Opinions on newer 16x media?

Okay I just ran out of my garbage slow writing RiTek R03 8x... and I need some 16x media ASAP, but I cannot seem to find a definitive post on what's the MOST reliable brand(s) at the highest speed Vs quality possible? I've been reading negative things about RiTek 16's, the variability of Verbatims, and the complete lack of TY's 16x around. So just WHAT are the top 3 brands from everyone's experiences at 12-16x?

On a side note... just WTF is going on with corps being able to advertise/claim 16x media that doesn't burn reliably, nor get even close to AVERAGING near 16x/~6min burn times? That's like me selling fishing line and throwing all this crap on the boxes saying -

"OMFG WOW UBER 16lb line STRENGTH!!! SUPER 16lb STRONG... Reel in your Monster Catch in ~6MINUTES!!! OOOOH"

YET, the avg fisherman sees the fishing line ONLY holding up to about 10-12lbs before it starts to flaw or completely fail! ANd finding that trying to reel in a catch in 6mins, just ends in warped lines and or worse, the fish getting off the hook! In otherwords complete advertising FRAUD.

TDK and Verbatim's are doing ok for me, Benq burner though.
or ricohjpnr01 @ 12x

CMC MAG M01 work fine for me at 16x in my NEC3500

Verbatim 16x + or -

Taiyo Yuden 16x -R

Memorex 16x DVD+R if they are RicohJPNR03

Look in this thread to see how you can identify them

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....84#post1085084

I purchased Supermedia 16x DVD+R 100 pack. They were CMC MAG M01 so so burns...

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=144841

"the variability of Verbatims"

People talking about variability in Verbs are over-obsessed with scanning results IMO. Never seen, yet, a "bad", not even a "marginal" Verb scan (talking about recent discs, of course) from users who claim they were not sold the top MCC stuff.
On the scans I've seen the results varying from excellent to... very good!
My own Verbatims -R MCC 03RG20 bought from SVP are definitly the best discs I have, they burn slightly better on my Pioneer 109 than on my NEC3540A but the difference is small.

The SONY16D1 based discs also give outstanding results, but according to the last C't tests they have poor stability (longevity).

I have seen some very good results here on TYG03, burned on a number of drives.

I was going to order some of those from Rima but then the 200 TYG01's I ordered from shop4tech (thanks again studmonkey76) turned out to be TYG02's so I don't really need any.

The few I had gotten from a friend though burned and scanned very nice.

I have seen TYG02s at 12X turn out better burns on some drives than TYG03s at the same speed. I would take TYG02 any day along with YUDEN000T02.

I'll echo that thought about TYG02's as well. The funny part is some get better results burning TYG03 @ TYG02 strat. Lol.

Yo-

Am very happy with my Verbatim 16x -R MCC03RG20's

Very good burns and scans-

Mike

WOW, didn't expect this amount of replies to this thread! Great, b/c I'm moving to a new city next week and don't know how long I'll be w/o Ethernet!!! OMFG It will be like living with rebels in Afghani CAVES... No quick hop on CDfreaks to check discs, sales, advice, warnings, tests... Chrap I haven't been w/o Inet convenience a LONG time. What a hassle!
So basically the RichohJpn disc are memorex branded and don't have a foam spacer at the top of the spindle? And off branded Taiyo's are sold as Fuji discs? I'll have to stop by the local stores soon, since it's too late to place an online order before I move....

Oh and BTW in case someone has ANY advice to help me fig out wtf my 1693s is only avg'ing ~4-5x burns on 8x Media, with nasty buffering issues - here is my other forum plug http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....ight=v12%7Cv12
Only reason I'm posting this is b/c once I move, I'll be in TOTAL darkness about getting quick/knowledgable advice on possible solutions, again NO Internet connection for a while ($$$)

Thanks again folks!

I got some free 16x Bulkpaq which actually weren't bad on the Nero CD-DVD speed until just after the 4gig mark when the line just fell right back down to earth. It did actually write around the correct time for a 16x, but to be honest I will probably continue using 8x discs as it seems a much more reliable option.

My BenQ 1640 is totally diggin' on the 16x Verbatim DVD-R media:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:MCC 03RG20 ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type : [DVD-R] - [DVD-R]
Manufacturer Name : [Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.]
Manufacturer ID : [MCC 03RG20 ]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,298,496 Sectors = 4.71 GB (4.38 GiB)]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Movies, data, everything burns at a full 16x and there are no skips or anomolies in any of the movies. So far, all is flawless. I'm very glad about that.

Well in case of really bad verbatims you can allways contact Verbatim.
So far that did solve the problem for the few occasions my friends encountered.

About SONY. Last thing I heard was that SONY was looking into it and that it might be a manufacutereing issue at the manufactureing site in austria.

"Last thing I heard was that SONY was looking into it and that it might be a manufacutereing issue at the manufactureing site in austria."

That's interesting, remember where you came across this info?

Does this only affect Sony discs made in Austria? I have some Sony 16x DVD+R (jewel cases, which state something about Accucore) discs which are MIJ and I'm wondering if they are affected by this problem. I bought them just to try.

Hey, someone mentioned something about Fuji discs... How do I tell which are the TY versions? And I just checked some prices from WorstBuy, CC... and wTF these garbage disc are like .$65/disc?! ~$30 for 50??? Where are you all finding these deals... I don't want to drive 15min just to find more price gouging of the public sheep.

Here a link -

Fuji $.40/disc - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1051384654956

Verbatim $.60/disc - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1083711426863

Dynex $.70/disc - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1099382767760

Memorex $.80/disc - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1110264240097

as you can see... WOrstBuy lives up to it's name as usual... idiot sales noobs, nazi returns counter, pushy "buy our extended warranty policy with that pack of chewing gum?" Check out zealots.... I hate even going in there!

If it's still the way it was not long ago, Fuji +R 8x Made In Japan will be TY t02 (great discs btw, I've NEVER have a problem with these), Made In Taiwan Fuji will be Ricohjpn02. All I buy are TY t02's, they're just good discs, even the printables I get from Rima.com are ty02 and work just as good as the Fuji's.

I figure why take a chance on other stuff, I have yet to get a bad burn, and any of my burners turn out top notch quality burns with these.

Well... I guess I'll go to the store and check it out, but I hate shopping at WorstBuy, >period< I don't like their prices, service, sales reps etc...