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DVD-R for Movies SOAK
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Posted by: BeanMeScot

I purchased a DVD recorder on Black Friday. I have been purchasing inexpensive DVD-Rs for the thing but even the DVD Recorder that created them can't always read them later. I need some quality DVD-R's that will work well with a Panasonic DVD recorder for the creation of movies that don't cost an arm and a leg. Thanks!

Posted by: montag

Ritek are supposed to be pretty darn good for a decent price. Someone will chime in and tell you where to get them.

Posted by: Raj

Best buy has TDK's on special:

http://bestbuy.dailyshopper.com/ind...niqueid=2919566

$25 for a 25 pack.

Even without the sale price it comes up to about $2 per disc, not bad for TDK. You can choose either DVD-R or +R.

Posted by: montag

quote:
Originally posted by Raj
Best buy has TDK's on special after rebate:

http://bestbuy.dailyshopper.com/ind...niqueid=2919566

It comes up to about $2 per disc, not bad for TDK. You can choose either DVD-R or +R.

That's some interesting math there raj! ;)

Posted by: mrboo

I stick with name brands, memorex and tdk work for me.

Posted by: holee

Jump on this NOW. It's a special at Office Depot.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mes...y&keyword1=%2DR

~$62 for 100 +R or -R Memorex discs. Free S+H. No rebates.

Posted by: Raj

quote:
Originally posted by montag
That's some interesting math there raj! ;)

Oops!

I meant: (without the rebate it's $49.99 )so it comes up to $2 per disc.

With the rebate it's $1 per disc plus tax.

Edit: I se it's just "sale" and not rebate. So you may want to jump on this.

Posted by: Raj

quote:
Originally posted by mrboo
I stick with name brands, memorex and tdk work for me.

You'll want to stick with name brands especially when dealing with recordable DVD's. There's less tolerance for cheapie brand DVD's. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.

Posted by: Fofer

Thanks for the heads up, holee. I just ordered this good deal on Memorex 4x media!

One thing worth mentioning though:
A 1x or 2x DVD burner writes to 4x media at 1x, so to obtain the highest performance from a 2x DVD burner, you should be looking for 2x media.

That said, some folks like burning their DVD content (movies, especially) at 1x anyway, hoping for the best compatibility and reliability of their burns. So getting 4x media (even if their DVD burner is only capable of 1x or 2x) still works for them... especially when the deal is as good as the one holee has pointed out.

I have a 2x SuperDrive in my PowerBook but still went for it...

Posted by: Fofer

So which are better, TDK or Memorex?

The Office Depot deal on Memorex works out to about $0.65 a disk.

Posted by: holee

quote:
Originally posted by Fofer
So which are better, TDK or Memorex?

The Office Depot deal on Memorex works out to about $0.65 a disk.

I've used both with no problems so far. The thing is, TDK and Memorex discs aren't TDK or Memorex. They're often re-badged Ricoh, CMC or other brands. So quality can vary.

I've bought only Memorex and TDK's, mostly because they're the cheapest name brands I can get. Out of around 150 blank DVS's, I've only had one coaster, and that was a TDK. But I don't think that's significant.

Posted by: holee

I gotta say, I'm so glad I have a DVD burner nowadays. With Bit Torrent, I find I end up downloading several gigabytes per week. There's just not enough affordable hard drive space to get it all to work out. So now I've got stacks of burned DVD's. It's like crack. You can't stop.

Well you can once you run out of blank DVD's. Which is why I'm glad I found the Office Depot deal this morning. :)

Posted by: bsnelson

quote:
Originally posted by holee
It's like crack. You can't stop. Well you can once you run out of blank DVD's.

There's another way: Use up your DVD writer. That happened to my Pioneer A05 a few weeks back. Out with that, in with $101 NEC ND-2500A. Hopefully I'll get more out of this one than the other one.

Brad

Posted by: dave

Before you buy, take a look here

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia

Posted by: logic88

quote:
Originally posted by holee
I've used both with no problems so far. The thing is, TDK and Memorex discs aren't TDK or Memorex. They're often re-badged Ricoh, CMC or other brands. So quality can vary.

That's one reason why I buy bulk Riteks instead of so called "name brands". Sometimes you can't be sure who is OEMing the media for TDK or Memorex while you always get Ritek when you order bulk Ritek (unless you are ordering from a shady source). I like to use Ritek whenever possible as I've had very good success with their media. Probably have gone through over 500 pieces now.

I use either DVD Decrypter or DVD Info to find out who actually made the media. (The second link is to Meritline's hosted zip for v1.07 of DVD Info. V2 of DVD Info seems to be commercial now.)

Posted by: BeanMeScot

quote:
Originally posted by Fofer
Thanks for the heads up, holee. I just ordered this good deal on Memorex 4x media!

One thing worth mentioning though:
A 1x or 2x DVD burner writes to 4x media at 1x, so to obtain the highest performance from a 2x DVD burner, you should be looking for 2x media.

That said, some folks like burning their DVD content (movies, especially) at 1x anyway, hoping for the best compatibility and reliability of their burns. So getting 4x media (even if their DVD burner is only capable of 1x or 2x) still works for them... especially when the deal is as good as the one holee has pointed out.

I have a 2x SuperDrive in my PowerBook but still went for it...

I wondered about this. This is a stand alone DVD Recorder. What speed do those usually work best with?

Posted by: bsnelson

I pulled the trigger on the Memorex deal from Office Depot. I've only opened one of the cake boxes (the deal is 2 packs of 50), but the discs are ProDiscS03 (4X) media. The reports on dvdrhelp seem very positive on this brand, so I'm hopeful. I burned and verified one that was almost completely full (4.705GB out of 4.707GB) and it was perfect.

What a deal, 100 4X DVD-R for less than $65 out the door!

Brad

Posted by: Fofer

quote:
Originally posted by BeanMeScot
I wondered about this. This is a stand alone DVD Recorder. What speed do those usually work best with?

What make and model do you have? Somewhere in the manual it should state it's technical specs, and what speed it's capable of burning at.

I too picked up the DVD-R's from Office Depot after paying for them online. I haven't opened them yet but am thankful I got in on the good deal.

Posted by: Raj

As far as brands go, I've had an equal experience with both. The TDK media I've tried does seem to be of a much higher quality than Memorex though.

Posted by: Redleg

With the Panasonic recorder, the Memorex disks are a little suspect. Let us know how they work for you.

I've only used TDK in my Panasonic and out of about 200 DVDs I've had one coaster, and I think that was my fault. The TDKs go on sale at Best Buy for $1 each (in either the 25 or 100 packs) about every three or four weeks.

Posted by: SparkleMotion

quote:
Originally posted by Raj
Best buy has TDK's on special:

http://bestbuy.dailyshopper.com/ind...niqueid=2919566

$25 for a 25 pack.

Even without the sale price it comes up to about $2 per disc, not bad for TDK. You can choose either DVD-R or +R.

That's a pretty good deal. I got a 100-pack of TDK +R discs from BB just over a month ago...the price was $189+change, but there was an instant rebate of $90, so it was down to about the same as that deal you referenced.

They are easily the best/most compatible discs I've tried so far. :up:

Posted by: BeanMeScot

quote:
Originally posted by Redleg
With the Panasonic recorder, the Memorex disks are a little suspect. Let us know how they work for you.

I've only used TDK in my Panasonic and out of about 200 DVDs I've had one coaster, and I think that was my fault. The TDKs go on sale at Best Buy for $1 each (in either the 25 or 100 packs) about every three or four weeks.

Don't tell me that! I went ahead and did the Office Depot deal. I don't need another batch of coasters.

Posted by: Redleg

quote:
Originally posted by BeanMeScot
Don't tell me that! I went ahead and did the Office Depot deal. I don't need another batch of coasters.

Don't worry about it too much. It's not like they're terrible; results are just a little mixed. There are many variables between machines as well as blank-disk production runs that can affect results. You have a good chance of having no problems at all, and that's a great price. :)

Posted by: Fofer

The best test (as always) is to just try the disks on your own burner, with the finished result on your own DVD player (and perhaps the players of friends and family you might be sharing movies with.)

One thing I've learned from DVD creation is that what works for one person might not work for the other.

Posted by: BeanMeScot

quote:
Originally posted by Redleg
Don't worry about it too much. It's not like they're terrible; results are just a little mixed. There are many variables between machines as well as blank-disk production runs that can affect results. You have a good chance of having no problems at all, and that's a great price. :)

My problem is not the quality of what is recorded on the disk. The problem is that I can't see what is recorded on the disk. The recorder often can not read a disk to begin with and, even if it can read it to begin with, when I record it and go back to watch it later, it can't read it then.

Posted by: spanishannouncetable

In addition to the Best Buy sale, Staples has 25 pk spindles of Imation -R & +R discs for the same $24.99 price. The sale price is good through March 27. Staples also carries TDK and will price match Best Buy, so if the Imation's are sold out get some TDK's there instead.

BTW, are Imation DVD's any good ? So far all I've used are Maxell +R and have yet to burn a coaster, but I like the $25 price on both of these. TDK or Imation, hmmm...

Posted by: holee

Just got my 100 Memorex DVD+R's. They're identified as Ricoh's. Woo hoo.

Posted by: gtrogue

I buy printable Ritek -R media. I've burned about 35 in my Mac superdrive and have only made one coaster and only then because I scratched the disc before I put it in the drive and didn't notice. All of them play in both of my SA DVD players, my brother's DVD players, and my Xbox. If you buy in bulk you can good media online for less than $1 per disc.

Posted by: Fofer

gtrogue, where do you buy yours from?

Posted by: Fofer

quote:
Originally posted by Fofer
A 1x or 2x DVD burner writes to 4x media at 1x, so to obtain the highest performance from a 2x DVD burner, you should be looking for 2x media.

I've actually started to research the above a bit more, and even though Apple says differently it seems like this is now outdated information (or perhaps it's just specific to Apple 4x DVD-R media?)

I am now pretty sure if you have updated firmware in your DVD burner, and the media you buy is "1x-4x" compatible, then it will burn at the fastest speed your recorder can handle. To test this, I put the Memorex 4x DVD-R media in my 2x SuperDrive, and sure enough, Roxio Toast tells me it'll be able to burn to it at 2x speed. However, I have read in some forums that even though a recorder info screen states it'll burn 2x, it still takes 45 minutes to burn a full disk (the equivalent of 1x speed.) So I'm not 100% sure.

As an aside, I have now used 5 of these new Memorex DVD-R disks. (One with data and four with video from iDVD.) All but one worked fine. The one that didn't gave me an error at the end of the iDVD burn, which was a bummer after the many hours it takes for iDVD to actually finish! The videos played fine in my Pioneer and new Apex but not my older Apex -- but I've never had much luck with DVD-R's and that old Apex.

I'm keeping track so I can best purchase my next batch for the best compatibility. Speed isn't actually as important to me as ensuring compatibility with DVD players of friends and family. There's nothing quite as disappointing as the call you get from a friend after you've sent them a DVD you spent a lot of time on, saying that it doesn't play in their DVD player!

I checked out Meritline.com, and I have a feeling I'll get be getting 50 Ritek's from there -- they seem to get the best reviews. Interestingly enough, they end up being around the same price as the Memorex's.

Posted by: gtrogue

quote:
Originally posted by Fofer
gtrogue, where do you buy yours from?

Supermediastore. Prices start about $.94/disc for a 50 pack and go down from there.

Posted by: net114

I have preferred using +RW for my movies. If you search a little, you can find them for $1 a disk. And, since they are rewriteable, you won't make coasters, and you can always erase movies/content you are tired of! One last thing, RW's seem to play in more players in my personal experience. I have Phillips, Sony, and AIWA DVD players. RW seems to play pretty well in them all, but +R/-R have been hit and miss.