Well, things certainlly went smother this week than last week (couldn't be all good though, my scanner and scan software froze up when I was almost done and I though I lost all the scans for a second, but I didn't, lol). Sorry for being so late again, had to work the morning shift and had to work late due to inventory.
About the best I saw for media was maxell at office depot, verbatium dual layer at best buy again, and nextech at circuit city (-r are mcc if you know what to look for). I only glanced at them so I could have easilly miss something though. Circuit city has a mad dog burner that claims 8x dual layer for 50$ after rebate (arn't these the new nec's?). Again, I didn't really have a chance to see what other burners were on sale. I really don't get much time to look at the ads while I scan them. Anyway, here they are.

Almost forgot, no office max ad but rather a brown paper grocery bag with 15% off whatever you can fit in it for office max. I scanned the part of it that gave exclusions. Obviously you will have to get a newspaper to get the bag (or maybe they have them in store, I don't know). I checked there web site (normally they post their ad early on saturday for the next week) and the only ad was this last weeks, so I'm guessing no ad, just the 15% bag.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/sales/scans/index

By the way, I have been scanning at 150 dpi and resizing to 100 dpi since christmas (including this time). I used to scan at 250 dpi and resize to 100 dpi. Are the ads (including item numbers) readable and clear enough? I could change back to 250 dpi if anyone thinks it makes a diffrence?

One more side note, if anyone sees any divx/xvid standalone players on sale that are good, I would like to know. I got one of the compusa branded ones but it won't play enough of my files so it may go back. When the philips first came out I heard some bad things but now hear some good things, and thats what seems to get advertised. Any opinions?

You might want to checkout the Pioneer 588 multi player. It is supposed to do DVDAudio/SACD/ and DIVX etc. I have the first Generation 563a and it's been a good machine with a few teething pains that I think the new machines fixed. It's also low cost as well for all the features and of course is progressive scan as well. Wish my unit could support all the pc formats, but I do like the audio formats and the video on my 34" 16x9 set is top notch.

thanks ripit!!

there was no actual officemax ad? I was wondering why nothing was up on their site since they always post ads on saturdays. That 15% off bag is sort of useless if it's not good with pricematches and there are no sales this week.

If I see one more spindle of memorex on sale I'm gonna . WHERE THE F ARE MY SONY SALES?!?!?!?!?!

I've been waiting (not so) patiently for 3 weeks now!

Wow, that does suck! About everything on sale is Memorex garbage.

Is the "grocery bag" the same size as a standard grocery bag?

Hi Dartman,

Where is the Pioneer 588? I can't seem to find it. I am pretty blind though.

It is 17" x 12" x 7" (about the same size as a gracery bag).

I have had pretty good luck with the maxells (make sure you get made in japan so you get maxell media codes), particularlly the 8x+r (maxell002). Of course if you have not used them before it might not be worth risking it on a 100 pack.

@Dartman, I'll check the pioneer out. It looks like walmart caries them for 125$ (online only). I had hoped to get something cheaper but short of finding anything, I guess I'll have to spend that much (I already have good dvd players, I just want this to suplement them with divx/xvid playbach).

Fyi the nexttech at circuit city are mcc media code for the 8x-r if you know what pack to get. I'll find the info on how to identify them if anyone is interested.

that would be good if you could! I checked www.videohelp.com and I can't find records of MCC media codes under nexxtech at all. $7 for 25 is a good deal.

Look here for info on how to tell the mcc nexxtech's.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...9&postcount=45
I have bought these twice. I just poped one in to make sure of the exact media code and it is MCC 02RG20. It is only the -r that might be mcc. Actually this has been discussed a couple of times. I was not the one who originally posted how to tell the mcc. I'll search quick and see if I can find a little more on it.

More info

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...2&postcount=13
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...7&postcount=19

Thats all I could find searching nexxtech but there are a few other threads floating around here somewhere if you care to hunt them down. that should be plenty info to identify them though.

thanks! I also found this: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...2&postcount=13

I think at one point I posted a scan from one (maybe not as I couldn't find it) but they burn exelent on my 3500 (every thing I would expect from mcc media). Even beter than the scan from agent009 in that link.

the link you already posted included a scan of the disc itself showing the serial numbers around the hub. is that what you're talking about? or was it another scan?

I was talking about a kprobe scan. They burned very clean on my 3500. the scan from agent was the cd speed scan on his benq here
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...2&postcount=13
I found a disk that was a full burn (the whole disk capacity). I'm not sure when I burned it (probably around may of this year based on the content). I'll have to wait till I finish a rip on a hard to read disk (my other computer is apart swaping around harddrives for a diffrent raid setup). Then I'll shut it down, throw my liteon in and do a kprobe scan (and post it). Luckilly I have an matching antec cases with drive rails so swapping drives is quick and easy.

Talk about bad luck. I pick up what I though was a clean lint free cloth to wipe a little dust off the disk and manage to scratch the hell out of it and smear some unknown crap across the disk. I change drives and windows wont boot (I'm running on poorly repaired install that fixit utilities trashed so no shock there, I'm working on geting software installed on a raid array and will switch to that soon). strange thing is pulling the raid card fixed it (strange because there was now power plugged to the drives on it)? So windows takes a couple of minutes to start (no shock there either with the messed up install). Anyway, here is the scan. I have no idea about the big spike at the begining, maybe thats part of where it got scratched, maybe it just deteroriated over time (still not a bad scan overall for a 7 month old disk). These disks burn similar to this across the whole scan (without the spike at the begining) on my 3500, when scanning right after burning anyway.

LOL no kidding. Guess I'll be holding off for another week to buy. RUnning out of media........

I am going to try and get to Office Depot for those nexxtech's. I hope they have the right kind.

And just to try and avoid another debacle such as the one I had with the Fuji's from BestBuy, do you guys think the MCC's will be fine on a Pioneer DVR-K15 1.11?

The nexxtech's are at circuit city. It has been a while since I have bought any and they had plenty mixed in at the time, but they are easy to tell apart even if there are not a lot. Just capture and print the picture I posted and take it with you.

Well I got my 563 when they first hit the shelves at Best Buy a few years or so ago, so maybe there, but everytime I go and look it seems they don't carry hardly any Pioneer players anymore. You might want to try Circuit City also and online. They are supposed to be like 130 or under so great bang for buck.

Heres J&R's link http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4033296

I'm kind of considering the philips dvp642. I remember when the philips divx players first came out there were a lot of reports of problems playing files. It kind of gave me a bad impression of philips dvd player. I have had a few people saying that they are decent though so I decided to check them out again. It would seem that they do a decent job and get decent ratings for playing files but have a quality control problem (lots of premature falures and only a 90 day waranty). I wonder if anyone offers a decent but cheap extended warranty?

@ DartMan and ripit

I don't remember seeing any Pioneer players, or at least the 588 at Circuit City or Best Buy. However, if you live in a state with an Ultimate Electronics store (they used to be called Soundtrack in Colorado, where I live), they have the 588 for under $120. If you're shopping online J&R music world has the 588 for $115 with free UPS ground (kind of slow, but it's free). Here's the link: http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4033296

According to the specs I've read, the Pioneer is Divx certified to play Divx 3-5, but I didn't see any specific mention of Xvid, although I suppose it plays that too.

If you want a basic player that handles Divx, a lot of people like the Philips DVP642 which is around $60 at Circuit City or Best Buy, or as low as $35 online. I don't have experience with either of these DVD players, but I'd say that if you just want a basic player that handles Divx, and you don't care about SACD or DVD-Audio, you might as well give the Philips a try, since it's so cheap.

If you look at the DVD benchmark here: http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi
you'll see that the Pioneer got a 75% and the Philips got a 56%, so I suppose you get what you pay for.

Edit: Damn, Dartman beat me to the J&R link and ripit mentioned the Philips 642. In any case, ripit, you can read the DVD benchmark of the Philips and Pioneer to get an idea about the performance of each one. J&R also has a $100 Pioneer model that plays Divx, but apparently it was never meant to be sold in the US so it doesn't come with the Pioneer 1 year warranty. J&R also carries the $125 Yamaha S5750 that plays DivX and does PAL/NTSC conversion, in case you watch DVDs from other regions.

Both me and my friend got the dvp642 about a year ago. Mine worked without a hitch but my friend's unit stutters sometime. It seems his unit gets into a lot of pixelation problems after you play it for a while. But when you press system menu twice it works again. I never got that problem, but I would have to say yeah they got some quality control problems. Still I would recommend it since it is so cheap and plays just about anything you throw in it (Divx, CD-MP3, and DVD-MP3). The only things I don't like about it is the clumsy remote and the 8 character limitation for filenames.

Kmart has 25 pk sony for 8.99. Not the best deal, but not too bad if desperate

ripit

Your mention of the problem with fix-it utilities reminded me of your earlier crash. Could you detail what happened and how it happened? I have previously used fix-it (as part of System Suite) and don't want to experience your crash!!

Thanks!!!

Love the brown bag man! Cool!