Prodisc vs CMC Verbatim: Differentiating at retail

I was in Sam's today and was looking at the 100 disc spindles of Verbatim 8x DVD media they have there. I noticed two slightly different types of packaging for the DVD-R media: the majority had obvious CMC cakeboxes with what some have called Times New Roman font for the "lock" and "unlock" lables on the top and the high top "lip", and there is a paper Verbatim label placed on top of the discs. The styrofoam stackers are under the paper label and also not visible. But the I noticed a few (5 or less) spindles with a lower top lip, a different font for "lock" and "unlock," and no paper Verbatim label on top of the discs, so you can see the disc and the stackers, which are plastic and not styrofoam. It's a pretty safe hunch the ones without the paper label on top are made at the Prodisc plant while the others are made by CMC.

Aren't they about the same for quality though?

My understanding was that they both had the MCC media code and one was made by CMC while the other was made in a different country. Prodisc has a tie with MCC so what you say would make sense. I have used some Verbatim -R 8X MCC that were not as good at the edge of the burn and they were made by CMC with an MCC media code. The box matched your description above to a T. Do you have country of origin info?

Prodisc MCC seems to be of better quality than CMC, especially for the +R media.

Both are made in Taiwan.

Update:

I was at a local Best Buy today and while all the Verbatim 8x spindles had the paper label on the top, it was easy to distinguish the Prodisc-made spindles from the CMC-made ones by cakebox. As mentioned before the Prodisc cakeboxes have a lower top lip.

I've got some crappy -R Verbatim 8X from Supermediastore. They have MCC codes, but a significant 4 of 6 discs off the top display defects AFTER burning. The top of the cakebox (100 pk) has high lip (seems high at least). Are these CMC made? I'm in the process of returning them to Verbatim.

The +R I have seem OK. Does CMC manufacture these also?

One way to check for sure is to look at the serial number etched in the clear plastic hub area of the disc and post it here.

They sure sound like the CMC discs to me.

Here are some serial numbers (at least I can read them against the light):

- R: MAHA02II09093266 2 (from Best Buy). These are "OK"

+ R: OAHG7IK20095961 6 (from Supermediastore). These seem OK

- R: MAH642IL07033347 6 (from Supermediastore). THESE ARE BAD

Thanks

At least CMC's packaging not look cheap.Maybe this mean better quality control and everything else is exception as bad LOT purchasing.

My experience is pretty much same as chas0039's. Bought Verbatim DVD-R 8x made in Taiwan, all scans of each burn(NEC3520 @8x, @4x, BENQ1620 @8x @4x, @4x much better than @8x for both writers and NEC3520 burns better than BENQ1620's) just look like CMC disc, the high PI/PO values on edge. Switch to TY disc, the Verbatim makes more profit by selling crap disc made by the CMC.

CMC made-MCC isn't exactly crap; the problem is the quality varies quite a bit. I've had 12x burns on CMC-made MCC003 that were as good as, or better than, YUDEN000T02 12x burns, using my PX-712A. Other times I've had ones that burned at 8x had PIE errors at the end approaching the 280 mark. I've been seeking to get my hands on more Prodisc-made MCC003 as going by scans I've seen from others it seems to be more consistently good.

Okay, so the Prodisc made MCCs are better quality? I wish that verbatim would just have everything running out of singapour again so we could just avoid all of this BS. Then again this is typical of brand name media. They don't give a crap about consistancy in quality, they only give a crap about how cheap they can produce their discs. Surely Verbatim knows that their Singapour produced discs were of a better overall quality.

These are all CMC.

Prodisc have a "+" in the middle of the serial number for +R media and "-" in the middle of the serial number for -R media.

Eksample:

4329E1512-08057W16

4333E2924+03469021

Here in Norway most 8x verbatim in 25 Cake is now made by Moser Baer in India.

My favourite is Prodisc made MCC, followed by singapore MCC, then CMC MCC and MBI MCC.

thanks for the info OC-Freak. I was afraid of that. Although the media from my other spindles of -R media haven't displayed any dye defects(yet), the quality of the scans left something to be desired. All of them had sudden increases in PIE's towards the edges. Maybe it's my burner (Benq), but my feelings towards Verb media (+ and -) aren't very positive. On the other hand, within one wk of Verbatim receiving my defective spindle, I had a brand new 100pk spindle of - media delivered to me. So, at least their customer service is excellent.
I'll have to check the serial numbers on these dvd's. They came in the same type of spindle, but without a label covering the top dvd. Don't know if this means anything.

Until Verbatim shows me some consistency in their source and quality of media, I'm only going to feed my burners TY media.

Just a warning to you guys: Here in india ive picked up many Moser-Baer BRANDED media, all -R, and the codes have been either MCC or FujiFilm03!! And the MCC packaging says "made in india" but the Fuji packaging doesnt mention the country of origin!!

In the United States anyway, trade laws dictate the country of origin MUST be printed soemwhere on the packageing.

JD

sure they do and nobody ever violates them... can you say "prices always falling?"

Trying to figure out if the Vermatim 8x DVD-R's I have are Prodisc or CMC.

The discs are made in Taiwan and the serial # is ZD1551-DVR-I47A . Anyone know which type these are?

The reason I am asking is that I have been less successful burning these than earlier Verbatim 8x DVD-Rs that I used. I have in the interim updated my firmware (NEC3500), so maybe it is just that the new firmware is worse...

Not necessarily. If you had been burning Singapour produced Verbs in the past and are now burning CMC produced Verbs the media could easily be at fault. The Singapour produced Verbs were much more consistant for quality.

You need to post the serial number around the center hole. Stamped into the plastic itself usually.

Really do you prefer Prodisc Taiwan made Verbatim to Singaporean one? Are there evidence of better burns?
I always thought made in Japan (or singapore for mcc) discs were the best you can get!

I bought the philips DVD-R 8X inkjet printable at supermedia with the serial number MAH642IL07033347 and they are the crappiest media ever, burnt with my BenQ 1620 with FW B7U9, the PI is in the 800s and the PIF is in the 200s. So stay away from CMC with that serial number

Here in Austria, I bought a 25 Cake of Verbatim DVD-R 8x made in India (MCC).
Is this the serial-number? It's stamped into the plastic around the hole:

5007 512 -R C B 10930

What does it mean? Does the "-R" mean they are made by Prodisk?