Tuffdisc 8x DVD-R

I received a tub of these discs and have decided to put them through their paces the discs are supplied in tubs of 100 at a surprisingly low price or as someone else put it "cheap as chips." The disc top surface is a burnt orange color and the surface has a kris-cross spiral pattern in it. The logo printing is in black with just a plain no nonsense design. In the center is an orange polo ring which is masked on the underside with a matching black speckled pattern. These disc are claimed to have a Tuff top surface so I stabbed one multiple times with my No. 1 x point screwdriver and was able to put dints in the plastic right through to the underside without breaking the surface of the top finish I decided not to attempt to knock nails into it as the wife was objecting I might damage the furniture (DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME) The discs are from various tier one manufactures that have had printing defects and are overprinted to hide these defects. This overprinting has no bearing on the actual media quality or the functionality of the disc. On examination of the tub of discs I find that in my batch there are three different mid codes on the discs CMCMAGAE1, MCC02RG20, TTG02 all well known mids and were about 1/3 of each in the tub. Examination of the dye showed a consistently good quality and I only found one with obvious dye imperfections. Two of the remainder of the discs had scratches consistent with bad handling and rendered them unusable. There was a number of discs that had minor scuff marks especially around the edges but not serious enough to cause any real problems, and several of the discs were stuck together due to the paint not quite being set rock hard at the time of packaging, they were easy to part and do not appear to have caused any damage. As there are 3 mids in this pack I have burnt one of each type on each of the four burners I am using and my results recorded below.

Quote from the TuffDisc website Tuffdisc is a new brand of blank media that originates from the stables of tier one manufacturers in the Far East. Due to the fact that the writing speeds of DVD reach an upper limit of 16x manufacturers are now having to rely on other features to promote their products. However, we feel that Tuff Disc has achieved this and much more. Tuff Disc, as well as being based on a highly compatible dye, has the further advantage of being able to withstand any type of treatment thrown its way - from everyday wear and tear to the rough handling and damage caused by small children, or when taking data off-site. Our disc has been reprinted with a tough pebble-dash finish producing a media surface that is 40 times more scratch resistant and 20 times more dust resistant than standard DVD media. In addition, Tuff Disc also offers very good value for money when compared to premium branded media.

During the printing process they often make slight printing errors. These errors do not have any effect on the actual media but are rejected. Rather than discard an otherwise perfect disc it makes sense to overprint them and sell as such.

00000000 00 AA 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 54 0D 0E .....@....R..T.. 00000010 88 9A 80 00 03 43 4D 43 20 4D 41 00 04 47 2E 20 .....CMC MA..G. 00000020 41 45 31 00 05 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 06 09 0D 11 AE1............. 00000000 00 AA 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 85 0D 10 .....@....R..... 00000010 88 9A 80 00 03 4D 43 43 20 30 32 00 04 52 47 32 .....MCC 02..RG2 00000020 30 20 20 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 02 00 06 09 0D 13 0 ............. 00000000 00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 85 0D 0C .l...@....R..... 00000010 87 89 90 00 03 54 54 47 30 32 00 00 04 00 00 00 .....TTG02...... 00000020 00 00 00 00 05 BA A3 22 32 20 02 00 06 09 0A 15 ......."2 ......

Pioneer DVR-109 v1.50			NEC ND-3520AW v3.04
CMCMAGAE1 MCC02RG20 TTG02			CMCMAGAE1 MCCO2RG20 TTG02
All the disc sustained 8x speed burning in the Pioneer 109 in 8min 08sec to 8min 11sec			CMCMAGAE1 & MCC02RG20 finished at 8x speed in 9min 49sec and the TTG02 dropped down twice after the 4gig mark in 10min 18sec
CMCMAGAE1 MCCO2RG20 TTGO2			CMCMAGAE1 MCC02RG20 TTG02
PI CMCMAGAE1 very good with a maximum of 13 during the last 200meg MCC02RG20 good with a maximum of 25 after the 3.5gig mark TTG02 again good peaking at 33 after the 4gig mark Jitter CMCMAGAE1 is good with a steady 10.2% average MCC02RG20 steady 11.4% average with one large peak caused by the drive (Media error would have reflected in large PI/PIF errors) TTG02 minor fluctuations average 11.1% PIF CMCMAGAE1 very little with a peak of 4 with small cluster at the end. MCC02RG20 negligible with just a small peak of 7 near the end TTG02 few small peaks with a maximum of 10 at the end			PI CMCMAGAE1 peak of 33 which is good notice the 6x speed burn area is larger with an increase towards the outer edge but still a good overall low reading MCC02RG20 Maximum of 48 with two peaks near the end TTG02 peak of 33 and not unlike the CMCMAGAE1 graph with the peak at the 6x burning area Jitter CMCMAGAE1 10%-15% with the highest during the 6x speed burn MCC02RG20 two large peaks of up to 36.6% near the outer edge consistent with the PIE/PIF peaks (Not Good) TTG02 10%-15% with the largest errors within the 6x speed burn area PIF CMCMAGAE1 nothing up until 4gig where there is a minor peak of 13 MCC02RG20 good with just 1 spike near the outer area TTG02 just a minor peak of 13 at the edge
CMCMAGAE1 MCC02RG20 TTGO2			CMCMAGAE1 MCC02RG20 TTG02
CMCMAGAE1 slight dip at the last 50meg MCC02RG20 minor spikes but a good curve TTG02 some irregularities after the 3.5gig point			CMCMAGAE1 & MCC02RG20 good clean graphs TTG02 some irregularities after the 3.75gig point

Added:  May 24th 2005
Reviewer:  Flash
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