Sony DVD+RW S11 discs still available, now made in Malaysia or Mexico?

[dischunter]

The page on blank dvd media reviews says Sony Daxon is listed as first class media but stopped production in early 2010, the only listed production sites are Taiwan and Japan.

But I recently ordered a cakebox of discs from http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-25-Pa...indle/13920324 When they arrived they had the following media code as reported by Nero:

Nero DiscSpeed: Disc Info
Basic Information
Disc type: : DVD+RW (empty)
Book Type : DVD+RW
Manufacturer: : Sony
MID : SONY S11 000 (00h)
Write speeds: : 2.4 X - 4 X
Blank Capacity : 4.38 GB
: 4482 MB
: 4700375040 bytes
Extended Information
Layers : 1
Write strategies : 4 X
Raw Data
Physical Format Information (00h)
0000 - 92 0F 04 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F 00 00 00 00 - .........&.?....
0010 - 00 00 01 53 4F 4E 59 00 00 00 00 53 31 31 00 39 - ...SONY....S11.9
0020 - 23 00 B4 72 68 02 24 00 AE 75 58 02 28 00 B2 73 - #..rh.$..uX.(..s
0030 - 62 02 24 04 12 10 E0 10 F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - b.$.............
0040 - 01 00 17 38 00 2F 8A 52 02 1C 00 33 84 36 02 28 - ...8./.R...3.6.(
0050 - 00 2E 8D 48 02 28 64 26 20 00 20 E0 40 00 00 00 - ...H.(d&....@...

The discs themselves have a gold colored cosmetic topskin (I mean the place where you scribble with your Sharpie! The recording surface is a dark silver looking color).

Packaging is like the picture on the website. The wrapper says made in Malaysia. But a paper insert at the top of the stack states (in spanish) that the "GARANTIA LIMITADA (para compras hechas en Mexico solamente)" is for 2 years, so maybe some are now made in Mexico also?

The bottom of the cakebox had markings molded into the plastic that suggested it (not sure if this means the discs or just the box?) was manufactured April 2010, though I ordered in December and it arrived right before Xmas. It's still on their site so more may still be available.

No scans yet, I've only used a couple of these discs for data transfer but so far so good, only time will tell..... has anyone else tried these, or am I the only one still interested in RW media?

[admin]

Refer to the media guide one more time: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm
Sony/Malaysia is listed at the bottom of the 2nd Class** media ranking. Malaysian media is not very good. It was from a separate plant than the Taiwan or Japan media -- and not as good.

** Current 2nd class, soon to be 3rd class again, due to pending changes in the guide for Feb 2011.
Reliability % is the same, as is other info, but some good-but-not-archival media has created a new 2nd Class spot (FTI, RitekF, Prodisc).

We all use DVD-RW and DVD+RW quite a bit still, so there is interest at least with Site Staff here. But with all the DVD recorders out there, and people who need to test without wasting a write-once DVD, RW media is still surely bought and used, so you're not alone.

April 2010 is past the apparent cut-off when Daxon tanked (Jan 2010), so I wonder if the labels are accurate. Interesting.

Made in Mexico? I'm not readily aware of any media made in Mexico these days, and not for a long time now. There's always the change the Spanish writing is poorly translated. At face value, it appears to be information on the warranty if bought in Mexico, but the phrase "hecha en" is the problem -- as that means "made in".

[dischunter]

Quote:

Sony/Malaysia is listed at the bottom of the 2nd Class** media ranking.

Ah yes, now that you point it out I see what happened. When I saw the SONY S11 media code that matches my discs on the first list I stopped looking for any other (non-matching) codes further down. So this does leave me a bit more confused now... does the general quality follow from the location of the factory, or does it track according to the media code?

Quote:

April 2010 is past the apparent cut-off when Daxon tanked (Jan 2010), so I wonder if the labels are accurate. Interesting.

Hmm... does that mean Sony is now making their own discs again, or are they now outsourcing to someone else? (in that case, who? does it matter if it is still their own media code?)

Quote:

I'm not readily aware of any media made in Mexico these days, and not for a long time now.

I thought I remembered something about someone claiming to have worked for some manufacturer who was outsourcing production there, but her emails had so many nonsensical statements that she was dismissed as a crackpot... oh here it is... http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/show...a-vs-2407.html . . . maybe that specific claim (about outsourcing to Mexico) wasn't so outlandish after all? Alternately maybe she saw the same package insert I did and spun her story to match?

Quote:

At face value, it appears to be information on the warranty if bought in Mexico, but the phrase "hecha en" is the problem -- as that means "made in".

Yes, that's why I made a point of quoting that verbiage, I was wondering if anyone had seen other Mexican made discs from Sony, given the previous rumor. And the guarantee written elsewhere on the packaging in english is the same two years, so if it was just a translation for the convenience of spanish customers, the parenthetical clause containing "hecha en" would not be needed at all since the length of warranty does not otherwise depend on location of manufacture.

There is one other odd thing on that package insert, the other side of it says

Importado por: Sony Nuevo Laredo S.A. de C.V. Boulevard Luis Donaldo Colosio km 0.200 Sur. Modulo Industrial America, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. C.P.88277 Tel: (867)711-3000. Vease instructivo anexo.

which seems a bit out of place since the overwrap says made in Malaysia and claims copyright to "Sony Electronics Inc, New Jersey, USA". Makes me wonder if the insert is a not so well thought out generic thing or as you say poorly translated and just there because they've always done it that way in the past or something equally silly. But it does look like they have at least some sort of office location there even if these particular discs were made elsewhere.

[admin]

Quote:

does the general quality follow from the location of the factory, or does it track according to the media code?

Sony was the exception, rather than the rule. Other manufacturers have equal-quality products from their multi-factory operations. Mitsubishi, for example, produces excellent discs from at least 4-5 different location. Why Daxon's Malaysian media was subpar was never really understood.

Quote:

Hmm... does that mean Sony is now making their own discs again, or are they now outsourcing to someone else? (in that case, who? does it matter if it is still their own media code?)

It appears Sony has abandoned their own media ID and specs, after the Daxon dissolution. Current DVD-R and DVD+R is all Ritek Fuji-dye media. Thankfully, RitekF1 and RitekF16 is rather decent (better than RitekG and RitekR medias of years past).

Quote:

maybe she saw the same package insert I did and spun her story to match?

This is possible. I've seen crazier.

Quote:

because they've always done it that way in the past

Just for fun, I pulled the insert from 2003 Sony media, which was made in Austria and carried information completely in English in French. No Spanish, no Asian countries, and no Bavarian or German. So there's definitely a history of oddities in labeling -- a discord in origin, language, and various texts.

Quote:

Sony Nuevo Laredo S.A. de C.V. Boulevard Luis Donaldo Colosio km 0.200 Sur. Modulo Industrial America, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. C.P.88277

I'm under the impression that all Mexican CD-R factories closed many years ago, and that none of them were ever involved in DVD production. As best as I can tell from the Sony sites, both English and Spanish, that address is for a warehouse / distribution center, and facility that possibly produces some chemicals and/or molds. But nothing about media manufacturing.

I'll keep a watch, see if I've missed something.

[dischunter]

Small update here. I was at Target last week and noticed they have these Malaysian Sony discs on the shelf. Same packaging as the WalMart ones (which were not in the store but online only).

Also noticed they have the Sony "mini" format in the +R and -R flavors, the packaging on those both say made in Mexico (but not the full size ones). A little Googling turned up an image of the wrapper artwork:
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/displa...set-126668.pdf

(No, I did not buy any of these discs there.)

[kpmedia]

Thanks for that information.

I have some mini Sony discs from October 2010, bought new a few days before a wedding that was shot on them, and these are Ritek discs. The person did not given me the packaging, however -- I have discs in envelopes. So I know Ritek mini-discs are out there. I would assume these are MIT, however. (Made in Taiwan)

I would avoid the Malaysian Sony/Daxon media -- those were known to be hit-or-miss quality, even if the Taiwan Sony/Daxon were excellent (archival-grade, even).

I've seen these at K-Mart and Sears, too.

[dischunter]

Quote:

So I know Ritek mini-discs are out there. I would assume these are MIT, however.

Not sure if the ones you have match the ones I saw at Target - those definitely were labelled as made in Mexico, not Taiwan. (Check out that PDF, look next to the UPC code.) I also don't know if the ones I saw were Riteks since I didn't buy any.

[admin]

There was a post here a while back, concerning the oddity of "made in Mexico" media, when there is no confirmed manufacturing facility in that country at this point in time. (Most of us are of the understanding that Mexican CD-R plants shut down last decade, early on.)

But no, I don't think you saw the same discs -- one is MIT, the other MIMx.

I need to stop by Target sometime, maybe give these MIMx discs a look. Thanks for the tip.