Swisstec 1-4x DVD+R

[pepst]

Swisstec, Sky and Eternity were brands of another Swiss and another interesting and controversial manufacturer, SkyMedia Manufacturing.

SkyMedia started producing mediocre quality CD-Rs in about 2001 and added DVDR production two years later, but had problems with it. For one thing, it also used Interaxia's dye in the production of some DVDRs, which meant that the media was unreadable within a few months, for another it had a problem with MID code support, and for another it didn't always master the technological process of production. The result was media of at best below average quality.
Compared to other European manufacturers this was still an improvement, for example the Greek O.M.P. S.A. (marketed under the Creation brand) was releasing DVDRs that were virtually unusable.

SkyMedia had big plans in Slovakia too, with generous state support the largest DVDR production plant in Europe was to be built in Nové Město nad Váhom, which would even rival in size Taiwanese manufacturers such as Daxon or Optodisc. This did not happen, in the summer of 2004 it was clear that the production of optical media in Europe no longer had any prospects and an assembly plant for ultra-cheap TV sets was established in Slovakia under the name of UMC Slovakia. This company used Chinese parts to assemble low-end televisions under the brands Swisstec, Sky or Blaupunkt, which ended up in supermarkets.

After a while, the company moved to Poland (again taking advantage of every possible state support), even took advantage of Sharp's huge financial crisis, bought their trademark (for use in Europe) and Polish plant for practically free, and when Sharp got back on its feet after a year (thanks to a huge Taiwanese investment), UMC's owners made extremely good money on the resale of share and ttrademark back to Sharp...

Sky's media were available to buy in Slovakia in 2003-2005, ironically, with DVDRs you could rarely buy the company's own product, as the company bought a lot of DVDR media from OEMs in Asia and printed them with their own brands. So at the time I bought several Swisstec DVD+Rs, actually made by Optodisc or several anonymous Chinese manufacturers (with fake MID codes).

The disc under test was manufactured in the Swiss factory in Yvonand at the end of 2003. The quality is OK by the brand's standards, their fulfilled goal was that the quality of the disc is within standards and that the disc works, they didn't make a greater effort.