Hi,
I am looking for some cheap dvd media to use to back up my computer data, work files etc. Also to give out to people that I do/don’t like.
I am not bothered if they are plus or minus just that they are cheap last fairly well and are supported by my benq 1640 BSLB.
Would it be good to post scans and see if you can overspeed them if they are 4X media?
Thanks
I suggest you stay away from cheap media. It may be good at first but after a few months maybee even a year they are no good. I did that with DVD’s got good cheap stuff and now I have a bunch of movies that are no good. My honest edvice would be to go with Taiyo Yuden from a reputable dealer and save time and money buy buying the slightly more expensive stuff.
With regards to data you care about keeping archived for a while, there’s no such thing as cheap media. Believe me, it gets ‘expensive’ once you find out you have to backup those ‘cheap’ discs you bought not too long ago to salvage your data.
Now, to give to people you don’t like … well … that’s a different story. 
In all seriousness … keep an eye out ( in the Bargain Basement section ) for ripit’s weekly post (typically Saturdays) and sometimes JamesCooley posts a preview (typically around Thursdays) of the following week’s advertisements. You can get a jump on the media prices and figure out / research here which will suit your 1640 best. Good luck. Cheers.
CMC E01 and CMC AE1 discs burn great on my Benq 1640 with the BSLB FW, Staples has Teon branded discs for about $5-7 per 40 pack if you can still find them in the stores. Burns get ‘quality scores’ of 95-98, very good results and very inexpensive, and I’ve burned over 1000 CMC discs and none of them have deteriorated.
‘Value’ TY media can be bought pretty cheap, although it’ll cost about double what the Teon discs cost. There’s also Ricoh branded RICOHJPN R01 discs for cheap, they burn great at 8x on the Benq. Look in the Bargain Basement forum here for that deal and other good deals on media. Also Office Depot has their branded media on sale, if you can get a coupon you can get them very cheap, although I would not suggest getting the -R media as it is Ritek and the -R Ritek is not reliable media at this point. Again look in the Bargain Basement forum.
Fresh Fighter
I have been using High-Speed DVD-R (DVDR) 8X 4.7GB White Inkjet Hub Printable Blank DVD Media which can be had for around 25 cents each.
DVD Identifier v4.2.0 identifies those discs as: Taiyo Yuden TY02 which I hear are about the best around.
You can take a look at them at:
Eric
Fake TY. If they work Ok for you, great. I’ve heard some people have decent results from fake TY media, although I’d be closely testing the discs with PI/PIF and transfer rate tests if I were you.
There is no good “cheap media”.
But you can often find a good deal on good media.
Best cheap media is… the best media.
Nowadays discs are cheap, there are no expensive discs apart dual layer ones, even TY discs are cheap now. 50 cents per disc is expensive? No way. Remember the price of video tapes? How much do you pay for a CDR? Does a DVDR cost you more than 7 CDRs???
As Lordsmurf has put it in another thread, “we are spoiled”. I definitly agree.
Over here in NZ, we don’t have the luxury of being able to purchase TY media at anything remotely resembling low cost.
The best we get is Ricoh… for the price, it’s a far better performer than imported TY. Same with Verbatim, actually :\
Ricoh is very decent media! 
I was going to get some discs with the ‘ricohjpnr001’ code at svp for about 18p per disc. I normally buy verbatim but just wanted some cheaper discs for monthly permanant data backups etc.
Ricohjpnr01 are very good disks. They burn well at 8x on most burners and even at 12x on a few. Overspeeding may of course require modified firmware though a few drives will overspeed them to 8x with stock firmware. Worst case senerio, if your drive doens’t like overspeeding them, you may get stuck burning at 4x to get aceptable burns.
I would only buy TY and Verbatim MCC. Even though I have a bad batch of RICOHJPN R01, I would recommend those as well.
Tested on 7 burners, it is nearly impossible to get a bad burn, at rated speed. The Ricohs are better at 8X than most others I have seen. I really regret getting bad discs.
Try Allmediaoutlet for the Ricohs. $19 with ricoh4off coupon, plus shipping.
Kind of sucks when you get some bad media that you know is suposed to be good. I had the same experience with some tyt02. I guess it can happen with any media.
best cheap media :
datawrite all non ritek-types like CMC TTH02 is sweet !!
datawrite Titanium CMC and their +DL kicks ass for a cheap +DL
and tuffdisk (CMC)
Note on Double Layers - not Duals
there are only 2 brands that ever worked for me.
Verbatim and Datawrite (yeah printables) and Datawrite Titanium.
i coastered all kind of DL’s even genuine (??) richo ones (5 out od 5 
) as well as all sort of ritek related ones. in standalone compatibility (all booktyped rom of course) the datawrite even seem to be better (for about half the price) compared to verbatim - no ideas about long term reliability.
some ritek dye’ed ones burned fine but did not work in the standalones like sound dropouts, picture stops and worst some layer-jump-problems means no jump. :a
hope that helps - ahab666
btw: as soon as i understand the rules for probing i will kprobe some of the above mentioned media
Kprobe’s not hard (for liteon burners only, otherwise use cd speed). In kprobe, just insert the burned disk in your liteon, click the little play icon, when it is done, close the text window, click the little floppy icon and save the graph as png, them post it. Defanatly read through the thread on kprobe and the thread that it links to on interpreting error (if you don’t, you wont be able to understand if people try to explain your scans to you), but even after reading it, it is usally just easiest to post some scans and ask for help.
{DV 3309} Verbatim (Taiyo Yuden) 8x DVD-R in Spindle Tubs of 25
Verbatim have entrusted the manufacture of the disc to the world renowned Taiyo Yuden factory.ADVDInfo: TYG02
SVP Price: £6.49 / Euro 9.65 inc VAT.
so about 26p each 
must buy some more, i’ve only got 1400 left in stock myself
Lol - Yes, New Year is coming and you never know when you might need another 1000 discs. Actually SVP has the Verb pastel cdr and Verb 8x-r in a bundle offer these days 
$$$$$$ out, but for a good cause…
best bet is to search for good media at a cheep price
Best bet is to find what media burns good on your drive (because results can very, even with good media), and then do as CCRomeo sugested. Search for good prices on the stuff that works good on your drive. You can get sony, maxell, ty, verbatium all locally for very good prices when on sale. Find which of them burn good and get them when on sale. Thier are others (ricohjpnr01 if you can find them), cmcmage01 (they burn very good for mea any way) that might be worth consideration too and you do not have to pay a lot. You can get mcc (same as verbatium) for 6$ per 25 at circuit city right now (just have to know what to look for). With black friday coming up, expect some killer deals on good media, so now is the time to stock up on the good stuff cheap!!!