Where to Get Not-So-Popular Media in the US?

[TheWizard]

I've bought quite a few CD-R's over time, and every spindle I buy are always made by the same group of manufacturers: either CMC, Ritek, Taiyo Yuden, Hitachi Maxell, Lead Data, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Prodisc, or Sony. I have yet to find a store in the US (online or brick & mortar) that sells other brands besides the ones listed above. Does anybody know of any places that sell not-so-popular discs made by Auvistar, Digital Storage Technology, Moser Baer, MPO, Princo, Postech, Friendly CD-Tek, Harmonic Hall Optical Disc, Plasmon, Unitech, and others?

I know that the old 110-pack spindles of PNY 16X discs are made by DST, although, I bought one of these spindles and the discs inside were Ritek. Go figure. Also, the 100-pack spindle of Pine 32X are supposedly made by Postech, I may need to pick one of these up to verify. Other than that, I have not seen a single store that sells the not-so-popular media. I know some of these manufacturers are big in Asia and Europe, and I'm surprised none of them have infiltrated the States.

[Robotnik]

I know some of these manufacturers are big in Asia and Europe, and I'm surprised none of them have infiltrated the States.

Since most optical drives are from Asia, it is possible that certain drives could be optimised for media that is not even available Stateside. Thus the US owner may never see the best performance from his or her drive.

[jase]

Definitely some truth in that. For example companies like Accesstek RECOMMEND media like DST, Princo and Postech. Not sure I would, but there you go.

The Wizard, if you need some media by some of those manufacturers, PM me and I'll mail you a few over

[TheWizard]

Hah! I appreciate that, jase, but won't the shipping rates be through the roof?

[jase]

If it was just for testing and you only wanted a couple of dozen discs I can't see it costing that much!

[TheWizard]

Hmm, I'll check out the freight costs and taxes (if any apply). I'll get back to you, jase.

[Reg-da-Ripper]

FWIW, I have seen Moser Baer-manufactured blank media at K-Mart (Big K). Unfortunately, I don't remember the brand name.

[Reg-da-Ripper]

Also, you may not find either Princo- or Postech-manufactured blank CD-Rs in the US since Philips sued both companies for patent infringement (read: not paying the licensing royalty to Philips).

But I'm keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes that the Plasmon-manufactured 52x blank CD-Rs will make their way into the US (and into one of the "big box" retailers).

[TheWizard]

I realize newly boxed media will probably not include Princo or Postech CD's, but there must be some warehouse in the States that has this kind of media in it. My task is to find that warehouse(s) and snatch up the last batch while I can.

[Spazmogen]

If you can't find it in the USA, why not try Canada?

$1 US is worth about $1.58 Canadian.

I've found several Canadian online stores that carry Princo.
http://www.mycableshop.com/sku/CDR-50PK-80M-48X.htm


http://www.dealsdirect.com/catalog/mall ... TEGORY=153
Has both a US & Canadian storefront. The US store has Princo in stock.

The Friendly Tek cd's I stumbled across were from : http://www.auction4it.com/category.cfm? ... goryID=100

an online Canadian Auction. They were also sold as for being a regular cd-r, but as Smart Burn indicated, they're an Audio CD-R !

Harmonic Hall:
I bought those as Memorex 4x CD-RW discs in Wal-Mart of all places about 2 years ago.

[TheWizard]

But shipping costs will be expensive, no?

[Spazmogen]

http://www.dealsdirect.com/catalog/mall ... TEGORY=153

is the American store and stocks Princo.





Shipping/customs from Canada would be expensive.