CDRLabs.com

*Note - this is taken from my own personal experiences and opinions, as well as those in my circle of friends.

- *ALL* Manufacturers of media only sell *A GRADE* products.... ONLY!

- Out of all the people who have a favourite brand of media, the people who support Ritek/RiData are the most fiercely loyal. For some reason they are also among the largest percentage of people who blame their drives for not working when things go wrong (instead of their media)

- Out of all the manufacturers of recordable media, Taiyo Yuden is the most likely to attempt to keep even the most basic information secret. If it got any worse, you'd need to sign an NDA just to get their phone number and a rep name to contact.

- Out of all manufacturers of recordable media, Verbatim seem to be the most willing to help with information about their products.... but also the most easily confused by questions if you don't happen to know their exact part number for it.

- Out of all manufacturers of recordable media, Mitsui (MAM-A/MAM-E) is the most likely to boast about the quality of their patented dye, while OEM'ing their media to plants that don't use it.

- Most people can accept that media manufacturers make mistakes and have bad batches... except in the case of Taiyo Yuden, who isn't allowed to make mistakes. (some people still can't admit that Taiyo Yuden sells Value/BGrade media)

- Many experienced DVDR users will carefully scrutinize a new burner model in how good it can burn the highest grade media, by comparing various reviews. Once satisfied however, he will buy the best burner, and proceeed to purchase the cheapest media he can find.

- Out of all manufacturers of recordable media, the friendliest one to deal with by FAR is Maxell (Canadian branch). I've dealt with many of their reps in Canada, and even some from the US, and they're the kind of people you'd invite over for a beer, or go bowling with. Seriously friendly and personable people!!

- Out of all manufacturers of recordable media, by far the most sarcastic is Optodisc. And by a slim margin my second favourite to deal with after Maxell (but Optodisc doesn't give me free jackets and T-Shirts ).

There's more of course.... but I can't piss EVERYONE off

Ahhhh, harsh reality. I love it.

You are a breath of fresh air sometimes. .

Your points on customer service, I totally agree with, concerning Verbatim. In oz, they are only too happy to help out all they can. Ask them a technical question however - and it all falls down....

There's more of course.... but I can't piss EVERYONE off

Sure you can! I used to do it all the time! Now the companies give me hardware to break!

zebraxor wrote:Your points on customer service, I totally agree with, concerning Verbatim. In oz, they are only too happy to help out all they can. Ask them a technical question however - and it all falls down....

Here in the US, they're protected by an army of marketing people. I have yet to talk to anyone at the company that understands things like MID codes or error rates. But I really can't complain (that much) as they do what they can to help us out. I just wish they'd ship their media to retail faster. I hate it when they announce a new product and it shows up at the local Best Buy 4 months later.

I wish companies in the US took criticism better. Instead of improving their products, they just don't talk to you any more. They'd rather send their products to bullshit magazines like PC Magazine where they're pretty much guaranteed an "Editor's Choice". Again, I blame this on the marketing drones. Most of them just don't understand their products well enough and/or don't pass the criticism on to the people that can fix it.

Sigh...

dolphinius_rex wrote:
- Out of all the people who have a favourite brand of media, the people who support Ritek/RiData are the most fiercely loyal. For some reason they are also among the largest percentage of people who blame their drives for not working when things go wrong (instead of their media)

That´s true

I have Ritek but I´m not a fan, but sometimes I wonder why so many people are so loyal to Ritek when one media burned fine and the next is very crappy.

dolphinius_rex wrote:Many experienced DVDR users will carefully scrutinize a new burner model in how good it can burn the highest grade media, by comparing various reviews. Once satisfied however, he will buy the best burner, and proceeed to purchase the cheapest media he can find.

Been there, done that. :p
Burned and tested on the 1640:

Real, genuine PRINCO media.

lol, truly an enjoyable post done by someone with experience. Thanks d_r, for the thought and effort put into writing it, made my day.

MacClipper wrote:lol, truly an enjoyable post done by someone with experience. Thanks d_r, for the thought and effort put into writing it, made my day.

It was just as fun to make!

Definitely quite humorous.

Very good points by Ian as well regarding interaction with US companies...