Dual Layer Price Rip-Off Continues single, blank, burning, because, average

andy

I have yet to venture into the world of DL burning because I refuse to pay the rip off retail prices demanded for the blanks. Despite being launched for well over a year now, DL prices are STILL roughly 10x the price per disc for an equivilant quality / brand of a single layer equivilant. (I reckon the average retail price for a good quaility single layer blank is about 15p compared with about ?1.50-?2.00 in the UK)

I don't buy the manufacturing cost differential (come on 10x!).

This is blatant price fixing. I will not be joining the DL club until a DL disc costs no more than 2x its single layer equivilant.

Looks like I am in for a long wait   

Anyone found any better pricing than this for non branded decent quality DL blanks?

My guess is that they've seen no good reason to concentrate on the development on DL disks since Blu-Ray will be coming out soon.  A standard Blu-Ray will hold much more than a DL does, and given the mass quantities people will be buying they'll almost certainly be cheaper.

@DVD Maniac

Although no one can tell you how or when to spend your money, I'm afraid I see things quite differently than you do:

1) The initial price for DL burnable media (closer now to 1 1/2 years ago, if I remember correctly) was $11-$13US each. Reliable Verbatim DL burnable media can regularly be obtained in the US for $1.99 each. SL media of comparable quality is typically available in the US for 50 cents to $1.00 each, with occasional sale prices of 30 cents to 35 cents. This is far less than the 10:1 ratio you speak of.

2) One only has to read the myriad posts, at this and other forums, alluding to the fact that presently only Verbatim DL DVD+R burnable media is consistently reliable. To me, this is indicative of continuing process/manufacturing problems which, in turn, result in prices not falling further.

3) It wasn't all that long ago that a 1X SL burner sold for $300-$600US. Now a 16X DL burner can be purchased for $40US! If you allocate this cost saving over the number of discs you burn (DL or SL) your net cost of producing a burned DVD has gone down substantially.

That said, I continue to backup the majority of my collection to SL media after compressing, as I've seen (at least these tired old eyes) no/negligible loss of visual quality compared to most of the purchased originals. I do, on occasion, do 1:1 backups (Only on Verbatim DL DVD+Rs) of DVDs that I personally consider quot;importantquot; (e.g. most recently quot;Goodnight and Good Luckquot;) and/or of less-than-acceptable quality when compressed...

Ref point 1:

Not sure about US market prices, it looks like the DL prices are comparable for Verbatim ($2 vs ?1.50). However, high quality branded or non branded SL can regularly ve purchased for around 15p / 20c here (cheaper non branded more like 10p). Henece the 10:1 ratio

Ref point 2

Like I said, having not ventured into DL burning due to the price differential I have not had a chance to compare. You are probably correct that they have a higher number of rejects which would go some way in explaining the differential. I am still sceptical that this would result in the differences we are seeing in the UK

Ref Point 3

AgreedLike you, I struggle to see the difference between a well produced SL backup compared to the original and this combined with this excessive price point has given me little incentive to try out DL 1 : 1 backup.

I still think that this price difference is largely down to a very deliberate marketing policy to make as much margin on DL as possible until HD arrives PLUS pressure brought to bear by the movie industry because of their usual paranoid attitudes.

?3 sounds like a bargain compared to the ?15 each i paid for my first 2 DVD+R DL


Originally Posted by DVD ManiacRef point 1LUS pressure brought to bear by the movie industry because of their usual paranoid attitudes.

Can you honestly blame them... Although it is a two sided coin amp; on the flip side, Can you blame us?  Plenty of Finger Pointing to go around, enough for everybody.   

Let's all join in...[begin pointing now]