blank cd's

[overmars]

What is the difference between the different color CDs? Blue, Green, Silver, Gold, is it all speculation or is there solid evidence that there's a difference between them?

I was thinking of cloning my hard drive using Image Cast and then copying the image to a blank cd. And if there was a difference in cd's, then I'd buy the best one.

Any help is appreciated.

marc

 

[sohcrates]

ahhh. the universal question. well, i don't know of any ACTUAL evidence, but i've been surrounded by this question for years and everyone i come into contact with seems to agree that gold and silver are the best for highest reflectivity (therefore best chance of a cd-rom reading it). this make sense, of course, since silver (and in some cases gold) are what almost all production cd's use.

blue and green , in my experience, are quite comparable, and seem to work just fine in most newer cd-roms. the exception seems to be that some car and home cd players will read one or the other (i.e. my roomate's car cd player will read ALL blue cd's but NO green cd's).

as you may have noticed, you will pay a premium for gold or silver bottomed cd-r's, especially in 50 or 100 packs...they're also hard to find.

so in conclusion, i would say if you're in the market for serious data storage, try to find at least a COUPLE silver or gold cd-r's...otherwise, blue or green are FINE for daily burning...as long as your cd-rom likes them.

 

[SaturnX]

Well I really don't know exactly all the difference between, though I prefer to stick with either Gold or Silver coloured CDs, have the best experience with them. Though check out this site, goes in depth on the colours and dyes used on CDRs:

CD Media World

Hope this helps.

--Mark

 

[billandopus]

Another interesting resource on cdrs is at www.cdrecordable.com

Basically, the color of dye doesn't necessarily mean one is better than another although I tend to prefer phthalocyanine over cyanine dye myself ie: Kodak, Mitsui .. etc. However, Taiyo Yuden does cyanine 0 most of the time and I would trust TY anytime. Find what works for you and run with it.