Blu Ray Media: Merax Review

Blu Ray blank media guide : Best Blu Ray media brands
Best Blu Ray Media Brands Part 8: Merax Media/ Discs Review


Merax, a company from mainland China, has taken the unsual step of creating its own distribution network in the USA, under its brand name. We found Merax Blu Ray media easily in BD-R format only. Until summer 2010, Merax factored Philips Blu Ray media, which has an 83% overall rating, but a very high variability in quality, going from a low of 67% to a high of 93%. We reviewed it here, and concluded that it was not archival quality, and that we could not recommend it independently of the brand that outsources it.

Since approximately summer 2010, Merax has been factoring from Optodisk, a Taiwanese manufacturer that some believed had exited the optical media market. Optodisk's DVD media quality is roughly equivalent to CMC Magnetics, which, to us, means 2nd tier. Since the media switch, reviews for Merax have been running 68% positive, roughly equal to its previous rating. At this time, and because we do not know how much old stock is left in the channel, we are calculating Merax' predictive quality rating based on Philips manufacturing data. We will switch calculation methods when enough post-switch Merax reviews have emerged.

Thanks to Merax' rock bottom prices, we found good numbers of user reviews (107) for its Blu Ray media, averaging a 66% approval rating, the lowest uncorrected rating in the industry. We compounded the brand's rating to its 83% media manufacturer rating, with a 75%-25% ratio, according to our standard Blu Ray media process. Merax does not participate in the DVD media market, so we were not able to use DVD brand reliability to improve its predictive Blu Ray quality rating, but we did not need it, as we had gathered a statistically significant quantity of reviews for its Blu Ray media. As the resulting statistical margin of error was 9%, we lowered the brand's rating by 4% to ensure that we were within 5% of the lowest boundary for the margin of error (with 95% certainty).  Merax' resulting rating is 63%, a low rating in the Blu Ray media market.

Conclusions

• Merax has been factoring media from Philips (i.e. Moser Baer of India), then from Optodisk (Taiwan)
• Merax' Blu Ray media predictive quality rating is 63%,  a low rating in the Blu Ray media industry.
• Merax has no record in the DVD media market.
• Merax' outsourced media is not of archival quality, and we feel that there are better choices for close to the same cost.
• we do not recommend Merax Blu Ray media for any use at this time.  

Next we review Optical Quantum blank Blu Ray media... So come back soon!

To understand Blu Ray lingo, check our lexicon of Blu Ray vocabulary. Our Blu Ray brand predictive quality rating process is explained here. Our statistical analysis practices are described here, which is also where we discuss ConsumerPla.net's predictive quality rating.

Edit Feb. 22 2011: Updated review to comment on recent Optodisk outsource

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