calling all Princo & Shintaro media users ...

[poweroftheplum]

Hi,
Since ive starting backing up my dvds, about a month ago, ive been using the cheapest media i can find here in Australia. The cheapest being Princo (about a $1.20AU) and the new Shintaro's ($3.00).

Ive done about 12 dvds on the Princos and countless more on the Shintaro's. Roaming around this forum ive come across a few people saying that media can 'die' after a few months and dismissed it thinking that DVD media would at least outlast me (my lifetime), before it crapped itself.

Then i bought a new Sony DVD-R standalone player and tried my first ever copy of The Matrix on Princo media. All was good until about the middle when it got blocky and fell over and died horribly. Of course this has played perfectly many times before on my other stand alones (XMS,LG and my XBOX). I have tried The Matrix again since then and it has worked perfectly, but every now and then when i try a Princo i get 'dirty disc' errors, but they always seem to work on the second or third go. Is this a sign the media is 'dying' and if so should i just port them over to my Shintaro's. Or is it just my new stand alone? A Sony DVP-NS415.

The Shintaro media looks pretty much the same as the Princos, same white label minus the Princo brand name on the inner ring. The back does look more darker though, a darker violet color than the Princo media. Just wondering if the extra $2 you pay for this media is just for the packaging, could it be the same media re-packaged differently?

Anyway time to go, thanks for reading my m*#&@(*!&# post. Lol. Its long isnt it. Yes it is.

Im learning alot from this forum, so keep up the posts!


J.



:cool:

[Grover]

I too am in Australia, and like most things "technology" we tend to pay this mystery premium for things down here (if they are even available here). Reading these forums, DVD-R media are no different.

The average price for "brand-name" DVD-R media here is anywhere from $5-6 for brands you've heard of but don't really know right up to $8-10 for regualr brands like "Verbatim, Imation, Sony, TDK etc..."

I bought 20 discs at weekend computer market in Melbourne yesterday for $50 ($2.50 each). Can't remember the brand but the DVD info program identifies them as being Maxell. They are white with blue writing... Info something... They are rated 1-4 speed but they guy who sold them said they would best work at 2x (my burner is 2x anyway)

I burnt a couple of movies at 2x and they seem to have worked fine.

I haven't tried Princo DVD-R yet (bad experiecnes with them in CD-R format has put me off so far and they were $30 for 10-pack at the market yesterday)

Where are you getting Princo DVD-R for $1.20 ? That sounds like a great deal. Is that for a spindle

Program called "AdvInfo" will tell you if the Princo and Shintaro are the same.

Cheers Tim...

I see your "long post" and raise you.... ;-)

[poweroftheplum]

Hey, i tried ADVDinfo ( grab it here btw: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd-r_tools/ ), whenever i tried to obtain the 'Pre-recorded lead in info' to identify the manufactuerer i kept getting a ASPI Sensekey error on both the Princo & the Shintaro. So its still unlcear if there the one and the same.

I also just noticed that the Shintaro discs have there own website address printed on the covers ( http://www.shintaro.com.au/ ).

PLE Computers is where i buy all my dvdr media from, the Princos werent in spindles, single discs with case or packs of 10 only. You can get them online from there store ( http://www.ple.com.au/ ) but ive been told that the stock is empty as there seem to be none left in all of Australia :| Typical! The Shintaros seem to of gone up by 50 cents aswell. :P

I must admit even though they are cheap i have yet to make one single coaster, i just burnt a copy of the Green Mile, at 3hrs long it had to be compressed at about 62% on InstantCopy and it worked perfectly and im still amazed at the quality.

My one worry is about the media some how magically 'dying' in a few months. I was worried when i saw it with my own eyes on my copy of The Matrix, but it seems to be a one off thing, all of my first ever copies ive done (a month ago) seem to work fine :)

If anyone out there has any Princo or Shintaro stories about them crapping themselves, please post im interested to know if ill still be able to play them in a years time.

Regards
J.


EDIT: they seem to go into this issue in sum detail in the post entitled "is it worth it anymore?" link here -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33040

[idbirch2]

When I first started burning DVD-R I also opted for the cheapest media I could find. These were always either Ritek or Princo.

Movies would get the exact symptom you describe 'dirty disc errors' -this was in a Pioneer stand-alone that set me back £300 - I wasn't about to point the finger at my player.

I also used these discs to burn backups of PS2 games. These worked fine for about 3-4 weeks when they suddenly stopped booting intermittently. This lasted about a week until they just stop booting all together. The discs were still readable on the PC and I could copy the data back accross OK although the read speed would plummet towards the last quarter or so of the disc.

In summation - yes, crappy media gets more unreliable over time until its useless - a complete waste of cash, even if they are 1/4 the price of decent media.

[Tiffany]

Shintaro DVDs are Princo DVDs. That I can confirm.

I have been using Shintaro's (and the orginal Princos) for several months now, and the very few frisbies I have burnt are due to my own faults and mistakes.

DVP-NS415: When my XMS started to mis-read the DVD-Rs (See Below) I went out and purchased the Sony DVP-Ns415, and encounted the exact same problems as you described. Most of the time it would play the DVD-Rs OK, but then it would suddenly stutter. Just a little "flakey". So I returned it to the shop and bought a Hyundai 360A slimline, and have not seen the problem since :)

Regards
Tiff (Brisbane)

Clip from previous post.....
Reading many threads on different forums about CDR and DVD-R degradation, I dug deep and came up with an old VideoCD that I had recorded about 3 years ago. Sure enough there were the on-screen "sparkles" and slight stutters that I had not seen when I first recorded this VideoCD and watched it. So, I thought, CDRs really do decay over time. I began to think of ways of re-recording my valued SVCDs.

But a friend of mine borrowed the VideoCD and played it on his settop DVD Pioneer, and it played perfectly. WTF !!!!

End of story: I bought a new settop DVD player (which also played the VideoCD in question perfectly) rather than spend hours of time and money backing up my vast collection of SVCD VideoCDs.

Now I am not saying that CDRs and DVDs do not decay over time. As this thread has indicated, noone really knows for certain. I have no doubt that some cheaper brands probably would. BUT, I am just adding a little more to the "thinking pot". Next time you see screen sparkles, ask yourself "Is it my media, or is it my DVD player"? Maybe the laser head needs cleaning?

[poweroftheplum]

Hmm, hearing that about your year old SVCDs is giving me the shakes, alot of my albums that ive 'backed up' on cheap media are almost around the one year mark. Time to maybe go threw them and see if there still playable. :|

The princos and the shintaro dvds both have that same purple violet color, except the shintaro is noticably darker. I wonder if it will fade over time? Maybe thats what color the Princos originaly were?

Eep! I think ill cut down on the rippage for a month (just when im getting into it), and re-test the dvds. Or maybe i should wait indefinently, until quality name brand dvdr media comes down to sensible prices, like 3 bucks or so :)

As for the new Sony standalone ive just bought, ive been hammering it now for 4 days straight and other than that one movie "the matrix" its been running sweet. I dont have the heart to return it back to the store as the guys there went threw alot to get me my free Spidey DVD that was supposed to come with it :P If worse comes to worserer ill give it to my sis and keep on plugging away on my trusty LG.

J.



EDIT (yay): Ive sent both Princo and Shintaro emails enquiring about the life span of there media, and if its reliable enough to store data for years to come. Wonder if they'll reply.