Q's regarding blank dvd media.
 

Finally purchased my first ever DVD writer. I'd never realized how expensive blank DVD media is, though. Kind of caught me off guard when I went to WalMart's web site to look at some price tags. So, my first question is, where do you buy your blank media for your DVD burner? I need to find a cheaper place than WalMart...

The second question is, what is the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R blank media? 10 of each cost precisely the same and have the same capacity. Which am I supposed to buy? My burner supports both according to the specs, but I am not familiar with these terms.

Keep an eye out for the weekly ads of places like Best Buy, Circuit City, any computer/office supply store. Name brand media nowadays is generally going for $.80 a disc.

You can also check out pricewatch.com and look in their media section. I think you can find a spindle of 50 for like $30 there, but it's generic or off brand media. I'm sure there is no difference b/t branded and offbranded media, but I tend to stick more to the name brands.

And the DVD-R and DVD+R are just different formats, i think originally introduced by different companies back when DVD burning started. Everything today is pretty much multi-format. If you are going to be viewing some of these DVDs on you DVD player at home, might want to take a look see, and see what format they sugget to play in the player and stick with that. Other than that, buy whatever you find that is cheapest.

dvd-r is much more compatible than dvd+r when it comes to DVD Players. search this forum, it's been discussed before.

dvd-r is also much cheaper.

I get a spindle of 50 dvd-r's for about 45 bucks at computer fairs.

Both camps say their format is the more compatible one of the two, so I would look into what other machines you want to play the new DVD's on. You said you have a dual format burner, so you should be ok whichever way you go. DVD-R,-RW, and +R discs need to be finalized to play in external players, whereas DVD+RW do not need to be. DVD-R and -RW discs are not always interchangeable between recorders either. You can not manually add chapter markers while recording on the fly with DVD-R and -RW, but you can with +R and +RW. And you won't be able to play something previously recorded while recording or "time slip" with any of the formats. Thats why DVD-RAM is the shit.

Anything less than a buck each in bulk is pretty good for DVD-R or DVD+R media in chain stores right now. You may be able to find disks for down to .50/ea in bulk if you poke around on the net.

We see freebate deals on CDR and CDRW spindles, but it's probably going to be another year or two before we see freebate DVD media.

Brandon: that is the best and simplest statement on the +/- differences I have seen. kudos.

I've seen pretty good prices at newegg (http://www.newegg.com ) for dvd media in bulk.

If you want better quality media you will pay more. For good discussions on various media (cd/dvd) I'd suggest reading the forums at http://www.cdfreaks.com .

I've read that the Ritek G04's are of better quality then most, generally when you buy these in bulk they come in a red wrapper (no spindle). I haven't had any problems with them, but I also recently got my burner so my experience is limited as well.

I just bought 100 of these: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...131-002&DEPA=1

Burned about 30 so far with no coasters, and they've played on everything I've tried them on so far. Pretty good for less than 50 cents a disc.

Beautiful. I've had nothing but good experiences with NewEgg purchases. Bought 50 of them myself, have to give them a try.

Wal-Mart was selling 10 dvd-r's for 20 bucks plus tax... Didn't seem like a deal to me, name brand or not (Maxell).

I just got a DVD Writer on Thursday, a Pioneer DVR-107D, for 132$ AUS , and I got a 50 SPindle of 4x Princo for 28$AUS, not sure if they're good though, because Riteks go for 1$ a pop even in the 50spindle and I'd never heard of Ritek before

From what I have read, Princo's are generally considered to be a cheap/generic brand. Ritek branded stuff is relatively new to market, but Ritek is a major manufacturer of cd/dvd media. Ritek, as well as other manufacturers, are generally used by major brands (Sony, Tdk, Memorex, etc). Of course the big problem with Ritek is that they have different "grades" of media, so depending on how you are getting them it may vary between top quality and trash quality.

The best advice is that you should use whatever works best for you.

Another option from Newegg -> http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...factory=BROWSE

On my third spindle in two weeks, zero coasters...