2X TDK's for less than $2 a disc

[Ghamu]

..Well almost, I had to pay sales tax here in CA, and it is from eBay. But the dude has a lot of feedback, all good it seems. The guy has a ton of 100 packs of 2X TDK's for $185 + $12 shipping.

I'll get it by tommorrow, I'll let you guys know how it worked out.

[Octagon]

YOU Just got ripped off. Get your money back. SOme guy on another thread just said that they were awful.

[Ghamu]

...hmmm, which thread?

[Ghamu]

Heres the info:
00 42 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 98 0C 13 .B...@....P.....
76 78 80 00 03 54 44 4B 47 30 32 00 04 30 30 30 VX...TDKG02..000

They do look kinda light though... weird, the guy has feedback from over 100 unique feedback, all positve. I don't think I got ripped of. Any suggest a good test for them?
Anyone else have have TDK's, are you's a lighter color too?

[Doom9]

I have recently ordered a sampler from Meritline, it contains 2 2x rated Meritline DVD-Rs, both are TDK02, too with light purple die and white top. So far I've only tested one but it had occasional skips and if I remember correctly it couldn't be ripped in a DVD-ROM either. Currently I would suggest the following test: 1) after burning you put it in your DVD-ROM (not the recorder!) and rip the whole disc. If you get read errors chances are your standalone won't read it either.
2) play the whole! movie in your standalone. Chances are that you can rip the disc but you still have problems on the standalone.

Unfortunately you cannot conclude from 1) to 2) or the other way round as I have found counterexamples to both. And then it also remains to be seen if you just got lucky (or unlucky) and the test disc you picked had some defect so you'll have to test a couple of discs before drawing a conclusion. Things are real complicated, aren't they? :/

[Ghamu]

hmmm, I don't get it, there are multiple types of TDK 2X speeds? I thought they pretty regarded as pretty much some of the best DVD-r's. Well I can't return them, I got what I was promised I guess... 2X dvd-rs. I'll try to do some 2X burns tommorrow. What a bummer.

BTW, mine are also marked TDK on the inner spindles.

-Mike

[Doom9]

manufacturers sell their disc to various companies, often advdinfo is the only way to determine th actual maker. You'll find TDK discs being sold under many different names. Though if they sell higher quality batches under their own name and sell the rest to other companies or how exactly that works I don't know either.

[alexnoe]

For Ritek: they sold good cd-r to TDK and the whole of the crap TDK didn't want to Platinum, Tevion and others.

I guess it is done similarly for DVD media.

But as to TDK media, I guess that even the "bad" stuff they don't sell under their own name is much better than average crap media by Princo and the such.

[Ghamu]

...Well I knew TDK does use outside suppliers (especially later in the game with CD-r's) but I hadn't heard that about TDK DVD-rs. I thought ADVDinfo was supposed to be able to tell us who actually manufactured the DVD, not just who is marketing them. Is there a way to tell if acutal dye is good (I'm hesitant about burning them, because right now I think I'm going to resell them, I don't what to have a weird number to sell!)
-Mike

[alexnoe]

Ghamu: ADVDInfo tells you the manufacturer, but it won't tell you if you have a good or a not so good media by the same manufacturer.

[Ghamu]

I don't have my dvd-rom hooked up any more (..although my burner seems to be a really slow ripper, didn't count on that..), there just isn't any room, I have my 4 100 gb hard drives and cd writer hooked up.

But I just burnt the 2nd split disc for a beautiful mind with the TDKs at 2X (I timed it) and it works flawlessly on a Daewoo and Memorex(granted there both cheap but..) Will burn more at 2X, but so far I think I got some pretty good media, just looks lighter. It does feel great burning at 2X though, SOOOOO much faster.

BTW, anyone else using Gear Pro notice its VERY touchy when you try to use other programs while its running (it will crash sometimes)?

[thxtof]

I bought from Meritline the following media:

- TDK 4.7 x2 - individual Jewel Case, with TDK logo printed on DVD
- TDK 4.7 x2 - 50 EOM DVD-R in cake box, with nothing printed on the media, and just "TDK" marked on the inner spindle

For BOTH ADVINFO says:
00 42 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 98 0C 13 .B...@....P.....
76 78 80 00 03 54 44 4B 47 30 32 00 04 30 30 30 VX...TDKG02..000

They both look exactly as you describe them, with very light color.

I burnt 5 of each in x2 and all work great !

$1.85 is pretty cheap though. Meritline/Supermedia Store are selling the same pack for 265$ !

Any other place for cheap TDK ?

[ticoff]

Excuse me,

Could you let me know where you bougth the TDK 2X media for less than $2 ?

I checked meritline but the price is $2.65 each.

Thank you in advance,

Ticoff

[tumbar]

Meritline 4.7GB DVD-R Media 2X for General 100 Pack Only $1.99 Each!

are these the ones you are talking about?

http://www.meritline.com/mer47dvmed2x1.html

thanks, Jim :)

[ticoff]

No, I'm taking about the TDK's:

http://www.meritline.com/tdkdvdr.html

Have you ever try this meritline DVD-R's ? Ihave read in the forum about people having problems with meritline DVD-R's.

I have not read complaining about TDK DVD-R. That's way I'm trying to find this brand as cheaper as possible,

Thank you,

Ticoff

[alexnoe]

I had 10 pieces of Meriteline 1x media.

3 thereof were so dirty that they gave a bad burn.

[ticoff]

This is a newbie question (I am a newbie).

If I found a blanc media that is dirty, Could I clened with alcohol and after dry, could I burn it ?

It is dangerous to clean a blanc dvd-r ?

[alexnoe]

These 3 discs were dirty beyond cleanability...i was not able to seperate "disc" from "dirt" without damaging the disc.

[thxtof]

Ghamu, did you try more of these x2 TDK ?

Any problem so far ?? Someone else on another thread complains that they pixelate ??

[Ghamu]

...well movies I made so far work perfectly on a dvd player, no problems, not even at the end.
...but I recently burnt "Video Essentials" (If you don't own it, borrow it, or *gulp* buy it, it is worth it! i think the most recent one is Digital Essentials) at 2X speed, and it failed to verify correctly. BUT, it does play in the dvd perfectly. And no, I did not verify the movies I made so far, although I will start...

[alexnoe]

If verify failes, then you might have sent corrupt data to the burner. Cause can be defective RAM (had this already) or crap IDE cable if you use DVR-A03 (it has no UDMA and therefore no check if data was received correctly).

[thxtof]

Just burned 6 more of these x2 TDK... all work great !

Unlike the Ritek G03 which sometimes gives you an error on the last VOB if the DVD-R is full (4.7Gb), I was able to copy back on my PC all the TDK up to x7/8 read spead !!

They also play ok in my Apex 1500.

[Ghamu]

OK, I'm bit confused here, UDMA has error checking? If thats is the case, when I turned on PIO4, did I also turn off the benifits of UDMA?

>>it has no UDMA and therefore no check if data was received correctly

[alexnoe]

That's right.
UDMA uses CRC check to verify that all data has been received correctly (usually 99.9xxx% of errors are detected).

You should only disable UDMA if you get errors caused by this (such as "communication failure").

PIO has no CRC check, and neither has MW-DMA.

[Ghamu]

Thanks for the heads up alexnoe!

[thxtof]

A friend of mine just got the 100 pack of TDK x2 from ebay.

The media IS NOT the same than the one sold by meritline or supermediastore:

1) It does not have the "TDK" written on the inner spindle

2) The lead info is different:
00 42 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 8A 0D 14 .B...@....P.....
88 88 80 00 03 54 44 4B 47 30 32 00 04 30 30 30 .....TDKG02..000
30 30 30 00 05 CC C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 000.............

In the "True" (jewel case or 50 cake pack) TDK there is "VX...TDKG02..000" ...