k, so I'm working at this place right, and there's dragons and burnination and the like, but no planes on a treadmill.... (I think that ought to get attention)

At my new work, we wholesale stuff. Lots of stuff. Amongst said stuff is TDK 16x DVD-R & DVD+R media. Now I haven't had much contact with DVD burning, cause each one of my 3 DVD burners was a dud, and I ended up giving up and just sticking to CD burning instead. So I put the call out to you guys. What do you think is good about TDK media? do you religiously use it? where do you buy it from? do you think it's crap? does it suck more than a midget in a headjob shop? what do you think of it's price-tag? What about it's competition in the 16x DVD media market?

I'm after an honest discussion, not a wank-fest flame-war. Speak, my minions! SPEAK!

Someone said to me a while ago TDK was reliable so that's why I use it. I'm way too abusive to my media though so eventually most of it stops working after a while:/

i bought a spindle of 16x dvd-r tdk. They are great, not one is failed and burn at good speeds. and they were cheapest :)

so yea, price was good, they are quality (burnt about 20 and all have burned flawlessly).

But keeping in mind, i havent used any other dvd-rs.

i inevitably get jizz (and micky) stains on my media. (i <3 cheap and nasty princo)

I used to use TDK cds, but for DVD's my burner loves shintaro brand.

We use TDK at work as they're one of the few brands that works on 99% of the random ps2/xbox dev kits around the office.

I just picked up 2 metal tins of 16x TDK DVD-R (60 disks per tin, World Cup Special) for $42 down at Clive Anthony's yesterday. Been through about 15 so far with out a problem. I think it's the "name" that sold me, TDK has been around for years.

I picked up a 100 spool of DVD-R's not so long ago and have gone through about 30 in an 8x liteon burner without a fail so far so for me they go alright.

thank you all for your input so far :)

I must say, despite you guys having such good luck with it, I'm having a rather difficult time selling these to the usual dealers around brisbane and surrounding areas. It seems the price is too high compared to LG 16x media which wholesales around $10 cheaper per 50pc bucket. I'm trying to find plus points to the TDK to market it better to MY customers. The hard part is getting over the higher price point. :(

I don't mind paying that bit more if it's for something of quality. So you're selling TDK disks? What price and for how many?

I'm not allowed to deal to public in my new work Tanaka :)

Umart's pretty well priced for the media :) as the purchasing officer took quite a large number of them from me as a favour. Check them out, and you'll be close to the money anyway :)

I never touch Umart, even for something like media.

do you have an ABN? :)

After hearing so many people rave about the store, I recently bought a 100 pack of 8x Taiyo Yuden's from JPL displays for $57 (+ postage).

That's one of the best media you can buy. It came very well packaged, despite my uneasiness at ordering something like this online. Highly recommended for anyone who cares about their data!

exactly what i got from JPL, parabola :D

I was gonna come in here and rave about it but u beat me to it.

TDK's from Clive Anthony for teh win! Never had a dud outta the hundreds of DVD's I've burnt.

ive had all sorts of cheapo cd/dvd brands and never had em fail on me, only in the early years like years ago when slot drives were the shiz

Don't forget, they may not fail on you when you record, but I've had some cheap ones I used several years ago fail on me and become unreadable.

I too was going to suggest Taiyo Yuden media from JPL. Always rated the best if you search Google for dvd media recommendations. Also, the reason some TDK batches may be so good is that TY make some media for them.

I sell it at Officeworks, all their new greeny-blue packaged stuff... I think its nice that they were quick out with 16x discs, but I think the current tin of 100 cd-r's I'm using would prevent me from buying anything TDK in the future. They're more expensive than Imation discs, and I've heard nothing bad about them.

I had heard they used to be Taiyo Yuden discs, although I didn't really know whether to believe it. I know their CD's are often crappy CMC or whatever discs. Do you know who manufactures the DVD's?


Another thing I like is that they sell 5 packs of DL's... well, they're the only brand we sell in a 5-pack anyway.

another thought... if umart are selling them for $59, you must be selling them pretty expensive. Officeworks Business Direct sell them for $50, although I don't think they're inkjet printable. I think thats what we charge in the store too.

Just for the record, Harris Technology are very cheap on DVD media. Verbatim 16x IJ 50 $36

last edited by mongie at 10:00:55 17/May/06

TDK, Verbatim and Spider are pretty much all I'll use if I have the choice. They'll also replace the discs if they're duds.

i use TDK media, it's good.

but i also use Taiyo Yuden (JPL ) and Verbatim (just cuz i get inkjet printable verbatims 50 for $30 at work).

and yes, taiyo yuden used to (not sure if they still do) make a lot of the TDK dvdr's

Well, after much information seeking, I came across a few handy sites that make Media a little more understandable :)

These aren't by any stretch of the imagination "new" sites, but I'd never seen them before, so for anyone else interested, here you are!

These guys are crazy over media!

Digitalfaq.com gives a good insight into manufacturing codes

Videohelp.com has some tools to help identify media if you can't read the fine-print


I hope that is benificial to any of you who haven't seen it before. It certainly opened my eyes to the world of differentiating media :)

only dvd-r that never fail to work for me are TDK they are awsome.