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[King818]

Great thread, just read pages 1-8.
Have a few questions though.

1. Are the Sony's still shipping in MKM quality? I want singapore's!
2. Are the Verbatim's at 8x (blue/orange) still ALWAYS MKM's? I don't want to get an india one if I order online.
3. Where on the spindle would it say if it is made in singapore, or made in India?
4. Any hot deals at the moment?

Thanks in advance.

[jesterrace777]

QUOTE(King818 @ Jan 4 2008, 10:04 AM)

Great thread, just read pages 1-8.
Have a few questions though.

1. Are the Sony's still shipping in MKM quality? I want singapore's!
2. Are the Verbatim's at 8x (blue/orange) still ALWAYS MKM's? I don't want to get an india one if I order online.
3. Where on the spindle would it say if it is made in singapore, or made in India?
4. Any hot deals at the moment?

Thanks in advance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

1. Unfortunately no.  They stopped since all of the production of the 2.4x official discs is now handled by the idiots at Moser Baer.  
2. As long as they are 8x official variety and not the 2.4x-6x variety then you should be fine as all the 8x official ones are still always MIS MKM discs.  They recently switched to a standardized color label so it's not like it used to be where the 2.4x official ones had the blue/purple label and the 8x official ones had the orange label (not unless you get some old stock).  
3. Right below the UPC symbol you will find the country of origin
4. No really hot deals at the mo but buy.com has a decent deal on the 15 pack if you are a first time google checkout user.  $15 pack for $24.24 shipped with google checkout.  

QUOTE(Toddler @ Jan 3 2008, 09:15 PM)

Thanks, good discussion.

If I were to stray from MIS Verbatim, I really wouldn't know where to go.  I work with videographers and digital photographers who do a lot of archiving to DVD.  A year ago, most of them swore by Ritek based on the quality of their scans immediately after burning.  Now those same guys avoid Ritek like the plague because their discs are now virtually unreadable without CD-Check.  These are professionals who store their discs in a cool, dry place, stored vertically, etc., and now they are frantically converting their archives to other brands.

Seems that Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden and TDK are the popular "premium" alternatives.  A couple of folks mention Princo as average media but it seems to resist deterioration well.  Also some good things have been said about Gigastorage (never heard of them).  One guy I know said he has tested his library and Gigastorage media shows virtually no deterioration in almost a year of storage.

Are we talking single layer or double layer here?  Two totally different worlds when talking about the brands listed above.  For DL media TDK is just another Ritek clone so not really worth paying for the "premium label" there.  For single layer media I would definitely take Verbatim (MCC coded discs) and Taiyo Yuden over TDK as they all cost about the same price but TDK's own lines and the lines that they outsource to are definitely inferior to Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden.   Princo is junk, I don't care what anyone says.  It is one of the most commonly reported rapid deterioration medias out there and I have definitely experienced that first hand.  Gigastorage also doesn't have the greatest long-term legacy so I wouldn't trust them.  Specials on the single layer Verbatim often put them down in the 20-30 cents a disc range and Taiyo Yuden can regularly be had for under 40 cents a disc.  At those prices why bother with any of the other variants?  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Toddler]

Yeah, my anecdotal remarks are mainly in reference to single-layer media.  What Ritek has going for them in dual-layer is that they've possibly been producing it longer than anybody else besides Verbatim, hence plenty of experience.  I think RiData is supposed to be Ritek's "premium" label, for what that's worth.  I'd probably give them a go first if I couldn't keep getting MIS Verbatims.

[vampiro]

Just passing by to give thanks again to Jes. I did the stupidist thing though. About a week ago, I passed by Bestbuy with no intention on buying any DL DVD's, but the varbatims were calling me in, so I went to see if they had any in stock and they did. I was so happy, I bought a 20 pack of verbatims, used the 10% off coupon, and total was $40. I looked at the label in the store but I thought that the MII were the MKMs, until now I realized that the discs are supposed to be MIS. What an ***. Now I have a 20 pack of MII Verbatims, uhh useless. I hope bestbuy will exchange or return them.

[jesterrace777]

An easy way to remember (at least right now) is that the 8x official media is all MIS and only comes in packs of 5 or 15.

[smokeingit]

Best buy has a mix of MII and MIS of verbatim for 29.99 a stack of 20. i bought up tons of MIS

This post has been edited by smokeingit: Jan 12 2008, 03:27 AM

[xacimo]

hi, great thread

I am wondering what manufacturer makes melody discs, and what manufacturer makes mitsubishi discs?

the mitsubishi discs cost a fortune and I am wondering if they are manufactured by the MKM that you recommend.

And just how long does a MKM singapore disc last?

[jesterrace777]

QUOTE(xacimo @ Jan 15 2008, 03:59 AM)

hi, great thread

I am wondering what manufacturer makes melody discs, and what manufacturer makes mitsubishi discs?

the mitsubishi discs cost a fortune and I am wondering if they are manufactured by the MKM that you recommend.

And just how long does a MKM singapore disc last?

Bottom line stick to the 8x Verbatim DL DVD+R discs and don't bother with the rest.  They really do provide the best deal.  Never heard of Melody discs and I definitely wouldn't try them unless I knew who made them (or if I could get them for dirt cheap).  I imagine the official Mitsubishi discs are MKM (provided they are 8x official) but you could probably get the Verbs for cheaper.  As for how long an MKM disc lasts.  If it is taken care of and stored in the proper conditions it could easily last well over 30 years.  

[aj316]

It seems that the reviews on Newegg for the offical 8X Verbatims 15 pack are now made in India.  After finding this out, I really have no idea what dl media to buy that I can count on.

So now that all the Verbs are made in India, what do you guys suggest buying?

[cory1492]

QUOTE(aj316 @ Mar 1 2008, 05:08 PM)

So now that all the Verbs are made in India, what do you guys suggest buying?

A rock for the window of the guy who decided to start that? Sad to see this happen, a previously 100% reliable manufacturer outsourcing their brandname.

I have had better burns with Fuji's Ritek D01 disks than I have had with any of the 20 MII Verbatims I had (sector failures and spikes around the layer break.) Perhaps if they (MBI) left the dirt out from between the disks (nearly 1/2 had concentric scratches due to them shipping with dirt between the disks) and got the dye consistent (about 1/8th had visible dye defects/runs/spots etc, before anything was burnt to them) that might have been different, though I guess I may have gotten an unlucky spindle too.

Supposedly though, they are now shipping mixed MIS/MII to retail. Hopefully they don't stop making MIS ones entirely.

[ssj4android]

How well do MII Verbatims / Ritek Memorex discs work with a BenQ 360 drive? Will they be playable?

[cory1492]

QUOTE(ssj4android @ Mar 3 2008, 03:50 PM)

How well do MII Verbatims / Ritek Memorex discs work with a BenQ 360 drive? Will they be playable?

It's sort of a "try it and find out" situation, too many variables with most brands of disks (and how well a specific burner supports the brand/media code, verbatim generally are the first to provide reference data/media to the drive manufacturers thus they generally have better burns) to say anything for certain.

[d-dot]

Does ne1 know if the dvd drive in the xbox 360 ,hitachi or samsung, will read the office depot brand dvd +r dl discs?? thx for the help

[jesterrace777]

As with any cheap quality media it is a YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).  They are either Ritek or Ricoh and the success of them depends on many different things (ie your burner/firmware, your particular 360 DVD-ROM drive/firmware).  Keep in mind that no two drives (even of the exact same model) will read the exact same selection of media.  Hence the reason why we are so adamant about recommending MIS Verbatim.  @aj316 are you sure that is for the 8x official line or is it for the 2.4x discs that are up to 8x on some burners?  People are easily confused by that one.

[roli]

I will mod my Xbox360 in near future and I must buy some DVD DL media.

Problem is that I have only two choices.
1 - Traxdata DVD+R DL 8x -- 2.10€ -- 2,77$
2 - Verbatim DVD+R DL 8x -- 6.29€ -- 8,29$
These are prices for 1 medium!

I can get 3 mediums from traxdata or 1 from Verbatim. If my xbox will read mediums from Traxdata for a year then I will buy them. If not then I will have to buy mediums from Verbatim and that is not cheap.