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Best Buy is having a sale this week (starting Sun.) - $120 for a 100 pack of the TDK 4X DVD+Rs on a spindle. They are Ricohjpn r0102 discs, but I have had superb experience with them on my TDK 840G (an OEMed Plextor 708A).

-Every- one of these discs burns at a 'true' 8X (8 min burn time), with no coasters. Other discs with similar disc IDs (like Arita, Memorex) I have not had as good success with... especially the Aritas - which hardly ever burn at true 8X (they usually drop down to 4X near the end of the disc - if they burn successfully at all).

My guess is that TDK is actually manufacturing these discs and although all these Ricoh discs share the same media code, the TDKs have better quality control.

A hot deal all around. Check your Sunday flier for details.

-P

After figuring sales tax, you can get them for around the same price on eBay (with no rebate hassle), so this is not a hot deal.

If you got the Best Buy "Wonder Book" with a $20 off $125 coupon, then the deal becomes warm.

and if you forget to bring that book with you when you get to the store it is all of sudden like the north pole on Christmas Eve night

Santa and all the toys are gone.. and it's just cold

airtommy wrote:After figuring sales tax, you can get them for around the same price on eBay (with no rebate hassle), so this is not a hot deal.

If you got the Best Buy "Wonder Book" with a $20 off $125 coupon, then the deal becomes warm.

There is no rebate on this item - it is an "instant" rebate (check out the bestbuy.com website). The $120 is the walk out the door, take it home price and $1.20/ea for these discs is in fact a very good deal.

Tax excluded, of course... so prices for people will vary. But I definitely wouldn't say that buying them on ebay and paying shipping (which would equal the cost, more or less, of buying them in the store with this deal incl. tax) is a better deal because you have to deal with shipping, waiting for the package, etc.

Here, you just walk in... and walk out. $1.20 a disc essentially, and that's that. (I hardly work for Best Buy, BTW... I'm just pointing out a good deal when I see it. I know these discs burn wonderfully... cheaper ones do not on the Plex 708A, and I have been waiting most of the year for the price to fall.)

Incidentally, my "wonder book" came with no coupons. I think that coupon would turn this into a hot deal, because the discs would be $1 each.

-P

That is a good deal in the end, but $120 on media is expensive... for any amount of media, it seems like a lot to spend that much on blank media

aviationwiz wrote:That is a good deal in the end, but $120 on media is expensive... for any amount of media, it seems like a lot to spend that much on blank media

I'm just curious why you feel that way. It is 100 high-speed DVD+R discs. Many people will go into a store and purchase, say, a 15 pack of DVD discs for $30 or $40. People are regularly paying $2 a disc or more, which is really a rip-off. Over time... if that person went through 100 discs in say, a year, they would be paying $200-400 for the same amount of media. Talk about a lot to spend!

Of course CD media is cheap, but it took many years to get down to the pennies-per-disc it is at today. In the meantime, if people want DVD blanks, they have to pay. But even DVD media is getting cheaper. I remember my first blanks cost $10 each (to burn at 2X). That's a 9X drop in just a few years.

100 blanks is 430GB of storage. For $120, that's not bad at all. 100 CDs offers 70GB in storage. One would have to purchase over 600 CDs, which would still be cheaper in the end, yes, but you can't store a DVD movie on a CD. It's all about what the value is for what you get in the end.

For example: if someone managed to backup their movie collection on those 100 blanks because their kids continue to destroy the purchased collection, or they like to take them out to play on their portable player and the discs keep getting scratched, etc. etc., the replacement cost saved would be approximately $1,680 (assuming $17 per movie minus the cost of the blanks). Now THAT is a lot of money.

One really can't compare the costs of CD media to DVD media because they are two different animals. It's about more than just storage space for the dollar, it is what you can -do- with that media that matters.

And in the end, $120 for DVD discs is indeed a good deal.


-P

I agree this is a very HOT deal. I'm returning the 50 pack Memorex DVD+R spindle I bought last week to buy a spindle of these.

As I said, it is a good deal in the end. But most people don't have $120 to spend on Blank Media at one time, especially when it is only during a 1 week period.

aviationwiz wrote:As I said, it is a good deal in the end. But most people don't have $120 to spend on Blank Media at one time, especially when it is only during a 1 week period.

I'll agree to that. You have to spend a lot up front to save in the long run.

UALOneKPlus wrote:I agree this is a very HOT deal. I'm returning the 50 pack Memorex DVD+R spindle I bought last week to buy a spindle of these.

Why? According to this guy, they are the same discs. Those Memorex discs have been selling at this price for months at Amazon, without sales tax for most.

The disks only share the same ADIP, nothing more. The TDK disks are of much higher quality, and work much better at 8x on the 708 than the Memorex disks. That would also mean that the TDK disks would work better at 4x than the Memorex disks. The TDK disks are higher quality, period.

aviationwiz wrote:The disks only share the same ADIP, nothing more. The TDK disks are of much higher quality, and work much better at 8x on the 708 than the Memorex disks. That would also mean that the TDK disks would work better at 4x than the Memorex disks. The TDK disks are higher quality, period.

I agree with you 100%. Now, I haven't used the Memorex discs too much, but I did purchase some Arita 4X DVD+R discs for $1 ea at NewEgg.com. (Arita is Ritek's cheapo line).

They too have the same ADIP as the TDK discs and the Memorex discs.

The TDKs burn at 8X very time - a perfect burn. (On my TDK840G, a Plex 708 clone)

The Aritas... well.. most burn at less that 6x overall (burning at 8x then suddenly dropping to 4... taking 9-12 minutes or so, depending on where the drop is). On top of that, about 25% of the discs I have used burned straight out coasters.

The TDKs are obviously worth the money.

I would like to understand why so many brands of discs can have the same ADIP but be so obviously different in quality. Does TDK actually manufacture the discs based on Ricoh's dye? How does it all work?

aviationwiz wrote:The disks only share the same ADIP, nothing more. The TDK disks are of much higher quality, and work much better at 8x on the 708 than the Memorex disks. That would also mean that the TDK disks would work better at 4x than the Memorex disks. The TDK disks are higher quality, period.

Interesting, thanks!

Make the TDK deal hotter with a $10 off $100 coupon (can also be used as $20 off $200).

For some reason that $10 off $100 is not working. Something must be wrong with there site.