Blank DVD media prices to drop

A nice thought, but a very transitory and short-lived event, I fear. I wonder if this small quirk would or could last long enough to filter it's way into the maritime provinces of Canada, where I live? I doubt it. It'll be over before it's hardly begun. I think it's going to be a long long time before we ever see inexpensive bulk packs of +RW media in my part of town. {sigh....} (Jewel cases take up *way* to much space anyway). -- mgb --

I also seem to remember reading that cd manufacturing plants are retooling to produce dvd media. generic CD media manufacturers aren't making much these days. no brand = no price leverage. they are virtually giving the cds away. They make you do the rebates but this week I bought 100 for 5 cents each and a 75 pack for 2 cents each. Granted its generic, but it will burn just fine. I haven't paid for name brand media in the last couple of years. :-P

I prefer brand-name CD-Rs. TDK to be exact. The reason: MMore 24x discs didn´t let me copy a disc burnt at 24x with Musicmatch jukebox to Minidisc but TDK (Reflex metallic ultra) discs burnt at 24-speed with Nero work fine. (Sorry, cd-rw.org, I didn´t bother finding out the ATIP info)

You know, it's really odd.....About a year ago here, I mused about how long it would take for blank cd prices to fall down to the point where it would cost more to *ship* the things, than the actual value of the discs themselves. Well, it seems we have arrived. It's almost inconceiveable to me how or why any manufacturer on earth would bother to sell blanks for .02c each. That is incredible. Surely the packaging and shipping expenses cost *way* more than this, right? (Oh, please understand, I think it's *great* you can get them that cheap), but just thinking about it, what can there possibly BE in it for the manufacturers when the *retail* price is two cents? <Unbelieveable> Anyway, yeah, I only seem to use no-name generic discs these days too. No brand stamp, plain silver tops. At $0.46c each Canadian, I think * I * am getting a bargain! And at over $10.00 Canadian for a single DVD+RW, I am in pain. -- Mike --

75-Pack 700MB 40x CD-R Disc Spindle Free AR, Oct 31 BestBuy.com has this 75-Pack Precision 700MB 40x CD-R Disc Spindle (search 57700075) at $11.99 - $12 rebate = FREE after rebate. Free shipping! Rebates expire 11/2. (Thanks cisco_tomx@) I just try to stay about 100 ahead or so, cheaper than flooppy's...lol :-)

Wait a second, their actually giving away the discs?

Its about time that the DVD-R market is becoming more available to the average man who cannot afford outrageous prices for media that does NOT cost that much to produce in teh first place. My only question is, does that mean that the market is gearing up for the release of DVD-Rs that have a higher capacity than their current 4.7 GB limitations in a more marketable approach? I believe that is something that DVD-R/+R owners are anticipating more than anything.

You may be thinking of the up-and-coming 'Blue Laser' format, Odyssey. Yep, blue laser has the potential to drive current dvd prices down to where current cd levels are. (Well, not *quite*). I can't see manufacturers selling blank dvds for .02c.) I'm no expert of course, but I don't really see all that much difference in construction materials between a dvd and a cd. The manufacturing tolerances might be a little tighter with dvds. But I bet the organic dyes used with write-once discs are similar to cds, and I imagine the metal alloys used with rewriteable discs is similar too. The dvd format is still new-ish, so manufacturers and retailers are taking full advantage of that. We need more blank dvd disc-makers to jump onto the wagon to create some healthy price competition. With blank DVD+RWs costing over $10.00 each here in Canada, it is not a very practical idea to spend 2 discs in backing up a single dvd movie. This situation has got to *change*, or else I'll be using recordable dvds solely for testing purposes. -- Mike --

I believe when Blue laser gets as big as DVD is now, DVD-R will be as cheap as CD-R is now and CD-R will disappear from sight all together shortly after that. I saw a HP DVD+RW DVD200i for $340 yesterday, how much longer till its as cheap as a CD burner. I currently pay 4500won ($4.00) for DVD-R locally, but it is cheaper for me to buy them online ($0.70 - $0.99) free delivery to the states and my friend then ships them to me here in ROK. takes about 2-3 weeks for all that shipping but is still cheaper.

That´s a pretty good price. I wish the drives where cheaper though, and that there was more use for DVD. Currently you don´t really have use for DVDs when it comes to music and such, except if you want to take your whole collection to a friend and listen at his house. DVDs could be "the next CD" if only the prices ever come down to "friendly". Sony Music and co. could shove their fobic (is this a real word?) little ideas about copy-protection and make hybrid-DVDs containing the album, videos and interactive content. Hurrah! I´m a pioneer! Will DVD-R/RW-drive prices fall enough before Blu-ray hits the market? Then there´s the matter about standards, there still isn´t a clear winner. With recordable CDs you have two options, write-once and re-writable. Not to hard to chose :) I really hope blue-laser will have a easier time coming through with one clear standard. Having competitors might not be too bad, if there still is a clear choice on what to put your money in. And competition could force prices to a exeptable level. But all-and-all one standard would be the simplest way of getting Blu-Ray the same position as CD-R has today. Then we have blue-laser CD-Rs, another cook in the kitchen to mess things up. Are these really an alternative or should one jump right into the realm of DVD? Opinions anyone?

I had not heard about that one (blue-laser "cds") -- seems like a contradiction in terms. <cd=lowest capacity; blue-laser discs=highest capacity> That doesn't quite mix right. Surely there will be, simply, a Blue Laser Disc. (?) I still love oridinary blank cds of the 700 mb variety. I doubt they are going to go away any time soon, because retail red-book music cds still flourish in the stores, and copy-protected or not, people will still be able to make perfect, *ultra*-inexpensive backups of them. Also, still, most of ALL computer software comes on standard cd-rom. And backing up your most important computer software is a most viable idea on standard cds. I would not be too hasty in dismissing the time-tested, proven cd format. I can see the 1.44 mb floppy dissappearing though. Bootable cds are common enough these days, and can replace the a: drive easily enough. A single rewriteable cd-rw can comfortably hold your Entire OS with room to spare. It is only when we get into media files that we have had to look to higher-capacity alternatives. DVD has, and Blue Laser *will* address these problems. Throughout it all, our best hope is that these various formats will be as compatible as possible with each other, at *least* during playback. Red book music cd - the grand-daddy of all modern optical-disc systems, remains compatible with just about *everything*, and dvd, only a little less-so. -- Mike --

Mike, you bring up great points. One of the major reasons I bought a DVD-R was NOT just to attempt to make back-ups of all my favorite movies that I own, it was to give me a second alternative to backing up my hard drive and the use of a high-capacity 4.7 disk allows me to do this with little effort rather than juggling several CD-Rs. But I would hate to see 1.44 floppy drives disappear mostly because of their heritage in our home PCs. Its kinda like that old baseball glove that you have in the back of the closet that you bring out every now and then just to reminisce and you realize that it will always be there in case you find someone who wants to use it.

Jeez, it´s been awhile since I used my disk-drive. I still have use for it sometimes in school-realated stuff, those geezers don´t have CD-RW-compatible CD-drives. I just read an article about writable DVDs and it got me thinking about a few other points. Currently media-prices are a bit high for me to switch from CDs to DVD-R/+R etc., and as Klingon said, CDs aren´t going anywhere. Current media-standards prices will come down, but when BluRay hits the market they will probably start off expensive. The write-speeds off current drives aren´t too impressive. I don´t want to wait 30 minutes - 1 hour for the disc to be burnt. Of course the situation will hardly improve with larger discs. Current drives are fast, but since the discs have a bigger capacity it takes longer to burn them. Obviously the speeds will decrease drastically when the capacity is multiplied by ten. Hopefully they´ll find a solution for this, blue-laser won´t grow if it takes hours to write the discs.

Blu Ray does seem a fantastic concept but I personally feel that the willingness of the open market to grasp such a product may be a little far off. If it is introduced too quickly after the major influx that DVD burners have created, the marketability of such a product could be snuffed out due to the fact that people are still getting a firm grasp on the fact that they can now store above the previously stone-rule of 700 MB in one disc. I'm all for the progress of technology and would like to see as many formats available as possible but it just seems a little pre-mature to take things to the next level.

Cheapest dvd-r media --where????? i live in Ireland so where on net???? any1 want help wit dvd or xbox backing up software etc---contact me @ cianomurchu@hotmail.com

Yes, its good if the quality remains. Im happy to pay £1.15 a disc for high quality Traxdata and clone disc, because it is guaranteed good.