What good is a spindle of "4X" Princo DVD-R for these days?

[NJRoadfan]

Don't laugh, I got two spindles of these as a gift back in 2003. I only burned about 10 discs total and never used the rest (thank goodness). I never used the rest as I later got a much faster burner and bought faster media to go with it. Granted I never had a bad burn with these in my Powerbook G4's Panasonic 2X DVD-R drive. The "4X" part actually comes from the Media ID, I was pretty sure these discs were rated 2X max when purchased, but then again they are Princos. I must have been extremely lucky though, as the few discs I burned all seem to still work.

I guess I should just toss them. I have enough coasters around here.

[kpmedia]

Oh, nice -- I can think of some experiments that digitalFAQ.com could perform with a spindle of 4x Princo discs. Interested in donating those my way? I've been working with some other discs for a couple of long-term tests, but a whole spindle worth? That would be great. There are some specific humidity, temperature and other insane "for fun" tests that I'm working on for long-term studies, for articles to appear in mid/late 2011.

[NJRoadfan]

Although I kinda feel guilty doing this (as I got them as a gift), I simply can't trust these discs to any data thats remotely important. Plus I don't even have any DVD-R drives slow enough to use them anymore. I have one unopened 50 pack cake box spindle still in the wrapper. The other spindle has about 35 discs left. The 4X media ID is clearly wishful thinking on Princo's part, these discs were advertised as 2X! But what does one expect from a company that faked TDK's media ID to trick drives into burning their crap at 2X.

Some background, these discs were purchased at the now defunct allmediaoutlet.com. The store quickly gained early fame and business back in 2003 selling Princo DVD-R media for dirt cheap (about $1/disc, a deal then). It is also interesting to note that these discs all have a hairline crack in the center hub. Check out the reseller ratings for allmediaoutlet, they sold a ton of this crap. Apparently this is what Princo classified as.... hold your laughing... "B grade" media....see http://www.netsoftmedia.com/paypalshop/princo1x.html for a picture. What I can't believe is how this company lasted so long on the market.

[kpmedia]

I also bought discs from AllMediaOutlet (and their sister store, forget the name), same timeframe, same reasons -- and this was one of the sites that promoted it. They were an initial advertiser many moons ago, running banner ads through the end of 2005 on digitalFAQ.com

We used Princo 1x and 2x media for duplication all those many, many years ago. It was either $1-3 apiece, or $5+ apiece for the better discs. The clients were cheap, so therefore the discs were, too! And I honestly hated every minute of it. (They were warned, but their pocketbooks overran their common sense.)

I do have a number of Princo media left, as burns from that era, but the technology at the time didn't really allow for accurate testing. Hence, I don't have certain tests for that media as I would like. It also serves as an amusing "control group" for testing, to see how badly other media compare against known-crap Princo. I would add that almost all of my Princo burns are fine. Burns from 2001-2003 were tested in 2003, and were fine, as they are to this day with minimal changes for the decade.

Same for RITEKG01. There was a ton of it available, long ago, as a gold-foil (gold reflective) deep-purple dye media. It was early stock, as RITEKG01 swapped over to silver foils before the end of the disc lineage. The gold discs burned better, but they have not aged gracefully, due to the gold reflector being an inferior performing material for reflectivity. The starting values were marginal, and even slight aging in conjunction with gold reflective were cause enough to give read problems. There's higher jitter, making it unreadable on some lesser/weaker drives.

I still have some old receipts for discs that were bought, mostly for my own self amusement. Can you imagine paying $300 for a 100-spindle of discs?

[NJRoadfan]

OK, I'm sick of looking at these on my desk. I got a nice box the new Verbatims came in to ship them out with. Where should I send this spindle to?

[kpmedia]

PM sent.

I have some short-term and 12-month tests that I want to do with used and blank discs, and adding Princo to the mix will be like icing on the cake. It will make for a good control group (since the expectation is for the discs to perform like complete crap, and fail every test). MCC is the opposite control group, expected to perform nearly flawlessly. Obviously this is a comparative study, not an absolute (which is the failing of too many longevity tests).

[NJRoadfan]

Just checked ebay. Are people really buying likely NOS 50-pack spindles of 4X Princo DVD-Rs for $18-$24? Seriously.

[pepst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

I have some short-term and 12-month tests that I want to do with used and blank discs, and adding Princo to the mix will be like icing on the cake. It will make for a good control group (since the expectation is for the discs to perform like complete crap, and fail every test). MCC is the opposite control group, expected to perform nearly flawlessly. Obviously this is a comparative study, not an absolute (which is the failing of too many longevity tests).

Do you have any VDSPMSAB 01/VDSPMSAB 02, VANGUARD or BeAll G40001 media to test? All these MID codes are known for ultra-rapid deterioration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJRoadfan

Just checked ebay. Are people really buying likely NOS 50-pack spindles of 4X Princo DVD-Rs for $18-$24? Seriously.

Some noobs consider Princo to be a premium brand.
From a media collector's point of view - that's not too bad price for a quite rare media.

[NJRoadfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pepst

Some noobs consider Princo to be a premium brand.
From a media collector's point of view - that's not too bad price for a quite rare media.

Then I guess my stash of US made TDK and Ricoh CD-Rs from 1999-2000 are worth quite a lot. Best media (at the time) to overburn and write at higher then rated speeds before true 80min/700mb media came out.

[pepst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJRoadfan

Then I guess my stash of US made TDK and Ricoh CD-Rs from 1999-2000 are worth quite a lot. Best media (at the time) to overburn and write at higher then rated speeds before true 80min/700mb media came out.

If it's possible, could you please post the pictures of their serial (hub) numbers? Thanks.

[NJRoadfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pepst

If it's possible, could you please post the pictures of their serial (hub) numbers? Thanks.

These aren't going to scan too well, so I'll type them up.

TDK "Certified Plus" 1X-8X rated Made in USA

Hub numbers: 'JFAR' and 'B9B12QC1S'
MID: 97m32s00f (oddly Nero CD info says its rated for 8X-16X)
I only have a few of these left in a spindle

Imation branded Ricoh 1X-4X rated Made in USA. Looks similar to link below
http://gfx.cdmediaworld.com/c/imation_cd-r74_top.jpg
Hub numbers: 'KJXA' and '03289906864 2'
MID:97m27s66f
I have a few of these sealed in jewel cases.

[kpmedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pepst

Do you have any VDSPMSAB 01/VDSPMSAB 02, VANGUARD or BeAll G40001 media to test? All these MID codes are known for ultra-rapid deterioration.

I should have these three: VDSPMSAB 01, VDSPMSAB 02, VANGUARD. I don't think that "VANGUARD" is the entire MID, either -- not exactly sure where those are right now. I believe the VDS discs were Mirror brand media from UK.

That's a project for Q1 2011, and will be a long-term study analyzed quarterly for up to two years, with first results in Q2 or Q3 2011. Almost all of these are already-burned discs, however, so those will be part of a secondary type of test. These were actually part of burning tests from years earlier, since stored in semi-archival storage (+5 degrees F from optimum range during Q3 each year, due to cooling costs).

The unburnt discs will have a similar study, but with a more "virgin" starting place (tracking from day one of burn).

I'm trying to do what's not really been done to date, testing wise. I won't fully describe everything that's involved until sometime next year.

[pepst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

I should have these three: VDSPMSAB 01, VDSPMSAB 02, VANGUARD. I don't think that "VANGUARD" is the entire MID, either -- not exactly sure where those are right now. I believe the VDS discs were Mirror brand media from UK.

"VANGUARD" is the entire name of (no revision/generation number was used) the only own MID code ever used by Vanguard Optical. Later on they switched to fake TY MID codes. The stamper & dye for the "VANGUARD" media were supplied by Interaxia AG, therefore these discs are very similar to the "VDSPMSAB 01" DVDRs. I wonder how they will fare in your test in comparison with them.
Mirror DVD-Rs with VDPMSAB.... MID were made by Infosmart.

[kpmedia]

VDSPMSAB 01 -- found one.
I'm scanning it now, and will see about photographing it in detail (hub codes, etc) tomorrow.

This one is not a Mirror brand disc -- it's an unmarked inkjet DVD-R. No other brand markings on the surface or hub. Not a great disc. It was on my "crap media" spindle that I keep just for fun. It performs poorly in DVD players and DVD-ROMs, and scans just as bad. I've seen worse, but it's still bottom-feeder grade media. I'm testing and scanning several discs from that spindle, actually.

This disc originated from a USA buyer back in 2003-2004. It's not a European-sold blank that I can tell. Possibly an eBay purchase, but more likely something bought from an online store (allmediaoutlet.com, maybe).

I'll start a new thread for it.

[pepst]

Thanks, I am looking forward to the pictures and quality scans.