CDRLabs.com

From this link, they say that the Samsung dvd+r may not be Ty anymore.
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=232354

First Maxell and now Samsung. I guess it's a trend. Now it's really hard to get Japan media from a brand name. I guess they care about cost. I'm really getting tired of this. I wish we could get companies to change their minds.

Yes, they're OPTODISC! I bought one because of people posting here that it's TY. Is Optodisc good?

pika2000 wrote:Yes, they're OPTODISC! I bought one because of people posting here that it's TY. Is Optodisc good?

That depends very much on your burner and firmware...

dolphinius_rex wrote:That depends very much on your burner and firmware...

I have plextor 708 and NEC 2500.

Pika2000,

Thank you for the report.

It is sad they are not using Ty media anymore.

Well, I burned 1 DVD movie using Plextor 708 at 4X. So far, it's playable on my DVD player. I'll probably use them as DVD movie backups then. For $37.99, these are expensive optodisc!

I agree with you. I'm glad they work well though.

Now I guess if I want Japan media, I will have to buy Ty online.

Maxell and Samsung have now stopped selling Japan media.

Is there anything we can do to change their minds?

Just because 1 is playable, doesn't mean they work "well" though. (knock on wood). I hope these optodiscs doesn't have variable quality. My worse experience with DVD media was with Ritek G04, when almost all of them in my spindle can only be burned at 2.4X.

My local Staples still has some Made in Japan Maxell 4X DVD-Rs (Maxell code), and sometimes they have a buy 1 get 1 free. Bestbuy has Fuji 8X DVD-R Made in Japan (don't know the actual code, haven't bought one yet), but they're kinda expensive.

I agree with you though. More and more brands are switching to Taiwan. Just like CD-Rs, during the 8X-16X era, even Imation used TY. Now, even Verbatim uses CMC. And yet they still claim reliability and longetivity.

pika2000 wrote:

dolphinius_rex wrote:That depends very much on your burner and firmware...

I have plextor 708 and NEC 2500.

upgrade to Herrie's 1.07V2 Beta 5 firmware, and enjoy burning your discs at 6x or even 8x

Historically, Plextor's and Optodisc don't get along... but maybe the 708a is different? or maybe Samsung's Optodisc is just really REALLY good? I could believe either or both at the moment.

dolphinius_rex wrote:upgrade to Herrie's 1.07V2 Beta 5 firmware, and enjoy burning your discs at 6x or even 8x

Historically, Plextor's and Optodisc don't get along... but maybe the 708a is different? or maybe Samsung's Optodisc is just really REALLY good? I could believe either or both at the moment.

Personally, I'm more concerned about burn quality than burn speed, but thanks for the info.

dolphinius_rex, what's you experience with optodisc so far? Do they last, and readable pretty good? So far, I have only used BeAll, Piodata, Ricohjpn, Maxell Japan, MCC(code) Taiwan, and the dreadful Ritek G04. I've heard some DVD media that become unreadable in matters of weeks (don't know the specifics). Since even Meritline classify Optodisc as the bottom grade, I won't be using these for data. On the other hand, I want my movie backups to be playable and last for a while, not having to re-backup them again in the future.

***sheds tear over Samsung switching to Optodisc***
Looks like I got my 50 pack from newegg just in time.

dolphinius_rex wrote:
Historically, Plextor's and Optodisc don't get along... but maybe the 708a is different? or maybe Samsung's Optodisc is just really REALLY good? I could believe either or both at the moment.

I'm a new newbie on this stops, but I have a question about Plextor and Optodisc.

I have a PX-708a v1.07 and I've bought a 10 pack spindle of RAMmedi@ 4x DVD+RW. The show up as OPTODISC, Media ID: OP4 Revision: 01 (OPTODISC-OP4-01).

Appart from the first 2 of the pack, I have problems on the others I've encountered so far.
I burn them sucessfully but if I eject them (after burning) from the PX-708a, when I re-insert them they allways show-up as Blank DVD+RW on the PX-708a.
If I don't eject them, they work 100%.
I can re-burn them without a problem but the behaviour is the same.

When I use them on my DVD-Rom (LG-GDR8162B 015 ) they do show OK, but I always reach a point where the drive isn't able to read them (normally around 50% to 75% onwards on the recorded media), so the definitly are not well burned.

My 2 standalone DVDs (Mustek 300V and LG DV-8800) either have a hard time reading them or don't even recognize them at all.

What gives? Is the media at fault? Is the PX-708a at fault? Is the LG-GDR8162B crappy?

Optodisc OR4 burned at 8x in NEC-2500A with Herrie's FW.
It looks much the same at 4x.

rdgrimes wrote:Optodisc OR4 burned at 8x in NEC-2500A with Herrie's FW.
It looks much the same at 4x.

I don't understand much, but are these graphs good or bad (dunno how to read them)?

Is there a program like Kprobe that I can use on my PX-708a or my GDR-8162B?

BomBastic wrote:

What gives? Is the media at fault? Is the PX-708a at fault? Is the LG-GDR8162B crappy? Is there a program like Kprobe that I can use on my PX-708a or my GDR-8162B?

It's better to use the RECOMMENDED BRANDS OF DVD MEDIA that Plextor supports. Although a brand may be on the COMPATIBLE chart it may not work. The 708a drive is not at fault. As I've mentioned using RECOMMENDED brands that Plextor supports will not result in burning coasters. There is no program to measure PI/PO with the 708A. Only the 712 drive comes with Plex Tools that you can use to scan your dvd media. There are lots of variables in dvd burning. From the brand of media you use to software and to how your drive is set up in your pc.

DVD_ADDICT wrote:It's better to use the RECOMMENDED BRANDS OF DVD MEDIA that Plextor supports. Although a brand may be on the COMPATIBLE chart it may not work. The 708a drive is not at fault.

Well,I understand that, but unfortunetly buying Recommend brands in my country is very hard because:
1 - Recommend brands are very hard to come by
2 - They are normally ludicrously expensive
3 - (And the biggest reason) There are all sorts of re-branding (for example these DVDs are RAMmedi@, altought the disc is Optodisc), which means that you must search the net for the actual brand of that DVD, and this is not practical when you are standing in a shop with the product in front of you.
4 - Even with re-branding, buying today's RAMmedi@ 4x DVD+RW (which are Optodisc) doesn't mean that next time I buy them they will be the same (I've seen this happen, this forum thread is an example of it, Samsung used TY now they use Optodisc).

This makes the act alone of buying a standalone DVD media or a spindle almost like playing russian rullet.... you never know what you get

I just need to know if these discs are known for mediocre quality, if the PX-708a is mediocre on DVD+RW or if the LG 8162B is mediocre reading DVD+RWs