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Where to buy good media

Please see this page on this site. It lists many online sites and brick-n-mortar stores in the USA and Canada. It tells both who is good and who is not-so-good. Other worldwide sites (Europe, Australia, Asia, etc) will be added when they are reported.

Who makes the disc: Brand vs. Media ID

The thing that must be realized is that most media is produced by a relative small number of factories, located in several different places. These factories are present in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Hong Kong, India, and Ireland... maybe a few more, but not many. The best media generally comes from Japan and Singapore. The worst typically comes from Taiwan (in stores) and Hong Kong (online).

This being said, understand that the media brands means nothing. Apple is a great brand, but they do not make their own discs, instead outsourcing to MXL (Hitachi/Maxell), MCC (Mitsubishi Chemicals), and PVC (Pioneer). Verbatim became infamous by switching from high-quality MCC to ultra-cheap CMC (CMC Magnetics) media, although they have since returned to using MCC. Companies like Memorex, Fuji and Imation all outsource to media vendors. When buying media online always be aware of fake media too (see the fakes guide). It is the Media ID that is important, as it reveals the disc maker.

Fakes

Luckily, it does not happen often, but it does happen often enough to be a major annoyance to media buyers everywhere. Most fake media comes from Hong Kong, as a general rule. Fake media tends to float around Europe and Asia more than it does the USA. Fake media is normally sold in flea markets, on eBay and online. Major brand name media sold in stores is probably never going to be fake.

TYG02 = This was faked by Hong Kong OEM in 2004-2005. Some OPTODISC media was also reported to carry this code. The fakes are rumored to be for "improved 8x media detection" but low quality media is low quality, regardless of the media ID.

MXLRG01 = This was faked by Hong Kong OEM in 2002-2003.

SONY = This was faked in 2003. Unknown HK manufacturer. "SONY" is not a valid media ID.

TDKG02 = This was faked by PRINCO in 2001-2002. They wanted to "improve 2x writing" on the 1x write strategy media, as well as insure drives would see the media (not all firmware at the time had PRINCO as a valid media code).

RITEKG03,RITEKG04 = This was supposedly faked in 2004. However, it is the opinion of this author that it was just a lame cover story by RITEK for providing subpar quality media, as even the "legit" media performed poorly at the time.

Branding Guide

Although this will change on a regular basis, the following brands are known to use the following media makers for their outsourced discs. Be careful for CMC and PRINCO discs, as those are becoming more common in those "special sales" seen almost every week since early 2004. Some companies prefer dollars over quality, so be careful. Also be especially careful of "house brands" or no-names. Stores like Fry's and CompUSA have horrible return policies too, so if you end up with an unfavorable media ID, do not burn a test, just take it back for a refund and take your business elsewhere. Because of recent trends, the BOLDFACE represents known media at the time of this publish. Others are either past media codes, or codes available to the manufacturer. The (-R) and (+R) has also been added if only one is using that code.

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Accu = LEADDATA
Americal = RITEKG01, PRINCO, LEADDATA
Apple = MXL, MCC(-R)
Arita = RITEKG03, RICOHJPN
BenQ = DAXON, FUJIFILM
Bulkpaq = PRINCO, PRODISC, ISO001(+R)
CompUSA = PRINCO(-R), AML, OPTODISC, LD
Datawrite = PRINCO, PRODISC, AN31, RITEKG03
DupEZ = PIODATA, LEADDATA
ESA = CMC
Esbuy = RITEK, LEADDATA, other budget IDs
Fuji = TY(-R), MKM(-RW), MCC, RICOHJPN(+R), PRODISC(-R), FUJIFILM, RITEK
GQ = PIODATA, PRINCO, RITEKG03, RITEKG02, LEADDATA, LD
HP = CMC, RICOHJPN, MCC
Imation = MCC02, RITEKG03, CMC
Intenso = MCC01
KHypermedia = CMC, TTG01
Kodak = Various budget IDs
LiquidVideo = OPTODISC
Matrix = MATRIX, LONGTEN, YIJHAN, MUST
Maxell = MXL, RITEK(-R/Taiwan), RICOHJPN, TYG01
Memorex = MCC003, RITEKG05, RITEKR03, CMCMAG, RICOHJPN,
Memorex (more) = PRODISCS0x, INFODISC, MBI, MCC01
Meritline = Various budget IDs
Mirror = AN31, ONIDTECH, PRINCO
Optodisc = OPTODISC
Philips = CMC
Pioneer = PVC
Princo = PRINCO, Fake TDK
Prodisc = PRODISCS0x, PRODISCF0x, MCC01, MCC02
Ridata, Ritek = RITEKG0x, RITEKM0x, RITEKR0x, RITEKW, RICOHJPN
Samsung = TYG01, BEALL, RITEK
Sonic, Shop4tech = LONGTEN, MATRIX, MUST, YIJHAN, various budget IDs
Sony = SONYD0x, YUDEN, RICOHJPN, MCC
Supermedia, Linkyo = Various budget IDs
TDK = TY, YUDEN, TTG0x, TTH0x, RITEK, RICOH, MXL, CMC(+R), MCC, TDK
Teon = MCC003(+R), CMC(-R)
Verbatim = MCC02, MCC, MKM(DL), CMC, YUDEN, RICOHJPN, RITEKG03

If you can add to this list, use the CONTACT US feature and give us the info. For unusual brands and media IDs, check out the www.videohelp.com media section. In most cases, unknown media IDs would be re-branded or ID-hidden discs, often of dubious quality. Some unknown brands are overstock from other media companies. This is often the mark of very cheap media. Buyer beware.

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Speed: Media ID vs. Write Strategy

The Media ID is the location of information about the disc. Much like the disc maker's name in the ID code, the write speed can be faked. The Write Strategy is the maximum speed the disc was manufactured to use. Burning faster will often lead to errors. Unfortunately, most DVD recording drives read the Media ID for determining write speed allowed by the burning software. Always check the WRITE STRATEGY to ensure the Media ID is not forged or read incorrectly by the firmware. Both official and hacked firmwares are known to allow improper burning speeds on certain discs. Many 3RD CLASS and 4TH CLASS quality discs are guilty of placing media ID speeds on discs with slower write strategies.

Never burn faster than the write strategy

If you need to burn faster, then purchase discs with a higher write strategy. Excess burning speeds often leads to the creation of coasters.

Exceptions: There are very few exceptions to this rule. For example, most MXLRG01 media is shown to have only a 1x write strategy by DVD info programs on Pioneer 103 burners. This was due to incorrect information in the firmware. However, the media still burned flawless at 2x in the drive. This error is very uncommon, but still happens on varying drives with varying media.

How to determine Media ID and Write Strategy

A DVD burner is required to read the information. Several programs exist for checking the Media ID and Write Strategy of the disc. Most of these utilities are free (and can be found in the TOOLS section of videohelp.com). They include tools by Nero, ADVDInfo, DVDInfoPro, DVD Identifier and others.

This example uses a now-unavailable free release of DVDInfo:

Pressing the DISC button will bring up a little "i" rollover image, and clicking it will reveal the DVD's embedded info. This test shows that my APPLE 4x disc is made by MXL (Maxell) and is a true 4x disc, with both a 4x write strategy and a 4x Media ID to match it.