OfficeMax Deals From 1/19 To 1/25

[BuddhaTB]

Hi-Val 700MB CD-R Spindle 50-Pack
$16.99 - $7.99 Instant Rebate - $9 Mail-In Rebate = FREE
*Made By CMC or Ritek. Check Your Local Store For What Speed Rated Media They Have*

Memorex 700MB 4X CD-RW Spindle 25-Pack
$19.99 - $5 Instant Rebate = $14.99

Memorex 4.7GB DVD+R 5-Pack
$24.99 - $10 Instant Rebate = $14.99

HP 4.7GB DVD+R With Jewel Case 5-Pack
$24.99 - $10 Instant Rebate = $14.99

Polaroid 48x16x48 Internal CD-RW Drive
$89.99 - $40 Instant Rebate - $30 Mail-In Rebate = $19.99
*Not Sure Who Makes This Drive, But It Can Be Lite-On, Benq, Optorite, BTC, or CyberDrive*

I/O Magic 52x24x52 Internal CD-RW Drive
$79.99 - $20 Instant Rebate - $20 Mail-In Rebate = $39.99
*Made By Benq, Optorite, CyberDrive, or BTC*

Cendyne 48x12x48 USB2.0 External CD-RW Drive
$129.99 - $20 Instant Rebate - $30 Mail-In Rebate = $79.99

Cendyne 2x4x8x24 Internal DVD R/RW Drive
$269.99 - $40 Instant Rebate - $50 Mail-In Rebate = $179.99
*http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8685*

[Spazmogen]

Be cautious of the 4x Memorex CD-RW's.

here's my luck with them from back in the late summer of 2002:



I'm sticking with Verbatim CD-RW's from now on!

[BuddhaTB]

That looks so horrible.

[UALOneKPlus]

what do you think of the Polaroid brand? I stay away from Iomega brands because of bad experiences with their drive a year ago. Is Polaroid to be equally feared?

[cfitz]

Yeah, I'm no fan of Iomega either. As for Polaroid, they are simply putting their name on another manufacturer's product and selling it as their own, so the quality is ultimately determined by the actual manufacturer. If you get a LiteOn in the box, you should be alright. If you get a Benq, that's a shame... Some people have reported bad experiences with the Optorite drives as well. It is a bit of a gamble. I don't know about Polaroid, but there are clues that a LiteOn resides in the box of some other rebadgers. Look for SMART-BURN (a LiteOn trademark) printed on the box or a stick-on serial number label that resembles this:



cfitz

[cfitz]

Oh, by the way, let me pile on to the "Memorex CD-RW = poor quality" heap. Here is a Memorex 12x CD-RW that came with my Memorex CD-RW drive (which itself is fine quality - being a LiteOn at heart):





This disc was actually made by Infodisc. What a waste of polycarbonate...

cfitz

[TheWizard]

Just a note, not all Hi-Val CD-R's are made by CMC. The package used in the shown picture is definitely not reminiscent of CMC. This may be good news or bad news because there may be better quality discs in the spindle or worse quality discs.

[cfitz]

Yeah, that package looks more like a Ritek package, although I don't know for certain.

cfitz

[UALOneKPlus]

Amazing!! No wonder my Memorex CD-RW media started having a melt down last year. I also bought some generic CompUSA CDRW which refuse to work on any machine.

[BuddhaTB]

Just a note, not all Hi-Val CD-R's are made by CMC. The package used in the shown picture is definitely not reminiscent of CMC. This may be good news or bad news because there may be better quality discs in the spindle or worse quality discs.

Sorry for the generalization then. My bro bought some before and they were CMC with so-so quality. Since they were CMC before I thought they would continue to be CMC. I've just edited my post to reflect that they might be Ritek.

[dbeko]

what do you think of the Polaroid brand? I stay away from Iomega brands because of bad experiences with their drive a year ago. Is Polaroid to be equally feared?

I bought a Polaroid MaxBurn 24x last July (when OfficeMax, after rebates, had it for $19.99). For the $19.99 price, it's a good deal and works fine. However, it's very picky about which blank media you use with it. I have to use TDK brand media with that drive; otherwise I get burn errors. .

[Spazmogen]

Oh, by the way, let me pile on to the "Memorex CD-RW = poor quality" heap. Here is a Memorex 12x CD-RW that came with my Memorex CD-RW drive (which itself is fine quality - being a LiteOn at heart):





This disc was actually made by Infodisc. What a waste of polycarbonate...

cfitz

Here's my ATIP from Memorex 4x 700mb discs:
Memorex 80 Minutes (700mb) CD-RW- HORRIBLE AVOID AT ALL COSTS
ATIP: 97m 25s 30f
Disc Manufacturer: InfoDisc Technology Co., Ltd.
Reflective layer: Phase change
Media type: CD-ReWritable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
SMART-BURN Speed Limit = 4x



Memorex would be smart to keep Taiyo Yuden making the cd-r's and move the cd-rw's to Mitsubishi Chemicals (aka Verbatim quality).
They're really making a bad name for themselves in the past year by keeping with Info Disc.

[cfitz]

At the very least they should drop these InfoDisc chumps.

Here is the ATIP info from my crappy Memorex/InfoDisc CD-RW disc:

Disc Type, Material = HSCD-RW, Phase Change
ATIP Lead-in = 97m 25s 30f
Norminal Capacity = 702.83MB (79m 59s 73f)
Disc Manufacturer maybe = Memorex,InfoDisc
SMART-BURN Speed Limit = 12X

cfitz

[BuddhaTB]

What do you guys think of CD-RW disc made by Ritek?

The TDK CD-RW disc that came with my TDK 48x drive was made by Ritek. It was pretty good when I tried it out, but I don't use CD-RW disc very often. The only other ones I have are Sony, Yamaha, and TDK ones made by Mitsubishi Chemicals. And those are very good like Spazmogen said.

[cfitz]

What do you guys think of CD-RW disc made by Ritek?

I've not tried them.

cfitz

[Spazmogen]

Me either. I've never even seen one!