Now I've seen everything!!!

[seaegg]

A buddy of mine wanted me to archive some old VHS footage on to DVD for him and said he didn't care what media I used because the footage wasn't that important. So I happened to be in Walmart and saw they were selling 3 packs of Memorex 1x for CAD $9.98. Lo and behold when I got home and checked to see if they were made as usual by CMC guess who the manufacturer is? No really guess. Believe it or not Princo. If I had dentures they'd have been on the carpet because of how far my jaw dropped.

[CDRecorder]

Interesting! I didn't know that Memorex was using Princo, either.

[dolphinius_rex]

Last I heard Memorex did NOT use Princo.... however I *DO* know that the amount of counterfeit Memorex media packaging is DISTURBING! I've had to phone in a few instances already. Unfortunatly, Memorex themselves seem to have no interest in dealing with this problem. When I asked if there was anything further I should do, the only thing they could suggest was to destroy the counterfeit memorex media I had bought.... ummm, I don't think so! It may not be memorex licensed, but it's still recordable media I can use!

I doubt Memorex is REALLY using Princo.

[CDRecorder]

I've heard of other computer accessories being counterfeited, but I didn't know that blank DVDs were one of those accessories!

[RJW]

blank dvd's/cd-r's are really counterfeited one a quite large number.

[CDRecorder]

Interesting... Thanks for passing on that knowlege; it is good to know.

What brands besides Memorex are frequently counterfeited?

[RJW]

In the past philips had problems with counterfeit and grey market(Imported Ritek ) media in the begining Philips only used TY for the european markte however some shops imported the cheap Ritek made ones from beyond. Ritek was at that time not that good !.

The following brand/manufacturers have had problems in the past with counterfeit media.
Maxell(brand/manufacturer) cd-r/dvd-r ,TDK(brand/manufacturer) cd-r/dvd-r,TY cd-r(Since atip can't be completely protected. TY uses the frosted innerring as an extra protection. The ring used as TY is protected !), Mitsui (or do you reall think that Nashua media made in HongKong was made by Mitsui ?) cd-r , Memorex cd-r/dvd-r, Sony(brand) cd-r, Philips (brand) cd-r

Ritek also claims of haveing these problems. Some low quality cd-r scores in tests have been claimed to that point was that these disc's acted in a same way as some disc's which are really made with Ritek technology. So I don't know what's true of these claims

What is true is that a lot of G04 media is on the market that is overprinted and sold which wasn't supposed to be sold as A/B grade.

One companny we know to be on the side of pirated stuff is Princo.
DVD's are proven and serial number system of princo has been found on
counterfeit cd-r's.

[CDRecorder]

Thanks! It's too bad to hear that so many discs are counterfeited; I guess I'll have to make sure that I only buy discs from good sources.

[dolphinius_rex]

I know that Sony and HP discs are being actively counterfeited even now. As mentioned, some Mitsui discs are counterfeit, but it's easy to tell them apart since their cost is so low compared to real Mitsui!

Taiyo Yuden can be counterfeited, but the lack of a frosted hub is a dead giveaway, so I think it is very rare now.

Ritek is VERY commonly counterfeited, especially with some of their DVD-R brands, so I've been told.

[RJW]

Well Ritek dvd's aren't really that much counterfeited. At least 90% of the supposed counterfeited disc's were actually linked back to Ritek again.

What happened is the following some batches that should have been destroyed actually reached some grey market.
Officially this is not Ritek media. Since Ritek officially didn't want it on the market because of to poor quality. However the media has been made by Ritek. All overprinted media that carries another brand as Arrita falls under these disc's. Note some of these media might have problems that can not be identified on the short run. So be very carefull when buying Ritek G04 media and stay away from overprinted Ritek media.

This still doesn't mean that all G04 media that is official are good ones.
Since there was a lot of Primedisc /Traxdata G04 media which showed quality problems and these are genuine Ritek. Point is that specially the Primedisc factory is running overtime and this sometime causes a to late refreshment of the stamper which results in a quite bad batch.

[seaegg]

So what are you saying Dolphinius. Do Walmart buy and sell counterfeit items? These discs came in a 3 pack in jewel cases with the identical bar codes as the Memorex 4X and part number 3202 5510.

[dolphinius_rex]

When two different products have the same barcode and part number, this means that one product was copied off of the other. The counterfeit Memorex CD-Rs I saw was the same way. So I would say yes, Walmart has been duped into buying counterfeit product.

[CDRecorder]

So I would say yes, Walmart has been duped into buying counterfeit product.

That shakes my confidence in Wal-Mart a little; I would think that they would buy the discs straight from Memorex.

[seaegg]

Man that is wicked. It's amazing what people get up to these days. Anyway I emailed Memorex about it so when they reply I'll let the fellas know what they say. If they are counterfeit these guys are really good because they even had the Memorex packaging box down to a T.

[dolphinius_rex]

Last time I actually called memorex's direct number, but I had to get it off of their webpage, because the number listed on the counterfeit box, for some reason only led to an answering machine message saying that the 1-800 number was no longer in service.

of course the 1-800 number from the memorex canada site worked fine.

[seaegg]

You know how Princo discs have a white surface well so do these with the Memorex info and whatever printed on it. This should have tipped me off right away that something wasn't quite right.