BestBuy has a special this week on Imation DVD-R and DVD+R 50-packs for $50. I'm not sure what speed these burn at, but for a buck-a-piece, I picked up 100.
Anybody have any reliability/compatibility info on these?
In my Liteon 411S 4x burner, the TDK 2x DVD-Rs are junk (good for data, but not DVD playback), but the Memorex 4x DVD-Rs are great. I'm leary of dropping $50 on some coasters.
OT: I had a horrible time with media that worked in my Philips burner, but wouldn't work on the 411S. I have gone through 3 411S drives, all ended up being returned. This last time the replacement I discovered is a 451S (I didn't notice until I tried to update the firmware, it wouldn't update the wrong drive...) I still don't know if this drive works any better, but I'm hoping it does.
www.dvdrhelp.com has a good section on DVD Writers and the media that people have used with each type of burner and what their experience is (and usually these folks are savvy enough to find the latest firmware updates to get the most compatibility with their burners and the various media out there).
BTW, just to swing this back to DVD-R media, on Sunday Office Max had this deal on 50 packs of StarLogic 1X DVD-Rs for $10 after rebate ($20 mail-in rebate). These are Princo DVD-R's, and can be burned at 2x if you have the right burner with the most up-to-date firmware. But the odds of finding this deal at Office Max today is probably nil now.
I'm beginning to wish I'd done more research before getting the 411S, but at $79 and going fast (Black Friday sale), it was a complete impulse buy. I've had great luck with my other Liteon burners, so I figured, what the heck? I have the FSOH firmware. I tried it with the old and new firmware. Old firmware gave me an unreadable coaster, new firmware gives me a disc that "mostly" doesn't macroblock in my Panasonic and Toshiba home players.
I haven't had a chance to try any yet. My computer got the pinfi virus and it spread to my HTPC. So now I'm trying to get both back to a stable state before I fix Nero and start burning again.
My experience with Imation is the opposite of the above. I've had more Imation coasters than any other brand - actually, my stack of Imation coasters is higher than all others combined. I've had excellent results with Verbatim, Fuji, TDK and Memorex. But I won't be buying Imation again.
I haven't had one problem with Imation DVD+ or - R's. I've made 10 copies with the - and over 20 with the + format and have yet to have a coaster (knock on wood). Sometimes it won't work in certain DVD players, but I think that's a compatibility problem. I'll be going to Best Buy today to see if this deal is still available.
I think there was one batch of Imations that were not all that good (or it might have been a batch of Memorexs). www.dvdrhelp.com has a good database for compatibility between burners and blank media. I would highly suggest perusing that site.
So far, I had one video DVD burn okay and then I made 3 coasters trying to make a data DVD (data ISO). Nero kept having problems closing the disc. I'm not sure what's going on, but it's probably software and not the fault of the discs.
Also, I was only able to burn at 2x. My Sony DRU-510 should be able to do 4x, so I guess these discs are just 2x.
Uhhh, I guess I'll retract the coaster report. Turns out the discs that had errors when closing the disc-at-once are actually fully burned. Now I just have to figure out why Nero is giving me trouble.
On a side note, these discs play fine on my Sony DVP-NS700P.
Ron, just check the Sunday ads every week for all of the office and computer/electronics superstores in your area (in my area I get BB, CC, OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, and Staples almost every week). I'd say just about every week at lest two of those in that list have some sort of 25 for $25 or 50 for $50. I personally bought 25 HP DVD+R for $25 at Staples this past week. Since I have an HP burner I'd hope they're compatible.
Memorex DVD+R 4X 50-pack for $49.99 no rebates Memorex DVD-R 4X 50-pack for $49.99 no rebates
The cool thing about the DVD+R 4X's is that you might get the Ricoh R01 DVDs that can be burned at 8X on some burners. The other possible DVD manufacturer for Memorex is CMC, so at worst, you'll get 4X DVD+Rs, but you might get lucky.
I bought a 50-pack and got the Ricoh's (DVD+R:RICOHJPN-R01-002) and just tested them out and I was able to use my Liteon to burn on 8X. Woo hoo!