a batch of 100 Verbatim DVD+R DL (5x #95310) from Rima in Aug'07, and they were all MII. That came as a big surprise! Prior purchases from Rima and other suppliers were all MIS, and I only had 1 coaster in several hundred burnt. I've burnt 99 of the MII discs so far, resulting in 4 coasters. 3 of the coasters were in the first spindle opened. The other coaster was in the second spindle opened. So after a bad start, my confidence level with the MII discs has increased somewhat.

    My next batch of these discs (10x #95310) was purchased from MediaCenter in Sep'07 and they sent me a mixture of MII (6 spindles) and MIS (4 spindles) from one of their California warehouses. I'll be burning this batch in the coming weeks/months, the MII first, and those results should be available early in 2008. For some reason I'm stockpiling the MIS discs for a rainy day.

    It would be natural for a new operation to have some kinks at the start, so it will be of interest to see if the MII discs are improved in 2008. One can only hope because there's nothing better than these available in the DL flavor.
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  6. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    They're on sale again this week at BB ($30. for a 20-spindle, through next Sat.). The new packaging is purple and blue -- all MII -- whereas the old packaging on these spindles was a mix of blue, white, and yellow -- some of which was MIS, but you had to hunt around for it and have some luck. About once a month, a 2.5 hr. route I drive goes right past at least 6 BB locations that I know of. I stopped at one of these on Sun., but they had only a couple of the 15-spindles that weren't on sale, and nothing else. I would have stopped to check at a couple of the other locations but was short for time.

    Coincidentally, today I stopped in to a relatively new BB location that happens to now be the closest one to me. They had product -- a mix of the old and new packaging. I found two spindles of the old packaging / MIS, and bought them . . . so now this location has zero. The weird thing is I'm thinking this may be the same two spindles that I saw there several weeks ago, when they weren't on sale, which I pushed towards the back of the shelf ! So, either that BB doesn't sell much of the Verb DLs, or any shoppers there who may have been interested in these were not looking very hard for it. The point is, if you look around for these you might get lucky too.

    I'm wondering if we can totally rely upon the printed info inside the spindle -- not due to any malfeasance on the part of Verbatim, but packaging mistakes are probably not unprecedented. If someone would like to run a MII blank by DVD Identifier and post the output, I'd be glad to do the same with a MIS blank. Quite possibly, there won't be anything that shows up to distinguish between the two. But I think there really should be, in fairness to consumers.

    Also in regard to the Verb DLs, I've had only one or two failures (but not outright coasters) since switching to Imgburn to burn them. One occurred yesterday, with a CRC failure that seems to be outside the movie itself, in some "Special Features" that are probably expendable. It may be due to a bad rip, or something else. If any sort of pattern starts to develop, I'd be inclined to wonder about the burner, which has been burning up a storm for over two years now.
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  7. This maybe off topic and I apologize if this is interpreted as hijacking this thread.But I think you might find these as an alternative to the Verbatims.I used to use the Verbatims but the price is just too steep for me to keep buying them.
    Believe it or not, I found these Playos DVD+R DLs to be reliable in terms of burning and playbacks.These Playos are capable of burning up to 8X.My burner is a Liteon LH-20A1P(Updated to the most recent BIOS) and I burn them at 4X.I set the booktype to DVD-ROM. The DVD player is a 5 yr old Panasonic 5 discs player.So far,no problems with these Playos.Still knocking on wood!
    Here's the link if interested:
    http://www.meritline.com/playo-8x-dl-dvd-plus-r-white-inkjet-hub-printable.html
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  8. Forgot to add that they are also cheaper than Verbatims.So far, burned about 60 or so with just 5 coasters.I think 3 of those coasters were my fault.
    I was also a little hesitant in buying these the first time around so I just bought 20 of them to try out.Since I was having a good experience with these, I recently ordered about 200.
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  9. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Playo is a brand. Those discs are probably RITEK? CMC? Something else? I forget. Knew a while back.
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  10. I know the purists will hurt themselves in their efforts to get to their keyboards to refute my observations but . . . . assuming one movie per DVD . . . .

    o DL discs at 20 for $24.99 is $1.25 each . . . .

    o SL discs range from $0.20-$0.50 each . . . .

    o Using various "shrinking" software, my uncalibrated eyeballs can seldom tell the difference from an original DVD backup vs. one "shrunk" to 52-55% of the original--on a 42" screen.

    o The math/economics of using DL discs just doesn't work for me . . . . Your mileage may vary . . . . .

    (Headin' for the bunker, awaiting the incoming . . . . )
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    Actually CobraPilot, you are not alone here. FulciLives, who's one of our forum regulars, does the same thing. To be honest with you, I rarely can tell the difference either. Playback of SL discs is a lot less troublesome than DL discs too as DL discs, especially non-Verbatim ones, may have playback issues on any given DVD player.

    I'd recommend using DVDRebuilder over DVDShrink though. DVDRebuilder takes longer, but if you use something like CCE or HC Encoder with it, it should give you even better results than DVDShink, but it will take a lot longer to do the shrinking.
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  12. ...C O P Y L E F T JohnnyBob's Avatar
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    CobraPilot has a point. It's for each to decide. For me a significant factor is time. It takes a long time to shrink'em, and that ties of my computer. You can't do much else on a computer while shrinking & burning as that takes up most of the processor's bandwidth. It's just a lot more convenient and takes a lot less time to use DL, not to mention that all of the original quality is retained.

    mpojeep, thanks for the info about Playo DVD+R DLs. I've burned about 60 single layer DVD+R 16x Playo discs (MCC-004) and only had one coaster. They play OK on the 3-4 standalone DVD players that I've tried. What's the ID of their DL discs? The relative price is attractive and your success rate is about the same as I'm getting with Verbatim DVD+R DL made in India (5-10% coasters).
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  13. Originally Posted by lordsmurf
    Playo is a brand. Those discs are probably RITEK? CMC? Something else? I forget. Knew a while back.
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  14. Member Krispy Kritter's Avatar
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    I've tried the Playo brand DL discs myself, and using a Pioneer 112D with the latest firmware (this was last September/October I believe), 4 of the first 6 discs were coasters. I ended up throwing the last 4 away. They were 8x rated discs and even burning at 2.4x I was getting coasters. I kept experimenting because the first disc worked.

    Anyway, just like with any other media, it boils down to the burner.
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    Question: If you had a choice between MII Verbatim +DL discs and some other brand, what would you buy?

    I just got access to a DL burner, but my town doesn't even have a Wal-Mart, let alone a Best Buy. I can order online, but then I have no way of seeing where they are made until I get them.

    So, what do I do? What's the failure rate of the second best brand?
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    Originally Posted by rayden54
    Question: If you had a choice between MII Verbatim +DL discs and some other brand, what would you buy?
    MII Verbatim +DL discs. Those who buy other brands post here about how they don't work. See Krispy Kritter's post just above yours for proof of this.

    I've used the MII Verbatim discs because I simply can't get anything else. None of my source, including mail order, have anything else. So far they seem good. You might get 1 coaster out of 25 pack with MII Verbatim as opposed to 0 coasters with the Made in Singapore DL discs, but that's still a lot better than anybody else.
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  17. ...C O P Y L E F T JohnnyBob's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by rayden54
    Question: If you had a choice between MII Verbatim +DL discs and some other brand, what would you buy?

    I just got access to a DL burner, but my town doesn't even have a Wal-Mart, let alone a Best Buy. I can order online, but then I have no way of seeing where they are made until I get them.

    So, what do I do? What's the failure rate of the second best brand?
    I'm also in a quandary about it. I really don't want to buy more MII because they're giving me 5-10% coasters. Like you, I would appreciate advice about alternate brand possibilities.

    FYI, I've run a few scans with Nero CD-DVD Speed on the MII kind at
    http://club.cdfreaks.com/f44/lite-lh-20a1p-post-your-scans-here-201092/index33.html#post1977742
    and may do more with the MIS kind for comparison, also possibly some other brands.
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    Double post
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    Originally Posted by OneSickPup
    Originally Posted by lordsmurf
    Playo is a brand. Those discs are probably RITEK? CMC? Something else? I forget. Knew a while back.
    RICOHJPND00

    I''ve had one coaster out of 40 with that DL media. I may pick those up.
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    Originally Posted by jman98
    Originally Posted by rayden54
    Question: If you had a choice between MII Verbatim +DL discs and some other brand, what would you buy?
    MII Verbatim +DL discs. Those who buy other brands post here about how they don't work. See Krispy Kritter's post just above yours for proof of this.
    I've either had good luck or just a great batch, but the 2/15 packs of DL Fuji/Riteks I bought have not had one coaster or any playback issues on any of my players. As Kritter said Burner,firmware and choice of encoding/burning software/burn speed are the key factors. Determine which combination works with that media and stick with it. Any experimenting and expect at least a couple of coasters.
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  21. Originally Posted by rayden54
    I just got access to a DL burner, but my town doesn't even have a Wal-Mart, let alone a Best Buy. I can order online, but then I have no way of seeing where they are made until I get them.
    These aren't that cheap but I have never seen MKM 003 in the US that were anything but Made in Singapore.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817130029

    What DL burner do you have? MKM 003 may not be as well supported on older burners as the MKM 001 has been.
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  22. ...C O P Y L E F T JohnnyBob's Avatar
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    Those look like the ones, but I don't enjoy shooting craps. They are non-refundable, so if they decide to ship you "made in India", you're up the creek without a paddle.

    P.S. I have several spindles of unopened Verbatim DVD+R DL (95310) made in India, MKM 001. Send me a PM if you want them. I'll make you a deal! I'm not in the business of selling anything, so this is purely a private one-time offer. (USA)
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  23. Member Krispy Kritter's Avatar
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    I've had zero issues with the MII discs. Also note that there is likely quality differences between the earlier MII discs and current production. The India production facility had just gone online when reports of "bad" discs started surfacing. You may want to get and test a new spindle.
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  24. ...C O P Y L E F T JohnnyBob's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Krispy Kritter
    I've had zero issues with the MII discs. Also note that there is likely quality differences between the earlier MII discs and current production. The India production facility had just gone online when reports of "bad" discs started surfacing. You may want to get and test a new spindle.
    Have you quality scanned them? I'd be interested to see some of your scans. I'm just starting to scan my burns for quality with Nero CD-DVD Speed, and fairly clearly my MII discs are "2nd Class" media.
    http://club.cdfreaks.com/1977742-post808.html
    http://club.cdfreaks.com/1980152-post809.html

    My MII discs (95310 spindles of 20) were purchased from:
    -- Rima in Aug'07, which had previously supplied MIS but switched to MII without any prior notice to customers, and
    -- MicroCenter in Sep'07, which sent me a mixture of MII and MIS spindles.
    When and where were yours purchased?

    If there is good evidence that newer MII discs are 1st Class quality, I'll reconsider. Otherwise, I won't burn nor buy any more of them. I just reorganized my storage cabinet and shelves, and all of the MII spindles are now hidden in the back. I don't intend to use them. If you want them, I'll make you a good deal [Or stop by sometime and pick them up, if you're in my area, about 75 miles to your east...]
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  25. i have lg burners and all my playo ones would not burn, would not even start, said something about starting to burn................then crapped out.

    verbatim made in India ok so far, what is the point of moving manufactuering processes if it produces crap product !

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  26. Member zoobie's Avatar
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    uh...profit?
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  27. Originally Posted by JohnnyBob
    Those look like the ones, but I don't enjoy shooting craps. They are non-refundable, so if they decide to ship you "made in India", you're up the creek without a paddle.
    The only DL media Verbatim has outsourced to Moser Baer India (MBI) is MKM 001 production. Currently all MKM 003 production is in Singapore. These can be identified by the 8x - 10x packaging (new style or old style packaging). Now obviously this is subject to change at any time but currently that is a true statement.
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  28. ...C O P Y L E F T JohnnyBob's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by OneSickPup
    Originally Posted by JohnnyBob
    Those look like the ones, but I don't enjoy shooting craps. They are non-refundable, so if they decide to ship you "made in India", you're up the creek without a paddle.
    The only DL media Verbatim has outsourced to Moser Baer India (MBI) is MKM 001 production. Currently all MKM 003 production is in Singapore. These can be identified by the 8x - 10x packaging (new style or old style packaging). Now obviously this is subject to change at any time but currently that is a true statement.
    Thanks for that info which sounds authoritative, and my instinct says to trust it as probably true. However there's another part of me which is an inveterate skeptic, so... I wonder if there is a public source where that info can be verified, or is it "insider" info? For example, does Verbatim publish such facts, i.e. where each of its discs are made? Are any links available where this can be verified?
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  29. @JohnnyBob

    No - my comments are based on info I've gathered through Internet research and personal experience only. I do think them to be accurate currently but things can change at any time. I do understand and appreciate your skepticism. Always better to err on the side of caution. I would ask if anyone has in their possession MKM 003 media that is non MIS to post so as to inform the public. Thanks
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  30. Member Krispy Kritter's Avatar
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    I don't religiously perform disc scans. I use DVDInfo Pro to verify discs whenever I am using a new brand/type of disc. I had several (can't remember if they were Matrix or Playo) that successfully burned, but then failed a scan. While most of the generic brands wouldn't even successfully burn. Aside from Verbatim, nothing else passed.

    *NOTE: I had one Ritek disc. It was a DVD+R DL, 8x rated I believe that burned and scanned successfully. But it was only a single burn and I haven't had any other Ritek discs to test.
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