PCFormat Forum Archive

Hi guys

I have received a few complaints about the disc being unbalanced. I have just gone through my samples that I have at the office and everyone of them is unbalanced.

For those who don't know: an unbalanced disc tends to wobble when it spins so that it makes a lot of noise in your optical drive.

Are any of you have issues with unbalanced discs?

Won't it be cheaper to ship the magazine with a 2GB flash drive instead of a DVD?

All good and well but I have 9GB of content on the DVD, 2GB is far from enough.

KillerByte wrote:All good and well but I have 9GB of content on the DVD, 2GB is far from enough.

And 2GB is even smaller than a single sided DVD.

For interests sake, what is the cost of 1 DVD that is shipped out?

Looking at the price of the mag, R30. :p

An educated guess would lead me to believe no more than R5.

Sorry Senile... its a business.

EDIT: What I should have said is that due to the nature of business I cannot divulge the cost of the DVD. However if any member of this forum is involved with disc pressing they are welcome to post up the costs related to this.

If there were an option at the outlets, a mag with DVD or a mag with flash drive, I would buy the Flash drive version even if it cost 50% more.

KillerByte wrote:Sorry Senile... its a business.

edit: When my customers complain or make suggestions, I don't tell them "Sorry but this is my business"

You misunderstand. The costs are confidential and even I am only told them when my input is required on the matter.

We would need a 10GB flash drive to put all the content on and pressing DVD is much quicker than dropping data onto 25,000 flash drives.

Don't get me wrong, we would love to bundle a 10GB flash drive with the magazine.

Bladerunner wrote:Looking at the price of the mag, R30. :p

An educated guess would lead me to believe no more than R5.

Your education is going to waste. I'd bet you a six-pack that it'd be no more than R2.50 if you're talking 25k + units.

KillerByte wrote: Don't get me wrong, we would love to bundle a 10GB flash drive with the magazine.

That's be a good marketing drive methinks. But the guys who have to package the mags won't love you for it!

Sorry for the offtopic, but I think you've just come up with a brilliant Christmas Special (or Subscribers Special or something), KillerByte.

Instead of the usual (Or, including the usual) DVD, you have a 8GB or 10GB flashdrive with data on it.

Of course, such a special would need to have a higher price-tag attached to it...but if it were a special once-off collector's drive...?

I think the Christmas special is a great idea!! Pop in a 16gb Flash drive in there and you will have a lot of happy customers, even if the price is a little more expensive.

Back to the unbalanced disc issue, my laptop (HP Probook 4520s) really struggles to read the PC Format discs, not just this month's version. I eventually get it to read the one side but the other is a real mission. This month however I cant access the one side at all. Any suggestions?