A good price is a good price

[Pain_Man]

Buy.com has 25 pk spindle of Memorex DVD+R DLs for $34.94 American. Saving 60 cents seems worth the 9% difference in quality.

 

If I wasn't already surfeited with optical media of nearly all types, I'd buy one.

 

My experience with Memorex +R DLs has been good. I bought a three pack and they all burned with no problems and are still working today.

 

Interestingly, the avg rating from customers on the site is 5 Stars. Nothing but glowing praise. Perhaps Ritek is improving their quality. As can be seen, my Ritek's go back a year and a half.

 

Anyway, at US$ 1.40 each, one might want to grab a spindle.

 

I'm putting up the VSO Inspector burn data for the RITEKs (Memorex's brand--?--for DLs). The stats are for discs burned with CopytoDVD, an excellent, low-price alternative to the bloated Leviathan of Nero or the unreliability of Roxio. I've been using it for yrs and highly recommend it. CopytoDVD Website

 

Inspector is freeware but, as of a few months back, you have to have CopytoDVD installed to access the reliability statistics.

 

 

For comparison, here's the "standard" that most of us measure ought else by, Verbatim.

 

 

These are home videos, bien sur. As they are of an extremely private nature ( ), I cannot display the titles.

 

Both DLs were burned on my Benq DW1655. The one thing I'm going to miss about going SATA II is the quality of the Benq's burns. It's an excellent drive. Unfortunately, Benq doesn't make any SATA drives.

 

I've done business with Buy.com three times in the past. I just bought a 2GB SD flash card for $32; it's for the digital camera. It'll hold 24,400 pictures in the 50 to 75KB range. In the 700KB to 1MB range it holds 1600+. (Not even my wife can take that many pictures; tho' my grandmother might.)

 

With a $10 "pocket drive"--the SD card fits in the end of it--I now have a 2GB jump drive for less than $50.

 

I just ordered a Western Dig 320GB HDD SATA II; by signing up their Visa, I got the 320GB SATA II for $85 for my new Gateway that's on the way.

 

They also have a 250GB model for $89.

 

If you're interested in the HDDs here are the URLs:

 

 

WD Caviar SE16 250GB SATA/300 7200RPM 16MB Buffer - WD2500KS

 

Western Digital Caviar SE16 Hard Drive - 320GB - 7200rpm - 300MBps Serial ATA - II - Serial ATA/300 - Serial ATA - Internal - WD3200KS

 

Western Digital Caviar SE16 Hard Drive - 500GB- 7200rpm - 300MBps Serial ATA - II - Serial ATA/300 - Serial ATA - Internal - WD3200KS

[Pain_Man]

48 views and no comments.

 

Really shows you what the informed consumer thinks of Memorex.

 

And I remember the days when were happy to find Memorex cassettes on sale for $3 a pop (probably $5 in today's depreciated money).

 

If you remember buying tapes and recording your CDs to listen to in your tape deck--your age is showing (or you didn't want to spring for the CD in your car!).

[volvofl10]

each to there own as to what media they prefer, or what price they want to pay , but maybe we are at the point where other manufacturers start making decent DL media and not just Verbatim.

 

personal opinion is i will stick to verbs for the time being ,not that I'm not prepared to try other stuff, but Verbs have been the only consistent media so far in the DL stakes.

 

I'm not sure how long any DL disc's will last before they disintegrate, but i feel safer putting my stuff on the verbs for that reason

[cornholio7]

all 3 riteks i tested were utter garbage <shrug>

i'll stick with verbatim and get a good burn and scan every time

[Grain]

I had great luck with Ricoh dyed +R DL's, but can't find them anymore. Here in Canada the informed shopper can get 20 Verb DL's for $30CAD, about $26US, which is only a buck fitty a piece. Have found Fuji DL's with Ritek dye for $1.33, but if you check the media section you'll see they aren't that sharp.

[spinningwheel]

I have to agree w/corny...Verbs are the only consistent producer that I have found.

[dbminter]

Yeah, as for Memorex, I wouldn't give them the chance to restore their name just to take it away again after they know the ruse worked. Let Memorex try to be an example to the other manufacturers out there... IF people were well informed and, well, could really do that much to stop it, I suppose.

[Pain_Man]

Funnily enough, I had the exact opposite experience. I bought a 3-pack of Memorex-branded Riteks and all three burned without issue.

 

The DIP scans weren't as good as Verbs, but IMHO and, more importantly, experience, the jury is still out on whether DIP scans really prove anything about media.

 

I've got two or three discs that have DIP scans in the 50-60% and they play on the HDTV without any errors. And they are among the oldest discs I have (3+ yrs).

 

 

all 3 riteks i tested were utter garbage <shrug>

i'll stick with verbatim and get a good burn and scan every time

[Pain_Man]

I'm on the same page here. Given the rotten experiences that most of the Circle here have had with non-Mitsubishi DLs, I realize it's probably a fluke that my 3 pack of Riteks--which I only bought because the pack was $7.99--all burned without issue.

 

Verbs are the only thing I buy. I've got two 10 packs in the Optical Larder.

 

each to there own as to what media they prefer, or what price they want to pay , but maybe we are at the point where other manufacturers start making decent DL media and not just Verbatim.

 

personal opinion is i will stick to verbs for the time being ,not that I'm not prepared to try other stuff, but Verbs have been the only consistent media so far in the DL stakes.

 

I'm not sure how long any DL disc's will last before they disintegrate, but i feel safer putting my stuff on the verbs for that reason

[Pain_Man]

Our dollars are the only language they understand.

 

If enough people vote with their wallets, they may improve the quality of their product. Or they'll stop selling them.

 

I just don't understand why people keep buying crappy product?! My experience, given the experience the vast majority of people on this board have had with Riteks, was obviously unique.

 

So what gives? Are people just accepting 30%, 40% failure rates and saying, "Oh well"?

 

 

Yeah, as for Memorex, I wouldn't give them the chance to restore their name just to take it away again after they know the ruse worked. Let Memorex try to be an example to the other manufacturers out there... IF people were well informed and, well, could really do that much to stop it, I suppose.