I buy media from
www.rima.com. I never seen either in stores however someone posted that the Office depot brand dvd-r's are using GO4 dye which is the same as Ritek. As far as the laser goes its hard to say. The v12 is still new and only time will tell if the current laser fixe is 100%. Sony uses the absolutely sorriest lasers known to man and eventually burn out no matter what you do. The best advise i can give you is to use only top quality media and avoid playing dvd movies. This will prolong the lasers life but not completely eliminate wear.