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JohnRice
- John Rice
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I was hoping people could contribute deals they find on dual layer media as they see them, like the thread that used to be running on regular media.
This week is the first really decent deal I have seen from a retailer on dual layer media. Office Depot has 3 packs of DVD+R DL (no brand is mentioned in the ad, but my local store was Verbatim) 2 for 1 at $19.99. 6 discs for $20 is the best I have seen anywhere, including online.
They are marked 2.4x, but will burn faster depending on your drive. My Pioneer 109 says they will burn at 6x.
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Thanks- will be picking up some of these and do some more experimenting with homemade stuff over 2 hours!
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JohnRice
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Only deal I see this week is a 10 pack for $40 at Best Buy. Not quite as good as the one last week at Office Depot, but still decent.
Sheesh, I can't wait until the price comes down on these.
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Im a little afraid to try them out since they are all +'s....
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JohnRice
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I have burned a couple hundred + media with never a problem. However, software, and probably hardware, seems to be a factor, particularly in the Windows world. Plus, I have never actually seen any - DL media in the flesh.
FWIW, I did burn one Verbatim DVD+R DL and not only was it fine, it played in my roughly 4 year old Toshiba SD-3750. I thought players were a lot more picky about DL media.
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Most of the + issues are resolved if you can book type the DL burn to "DVD-ROM" with your burning software/DVD burner drive combo.
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JohnRice
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That's kind of what I figured. I'm on a Mac, using Toast Titanium 6.1.1 and setting to DVD-ROM (UDF). I know the + media burned with the early versions of Toast were not as compatible. I was pleasantly surprised to find my Toshiba played this disc.
Incidentally, when I check the media, it simply shows as a data DVD-ROM.
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JohnRice
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You're not kidding Patrick. I had heard that + media could actually give the highest compatibility if certain things were set correctly, and I guess it's true. Just out of curiosity, I pulled out my 7 year old Sony player, which has never accepted a single burned DVD I have given it. It still doesn't work with - media from my latest software and burner, but, the DVD+R DL does play on it. Color me amazed.
I guess Roxio has gotten things just right for creating discs which can be played on basically any machine, it just has to be + media. When I check the discs, the - media shows up as a data disc that is an ISO-9660 hybrid. The DVD+R DL simply shows up as a plain data disc. That must be the critical factor for compatibility with really old machines.
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JohnRice
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A decent deal this week is from Office Max. They have 3 packs of Memorex branded DVD+R DL for $10. Of course, if you happen to have one of their $10 off cards, you can get 6 for $10, like I did.
The only, minor drawback, is that the one I checked is Ritek media, which my Pioneer 109 with current (1.5.7) firmware can only burn at 2x. I thought Mitsubishi was still the only manufacturer of DL media. The Verbatim media I bought before was Mitsubishi (at least I think that's what it was. It read as "MKM") will burn at up to 6x, even though it is packaged as 2.4x.
Still Ritek media seems to be about the most reliable.
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JohnRice
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Quote:
| where do you get a $10 off card from? |
They send them in the mail. I don't know how I got on their mailing list, but I'm pretty sure you have to be a business. If you do get on their mailing list, it is pretty nice. They send them out pretty regularly. The requirements change, though the last couple I got required only a $10 purchase. The latest one requires a $20 purchase.
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JohnRice
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Don't see any deals this week, other than the $5 rebate that is being widely offered on Ritek 5 packs. Most online places, like supermediastore, that brings them down to $12.99, but you have to add shipping to that, which ends up not being much of a deal unless you are already ordering something from them.
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JohnRice
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Not a bad deal, and free shipping to boot. They also have 15 packs for $36.99 with free shipping
HERE.
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If you're looking for Verbatim DVD+R 8.5GB 2.4x-6x, Buy.com has a
10-pack for $29.99.
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JohnRice
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The deal at Buy.com is even better now. The Memorex 25 pack linked above is now $52.95 and the 15 pack is $32.99, plus through 9/25 you can get an additional 10% off by using
This Link and redeeming the coupon. That comes out to $47.69 delivered for 25 DL discs. They are only 2.4x, but hey, it's the best deal I have seen. The Verbatims Patrick linked to are currently out of stock and have gone up in price.
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JohnRice
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One bit of warning about buy.com though. I have learned the hard way that they love to submit approvals with wreckless abandon. This can cause serious problems if you aren't expecting it. I made the huge mistake of making a couple purchases with them this week on a PayPal debit card and currently buy.com has frozen funds for double the amount of my purchases. On one, they ran an approval for the purchase, then ran it again 4 minutes later. Unfortunately, PayPal freezes funds for every approval for 10 days, so that money is frozen for at least that time. Needless to say, buy.com's "Customer (dis)Service" is thoroughly unresponsive and completely worthless.
I wonder if they will pay the bills I need to pay with the money they have frozen.
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JohnRice
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This week Best Buy has 15 packs of Memorex for $30. Not quite as good as buy.com with the 10% off coupon, but it expires in a few hours. Office Max also has 3 packs with jewel boxes for $10. Not nearly as good as the Best Buy price.
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JohnRice
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The problem is, none of the brands you mention actually manufactures media. They just put their name on the media others manufacture. My experience is that the burner tends to be as much or more a factor than the media. Both the Pioneer drives I have (106D & 109) have not produced a single unusable disc thhat I could attribute to defective media, and very few of those have happened. That is with the exception of some media brands, such as CMC, which can be chronic problems. Though I have just about gone through a pack of CMC DVD+Rs that have been just fine. I also find I need to clean the laser periodically. Also, as far as I know, only two companies are currently manufacturing DL media. Mitsubishi and Ritek. Personally, I have not had any sort of problems with any media, other than a couple packs which were obviously just defective. I know one of them was a CMC. I did get one disc that ended up with the cloudy look you mentioned, but it was an isolated incident. To tell thhe truth, considering the hundreds of discs I have burned, I'm surprised how few have been bad.
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JohnRice
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BTW, all the Memorex DL media I have bought has been Ritek, which is consistently the most reliable manufacturer.
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JohnRice
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Stephen, you need a media identification app. There are a few different ones for windows, but I'm on a Mac so I don't know what they are. The Mac one is called dvdmediainspector and should be available somewhere at videohelp.com or versiontracker.com. I suspect you need newer Nero and/or firmware for your burner. I have burned 4 or 5 of the discs I got from Office Max with no problems.
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If it came out like a CD, perhaps the CD burn option was in effect (you have to choose between CD or DVD, look in the upper left hand corner once you start a new compilation). If the CD option is "active", then the capacity should reflect what you can burn on it (700 MB).
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JohnRice
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Thanks for the info, Linda. That would explain one of the things that happened on the account. Fortunately, everything has been corrected now. There were a couple cases where it was simply the way Buy.com (and many other online retailers) does business. When you place an order, they authorize it. If all the items don't ship that day, they then authorize each of them again as they ship, then they credit the original authorization once everything has shipped. On a debit card, it can tie up additional funds for a few days. Like I say, it is all squared away now.
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JohnRice
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Stephen, the 12x issue is probably the firmware in the burner. Most likely it identifies the media as one it only burns reliably at up to 12x. I would never burn a DVD at 16x anyway, plus your computer probably couldn't actually burn at a true 16x unless it is incredibly fast.
I have no idea why you can't get dual layer to work. This is one of the reasons I am so glad I don't live in the Windows world.
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