Having no luck with rw's can anyone recommend cheap -r's

[nimbles]

Hey guys, recently my 105 has just given up the ghost with regards to burning dvd-rw's-tried only good ones (verbatim 1x, traxdata 2x, datasafe 2x (both ritek) & pioneer 2x (at £4 a pop :eek: ))- in the most part they burn fine in nero and RNM (gave it another try to see if it was a nero problem- evidently not) but then they won't read in either the dvd-rom drive or the 105 i burned them in :confused:

when i try to erase and retry them sometimes they burn with the same problem (unreadable) and sometimes nero/rnm say that the disc i put it in isn't an rw and so can't be erased http://dvdrom-guide.com/forums/images/smilies/mad.gif. I've tried every type of data format as well (dvd iso, udf, iso/udf) same result each time- even though most were 2x rated even burned at 1x & 2x with no joy either

I need to back up a load of pc data and as such don't really want to use my stock of g04's, rw's would have been ideal because it is data generation/simulation and about 5 rw's would have been enough- but that seems impossible

I know many of you have issues with non ritek media but for pc only stuff is it worth using something like the datawrite red's? £7 vs ~£12 for g04's

as always any advice greatly appreciated guys!

[jase1]

Just about anything should work on the 105 if burned at 2x, and should be readable, at least on the writer itself.

That said, if your 105 is deteriorating then you might have the same hassle with -Rs as -RWs.

Maybe some older 2x Riteks or other 2x half-decent media would be in order -- I like the Reds but am hesitant to recommend them because others have had trouble with them.

[nimbles]

thanks jase1- thankfully svp are willing to replace the rw's with a pack of -r's of a similar price so will give the reds or yellows a try (which one do you recommend of the two- according to the svp site yellows have a princo dye and reds have a an31 dye- never come across that before)- i have used yellows before when friends have given me discs to make them copies- and they seem to work fine- dunno if there's been any revisions to the media type since though

yeah i'm starting to get "internal target failure" errors in nero every so often when burning my g04's at 1x (xbox sometimes a bit picky) but strangely retry the same burn with the same disc at 2x and it burns fine.

i'm thinking maybe it is starting to die on me but will persevere with it for the moment- till i see smoke coming from it :D

[jase1]

Difficult to say -- both write well on a good day, but bad batches have been known. In my experience though, even the bad batches are usable generally -- but they may not playback on DVD players and the like.

If you are burning at 2x, then you should be fine with either media. But given the state of your writer, nothing is guaranteed.

[Qube]

I know many of you have issues with non ritek media but for pc only stuff is it worth using something like the datawrite red's? £7 vs ~£12 for g04's

as always any advice greatly appreciated guys!
I've used datawrites without any probs so far, SVP have got the new datawrite V3's at around £8.00, these scored 8/10 on a dvd test on dvdrhelp.org ?, something like that, If your writer is coming to an end ( does that mean you will bury it in the garden ?). SVP is doing the nec 2500 for £59.98 , Wot a Bargain 8+ and 8-

[PhilEnfield]

I would put the Datawrite Yellows (Princo) slightly in front of the Reds (AN31), although with Datawrite, you never know when they might change the dye, without telling anyone !

If you go for either of these for your backups, it would be a good idea to keep the data files to about 4gb, as the dye sometimes doesn't get spread to the outer edges on cheap disks, especially Princos.

Having said that, if the data is irreplaceable, I would stick to your G04's and be safe, especially if your 105 is getting erratic.

HTH

[nimbles]

thanks guys- yeah thats true- i will have a word with svp- i've basdically given them the choice of replacing it with -r's- price value of the -rw's is too expensive to replace a 25 pack of non ritek media but too little for g04's, i may have to pay the differenc and go for g04's.

thanks for the tips guys

[jase1]

Whatever you do, pay the extra and don't buy the overprints or orange discs.

If you want to save cash I'd just get the Arita G03s to be fair. Just as good as G04s and you should be able to burn them at 2x anyway if you have hacked firmware.

Will also say that the Prodisc S03 printables (not the cheaper Bulkpaqs, the £10.99 ones) are cracking media, better than Ritek in my experience, very very good discs.

[nimbles]

really :eek:- £10.49 is what i'm entitled to- may stump the extra and go for those- thanks jase1.

have prodisc been around for a while?- is that whar used to be in those optowrite disc's?- have ignored all others in my g04 tunnel vision state- admittedly started by people on this forum- you know who you are :D

having said that the ritek's have never failed me

- yeah i had my eye on those 2x arita's but was unsure as to whether those were the landscape ones to avoid- i'm pretty sure they said b grade although no memntion of being exempt from warranty.

[rendertrap]

Query...

The reseller must have an obligation to refund or replace bad media.... Im just thinking that if you bought a 25 pack of datasafe reds from say svp for £7.99, and say you noticed that the dye on the discs were not covering the whole surface, you could return them back to svp and they would replace... I can understand that they cannot replace if some don't burn correctly as it could be a number of issues, ie pc or dvd writer....

Am I right in saying this????

[jase1]

AIUI SVP will replace any media, regardless of reason. I've had one or two packs replaced in the past and they've not complained at all.

[rendertrap]

ah well then its probably worth it then... for instance, if the media is copied and plays okay on your dvd player, do the cheaper red datasafe discs scratch easily or what.. as I have known in the past that when trading some people will not accept red datawrites are they say they are crap.... I can understand if they are blank, but once copied and work fine on player then there shouldnt be a problem right???

Its like don't most of the discs get produced in the same factory in the far east and they just put different labels on them like they do with electrical goods???

[jase1]

The Reds do scratch quite easily... the Red discs are a funny one -- some people have no end of trouble with them, others (like me) find them to be perfectly reasonable, and if you take into account the price, not bad media at all.

I personally think you'll find that, at the very least, if you have a Pioneer drive in reasonable condition that the Reds will write OK at 4x, with a sufficiently good write quality to be readable on almost all DVD-ROM drives even if they don't work on some standalone units. Others will disagree I'm sure.

Having said all that, with Ritek G04 now down to as little as 40p a disc in some places, the question of whether cheaper discs are worth it is becoming more and more valid.

I will say one more thing though; don't stock up just yet. I have heard from an industry insider that decent quality Taiwanese 4x media will be available from $0.20 a piece. They're doing this to knock the Chinese/HK manufacturers out of the market, in about 3-4 months. So just buy enough to tide yourself over until then :)