Retailers worried about the compatibility of their current stocks of DVD media (-R and +R) with the new range of writers (which are being released in the run up to christmas) have slashed prices in an attempt to reduce stock holdings of blank DVD media. We reported earlier in the week that Verbatim had done a recall on DVD media as it was incompatible with the new Sony DRU-500 DVD writer. An industry insider tells us that the Nec MultiSpin ND-1100A dual format drive ( which is based on the same technology as the Sony drive ) has similar issues and many well known brands of media are incompatible with the drive.

Pioneer have also added to the uncertainty by not confirming which discs will write at 2 speed on the commercial model of their new 105 writer, due for release at the end of November.

The good news for the consumer is that the current generation of writers are not affected by this compatibility problem and with many retailers having slashed prices to reduce stockholdings to a minimum level this is a great time to pickup a media bargain. The insider said that those discs found to be compatible with the new 105 would possibly increase back to previous price levels and consumers should take advantage of this limited bargain period. A quick trawl round the web shows discounts of up to 50% on many brands of DVD-R which were last week selling for £1.00 plus. The most notable deals being Datasafe yellow top DVD-R for 63p, this is the first disc to be released by Datasafe (that has an AZO dye), and Eproformance DVD-R for 68p (this was over £1.00 last week)
Click here for the full story on the New Datasafe Azo Dye disc