Good deal on Verbatim DVD+R/-R disks at Office Depot

[atreides93]

http://officedepot.crossmediaservices.com/officedepot/circular_browse_listing_detail.asp?storeid=2279864&pagenumber=12&rapid=21285&listingid=-2098528034&

I am going to go pick these up tonight :)

Not bad for name brand disks eh? It looks like 30 for $34

[AudioVideoMaster]

If they're the "datalife plus" disk then I'd get them. Last time I bought a pack of these, plain "Datalife" that are advertised here, they came up as CMC's with DVD Decrypter.

[Matthew]

From what I've read on here, cheap 15 pack spindles invariably seem to be CMC.

[Toona]

yes they are CMC's don't waste your money as I did

[atreides93]

I can't get a good reading using DVDInfo with these disks. I already picked up a pack. they were sold out! They only had 1 left so instead of getting 2 they gave me 1 for half price. So I got the 15 pack for around $16.

When I use DVDInfo it reports this!
What the heck kind of disk is this? Is it because its DVD+R and not DVD-R ? I've never tried a DVD+R before...I have an NEC dual format drive.


Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID
Formatted Size 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Total Size 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type Unknown
Media Type DVD-ROM
Disc size 2cm
Media Id Code Speed Unknown
Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density Blank Disc
Track Density Unknown
Number of Layers 1

[grant_h]

Looks like about the same thing I purchased at sam's club for 39.00/30 pack. the bad news is my Phillips DVD 711 player will not read them. The good new's my PS2 will read them. It's a toss up I guess.

BTW, if I buy one type of verbatim media and it doesn't work in my standalone, (when DVD+r is supposed to work acourding to the reviews) does it mean all Verbatim media won't work. Or are there different qualities/versions of media from the same manufactuer?

EDIT:It was not the media causing the problem I guess it was the trial version of DVD X copy Xpress. I now use DVDshrink and everything works great. Not one coaster. I did get a couple using DVD X copy Though.

[atreides93]

I updated the firmware on my NEC 1300A to the latest hacked version and now I can read the MEDIA id correctly.

here's what it says

Media Information
Disc Regions are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
Format Type UDF 1.02
Volume Name MEMU4MF1
Application id
Implementation id UDF Toshiba DVD Video
Recording Date/Time (mm/dd/yyyy) 4/15/1998 12:08:17
Formatted Size 4.29GB(4.60GB)
Total Size 4.29GB(4.60GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 2249BFh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers

[Chowskie]

So, is RICOHJPNR01 a good one? I grabbed the deal at Office Depot myself two days ago. I'm currently using DVD+R's by Fujifilm. I bought the 25 pack cake from Best Buy. I was on rebate then. I scanned it just now, I also got RICOHJPNR01.

I didn't even know about all this quality issues with DVD disks before today. I do hope that the Fujifilm DVD is well made. So far, it is working fine for me. Let's hope it won't deteriorate in a few months.

[atreides93]

No idea what to expect!

At least it didn't say CMC or whatever that crappy media was...
I've heard that some Ricoh's are good and some are bad.
I'm just going to use it to backup movies I don't watch too often.

I just got a look at this baby einstein DVD my daughter watches, its all scratched up..I need to back that sucker up fast!

[Toona]

the last verbatims I got at office depot were cmc as I said before that would be cool if they had different ones this time but the vebatims from Sam's club were Ritek G03's and my DRU500A and my standalones love them

[alexnoe]

If the Nec1300 did indeed write it, then it can't be too bad...

[atreides93]

So it seems its really a crap shoot!

I was lucky and the verbatim's I got (datalife) not datalife plus, were ricoh, not cmc.
So I guess I'm happy for now..but not happy that's such a crap shoot.

By the way, I read the disk back using dvd info's speed test, and the curve looked better than my Ritek G04's!! very smooth, no dips at all. though the image i burned wasn't using up the entire disk, so that's not yet a fair test.
I was about to burn another image to test but guess what, the DVD+R has just a tiny bit less space on it than the DVD-R !! Its a difference of about 300k or so, but its enough since the image I have uses the entire dvd-r save but a few hundred k.

[alexnoe]

The difference is 7 MB

[Chowskie]

atreides93,

I'm contemplating to return my purchase or not. Since I still have blank disk left to use, I haven't opened the new purchase yet. Now after u got a good test result of the disk, I will wait for your next full test result.:D

[atreides93]

Okie :)

I have a few images to burn,so I will be testing another one tonight.

I think the key is that DVDinfo reports the media id as ricoh
If it reports "CMC" then I'd be wary.

[|minister]

I wasn't aware that DVDinfo could retrieve info for DVD+R discs. I thought that only DVDplus (http://dvdplusid.cdfreaks.com/) could do that.

Let us know how it turns out. Seeing as how in Spain they've just introduced a new tax on blank media I'm having a friend in the U.S. send me some and I need to know which ones are good. Driving 15,000 kms to return a set of discs is a bit too far for me :)

[int 21h]

For our US friends, you can get 30 DVD-Rs, 30 DVD+Rs for $52.98 from Office Depot by doing the following:

Go Here: http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=Es5Ekr9eEBk&subid=1&offerid=27778.1&type=10&tmpid=988&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.officedepot.com%252Foffers%252Fsave.asp&RD_PARM2=offers%252Fsave.asp&u1=995

Use code 10853472. Then Add 2 of Item 447220 DVD+R media, Add 2 of Item 449659 DVD-R media to you cart. Add Buy 1 get 1 free coupon: 69629846.

(Courtesy Techbargains.com)

[int 21h]

Also, when I choose local store pickup, my price becomes $46.65 for the lot of 60 discs.

[atreides93]

I didn't know that DVDInfo wasn't supposed to read DVD+R disks but it seems to work now. I'm trying to latest beta version of DVDInfo 2.0. I believe its beta 5.
Anyway that DVD Plus program you told me about also agrees these are "RICOHJPGR01"'s as shown below.


Unique Disc Identifier : [RICOHJPN-R01-02+R]
-----------------------------------------------------
Disc Type : [DVD+R]
Manufacturer ID : [RICOHJPN]
Media Type ID : [R01]
Product Revision : [02]
Disc Application Code : [General Purpose]
Recording Speeds : [2.4x - 4x]
-----------------------------------------------------
[DVD Plus Identifier - http://DvdPlusID.CdFreaks.com]

Well the news isn't good...check out these pathetic results!! I'm really upset. I already burned 3 of these stupid verbatim disks. This shows you that name brand doesn't mean anything!!

[atreides93]

There is a possibility that my Pioneer DVD-ROM drive is at fault here.

I took the disk that I tested above and played it on my Sony set top DVD player (530D).
It played through the credits of the movie flawlessly, not a single hiccup or problem. i also watched 30 seconds of the last chapter, no problems at all.

This is strange...my sony 530D is not the best player..it is always a bit finicky. It won't play Princo's past 4 gigs...so if anything it should play these disks even worse than my DVD-ROM drive.

Next I am going to test the same disk using my NEC 1300A drive to read it in dvdinfo speed test.
I'll report back soon.

[int 21h]

I'm picking some of these up tomorrow, I'll post the manufacturers of both types of discs.

[atreides93]

Ok sounds good. Looking forward to seeing some speed test results too from you.

Ok guys where can I buy a new DVD-ROM drive that's any good? heheh I thought a Pioneer DVD-ROM drive would be the best cause after all they made my burner (well the burner I used to have).

I just redid the speed test results, this time using my NEC 1300A as the reader, and guess what, it passed with 0 errors.
It looks rather beautiful actually.

here ya go

[int 21h]

The DVD+Rs read as:

08 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 4D 43 43 00 00 00 00 00 30 .......MCC.....0
30 32 00 38 23 54 37 13 02 4A 71 02 90 66 16 16 02.8#T7..JQ..F..
0B 0B 0A 0A 01 1C 1E 0B 0C 12 12 01 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 01 00 38 38 02 26 60 38 06 30 22 10 ......88.&`8.0".
08 20 1C 01 00 00 02 26 60 38 06 30 22 10 08 20 . .....&`8.0"..


The DVD-Rs read as:

00 6A 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 50 00 02 87 0D 13 .J...@....P.....
88 99 80 00 03 43 4D 43 20 4D 41 00 04 47 2E 00 .....CMC MA..G..


So the +Rs would have been $31.38 by themselves, I ended up paying $46 and getting 30 crappy DVD-Rs also :p

[int 21h]

Ran the speed test on the DVD-R media, here are the results:

http://www.geocities.com/thefrail2k3/dvdr.htm

[Chowskie]

Thanks very much for doing the test u guys.

This sucks. Why the 30 DVD+R cake have the MCC but the 15 DVD+R cake get Ricoh! We need a brand that have consistent quality. Verbatim really pisses me off.:angry:

When come to buying cake package, does anyone have good brand name recommendation?

[int 21h]

P.S. - I bought 2*15pk DVD+R when I got them, both are packs of MCC :rolleyes:

[chainsaw135]

I also bought two packages of the 15 dvd+r and they are both mcc..works great with my xbox and dvd player

[coona]

All of my backups are RICOHJPN (Imation actually). All of them play flawlessly on my Sony DAV S-500 and 3 of them (50+) do not play very well on my second player Sony DAV S-550. As C´T (I´m not sure about the right name of this german magazine) recommends - you should buy discs with MCC (or MITSUBISHI) Manufacter ID. But as atreides93 find out Verbatim produces both RICOHJPN and MITSUBISHI :confused:. So it is really hard to choose disc from the right serie :rolleyes:.

[sync]

Originally posted by Chowskie
Thanks very much for doing the test u guys.

This sucks. Why the 30 DVD+R cake have the MCC but the 15 DVD+R cake get Ricoh! We need a brand that have consistent quality. Verbatim really pisses me off.:angry:

When come to buying cake package, does anyone have good brand name recommendation?
Both Ricoh and MCC (+R) are very good quality. But the CMC (-R) is not that good.

Consistently reliable brands are Maxell, TDK and Sony. I sure there are others also.

[atreides93]

Wow what bad luck. sorry you didn't get the ricoh versions like i did :(
I'm not going to buy verbatim spindles anymore...might still buy the jewel case ones though, to at least see who makes those now.

I just ordered some dupEZ's so let's see how they do.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by sync
Consistently reliable brands are Maxell, TDK and Sony.

I just got ahold of some Sony's (4x, jewel cases) and they are MCC's. When I had Sony's a while back they were TDKs. Do they actually manufacture their own media?!

[sync]

Originally posted by Matthew
I just got ahold of some Sony's (4x, jewel cases) and they are MCC's. When I had Sony's a while back they were TDKs. Do they actually manufacture their own media?!
No, like most companies that sell media, they don't manufacture their own media. But, so far, they only use top-tier companies and therefore they have a consistently high-quality product.

[JustinH]

The latest 15 packs are either CMC or Ritek G03's.

Both I have had terrible results with quality issues.

Stay away from this one.