SONY vs. VERBATIM DVD+R

[ofbarea]

Jut got a 50 pack of Verbatims +R media. Perhaps this is older stock, but it has Mitsubishi media.

[oldandinthe way]

Never seen Made in India SONY media. All MIJ or MIT. Even see returns on SONY CD-R (which are TY).

I am not a media guru. I test many types of returned mechandise to determine whether the returns are suitable for donation to schools and charities. Its a hobby.

I had an OEM TS-H552B wouldn't burn many types of 16x media until Gateway automatically downloaded a firmware update.

OSTA points out that most burn problems are tied to media/burner pairs. It also suggests that some manufacturers do inadequate testing of different brands of media. And they point to the need to actually apply firmware updates to burners.

I feel strongly that many people who purchase SONY media do so in the hope that it will work in their SONY equipment and have poor experience because their equipment is out of date.

[mohnitor]

This is not true.

In fact, there is a recent interview with a company head from Europe discussing their choices in media, and they have stated plainly that they only use their own Mitsubishi media (Verbatim), with the occasional Taiyo Yuden (beacuse it's the only other disc to their quality levels). I didn't see Ritek or anything else in that list.

As somebody else has said, you're probably running across some fake crap that is being dumped locally. It happens.

You can trust a Mitsu-Verba salesman or your eyes and the experience of others.
Just google for Verbatim RitekF1.

On forums like cdfreaks there are a lot of stories of these legitim Riteks in Latin America.
They are starting to sell "ONLY" the spindles of Verbatim DVD-R RitekF1. I noticed it, because they do have the same package... without the AZO words on it...
50 pack of Verbatim DVD-R Made In Taiwan RitekF1

Recently I found in Walmart Imation DVDs with this ID:
DVD-R Imation 16X:
MID: MCC 03RG20

tried them out, and yeah: they are pretty good - we burn around 300 DVDs a week - Mostly filmed events like weddings etc.

So maybe in the US of A there will never be a RitekF1 Verbatim: but in Latin America: it´s a fact.
Ah, and in Germany (Media Markt - don´t expect that germans don´t fight piracy...)

[orsetto]

I just realized my references to Sony "Made in India" media being less-reliable should have read "Made in Malaysia" . Somehow the location "India" got stuck in my head from someone else's post and I kept repeating it. Many apologies to anyone I confused, this topic is confusing enough as it is. My opinion still holds that Taiwan-made Sony has less problems on older burners and recorders than Sony Malaysia. (BTW, note that a trip to Radio Shack's media shelves is like a trip to a travel agent: the Shack has media sourced from factories you never knew existed: TDK from Saudi Arabia???)

The "standards" for DVD burners and media are much too fluid, leaving mfrs too much leeway for alterations. There are too many problems matching burners to media, and too many cases where the mfr changes something mid-stream making formerly reliable media useless for some of us. Perfect example is Verbatim single-layer, which was a no-brainer favorite until CMC started screwing with minor details early this year. No question CMC is using MCC-approved materials and machinery, and the discs per se are very high quality: quality is not the issue. The issue is MCC/CMC *changed something*, and the current MAP6/PAP6 discs simply do not work, AT ALL, for many of us who don't have brand-spanking-new burners whose firmware can adapt to the change. I am not speaking of bad burns, I'm speaking of recorders immediately rejecting these new Verbatims as unrecognizable, period. Unfortunately the vast majority of Verbatim now on retail shelves is this MAP6/PAP6 production run, effectively closing some of us off from Verbatim unless we buy older formulations from online vendors. The media code on these newer discs will read out in software the same as the old ones, MCC media code has not changed, which is why those of you with accomodating burners don't see a difference. CMC simply engraves the new disc hubs with the MAP6/PAP6 batch identifier, in navy blue lettering, thats the only indication.

The Verbatim MAP6/PAP6 compatibility issue has been debated to death all over the internet, usually by obnoxious flamers with nothing useful to say. I'm not interested in starting that up again here as a negative topic, and I'm *not* anti-Verbatim: my purpose in mentioning this is to encourage owners of hardware more than a year old to sample a VARIETY of discs before they stockpile a large qty from any one vendor. Do not take brand recommendations on the forums as gospel, instead use them as a good starting point for your own testing. I have friends who were totally loyal to TDK, they stockpiled hundreds of discs and are now crying as they reach spindles manufactured after the unannounced CMC takeover (these fail about 20% into a burn on older hardware). The moral is, SAMPLE a couple discs from every spindle in your stash, NOW.

[SmokieStover]

I had an OEM TS-H552B wouldn't burn many types of 16x media until Gateway automatically downloaded a firmware update.

My TS-H552B came with firmware GA04. Never could find a newer one.

[UC7]

and in most folk's experience on this forum anything Made In India is a guaranteed disaster. DL burning is a crapshoot with most any brand of disc at this point, reliability statistics are still a ways off.

Verbatim is actually confused by online user forums right now. The India production lines ares identical to what was set up in Singapore, and single-layer is identical to what is set up in Taiwan. All of the raw materials and quality control measures are the same.

After further use of these India made Verbatim discs, I am finding that the discs from Amazon.com are failing at less than a 10% rate, while the ones from Supermediastore failed at a 60-70% rate.
I can only guess that the ones from the latter were stored improperly. I'm no expert on dyes, but I would believe that improper storage, say in high temperatures, would cause permanent damage to them.

[Gen-An]

I haven't run into much CMC-made Mitsubishi media made in building 6 (that's what the 6 means in MAP6) in some time, but that I had worked fine in all of my burners. The newest MCC004 discs I have are all PAPA from different types (printable and regular matte silver retail discs) and they're all very recent, made in 2007.

[SCDVD]

A major problem with burner updates is that the burner manufacturers often don't provide firmware updates for their burners that are older than a year or two. The suggestion that it is important to have newer firmware to insure the best results with new media is very true. Unfortunately this means that the user needs to buy a new burner every couple of years.

[orsetto]

I haven't run into much CMC-made Mitsubishi media made in building 6 (that's what the 6 means in MAP6) in some time, but that I had worked fine in all of my burners. The newest MCC004 discs I have are all PAPA from different types (printable and regular matte silver retail discs) and they're all very recent, made in 2007.

Agree, the Verbatim discs made by CMC with the hub engravings PAPA (+R) and MAPA (-R) are extremely good, I have not heard of a single complaint against them by anyone and they worked perfectly for me on the rare occasions I could actually find some to buy. In the New York metro area they are long gone, only the PAP6/MAP6 version is on the shelves. Maddening, because its often on sale at great prices- very frustrating that it just won't work in my hardware. I can't imagine what the hell difference a building address in the factory complex could make, but they do in fact have problems with compatibility so there must be some slight difference in the manufacturing process in that building. If I could find Verbatim PAPA/MAPA discs anywhere local, I'd buy out the store in a New York minute .

[OneSickPup]

I haven't run into much CMC-made Mitsubishi media made in building 6 (that's what the 6 means in MAP6) in some time, but that I had worked fine in all of my burners. The newest MCC004 discs I have are all PAPA from different types (printable and regular matte silver retail discs) and they're all very recent, made in 2007.

I have found and used MAP6 in my market and found them to be no different as best I could tell. I don't ever see PAP6 in this market (Southern Indiana/Kentucky). But then again I use the Prodisc MCC 004 and MCC 03RG20 and can't tell any significant difference either. I tested one spindle of MII DVD+R 16x and it scanned with higher PIF than most Verbatim MIT but it was still decent media. The DL issue with MII is a little different - those are IMO definitely more variable than their MIS counterparts. Again - that's my opinion.

[lordsmurf]

You can trust a Mitsu-Verba salesman or your eyes and the experience of others. Just google for Verbatim RitekF1.

Given how many people out there are stupid, I trust Verbatim.

And pay attention, it was not a salesman, it was a spokesperson involved at upper levels of the company discussing various aspects of blank DVD media. If this changes, fine, but in certain countries, fakes are more likely scenarios. Verbatim being faked all the way down to the packaging is not unheard of, it's happened in Europe.

Nothing against Mexico, but much like Hong Kong, it's full of fake products. Levi's jeans are well known as being fake more often than not.

I'm no expert on dyes, but I would believe that improper storage, say in high temperatures, would cause permanent damage to them.

Maybe, but not as likely as humidity. If the environment was overly humid, that would damage far more than heat would. Extreme cold is also far more damaging than extreme heat is.

My opinion still holds that Taiwan-made Sony has less problems on older burners and recorders than Sony Malaysia.

Daxon's Malaysian factory should quite honestly pump their product directly into a landfill. Why bother selling it? It'll end up there anyway. Those Malaysian discs are even worse than Princo. I would say they routinely fail 50% or more of the time.

recorders immediately rejecting these new Verbatims as unrecognizable

Blame the nerds. The ones who don't care about backwards compatibility. This is an issue of older firmware not liking newer discs.

[mohnitor]

Given how many people out there are stupid, I trust Verbatim.

Thank you.

Nothing against Mexico, but much like Hong Kong, it's full of fake products. Levi's jeans are well known as being fake more often than not.

Yep, we live with the piracy, on every street corner you can have whatever you want.
From CDs, DVDs, perfume, clothes, watches or whatever you want.
9 out of 10 Nike products are fake - but not the one sold in Walmart.

Talking about WalMart, Office Depot: If they sell Fake Media they get big trouble. Even here.

Salesman: Even Bill Gates is a salesman of MS: everybody must live and being "loyal" to his company...
So you go for the truth of Verbatim - I go with the stupids in this case.

But the future will tell.
And in the meantime I accept to be called a stupid. We are used to.

[OneSickPup]

Here is a link to a thread over at CDFreaks that gives some details about Verbatim branded RITEKF1 purchased at an OfficeMax in Mexico as well as some other allegations of findings in South America:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f33/verbatim-dvd-r-ritekf1-225971/

Verbatim has always had different offerrings in different parts of the world. One example being Verbatim branded TY in Europe and let's not forget the CMC coded Pearl White line. They may be using Mexico and points South as a test market and saving MCC coded production for the picky US and Canadian markets. Who really knows for sure. Maybe one of you guys with this media could contact Verbatim. Here's a link to Verbatim Mexico:

http://www.verbatim.com.mx/

My Spanish is limited so I never could really find a contact email or phone number.