Thanks to the independent members of disQworld who volunteered their opinions of these discs.


The Datawrite Grey 8x 'Fujis'

For Flash's review click here.

pjclark1
My disks arrived this morning (thanks) disks have a dark underside, dark blue as compared to Ritek GO4 dark purple. Disks written using Stomp Recordnow DX @ 8x

Tried the disk in a Liteon 811s with firmware HSOK........2x only

Tried this disk in a NEC2500A with firmware v1.06.........8x HURRAH (this is the first real 8x disk that I have ever had 8x burn selectable with a stock firmware)

Both disks burnt 4.3 gig in 9.5 mins, perfect results reading in my Liteon 166s with speed hacked firmware... just look at this disk go... reading at 14x really pushes media quality to the limit.



& as for kprobe scans



(disregard spikes in PI chart, as they are not in the media, but a kprobe fault)

There are a couple of bad high peaks in PO levels, PI should not exceed 280 & PO should not exceed 32, but you may disregard single high peaks. So these disks do pass ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R

These disks pass the true test with flying colours... both play faultlessly on my very picky playstation 2, the only other disks to do this are Ritek GO4 and Verbatim.

Conclusion
Good value for money at the current prices, if you don't care too much about PO readings. Will I use these disks:- The results compared to Datasafe Ritek GO4 at 8x are very similar, if they were significantly cheaper then I would use them but at £1 difference in a tub of 25, I'm gonna stick to my tried and tested GO4

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bomber456

Got these discs this morning, again nicely packaged.

I used my duplicator to creat this disc as I only have a 106 in PC and 107s in the duplicators. The disc took a bit longer than it should for 8x but this was on the fly so didn't matter. The disc itself looks like a 2x version I got b4 and I quite liked them.

First Disc (Burned at 8x)
After burning the movie i tested in my yamada dvd player dvdslim 5520, and my xbox. worked perfect on both with good chapter skipping. No jumping or nethink towards the end of the film.

The graph i got when i used Nero in my PC has a smooth curve which is great and no jumping up or down.

Conclusion
Very Happy

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Meg

Hardware used:
AMD 2700+
Pioneer 107 1.13

Software used:
Nero 6.0.0.16

The Disk Itself
I must say a pretty grim grey colour. Pretty clean though, nice sized lines for writing on, although not attractive.

First Impressions
This disk reminds me of the whiska's cat food advert with the colour of the no-name brand cat food, yuck!! Still, the disk is very nice to write on, and the dye is a cool blue. First fuji dye for me.

Disk code
00000000 00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 88 0D 0C .l...@....R.....
00000010 88 88 90 00 03 46 55 4A 49 46 49 00 04 4C 4D 30 .....FUJIFI..LM0
00000020 33 00 00 00 05 B8 83 00 30 00 01 00 06 09 0F 10 3.......0.......
00000030 88 78 90 00 07 29 82 10 21 00 00 00 08 05 17 0D .x...)..!.......
00000040 0F 07 07 00 09 96 06 0D 0B 78 88 00 0A 80 00 00 .........x......
00000050 00 00 10 00 0B 05 1A 17 96 77 75 00 0C 7C DF B9 .........wu..|..
00000060 93 11 11 00 0D 1A AA D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Disk result
Burn time Disk 1: 13 minutes 12 seconds (WTF?!)
Burn time Disk 2: 8 minutes 31 seconds
Burn time Disk 3: 8 minutes 21 seconds

I burnt the same image twice to the 2 disks supplied, and what a difference! I don't know what went wrong on the first disk, and the scans are absolutely terrible!! 4 major dips on the disk, I put it down to a bad one of the batch. The 2nd and third disk performed brilliantly and as expected, and the graphs (sorry still problems with web space to host) were pretty spot on. They waived a tiny bit at the end but performed to specification.

I binned the first disk as a bad job, but the other 2 I tested on 3 drives in total. They skipped through chapters smoothly although the spin up time was a few seconds longer than usual. I don't know if this is usual for an 8x disk. Playback was beautiful, with only a minor jitter halfway through each disk for a quarter of a second.

Conclusion>
This was my first real go at a good 8x disk and to be honest it's mixed blessings. I take it from the other results that I had a hiccup on my first disk and hence why I used a third disk from my own collection. After this testing, I bought 50 disks, of which I have burnt 40 successfully with no further issues. Definitely a winner, datawrite is going from strength to strength!!

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LoneGun

First impressions were that they looked like a great disc, with a very dark-pruple/blue underside.

Writer used:
Pioneer 107 f/w nils 1.10

Using stomp record now max I burnt both discs with full DVD5 movies.
taking approx 9:50 per disc I was quite impressed with the time saved over doing them at 6x which is my normal preferred burning speed.

PLaybeck testing in ps2/xbox and ronin dvd player with no problems from skipping or blockiness.

Speed Tested with DVDinfo Pro and got very nice graphs, comparable if not better than those when reading back from riteks.

Conclusion
The top side of the disc is like the old 2x datawrites in a light grey colour, very nice looking disc, and great results. I'll definately be getting a few cake tubs of these to give further testing and at the price they are currently they are a bargain.

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seedys50
Package arrived this morning - nicely packed in a plastic twin jewel case.
Discs were nice and clean on arrival and still in one piece. (A good sign of a decent jewel case is a strong hub catch that doesnt eject the disc in transit.)

The discs are the classic layout for logo, with a decent sized space at the bottom to actually write on the title and details (datasafe take note!). Batch number is on the underside (always handy to check if you are getting bad burns)

Writer used:
Pioneer 107 with 1.10 firmware (only 3 weeks old) and never burnt an 8 speed disc.

Software used:
Stomp record now max 4.50

Burnt both discs at the full 8 speed from images stored on the hard drive. Both images were full dvd images (to test to the outer edge).

Both burns went very smoothly with no hickups during the burn process producing two 100% successful dvd-r's

Now the testing:
PS2 (one of the first available in the UK from many years ago with the original laser). Both discs booted up and skipped through the chapters effortlessly. Playing right through the end chapter and end credits without any pauses/skips or blocks - nice work!

PC - tested in the pioneer 107 and Sony DDU1612 rom - no problems at all.
Read back the image through the sony drive. 100% readback without any errors.

DANSAI 1010 - Had this dvd player for a couple of years now and it is very picky on the media it plays. Ive tried a couple of datasafe G04 discs that have been written at 6x and it breaks up after 20-30 mins.
Again the disc played flawlessly, clean chapter breaks, smooth playback right through the end credits.

YAMADA - plays anything, and without fail it did.

PACIFIC 1002W - again flawless playback.

Conclusion
To sum it up i was very impressed. I nice looking disc with excellent playback.
RITEK - you better pull your finger out, FUJI is out to steal your market.
Personally i will have no problem buying these in the future. I will be ordering these beauties in my next order.
The price - an absolute steal at £44/100

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alpashm
I got the discs in a nice cover and i notice these discs look exactly the same as the datawrite classic x4, even the dye colour is the same, its not as deep as G04, its about the same as the Bulqpak printable dye.

Im using a pioneer 107 on hacked firmware, and i am burning from diffrent IDE channels so datatransfer is not an issue.

I burnt the disc to the rim using nero 6 ultra on dvd mode it burned flawlessly without error.

On the graph it shows a VERY smooth line as if i was burning at 6x this is good news for anyone purchasing these discs, the only small ditch at the start will be available as the writter stops buring just before 700mb and then speeds up dont know why but it does, other than that the line is very smooth. The datasafe g04s are week in these kind of speeds and leave a ditch at the end.



The disc played back on my PS2 unchipped, flawlussy i skipped to the credits thinking it will be jurking, but i was wrong, it was smooth as hell.

I also tried it on my Toshiba 330e and it was flawless on there too, im still worried about the fact that the disc looks exactly the same as the classic datasafe 4x discs and want to know anyone who as burned these at 8x to post the read image as it could be simular, other than that its a great disc that acts as if its being burned at 6x.

Conclusion
If speed is important to you then these discs are great. ill be sticking with my G04's for now, as these discs still remind me of the dye used on Bulkpaq printable, and its not a disc i would use to burn something important or something which is for my self.

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Paulleahey

Hardware used:
AMD AthlonXP 2400+
512mb Ram
60Gb hard drive
Pioneer DVR-107D DVD-Rewriter f/w 1.13

Software used
Stomp RecordNow Max v4.50
Nero v6.3.0.6

Disc Info
Manufacturer : FUJIFILM03
Disc Type : DVD-R
Usage : General
Recording Speed : 1 X - 8 X

Discs are light-grey top, Datawrite logo at the top, and 4 lines worth of space to write at the bottom. Dye underneath is a very dark purple.

Burnt both discs @ x8 speed.

1st disc was a PS2 backup 2.4Gb which took 5mins 54secs to burn - tried disc on 2 modded PS2's with no problems whatsoever and 1 of the PS2's is especially picky and only likes Riteks so a + there! Disc was very quick to load and very quiet unlike some other discs that spin forever and the noise is terrible!

2nd disc was a movie backup 4.26Gb which took just over 9mins to burn - tried this disc on both PS2's and Pioneer 747A DVD player and Pioneer DVR3100 DVD Recorder and Pioneer DVR107 burner - all players played the disc perfectly - the PS2's I was especially pleased with as movie usually go "blocky" after a while and especially towards the end.

All chapter skipping, menus, languages, subtitles, etc were perfect and access was very quick.

Conclusion
Compared to my usual Datasafe Ritek G04's I would have to say that this disc has compared more favourably IMHO. I will definitely be investing in more of these.

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Loopie
2 well packaged discs arrived this morning, the grey disc tops were similar to older datawrite classic x1/2 but with a much darker purple dye, on the disc surface while clean I did notice a small patch of spots under light on 1 disc, though I have also noticed this on G04 type discs without problem.

My NEC 2500 firmware v1.06 instantly accepted the discs and defaulted to x8 under NERO 5.5.10.56 (first time ever!), I did 2 HDD burns on them at X8 with no errors reported and both taking around 9.5 mins (fastest time ever) for a full DVD worth.

Both discs were tested on an Alba 45 & Pioneer 444 stand alone players with perfect results!

Conclusion
I am very happy with these discs and would consider them a replacement to the G04 I have been using at the right price (have now seen for under 50p!!) If I were Ritek I would be very worried that such a fast and quality dye has hit the market at the right price level. Lets hope the quality does not change like the poor Ritek and Princo b grade discs now flooding the market.

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brk
Hardware
XP Pro
NEC2500A firmware v1.06 (Borrowed for test)

Software
Alcohol 120%

Readers
Pioneer 106
Samsung SD 616 Q
Panasonic S75
Paciffic 1002
Xbox (x-bit chip)
PS2 (V3 neo4 chip)
PS2 (V5 messiah)

Borrowed brother in laws burner for this test as not long swapped my 104 for a 106 so burn time is only 15 mins now so can't justify yet another burner just quite yet to save 6 mins extra in time .Burnt 1 film and 1 PS2 game this time as always keen to try new Dyes for my old V3 fussy PS2 .Burnt full 4.37 Gb image to both disks to test right near the brim .Used Alcohol 120% to make image then reburn to disks as interested in the results and performance , rather than how disk was produced .Both disks finished in approx 10 mins without any hiccups .

The film plays faultlessly in all the above players except for the Samsung DVD Rom drive .It plays fine but reading wise is something of a mystery (see graphs later) The Ps2 disk works fine in both PS2's without any dodgy graphics or sound even in my old V3 .Even the film was faultless in the old V3 , fast chapter search , forwards , bacwards ,extras etc, etc so the disk seem of very high quality and have no unsightly marks/blemishes before or after the burn .

This is where my post gets the strange results. Speed graphs (can't get one for the PS2 game -comes up command sense error in Nero/dvdspeed) with the Nec and my 4x pioneer 106 are near on perfect except for a slight dip about 4.2 GB but nothing to worry about .Sorry my Samsung hasn't got speed hacked f/w so not fast speed graphs like some of the others , but take a look at these (sorry for so many but just to prove a point)



83 % at 4x cpu.Checked the disk for marks/finger prints but nothing their (Drive has been lens cleaned recently so no problem there .Try again



83% at 4x again .It really seems to be making my system struggle in this drive .As I said earlier speed graphs both near perfect in the NEC and my Pioneer .Just as a little proof here is a Datawrite Red V2 tested in the middle of the two previous tests .



Slight difference you must agree even from the much hated Red V2 .No ridiculous 83% at 4x CPU .Lots of similar disks also show up O.K in the same drive. Wish I could get PS2 games to speed graph in Nero just to check .

Conclusion
Disks work great in all areas: speed,quality and performance. So, generally, a good solid disk. I may have had one dodgy disk or maybe my DVD Rom just doesn't like them. Will stick to my Ritek collection for now (got a small stock) but would definetly consider these if the price is right

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HoBgObLiN
Received 2 well packaged discs, so did 2 slightly different tests - on-the-fly using RecordNow Max 4.5 and files from my HD using Nero 6.3.1.6.

First impressions were good, the dye is a nice deep colour, and the top is typical datawrite - clear and tidy.

My system specs used for tests:
XP2100
Pioneer 107 1.09 (firmware untouched)
S/W as above.

The copy on the fly took a little longer than expected, but I'm not too worried. I was pleased with burning from HD, filled right to the edge with 4.37 gigs on the 2nd test, took 8m22s in all

Both graphs have come back nice and smooth, which is a pleasant surprise for a true 8x disc in this price range.

Both played back perfectly (smooth chapter skips, played right to end) on my pacifics (but thats not too much of a test - lol) so I shall try on some picky players and update with results. Checked special features on both to see playback at outer edge - smooth as silk and no jitters.

Conclusion
I can't fault them, initial tests would suggest these are as good as Ritek dye discs, but only time will tell - see if these can still be read in 2 years time!

Worked flawlessly in my other halfs fussy sony, so seems to be a very compatible disc!

Excellent price point and as was mentioned earlier: Fuji seem to be after Riteks crown!

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davem
Received my discs yesterday morning, packaged beautifully (like those snazzy new double boxes!). First impression visually is a very smart disc reminiscent of the old Grey Datawrite classic. Love the uncluttered design, plenty of room to write, and look just a little classier than the other well reviewed Yellow Ritek Datawrite disc, thanks to the less garish colouring.

I wrote my discs on the NEC ND2500a with the latest hacked by herrie firmware (1.07 Bitsetting Beta4), both were fairly full movies, both burned in 9 minutes 33 seconds, with very little shading difference in the dye on the jump between 4x/6x/8x. The second disc I wrote had a couple of circular scratches on it, I presume this is down to being handled, packed and posted, and hope it's not representative of the general stock. This had a problem reading back in my 2500, so I read it back in my 1300 (should really get myself some more IDE in this system so I can put a decent reader in there!). Anyway, here goes...

First Disc
General Information
Operating System Windows XP Professional
Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-2500A
Firmware Version 1.07
Disc DVD-R
Capacity 4.30 GB



Log
[22:58:16] Starting Transfer Rate Test
[23:08:10] 9:54 Speed:3-8 X CAV (5.93 X average)
[23:08:10] Starting Seek Times Test
[23:08:23] Random Seek: 121 ms
[23:08:47] 1/3 Seek: 239 ms
[23:09:23] 1:13 Full Seek: 359 ms
[23:09:23] Starting CPU Usage Test
[23:09:38] CPU usage at 1X: 7 %
[23:09:53] CPU usage at 2X: 14 %
[23:10:09] CPU usage at 4X: 26 %
[23:10:25] 1:02 CPU usage at 8X: 83 %
[23:10:25] Starting Burst Rate Test
[23:10:29] 0:04 Interface burst rate: 25 MB/sec (25412 KB/sec)
[23:10:29] Starting Spin-Up/Down Test
[23:10:33] Spin-up time: 2.08 seconds
[23:10:45] 0:15 Spin-down time: 1.71 seconds
[23:10:45] Starting Load/Eject Test
[23:10:47] Eject time: 1.80 seconds
[23:11:01] Load time: 14.10 seconds
[23:11:01] 0:16 Recognition time: 0.05 seconds

Second Disk
General Information
Operating System Windows XP Professional
Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-1300A
Firmware Version 1.09
Disc DVD-R
Capacity 4.33 GB



Log
[23:26:31] Starting Transfer Rate Test
[23:35:42] Error - NO SEEK COMPLETE (030200)
[23:36:36] Starting Transfer Rate Test
[23:41:37] Error - NO SEEK COMPLETE (030200)
[23:42:30] Starting Transfer Rate Test
[23:58:46] 16:15 Speed:2-5 X P-CAV (3.71 X average)
[23:58:46] Starting Seek Times Test
[23:58:58] Random Seek: 123 ms
[23:59:11] 1/3 Seek: 126 ms
[23:59:29] 0:43 Full Seek: 182 ms
[23:59:29] Starting CPU Usage Test
[23:59:44] CPU usage at 1X: 8 %
[00:00:00] CPU usage at 2X: 14 %
[00:00:15] CPU usage at 4X: 29 %
[00:00:40] 1:11 CPU usage at 8X: n/a
[00:00:40] Starting Burst Rate Test
[00:00:43] 0:02 Interface burst rate: 22 MB/sec (22310 KB/sec)
[00:00:43] Starting Spin-Up/Down Test
[00:00:43] Spin-up time: 0.07 seconds
[00:00:54] 0:12 Spin-down time: 0.73 seconds
[00:00:54] Starting Load/Eject Test
[00:00:58] Eject time: 1.73 seconds
[00:01:19] Load time: 20.78 seconds
[00:01:19] 0:25 Recognition time: 0.01 seconds

Hopefully the drop seen here is due to the surface scratches on the disc.

Both discs played back perfectly on Pacific, Scan, Daewoo, and a korean cd+g capable player I can't remember the name of. Also played back well on XBOX.

Conclusion
I'll certainly be trying a pack or two of these along with my next batch of G04's, to see how they cope over more discs. Very impressed so far.

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laurdon
I have two machines each equiped with 8x writers

Machine 1
P4 2.0Ghz
512Mb ddr ram
Windows XP Pro
200Gb Hard drive (120+80)
Sony DVD ROM DDU1621
Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-107D
Nero 63110

I copied Braveheart (4.36Gb) on the fly it seemed as though the Sony could not keep up with the Pioneer writing at 8X. it took 13:10 to complete the write. The same as a 4x Ritek! The used read buffer was at 0% for the whole write. The buffer level was also fluctuating from 90% down to 30% and back up.

The actual disc worked fine in PS2, Mirror, Toshiba and both pc's could not get it to stick with quick movements along the slider in powerDVD.

Machine 2
P4 2.8Ghz
512Mb DDR Ram
Windows XP Pro
240Gb hard drive (2X120)
Plextor DVD ROM PX-116A
Plextor DVDR PX-708A
Nero 5.5.10.56

I again copied Braveheart (4.36Gb) this time from the hard drive, this worked a lot better and finnished the write in 9:17 which is the fastest I have seen with the drive. The used read buffer was at 90% to 100% for the whole write. The buffer level was Stable about 90%.

I again checked the disc in the same equipment as Machine one with similar results.

Conclusion
They seem to work very well with no issues. I was a great fan of the 2x datawrite in the same colour and i would certainly buy these discs.

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helger10
Recieved mine yesterday afternoon (I wish my dvd rental company was this quick at posting)! Anyway i opened them and loved the case they came in. The first thing i noticed about the discs was that they were well....very dull with the gray top! But this just mite be because av recently been using the datawrite yellows. I turned the discs over for an inspection and noticed that they have a very dark and deep dye colour and there was no visible marks whatsoever.

Hardware:
Celeron 2.6
512MB Ram
80Gb hard drive 7200rpm
16x Speed dvd-Rom
Pioneer 107 w/ patched 1.13 firmware

Software:
Yamada dvd Player
Dansai 1010 dvd player
Minata Dvd Player
PS 2 Version 3 with a messiah 2 chip

The first disc i used to backup a film. I ripped the film using DVD decryptor and then used nero recode to shrink it but i took out the extras and left the menu structure intact. I did this to sort of test the dvds capability when randomly accessing different parts of the disc in the player.

I then burnt the disc using Nero 6.3.1.10 at 8x it took just over 8 minutes to write 4.3 something gig. Which is slightly longer than usual but not enough to complain.

I then put the disc in the yamada and noticed that the disc loaded quick and not with much noise like most other decent media.I then skipped through the chapters which were snappy and quick.I watched the last chapter of the film and there was no pixelation or skipping goin on.

I then went back to the menu and started to select random chapters from the film and see how it performed: it performed flawlessly!
I tested the disc in the other two dvd players which are more picky over their media (especially the Minata) and both these players to played the disc fine with no cause for worry!

The second disc i decided to use to backup a PS2 game which was 4.2 Gig!This time i used Stomp to burn the disc at 8x.I decided to burn a PS2 game as my PS2 is very very choosy of it's media because i think the lens is on it's way out.

I put the disc in my PS2 and to my suprise it actually booted and first time!

The loading time were a bit slower than an original game and the drive was a bit noisier but nothing more than the ritek discs i have been using.I played the game for half an hour and everything seemed o.k.

I did run the discs through Nero CD-DVD Speed but cannot post the results as i'm at work.But i can say that they did show a constant line throughout until rite at the end with only the smallest of fluctuations but that could have even just bin dirt on my screen Laughing nothing to moan about as i don't think i've ever had a perfect disc!

Conclusion
So all in all i would definately recommend these discs and will probably be purchasing some in the near future even if they do look slightl.......Grey!

Added:  Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Reviewer:  Ed

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