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The Dolphin tells it like it is....

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Member
Aug 11, 2005
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umm...maybe i didn't find this in all the 100+ pages,
but is there a reason why the benq 1640 is going outta stock everywhere in the GTA??
is it being discontinued or are retailers just trying to make more money by not selling it??
i mean there's a sony and plextor drive that's based on the 1640 and more expensive, so it would make sense that they'd shuffle away the cheaper benq
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Aug 22, 2005
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grouch wrote:umm...maybe i didn't find this in all the 100+ pages,
but is there a reason why the benq 1640 is going outta stock everywhere in the GTA??
is it being discontinued or are retailers just trying to make more money by not selling it??
i mean there's a sony and plextor drive that's based on the 1640 and more expensive, so it would make sense that they'd shuffle away the cheaper benq
BenQ will release ** or has? ** a new model very soon. So they are clearing off stocks of the BenQ 1640
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Hey DD, about memorex DL, why do they suck so much? So far all mine memorex DL give me problems, xbox/ps2 backup using memorex DL all freezes or unreadable and lags. I was gona backup all my anime on them but they are like 100% problematic so far, guess I will be using single layer for now.
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grouch wrote:umm...maybe i didn't find this in all the 100+ pages,
but is there a reason why the benq 1640 is going outta stock everywhere in the GTA??
is it being discontinued or are retailers just trying to make more money by not selling it??
i mean there's a sony and plextor drive that's based on the 1640 and more expensive, so it would make sense that they'd shuffle away the cheaper benq
There's no more stock left, and the drive is out of production. Last I heard [rfdlink=/forums/autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=28]NCIX[/rfdlink] was trying to get BenQ to realocate the last shipment going to Mexico JUST for themselves :cheesygri

BenQ will be releasing the DW1650 and DW1655 soon ;-)
Current DVD Burner Suggestion? Stick with Pioneer
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divx wrote:Hey DD, about memorex DL, why do they suck so much? So far all mine memorex DL give me problems, xbox/ps2 backup using memorex DL all freezes or unreadable and lags. I was gona backup all my anime on them but they are like 100% problematic so far, guess I will be using single layer for now.
What do you expect from a bottom of the barrel disc? Ritek has horrible quality control, and it's much MUCH more noticable when discs are difficult to make (like DVD+RDL). On top of that, not many drive makers care to support the media. Although Ritek is the number 1 manufacturer of DVD+RDL right now (for volume), Verbatim kicks their a$$ in every possible way but price. And soon Verbatim will be more competitive too.
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Nov 21, 2004
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DD, seems like all the consumer grade MIJ discs are affected by this as listed in your list. But it seems like the majority of MIT discs do not have this problem. I just bought a bunch of Maxell 8x MIJ (Maxell 002) DVD+R spindles from Staples too with the recent sale. Maybe I should go back and return them?
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The Digital Dolphin wrote:What do you expect from a bottom of the barrel disc? Ritek has horrible quality control, and it's much MUCH more noticable when discs are difficult to make (like DVD+RDL). On top of that, not many drive makers care to support the media. Although Ritek is the number 1 manufacturer of DVD+RDL right now (for volume), Verbatim kicks their a$$ in every possible way but price. And soon Verbatim will be more competitive too.
Yes, but I didn't think it would suck this badly. Their single layer is fine.
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Macross_Freek wrote:DD, seems like all the consumer grade MIJ discs are affected by this as listed in your list. But it seems like the majority of MIT discs do not have this problem. I just bought a bunch of Maxell 8x MIJ (Maxell 002) DVD+R spindles from Staples too with the recent sale. Maybe I should go back and return them?
Well, *my* Maxell DVD+Rs were not that good.... but as I've said, I'm not sure how quickly bonding issues will affect the media's lifespan.
Current DVD Burner Suggestion? Stick with Pioneer
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Nov 17, 2003
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Hi DD,

Been out of the whole DVD media loop for a while, but as I'm planning on getting a new DVD writer drive (my NEC-2500A is being ceremoniously retired to my parent's pc as they need a DVD writer now (??)) I thought I'd ask a couple (or 3) questions:

1) Are there a number of SATA drives "in the pipe" about to be released? I know the added bandwidth etc isn't of much concern, but I do so like not having a mass of ribbon cables around. Not if there is a huge price difference, however!

Leads me to..

2) I noticed the only drive currently out with SATA is a plextor one.. And it is about 3x the cost of most other brands. Is there a reason why plextors are still so bloody expensive? Are they much better quality?

3) I loaded up on those costco TDK 16x 2 for 1 spindles of 100, what drive would perform the best with these puppies?

Thanks for any and all info!
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Nov 21, 2002
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ok I just went picking thru a spindle of fuji mij's and a spindle of maxel ritek 03 mit's. The fuji were a damn better bonded than the maxel spindle.These guys were bought within a week of each other in july. I used a pin to test any gapping and didn't want to apply to much pressure to separate them. The quality of the seams wasn't good for either but it was more noticeable with my finger on the maxells by ritek than the mijs. I had a few packs of maxel richojpn and checked those out and they were virtually identical to the mit. But then again I didn't use enough pressure to completely separate any.So how long can these last for with oxidation now being a factor.
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othy wrote:Hi DD,

Been out of the whole DVD media loop for a while, but as I'm planning on getting a new DVD writer drive (my NEC-2500A is being ceremoniously retired to my parent's pc as they need a DVD writer now (??)) I thought I'd ask a couple (or 3) questions:

1) Are there a number of SATA drives "in the pipe" about to be released? I know the added bandwidth etc isn't of much concern, but I do so like not having a mass of ribbon cables around. Not if there is a huge price difference, however!
Nothing I'm aware of... Plextor seems to be the only ones doing it right now for some reason. BenQ had one planned, but it never got released for some reason.
othy wrote:Leads me to..

2) I noticed the only drive currently out with SATA is a plextor one.. And it is about 3x the cost of most other brands. Is there a reason why plextors are still so bloody expensive? Are they much better quality?
Plextor is a big name, that used to be synonymous with quality and professionalism. They've screwed up BIGTIME over the last 3 or 4 drives however, and lost a lot of their customers because of it. Right now they are struggling to keep competitive, so they've begun offering 2 lines of drives... ones made by themselves, and others OEM'd from other suppliers (BenQ mostly) at a cheaper price. FYI: The PX-504 was an OEM, with lame support, the PX-708 was an ok drive, but too picky on media. The PX-712a was a good reader/ripper, but again was very picky with most media. The PX-716a had to be recalled initially, and the first several hardware revisions were horrible. The current PX-716a is a good drive though (same goes for PX-716SA).
othy wrote: 3) I loaded up on those costco TDK 16x 2 for 1 spindles of 100, what drive would perform the best with these puppies?

Thanks for any and all info!
It's up to the media, not the drive... the media code is well supported, but some batches of the discs are low grade and don't perform well. The PX-716, or BenQ DW1640 will perform well with them (assuming there aren't disc problems). The LG 4167B would probably be fine too.
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Nov 21, 2004
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Hey DD. Assuming that in the long run these bondings issues do affect the disc, what type of media would you recommend other than TY and other MIJ media? I just picked up a few spindles of Verbatim 16x DVD+R advanced azo dye. How do these rate compared to MIJ media with and without bonding issues?
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Apr 1, 2004
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Verbatim DVDR's are very good imo and they dont seem to have the bonding issues. Usually theyre pricey, but lately some stores have had some pretty good deals on Verbatim DVDR's. Like staples had 50pcs for 19.55, and thesource has the 25pcs 16x DVD+R's/8x DVD-R's for 8.99 (im guessing you got those or you PM'd BB).

i just bought some 8x DVD-R's and 16x DVD+R's. I havent got the 16x DVD+R's yet, but my results with the 8x DVD-R's (MCC 02RG20) are looking pretty good with my BenQ DW1640, better than Maxell's own MIJ media, and pretty close to my most recent TYG02 batch (ive had much better TYG02 though).
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Just curious, the TY media that's having problems right now are only with the current batch? I have a TY DVD-R 8x purchased in March of this year. I haven't opened it to test it, but it should be fine?
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Sgt_Strider wrote:Just curious, the TY media that's having problems right now are only with the current batch? I have a TY DVD-R 8x purchased in March of this year. I haven't opened it to test it, but it should be fine?
unfortunately, this has been going on for a while. Batches even bought a year ago might have this problem. But i wouldnt be TOO worried as we dont even really know how bad this will affect the lifespan of the media. You can try the test if you have fingernails, by trying to pry the 2 layers appart from the middle hub.
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rahzel wrote:Verbatim DVDR's are very good imo and they dont seem to have the bonding issues. Usually theyre pricey, but lately some stores have had some pretty good deals on Verbatim DVDR's. Like staples had 50pcs for 19.55, and thesource has the 25pcs 16x DVD+R's/8x DVD-R's for 8.99 (im guessing you got those or you PM'd BB).

i just bought some 8x DVD-R's and 16x DVD+R's. I havent got the 16x DVD+R's yet, but my results with the 8x DVD-R's (MCC 02RG20) are looking pretty good with my BenQ DW1640, better than Maxell's own MIJ media, and pretty close to my most recent TYG02 batch (ive had much better TYG02 though).
Verbatim is Generally above average media. Bonding is generally good, and burn quality is normally good. The problem comes in with the large number of potential suppliers the media could be coming from, and each one varies from the others, even though the same dye and quality standards are used. It's the same as two different people tracing a picture. The lines are there, but how each person holds the pencil can affect how dark or how smooth the lines are. So in Verbatim DVDs, these same sort of variations exist. Some burners deal with them better then others.

Edit: It's important to remember that there is *NO* media without *SOME* flaw somewhere.
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The Digital Dolphin wrote:Verbatim is Generally above average media. Bonding is generally good, and burn quality is normally good. The problem comes in with the large number of potential suppliers the media could be coming from, and each one varies from the others, even though the same dye and quality standards are used. It's the same as two different people tracing a picture. The lines are there, but how each person holds the pencil can affect how dark or how smooth the lines are. So in Verbatim DVDs, these same sort of variations exist. Some burners deal with them better then others.

Edit: It's important to remember that there is *NO* media without *SOME* flaw somewhere.
True. My some of my 10 month old Prodisc manufactured OEM Verbatim 8X DVD-Rs from blankmedia.ca are starting to fail on me. I blame Prodisc.
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[QUOTE]Still, I wouldn't say it's safe to trust *ANY* brand 100%. I think it's better to keep your ears and eyes open, and watch for changes in the trends.[/QUOTE]

You're asking alot for a guy who loses his keys on almost a daily basis ;)

[QUOTE]
Yeah, that's the trouble with replacement discs.... But they often send you more media then you originally bought, so it's better then nothing. You can always re-sell the new media and buy better media ;) [/QUOTE]

How do they usually handle that? Would they send me pre-paid mailers to return the discs to them? If not it might just be worth it to use 'em (esp since most are the better bonded + discs) and just use them for DVD-Video stuff so the data isn't as compressed to better handle error correction and keep divx copies on Verbatim just in case.

[QUOTE]Heh! Far be it from me to disagree with you! :cheesygri And to be honest, I'm not fighting for a better price on the BQ at all right now. I think it's an excellent mastering grade disc, and sometimes it's good to have something a little overpriced if it comes with peace of mind. Of course, only having the one option kind of sucks, since some drives don't do too well with Maxell code media (usually if there is an issue, it's because they try to overclock it and problems are caused).[/QUOTE]

lol. No no - You're the media expert - I'm just a hack wondering why things can't be as easy as the Maxell High Bias XLII audio tape and TDK EHG VHS days for knowing what's quality. If they can get cheaper while still being *the best* then that'd be awesome but even at 3/$7 it's still a better deal than when I was paying $5-$8 per quality VHS tape back in the day

[QUOTE]
If you like the scratch proof coating of the Maxell BQ media... I've got GOOD NEWS for you!! Maxell told me last week that their working on spindle packaging for that line. So likely you'll be able to buy 15pks and 25pks in the not TOOOOO distant future.... but with Maxell sometimes things do take a while.[/QUOTE]

Nice stuff :D Hopefully (when I finally get them shipped from nc!x) they'll be compatible with either my LG 4040B or my Sony/lite-on POS. If they're cool to use with my Panosonic DMR E50 stand alone recorder that'd be icing on the cake. Looking at them so far they look like *exactly* what I need to archive my spoken word stuff and divx files that'll never be released on DVD (nobody seems to remember Max Headroom or Dr. Katz anymore ;) )

Thanks for the work to get them to the consumer level :D When the pack arrives I'll take it into The Source and see if I can badger them into seeing if HQ will carry them.

Speaking of scratch proof dvds I was in The Source I stumbled across these bad boys and couldn't resist getting a - package:

[IMG]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0007 ... ZZZZZ_.gif[/IMG]

I was going to buy a - pack of the Verbatim 25 pks on sale but (unlike the + spindle) they didn't have the AZO mark anywhere on them so I couldn't tell if they were Datalife Plus or Datalife Value however these scratch proof ones look pretty sweet - have you had any experience with them?
Should we have open retail markets to bring more UK and US retailers to Canada?wegmans-tops-trader-joes-americas-favou ... #p27788812
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NG wrote:I was going to buy a - pack of the Verbatim 25 pks on sale but (unlike the + spindle) they didn't have the AZO mark anywhere on them so I couldn't tell if they were Datalife Plus or Datalife Value...
Hmm... well we know MCC 003 isn't being made anymore, and that Taiyo Yuden, Ritek and CMC coded discs have all shown up in Europe.

If they're made in Japan they must be TY... otherwise my money is on CMC or Ritek.

TY and MCC discs always have some sort of AZO listed on the package, as far as I know, at least.
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'[buck wrote:']Hmm... well we know MCC 003 isn't being made anymore, and that Taiyo Yuden, Ritek and CMC coded discs have all shown up in Europe.

If they're made in Japan they must be TY... otherwise my money is on CMC or Ritek.

TY and MCC discs always have some sort of AZO listed on the package, as far as I know, at least.
i bought a 50 spindle of Verb 8x DVD-R's (MCC 02RG20) and they dont have the AZO logo anywhere on the spindle.

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