I have a liteon 24x writer (24102B) and am looking to get some more 80min CDR media bought.

I am based in the UK , and am looking for media that would work out around £15-25 for 100peices.

The ones I that have caught my eye so far have been:

Ritek Unbranded White Top CD-R
www.Bigpockets.co.uk 100@£14.99

BULKPAQ 80 minute * 40x compatible * CDR
www.121CDR.co.uk 100@£15.98

TraxData 80min/700mb 40x - Spindle Tub
www.cd-rmedia.co.uk 100@£20.00

What are peoples opinions on these discs, in particular with my burner. Anything else highly recommended in my price range?

Hey UHT: I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think that the Ritek CD-Rs are good quality. For one, they don't tell you what the capacity is, and they also are only 32x.

The bulkpaq might be ok, but I don't know much about them, so get another opinion

(in reply to UHT)

Is only being 32x a bad thing, as I only have a 24x writer.

(in reply to UHT)

I havn't been too impressed with some of the older Ritek stock. Their 40x is quite good from what I've seen, but I'm not sure if I trust their slower speed CDs.

Though their 32x 74min CD-Rs were ok, but I don't think you want 74min CD-Rs.

(in reply to UHT)

Correct, that's why I said 80min :)

Any other discs from any of these online stores you would recommend?

(in reply to UHT)

http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?id=331
These one's look like they may be Ritek 40x but it's hard to say.
I only know 2 factories that actually sell their products as "a" grade to their customers (NOT to say that other factories DON'T have them, they just don't make a big deal about it) and they are Prodisc and Ritek. And if these are Ritek or Prodisc 40x, they would be good. The fact is, it's oging to be a gamble, no matter what, especially since they don't give you much info to work with!

http://www.cd-rmedia.co.uk/cgi-bin2/cdrmedia/details.pl?id=v24xsp
These CD-Rs are made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp. and are of good quality. YOu pay a little bit more for them, but you get what you pay for! They are much less risky then the unbranded ones above! the only time I wouldn't suggest these is if you have an older LiteON CD-Writer, i.e. the 32x model or earlier

If you don't mind the extra cost, go for the Mitsubishi CHemicals CD-Rs, if you want to try to get a bargain, then the unbranded ones might be a good option. No guarentees of course! but Mitsubishi Chemicals DOES have a good reputation!

Good luck! and let us know how things turn out!

(in reply to UHT)

I have a 24x writer, so it doesnt look like the verbatims would be a good idea. This info was in my post :)

(in reply to UHT)

40x certified media will burn fine at 24x and in a lot of cases, you arn't really paying more for the media. 40x certified media has been produced on so much more of a massive scale that the price is usually lower then then alternative speeds. Take a look at the unbranded stuff I suggested, it's pretty cheap. The reason I suggested 40x is becase it's usually better quality CD-Rs then the lower speed stuff, since it was produced later. Even princo 40x is much better then the older princo stuff.

(in reply to UHT)

40x Usually better [?][?]
Sorry but this is absolutely not true.
The best profesional test scores I have ever seen come from Mitsui Pro Studio/old mitsui gold a discs which were 12x/8x rated. Okay it is true that you screw them at higher speeds. But at the rated speed they are really good.
Also TY 40x rated seems to be more problematic then any other TY disc.
About Princo.
I agree that Princo has increased there quality.

About Ritek 40x. Sorry to say but there are still bad 40x Ritek disc's out there.
The problem with Ritek (and I said this allmost a milion times by now) is that there quality varies to much. From Top-quality to a very low quality.

TraxData comes from Ritek and isn't there best media.
Bulkpaq cd-r's are mostly made by Prodisc.

(in reply to UHT)

rjw: Well, with *most* factories this is the case, from my experience at least. I'm not saying that there arn't good quality low speed CD-Rs either though

However, in retrospect, I suppose I could be biased because all the REALLY bad CD-Rs I've come across have been rated 12x, 16x, or 24x.

Regarding Ritek media: Be very careful with it, there is a lot of counterfiet Ritek going around I don't know WHO'S doing it! but I've seen official looking Ritek boxes of media, with even simaler shrinkwrapping, and later mailed samples of them to Ritek for analysis and had them deny it as their product. Very scarey if you ask me.

UHT: If the bulkpaq is made by Prodisc as rjw suggests, go for it! Prodisc is good!

(in reply to UHT)

Still a lot of home brands of Ritek(primedisc,traxdata) also score not that good or very much in quality.
That Ritek will claim that some disc's are not made by them is all in the game. Trust me I have seen more weird things.
Let me give you one example
Hispace claims that every disc comes from there own factory of MPO. However the truth is that there DVD-R disc's are actually made by Ritek. When they where confrontated with this they first claimed that it wasn't true. However with some more proof about these disc's MPO finally said that only there DVD-R's where made by Ritek at this moment but they where soon planning there own DVD-R's. However there are also some old Hispace cd-r's with Ritek's code on them.
The truth is never trust a manufacturer/brand blindly.

(in reply to UHT)

I suppose that's good advice...though I'd hate to think of my contact being dishonest with me, we have such a good relationship [:I]

Melody has also claimed to "make" their own discs...yeah, right! they're all DST and CMC.

(in reply to UHT)

The Bulkpaq CDRs are Ritek cyanine 40x compatible. From what I have heard they are a very decent disc. I'm getting a spindle of these on Thursday and I'll let you know.

There have been some rubbish Ritek doing the rounds, see my other post about this -- in particular look out for the dreaded WD-001 as this seems to be a clue. But that said, I've never had problems with Traxdata!!! Trax (TX) is owned by Ritek now and the new stock coming out is pretty decent.

As for fake Ritek, I have a theory. Ritek have bought up a number of cheap Taiwanese companies. It's possible that they're using these factories to churn out sub-standard product, then claiming it's not theirs later (and technically they'd be right, if say Seantram is still a registered company). Never put it past a large company to engage in sharp practices!!!!

I don't think BP are doing the Ritek UB discs now.

If you go to the computer fairs, there's a brand doing the rounds that might be just up your street. It's called Pink Premium, and these are shrink-wrapped spindles of Taiyo Yuden media, and very good it is too. Typically around 25-30p a disc, it's not that expensive either.

(in reply to UHT)

I wouldn't be so shure that Melody realy is useing DST disc's. So far the info I have gathered says the disc's come from a factory which uses a DST stamper but not DST itself. I would like to see your information which makes you think that they are really manufactured by DST. Being it a DST stamper product the parent companny (Everreach Technology Corp) might have it's own factories. Still I can't get this confirmed by a reliable source. Other Atip codes seen on Melody are CMC and Postech.
Hey CMC/Verbatim/Mitsui could do the same tricks but they don't do it. Mitsui claims from there taiwan disc's these are disc's which where made for us but not by ourselves. Which is true.

new info about Bulkpaq shows 3 manufacturers for cd-r's
Ritek,Prodisc,Princo. With the last manufacturer I wouldn't recommend them.
The 40x are mostly Ritek and Princo products.

Yesterday I bought a ten pack of Parrot 24x disc's are manufactured by TY. Only 3,50 Euro's for 10 slimcased disc's.

(in reply to UHT)

The Person I bought the 10pk of Melody CD-Rs that reviewed on my site agreed with me that Melody was in fact using CD-Rs made by CMC and DST. And he is the official Everreach distributor in my area. He could just be wrong, because he isn't exactly the brightest...but the serial numbers I'm reading on the discs match the serial number code I've seen before. I'll do some more looking though!

(in reply to UHT)

hi all i know i'm a newbie to this but i just finished transfering my aging tape collection to cd using bulk paq 40x and i had no probs with the discs

just my opinion

(in reply to UHT)