Blank CDs....

[frank84]

I have been using the cheapest ones in the market.. (ex. Fry's GQ CD-R)

my question is, is there such thing as better CD-Rs?

until now, i used blank CDs to burn mix cds that i take into my car.
but now i need to burn some serious datas into cd-rs for archive reason..

what would be the trustworthy cd-r to save important datas or pictures or wutever?

 

[MrChad]

Anything manufactured by Taiyo Yuden is generally highly regarded. I use Fujifilm (Made in Japan).

 

[frank84]

Originally posted by: MrChad
Anything manufactured by Taiyo Yuden is generally highly regarded. I use Fujifilm (Made in Japan).

how would you know if it was manufactured by Taiyo Yuden?

 

[mwmorph]

avoid TDK 100 pack red label 800mb 70minute 48x cdrs. It's mosser Baer, made in india. at least 1/3 of the cds i burn with that crap dont work. the only aving grace is that i got a buy 1 get 1 free deal for $20 at costco.

 

[Zepper]

If they are T-Ys, it will say Made In Japan on the package. Fuji and Maxell Pro brands are about the only ones I've found lately that are still T-Ys. And the Fujis are the only ones you can expect to find at a decent price. Verbatim Datalife + (Super AZO) and Mitsui are also better than your average CD-Rs but are hard to find. I've heard that Khypermedia (generally only found in Office Max) is also Super AZO - you can tell by the dark blue color of the written side of the disks. The T-Ys are a fairly dark blue-green color. It seems that all the best media have a darker chemistry. Among other things it gives a higher contrast end product.

Find out more than you want to know about media in the CD Freaks' forums.

.bh.

 

[Ike0069]

I used to buy Pengo's from Newegg and I never had even one bad burn. Last time I needed some, they were out so my wife bought some TDK's at Walmart. Probably have had 1 in 3 or 4 fail.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
I used to buy Pengo's from Newegg and I never had even one bad burn. Last time I needed some, they were out so my wife bought some TDK's at Walmart. Probably have had 1 in 3 or 4 fail.

yeah. TDK sucks. the weird thing is that when i burn it and then enable verification of data, everything will check out and then when i try to run it, it is unreadable.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
yeah. TDK sucks. the weird thing is that when i burn it and then enable verification of data, everything will check out and then when i try to run it, it is unreadable.

Exactly same here. I've learned my lesson. No more TDK media!

 

[cyclohexane]

anything besides GQ, GQ = crap!

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: wonho84
how would you know if it was manufactured by Taiyo Yuden?

DVD Identifier, that's how.

Also, as a general rule (though not 100% of the time), DVDs/CDs made in Japan are better quality than the rest.

 

[AristoV300]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
I used to buy Pengo's from Newegg and I never had even one bad burn. Last time I needed some, they were out so my wife bought some TDK's at Walmart. Probably have had 1 in 3 or 4 fail.

Agreed, I have had good results with Pengo media also.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Zepper
If they are T-Ys, it will say Made In Japan on the package. Fuji and Maxell Pro brands are about the only ones I've found lately that are still T-Ys. And the Fujis are the only ones you can expect to find at a decent price. Verbatim Datalife + (Super AZO) and Mitsui are also better than your average CD-Rs but are hard to find. I've heard that Khypermedia (generally only found in Office Max) is also Super AZO - you can tell by the dark blue color of the written side of the disks. The T-Ys are a fairly dark blue-green color. It seems that all the best media have a darker chemistry. Among other things it gives a higher contrast end product.

Find out more than you want to know about media in the CD Freaks' forums.

.bh.

Agreed, but 100 pack Fuji's are not Taiyo Yuden's. You have to get the 30 or 50 packs.

 

[qbackin]

office depot generics

 

[blackrain]

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I have been burning cd's for about 8-9 years and have never had problems with TDK. If you are having problems with TDK it could just be that your burner does not have good compatibility. Slowing down the burn (from 40x to 32x for example) can really help there.

As you can see here:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

TDK is first class media

I also use Sony a lot.

I have never had any problems with Sony or TDK.

The only problems I have ever had were with CMC Magnetics (namely Imation)

Note that the page at the posted link was last updated October 2004...not too long ago

 

[Zepper]

You can get counterfeit TDK disks - I haven't had trouble burning real TDK. I haven't had any problem with Imation media either (used it with an old Plextor SCSI 4x, an MSI 48x and a Plextor 712 - you just don't want to try to Overclock the burn by much. The last batch of Imation I had was only 16x rated and if you threw the spindle pack collar away, you'd never know the proper speed. I could go about 24x with it and that's it - so I usually just burned it at rated speed to be safe.

blackrain,
. Your link applies to DVD media. CD-R media branding is similar to that list but there are a lot of variances.

.bh.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: blackrain
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I have been burning cd's for about 8-9 years and have never had problems with TDK. If you are having problems with TDK it could just be that your burner does not have good compatibility. Slowing down the burn (from 40x to 32x for example) can really help there.

As you can see here:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

TDK is first class media

I also use Sony a lot.

I have never had any problems with Sony or TDK.

The only problems I have ever had were with CMC Magnetics (namely Imation)

Note that the page at the posted link was last updated October 2004...not too long ago

that is a dvd guide. besidesd. i used nero's test drive and the info came up as Mosser Baer. It even says made in india on the package. I'm not sure how to detect for fakes, but it is clearly labeled TDK and the packaginf spindle has multiple TDK labels on it.

It's avaliable here:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%3DN
as well as been available at circuit city and Costco.

 

[Zepper]

So far as I can tell, Mosser Baer stuff (at least the DVD) isn't so hot. I have no clue if or why TDK is having any of their media made there. Perhaps you should contact TDK directly to see if it's legit. The last TDK CDs I had were mfd by CMC, the same with the DVD+Rs I have on hand right now.

.bh.

 

[RobCur]

any generic will do my friend especially the silver top ones
a little scratch on the top and it's a goner, cool right? this way you are protected against intrusion from unknown enemies within.
all my silver tops have cease to function after a year of usage, lmao.

 

[StrangerGuy]

My pack of 100 generic CD-Rs burn without a fuss at 52x.

 

[Jeff7]

Media comparison.

Bad media

Good media

 

[Zepper]

Hey S.G.,
. Just try to read those generics a year later on anything but the drive that burned them...

And Jeff, In case you hadn't noticed, the OP is talking CD-R media - DVD articles aren't relevant...

.bh.

 

[uraloony]

I have always had good experience with Taiyo Yuden CDs/DVDs. I recently got a bunch on Maxell branded Taiyo Yudens (make sure they say Made in Japan on side) at Sams Club. Very nice discs.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Hey S.G.,
. Just try to read those generics a year later on anything but the drive that burned them...

And Jeff, In case you hadn't noticed, the OP is talking CD-R media - DVD articles aren't relevant...

.bh.

I would think them to be relevant - example, if Ricoh can make excellent DVD+R's, I wouldn't expect them to sell junk in the recordable CD market.
And Kprobe can be used to test CD-R/RW discs as well.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: Zepper
Hey S.G.,
. Just try to read those generics a year later on anything but the drive that burned them...

And Jeff, In case you hadn't noticed, the OP is talking CD-R media - DVD articles aren't relevant...

.bh.

I would think them to be relevant - example, if Ricoh can make excellent DVD+R's, I wouldn't expect them to sell junk in the recordable CD market.
And Kprobe can be used to test CD-R/RW discs as well.

There is too much of a difference between what most branded companies use to get their CDR's and DVDR's from. Sometimes it can be completely different.

 

[Jeff7]

There is too much of a difference between what most branded companies use to get their CDR's and DVDR's from. Sometimes it can be completely different.

Really...huh, odd. I stand corrected then.
So, anyone happen to know what the max C1 error rate is for CD's? It's 280 for DVD's....I've run Kprobe on a few CD-RW discs I've got, and gotten some low numbers, but I don't know if they're low enough to call "good".