BD25 Prices Continue Fall

[Beck38]

The BD25 continues to appear headed towards the replacement of the DVD5, at least price wise (and maybe use wise).

For pricing, I utilize Supermicro, with a disc type of BD25/RiData (Ritek)/Inkjet (hub printable), 4x. (pricing double-checked with other internet sales)

Last month, cakebox 25ea, $$3.25 per disc.

The month, same, $2.40 per disc.

Not on special 'sale', either.

We'll see next month what gives. BTW, 50GB still hovers around $13+ ea.

[mindlock]

That's awesome news, Beck38. Hope they get down to like 25 BD25s for $35, along the price of 25 DVD9s....

[cola]

If only bluray burners were cheaper.

[mindlock]

If only bluray burners were cheaper.

Bought mine for $119, but took six weeks to ship from Hong-Kong....:whistling

[cola]

Thats still too rich for my blood.

[gotfree]

If only bluray burners were cheaper.

Seems Pioneer BDR-205 (internal) 12x Blu-ray Disc/DVD/CD Writer to be the best thus far, and the price is acceptible. Check it up.

[Beck38]

I standardized on Pioneer a long time ago with DVD burners, and got one of the BDR205's a couple months ago ($220+); price now is around $185 at Newegg. So it's coming down as well.

The first DVD burner I owned was a Sony (2002), >$300, so the Pioneer was a steal. (!)

The 'big question' right now is, how the pricing on the consumer discs themselves is going to drop (or not). Lots of 'used' discs are now hitting the market at the $7 level, so the differential between that and burning your own is a bit thin, although as the blanks prices drop...

[gotfree]

I have been crazy about SONY long time ago. Not anymore: everything comes and goes if you start thinking about moneymaking machine only. Pioneer BDR-205 appears to be the BD burner of choice if you compare characteristics and prices of comparable products. The price for Pioneer BDR-205 dropped probably just because of entire unfavourable economical situation: no buyers anymore. The prices of BD discs will probably be dropping also. The new generation of BluRay discs also are comming (the manufacturing tends to be cheeper).

[KS-202]

Does anyone know of a good Blu-Ray player that will playback *.MKV files that are larger than 4GB?

[Beck38]

Does anyone know of a good Blu-Ray player that will playback *.MKV files that are larger than 4GB?

We're talking about computer drives here, you seem to be confusing that with 'stand alone' type players.

Any disc player (including standard DVD up to DVD9) can play mkv files, it's all s/w either on your host computer, or in the myriad network players out there (like PCH). Several of these (again, like the PCH), have models that can hold a BR disc player, and can play from DVD/BR discs, an attached network, or even a memory card/flash drive.

There are a couple of 'real' manufactured stand-alone type that can play mkv, but so far although they'll play either disc or flash memory, I've not seen any that will do network streaming (although they will do netflix and things like that).

Also, they tend to be on the higher end price wise, next to the 'bargain' types around $100, instead are in the $350-600 range at a minimum.

But I haven't seen any as flexible as the new PCH C-200 type (which I have, with BR/DVD player, around $450 total).

[Beck38]

Some 'specials' this weekend for US customers (+free ship on some)

Meritline

2x BD-RE 25GB rerwrite Rikek 5pack $27+5 shipping ($6.40/ea)

4x RD 25GB Ritek hub printable (free ship) 25ea $53 ($2.12, lowest price ever seen)

[pepsipunk]

I'd say getting an HTPC with a terabyte drive is the way to go, and will save you money, frustration, and time in the long run

[Beck38]

I'd say getting an HTPC with a terabyte drive is the way to go, and will save you money, frustration, and time in the long run

Terabyte? What's a Terabyte?

Took receipt of my second Thecus N7700Pro last week, now my PCH boxes have 18+TB of Raid6 storage to suck on.

Hopefully, by this time next year, 3TB drives will be old hat (maybe 4TB?), and the next box will be a 24 drive NAS, 66/88TB and my current ones will move to the rear.

[UseNetLover]

The only reason I possibly buy BD is to make a backup copy of my BD collection.
About 8 out of 10 BD films I bought are BD50 GB
If you buy BD25 to store compressed MKV then that's okay but not for backup most BD films.

[Beck38]

Just like when I first started looking commercial DVD9 releases, the number of titles where the film itself (less the extras and maybe some non-English audio tracks) were under DVD5 sizing, the number/percentage of BD50 discs where the movie/audio itself is within BD25 size is pretty high.

Looking at pricing on DVD5/9's, the DVD5's went below $1/ea so long ago I can't quite remember when, and the DVD9's are still (the good ones like Verbatim) are around $1.25 in any quantity.

The BD50's are at best still above $12-15 ea, whereas the BD25's (and inkjet hub printable)are about to dip under $2/ez. I think the biggest size film I've see on Blu-Ray so far is around 35GB total; a few larger (size and time wise) are 'split' by the studio on the disc to part1/part2, with each part <25GB, so the work is already done for you, sans recoding, so to speak.

But certainly, recoding a 35GB disc to 25GB is FAR better quality wise than yanking it down to 15GB, or worse, to DVD9 sizing, as some have done. Certainly the pricing right now of $1.25/DVD9 v. $2.00/BD25 is (mathematically) $.75cents, The quality..... is in the eye of the beholder.

But I keep telling folks that yep, it looks good today on your 1st or 2nd generation consumer-level HD set, but will you end up tossing away those discs 5+ years from now when you get your next display...?

How many bad DVD5 recodes I d/l'ed in the very early days, cica 2001-2003 or so before I started doing my own recodes, I spent time/money redoing? LOTS. Not Again.

[Beck38]

Did a price check today, Supermedia has the Riteck BD25-R (4X) Inkjet Hub Printables, 25ea cakebox, for $48, includes $4 'instant savings' AND free ground shipping.

Thats $1.92/ea, so the $2 price point has been shattered. Any bets as to when $1.50 or even $1 will be met? So far, it's going at a rate of about 10-20cents/month downward, so....

[Beck38]

New Price Check!

Prices for BD25's (injet hub printable, ritek still seems to be the price leader) have fallen down another good chunk again.

Most places (Supermedia, etc) are around 1.90/ea in 25 packs (interestingly, larger packs are more expensive!).

But the price leader this week is Meritline, 25disc pack of Ritek BD25's/inkjet hub printable, at $39.99/6.60 shipping, or $1.87/ea.

Supermedia has the same package, but with 'free' ground ship, at $1.88, so it's a wash, except that Meritline is on 'special' while Supermedia is a 'standard' price (we'll see if it hold, though).

What's particularly interesting to me is, in following what's being posted on the newsgroups these days, is a flood of VERY small (DVD5 or under DVD9 sizing) for whatever reason. In most cases, this means past upwards of 80+% squeezing of the original material, extreme compression levels. Very few things in the BD25 range, even few in the 15GB range of where there used to be a LOT of things being posted.

Why the change is a bit beyond me...

[WHiKWiRE]

Storage is dirt cheap these days you can run a NAS even on a budget. I do understand the attractiveness of BD25 prices but it just doesn't seem justifiable when you work out the dollars and cents.

[Beck38]

Storage is dirt cheap these days you can run a NAS even on a budget. I do understand the attractiveness of BD25 prices but it just doesn't seem justifiable when you work out the dollars and cents.

You know, I keep running into folks who say that, yet can't prove it with the math.

Show me a NAS box that beats $2/25GB storage. Even without any RAID, or with minimal, at any price/storage size. So, show me what box, at what size, you're talking about, that beats that figure. This without bringing up the fact (with burnable discs) that it's an unlimited (and flexible) storage medium.

At $2/25GB, that would equal 40ea for 1TB, and so a 1TB disc would have to be $80 (or double that for a 2TB disc), and without a case, plus if a RAID array, without the h/w supporting that (and I'm not figuring that it'll actually be smaller due to formatting) plus of course more disc space needed for the type of RAID wanted.

Even if one ramps up the sizing to get the maximum price ratio, it doesn't work out. I know, as I have a 18TB Raid array. It's good for 'temporary' storage, but not for very long term.

[jalebi]

Storage is dirt cheap these days you can run a NAS even on a budget. I do understand the attractiveness of BD25 prices but it just doesn't seem justifiable when you work out the dollars and cents.

You know, I keep running into folks who say that, yet can't prove it with the math.

Show me a NAS box that beats $2/25GB storage. Even without any RAID, or with minimal, at any price/storage size. So, show me what box, at what size, you're talking about, that beats that figure. This without bringing up the fact (with burnable discs) that it's an unlimited (and flexible) storage medium.

At $2/25GB, that would equal 40ea for 1TB, and so a 1TB disc would have to be $80 (or double that for a 2TB disc), and without a case, plus if a RAID array, without the h/w supporting that (and I'm not figuring that it'll actually be smaller due to formatting) plus of course more disc space needed for the type of RAID wanted.

Even if one ramps up the sizing to get the maximum price ratio, it doesn't work out. I know, as I have a 18TB Raid array. It's good for 'temporary' storage, but not for very long term.

That really depends on what your setup is. My desktop PC is connected to my TV over my internally wired home network. Now, adding 1TB of storage is as simple as buying a 7200rpm (much faster than Blu-Ray) and attaching it. That HDD costs me about £40 (roughly 60USD including tax).

True, it BD25s may be beneficial depending on what setup you have. BTW, could you expand on your 18TB RAID setup? It's fascinating and I'm thinking of implementing it for my brothers home theatre system.

[Beck38]

Yes, but a basic disc setup (as you describe) has no redundancy. Many low-cost redundant setups (like 'un-raid') are just above that, providing minimal protection.

I looked at it all, from small to very large systems, and found a system that provided enough drive slots that did two things: first, give one the ability to go with RAID6, and second, to provide goodly amounts of storage.

There are several systems in the 24+ drive range (so, 2TB drives, we're talking 44TB RAID6 array's), but are in the $10K+ range and have to be built to 100% from the get go.

I found one manufacturer,Thecus, where the number of drives (7), was highest, and it supported both RAID5/6. Therefore, one could build a 9TB RAID6 array for under $2K each, and simply stack them one upon another, building as your storage needs increased. And, the cost curve at the 'end point' equaled that of the 'superbig' boxes, 45TB at around $10K price point.

If one does the math, one can store some 360 BR discs (25GB ea) on each 9TB module, or at 35GB/ea, then 250. That works out to around $8/per BD disc (all depending on how large each disc is, of course). Pretty high compared to 'basic' discs, but it's RAID6 protected.

If one recodes it, though, the space can be reduced quite a bit (if BD25's, then almost half). I have one machine running doing that right now, and am bringing up another to more than double my output. But I have over 90TB of SD DVD's that I took some 7+ years to recode and burn, and figure that with HD, I'll duplicate that in about half the time. Once I get the production line going 100%.

So unless RAID array's and their drives drop even more (but I'll bet the burnable discs price curve will exceed that), burnable is the way to go in the long run. Not to say that some 90TB array wouldn't be nice, but at what price?

[iLOVENZB]

People still trust disc media?

[phokat]

I do for long term archival like home photos and videos. I recently had my NAS go down with 2TB of data... that was the backup. Hard drives have an average life span of 3-5 years. After which they die with no warning whatsoever. And of course u have to keep backing/mirroring the data on hard drives.

I will prolly put all my imp data on few BD media.

[Beck38]

'Defense in Depth' is the watchword on this stuff, and it really comes down to how much of a hassle you're willing to go through to 'reconstruct' what just took a dive.

I have a huge number of CD's I bought back in the 80's, way before cd burners, nice large cheap HD's, or even silicon USB sticks. I sat down with Winamp a few months ago, and crunched them all down to FLAC for storage on my RAID array. I'm still grinding my way through them converting to 320kb/s AAC for use in my car/USB. Now, losing all that work... is why they're on my RAID array.

I looked at unRAID for a couple months, but decided that recovering from any disc error was both a lot of work, IF it was recoverable at all (which it really isn't). I'll take RAID6, thank you.

As I said, I have over 90TB of SD/DVD discs (yes, over 8000+), and even though it'd probably take a few weeks to roll through them, I do pull things out at random, and it's extremely rare to hit something that has errors on it (it's happened once; managed to recover the disc and re-burn a new one). Probably because I always burned at half-speed (i.e., a 4x disc at 2x, 8x disc at 4x), and never skipped doing a full verification on any disc.

We'll see, of course, with BD25's. When I get up past 100 or so, without any problems, I'll post it here.

[Beck38]

Slight falling on 4x/inkjet hub printable Riteks, now down to $1.78/ea in 25ea cakepacks at Supermediastore, prices elsewhere in the same ballpark, although Meritline gets the nod this week at $1.60/ea (same cakepack), both with free ground shipping.

Almost at the $1.50 price point, will they make it by years end?

[sandman_1]

If the BD25's come down some more, say around $1.25, I will probably get a drive. It will be nice to reduce my DVD5/9 data collection.

[Beck38]

That $1.25-1.50 area is of particular interest, as that is where the DVD9/DoubleLayer DVD9 prices have been for... forever, although the non-inkjet printables are at the low end of that (and I'm talking Verbatim here, not the super cheap types that tend to have high failure rates).

Also, 50GB/double layer BD50's are still hovering around $10-11/ea, LONG way to go. Hardware costs are, for the top-line burners (I have two Pioneer 205's), still around $190 or so.

Certainly none of this down to DVD5/25cent or burners (last Pioneer dual-layer I bought a year ago at $22), but for HD use, and being as the storage capacity is 5 times more, it's almost there.

[JustDOSE]

Thats still too rich for my blood.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-TN958-Panasonic-UJ-110-Blu-Ray-DVD-RW-Burner-A-/250695159481?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5e988eb9 59 bucks ebay slow but cheap, and someone as used BD's for sale? ill believe it when i see it on ebay, ha.. =s

[Beck38]

That model (Panasonic UJ-110) is a reader only (for BD), not a burner (only does DVD burning). The giveaway is that it's IDE, not SATA or USB2/3 or some other high speed interface.

Here's the specs from Dell:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/P160574/en/spec.htm

[Beck38]

$1 'Barrier' Cracked

A company called Optical Quantum has shown up on at least SupermediaStore with injethub-printable BD25's at $9.99 for a 10-pack cakebox ($1/ea), on special w/ free shipping if you order over $25 of anything (standard price is $1.40/ea)

Quality reports from users say 'just great'.

[Beck38]

For those who like to 'test burn' with an erasable before committing to a burn-once disc, Supermeda is selling Ritek Ridata/2X BE's for about $7 (typical) but in bulk (10+) for $4.99/ea, abut the best deal I've seen for those types (and with free ground shipping for >$25).

I have a fair stack of 2x Ritek BE's that I 'rotate' and use before doing a sight check and re-burning onto burn-once types, and I paid well over even $7/ea for them a few months back, and have only had one go 'south' on me although most have been burned're-burned probably 5-10 times at least by now. As my write-once types are all hub inkjet printable, I need to get cracking at printing the things out before I get hip deep in the things....

BTW, 15/25 packs (inkjet hub-printables) costing hasn't budged much in the past 2-3 months, still around $36 for a 25 cake-pack. I was thinking that over the holidays there would be some deals, but nope.

[heiska]

..

[zot]

I fail to see any value in keeping something I have already seen, such a waste of space+time.

This may come as a surprise to you, but many of us collect things so that we can share them at a later date, such as when they are no longer available otherwise.

And anyone who uses traditional P2P should know that the more material that gets shared, the more that will be available for others to download. But then sadly it seems that most people have no interest in sharing -- only in consuming.

[Beck38]

It's been a very long time since I updated this thread... mainly because the price levels of BD25's really haven't changed a whole heck of a lot.

But the pricing of BD50's sure has, even the inkjet printables, which has lately dived to as low as ~$8.50 or so. Verbatim no less.

Why the BD25's haven't budged is a good question. Oh well.

[teflon05]

Interesting thread...& I have an off topic question lol. Does anyone know if there is a way to archive multiple standard def retail dvd9's to a bluray 25 & have them playable on a stand alone bluray player?

[sandman_1]

Interesting thread...& I have an off topic question lol. Does anyone know if there is a way to archive multiple standard def retail dvd9's to a bluray 25 & have them playable on a stand alone bluray player?

This software claims to be able to do 10 VideoDVD's on 1 Bluray disk.

http://www.dvdnextcopy.com/ultimate.aspx

[Beck38]

Interesting thread...& I have an off topic question lol. Does anyone know if there is a way to archive multiple standard def retail dvd9's to a bluray 25 & have them playable on a stand alone bluray player?

It really has less to do with 'software' than in the capabilities of your bluray player.

The sizing is such that you can easily put 3 DVD9's on a BD25 (good Verbatim DVD9's are a bit under $1/printable whereas the BD25 is $1.50/printable, so the costing 'works'). I have no trouble doing this w/o any 'fancy' s/w as my Bluray player does MKV, Mpeg2, and allows one to see the disc 'structure', which can easily be multiple SD/Mpeg2 'discs'.

I might add, in my case, either Video_ts OR ISO structures. You might check your player for compatibilities,

[zot]

pardon me for getting off-topic here, but is there software that will convert audio CDs into Blu-Ray format?

Apps like DVD2one will let a user combine several audio CDs onto a single "audio" DVD, remastered in 'simulated' Dolby 5.1, but DVD2one does not support blu-ray. (Maybe they feel that a DVD's half-dozen hours of music per disk is all anyone will ever need?) I just wondered if anyone knows of any BD-R authoring software that will do this.

[Beck38]

pardon me for getting off-topic here, but is there software that will convert audio CDs into Blu-Ray format?


'Format'? Again, it depends on your player. Maybe if your player doesn't 'see' the structure of data on the disc, you'll need some sort of formatting s/w to 'fake out' the player and make it think it's doing one thing while actually doing another.

I would 'think' that if your BR player plays SD/DVD's, CD's, and the like, it will play a Bluray (BD-R) disc just fine, depending on (again) the 'structure' of the folders/directories on the disc. If you can't figure it out from the player manual, you might take a BD-RE disc and try out some differing ways.

I guess that I checked out things too well before I bought them, in short, the Popcorn Hour C200 w/ BR disc player. Plays everything I throw at it, either on disc (of any type), on USB (disc or thumb drive) or over the network. I've come close to buying a Samsung stand-alone BR player, but won't until I read a review where it will do close to the same (although I would like the Netflix/Blockbuster capabilities, but would also like Amazon built in); the last has been 'announced' but Samsung says 'sometime this summer'.

I'll wait until it actually happens..

[teflon05]

I have a Sansung BR player, but I haven't tried a whole lot with it yet. I'm going to in the next few days however, & I'll post whatever results I get here. Mostly I've just used it to stream from my desktop & play retail BR's so far.

I just got a Liteon BR burner a few weeks ago & haven't had the time to try different things with it yet, so I'm curious...

[Beck38]

My 'benchmark' price for Ritek Injet Hub printable cake box BR disc dipped to around $1.30 the other week, but that was on 'special'. It's crawled back up to $1.40/ea ($35 with free shipping) although BD50's sill are around $8.30/ea for Verbatim Inkjet printables. I wonder when the 'majic' $1/disc level will be reached, maybe by the end of this year...

There are lots of BD25 MKV recodes listed on NZBMatrix, search for 'MergeKit', going back a few months. I don't think anyone here on this board has posted any of the nzb's as of yet.

[zot]

it seemed like blank CDs hovered around the $1+ range for a long time, but dropped about the time DVD-Rs came out.

I wonder if "Trapdoor" has moved from DVDs to releasing full-BD disks? ;)

[dracore999]

theres also a good range of bd25's at www.totalhd.org :)

[Beck38]

Just tripped across this, ordered up a couple:

http://www.supermediastore.com/product/u/ridata-bdr-254-rdiwn-cb25-blu-ray-4x-white-inkjet-hub-printable-media-25pk

at $1.12/ea in a pack of 25. I've used over 200 of these, had only one 'coaster' and that was probably my fault. I've also gone back and rechecked some of the first ones I burned (>6 months ago) and they play just fine.

Anyway, at $28/pack w/free ground shipping, that's the cheapest ever. $10 off for how long I don't know. Grab 'em while they last.

[Beck38]

Been quite a while since I update this.... simply because the prices seem to have 'stalled' right around the $1.35-45 range, sometimes getting a bit lower by 5 cents or so. Of course, this is Inkjet-Hub printable, the 'silver' types are around $1.10ea or thereabouts.

Exactly why it hasn't fallen at all, no specials I've tripped across sine the last post in August, is a good question. Wish I'd have bought more, but the supply I had 'on hand' and I still have some 35+ or more left 'on the shelf', is probably because of the economy (might as well blame it on that).

I still do a 'round about' a couple times a week, but lately the prices have been creeping up, not down. The 'off-brand' types (silver not inkjet) get down to around 90cents ea., but I don't know if it's worth it. Probably not.

How about some Thanksgiving sales?

[Beck38]

First price drop on BD25's in quite a while, Meritline Ritek inkjet printables at $1.20/ea in a 25 pack cake box (total: $29.99 w/ free ground shipping). Everyone else is still at $38+ for the same item.

[mjmacky]

I'm pretty sure I posted several things in this thread awhile back. It appears those posts have been spirited away, fucking ss.

[Beck38]

Super Price Drop Alert!

Supermedia Store Ritek Ridata Blu-Ray White Inkjet Hub Printable 4X 25GB BD-R Media 25 Pack in Cake Box at $25.95 (or $1.04/ea)
just about the lowest price ever seen. NOTE: no free shipping unless you get a couple of these to get it over $50, then ground shipping is free.

Grab 'em while their hot.

[Beck38]

Here's an interesting development: TDK has begun shipping 6x BD-R discs (non-printables) @$1.20/ea (25pk cakebox). How long that price will last will be interesting, but the Ridata Inkjet types are holding at at $1.04/ea.

Anyone taking a look at internal HD prices reallly needs to be sittting down. All those manufacturers who bought into putting all their ducks in one basket (better known as Southeast Asia) are watching their profits drop off a cliff along with their production rates.

[zot]

Anyone taking a look at internal HD prices reallly needs to be sittting down. All those manufacturers who bought into putting all their ducks in one basket (better known as Southeast Asia) are watching their profits drop off a cliff along with their production rates.
I understand that it's a similar situation with optical disk manufacturers - and so many other things these days.

It's also not comforting to think that the worldwide usenet industry is concentrated in just two cities. (and maybe soon-to-be one -- if the court-ordered shutdown of News-Service.com spills over to the other Dutch providers)

[Beck38]

I understand that it's a similar situation with optical disk manufacturers - and so many other things these days.


Not that I've heard of, and the prices haven't reflected it at all. It's all those HD plants in Thailand, India, and the like that are currently underwater or drying out. I haven't heard of any optical production plants in any of those countries, and the prices of my 'fav' (Ritek inkjet BD25's) stabilized for quite a while around $1.30-40/ea for about 3+ months there with a couple 'sales' at the ~$1 level.

If there were some plants affected, either it was for a very short period of time, folks aren't buying a any 'decent' rate, or they had a couple warehouse full of product (or a combination of those two). Right now, it looks like the $1.05 level may be here to stay.

[zot]

What I meant was the concentrated manufacturing base: that all the different brands of disks all coming out of a couple of Taiwanese" factories. (of all the CDs/DVDs I've ID'd, I don't think I've ever had one that was not made by Ritek.)

Also, with the money-saving 'just-in-time' business delivery strategy, any shortage can quickly snowball.

[Beck38]

Yep, the thing one has to watch out for on the Taiwanese sourced stuff is any big earthquake.

I appears that the price of right around $1.05 for hub printable BD25's is staying in place, no movement on anyone I 'monitor' for the last 2-3+ weeks. I have a nice stack (around 100) discs 'in the que' at present, so it will be awhile before I buy any more, especially as at 'full bore' processing 'stuff' I average about 3-4 discs per week.

Unless I hit something with wacky programmers that need to take (or re-take) a course in how to program navigation routines on BluRay discs.

So, I pull back a bit and get a running start again.

I wonder how many folks are putting off buying tera-byte HD's now, and what will happen when the prices start dropping once again; will folks wait until it way back down like $70 for a 2TB or 'just can't wait' when it gets down to like, around $100.

It will be interesting to see.

[zot]

Things are really upside down in the HDD market. Notebook drives are nearly the same price as desktops. And Fibre Channel Drives are absolutely dirt-cheap these days. It seems very strange when a 10K/15K RPM FC drive is selling for less than a 5400/7200 SATA drive.

[zot]

I wonder how many folks are putting off buying tera-byte HD's now, and what will happen when the prices start dropping once again; will folks wait until it way back down like $70 for a 2TB or 'just can't wait' when it gets down to like, around $100.


It gets worse. Now manufacturers are slashing warranties. My take on this is that production at un-flooded factories probably has been ramped up to the breaking point to take advantage of the higher prices, that quality will be a low priority.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222760/Hard_drive_manufacturers_slash_warranty_periods

I was just at the shops, I noticed that the best value in "desktop" hard drives would apparently be to buy a 2.5" portable USB HDD (many good sales on these!) open it up and take out the bare drive (note: these are too fat to fit in many laptops due to the extra platter) and install it in a 2.5/3.5 mounting bracket ($3) in a desktop case. I understand that unlike IDE, the SATA connections are the same for both 3.5" and 2.5" drives, though I've not verified this yet.

Fortunately due to SSD drives, the 2.5" mounting brackets are widely available these days.

Or maybe not many people would see the value in a 750GB 2.5" USB drive selling for less than a 250MB 3.5" drive, since on a cost-per-gigabyte basis, a 4GB 3.5" is about equal, and no doubt will not go obsolete as quickly.

[Beck38]

Don't know how long this will 'last', but 'special' at Meritline:

http://www.meritline.com/ritek-ridata-blu-ray-bd-r-4x-25gb-white-inkjet-hub-printable-254-rdiwn-cb25---p-38017.aspx

or 80cents per disc, 19.99/25pack, white inkjet - lowest prices seen EVER, except the shipping isn't free unless you order enough 'eligible' items, so the total price jumps to $1.15/ea without. But keep a lookout for this 'base' price with free shipping, maybe shortly.

Gotta start thinking about these hitting 50cents/per at some point... this year?
.

[Beck38]

Been a long... long.. time since the last 'update'. But items in the sight of the thread (i.e., hub inkjet BD25's) have been VERY stanbel over the last x months. Meritline continues to sell Ritek's at $.80/ea (plus shipping, which if you buy 2 or more 25 packs gets the bottom line price to $.90/ea), but...

BD50 (again, hub inkjet Ritek's) are getting 'price soft', latest 'special' is again Meritline at $4/ea in 15-packs/4x speed (and again, plus shipping). Some of the 'off-brands are in the same price range, but are 6x. It looks as if Ritek may be discontinuing the 4x line for 6x in the near future, which is why the price drop.

50GB re-writables are still pretty dear, around $25+.

Gonna keep chugging away on BD25's for the foreseeable future. My biggest 'problem' is forcing myself to print up the things on the inkjet printer, as I 'produce' about a burned disc every couple of days. Now if the damn hard drive folks would get their you know what together and get the prices on that back down to what it was (although Seagate is doing just fine, no SE Asia production plants underwater, and still get 'green' 2TB drives for <$80 while other makes are almost double that).