BenQ 822A and New Smartbuy 4x Media

I recently purchased some Smartbuy Media in the GTA. However it seems most stores are not carrying the discs that have the white label with orange circles ontop, but instead have media that has a sort of reflective surface thats writable (and still has the smartbuy logo). Both my old spindle and the new spindle are -R at 4x. The only other difference aside from the surface of the disc is the packaging that looks mostly the same except for it promiting "AZO Dye".

I've updated my BenQ to the most recent formware B3IC and have tried writing to these discs at 4x in my 822A only to recieve "Power Calibration Area Full" in Nero. However, the discs can be burned at 2.4x (slowly). The info tool shows that its still ProdiscS03 and is capable of 4x, but this is kind of disappointing.

Has anyone had success with these new Smartbuy DVD-Rs? I'm wondering if I got a bad batch or if all shiny top spindles are causing problems. Or even if it's nero that's causing the problem. I've gone through the usual reinstall of the IDE controller and recording software, checking to make sure the drive has a good connection to the power supply, etc.

P.S. I've also seen 8x Smartbuy 8+/-R media, but it costs more and since I already have a poor spindle here I don't want to risk losing even more money.

BenQ does not do -R very well. They use a Philips chipset, who is a big supporter of +R. You could use DVD Identifier to find out if the disc is on BenQ's supported media. The fact that they burn at 2.4x is a bad sign. I've seen -R discs that burned poorly on DW822, but worked fine on other burners. I'd suggest getting some +R discs, which BenQ is very good at.

I am considering getting some +R media.

However I bought some prodiscs a month ago (generic and Smartbuy) DVD-R's with no problems at all, nothing like this. It seems its this new batch.

I'm wondering if its a bad batch or if the quality of these discs have gone down.

Its hard to tell by the packaging who makes the disc. You need to use DVD Identifier or DVD Info Pro to tell you who makes the disc. Brands do change manufacturers. So the Smartbuy you bought last month may not be made by the same company as the ones you bought recently. Or they could just be bad.

They're both ProdiscS03.

Check out this thread in another forum. there's suppose to be a decline in quality in the ProdiscS03.

http://www.supermediaforum.com/showthread.php?t=228

I have also had plenty of problems with these SmartBuy discs. Also purchased in the GTA. 1 in 2 have coastered on my Benq 822A. Up until now, I haven't had ANY media problems whatsoever. Bought a spindle of 50 yesterday and have had major problems getting these discs to burn properly.

I have just now updated my firmware to B3IC, so hopefully that helps somehow.

I'll not buy these again!

Cheers,

Dali