is CD quality a bogus concept? are they all really the same?

[smp]

I have been using these "art media" brand 650 meg discs for a while now.. and I have no problems or complaints.. they're cheap, when you buy em one at a time.. I can't buy them in bulk. I want to buy one of those fifty pack spindle things.. but I don't know what kind to get.. I was at this comp store the other day and they had Kodak gold and silver.. I asked him what the difference was and the guy told me that the gold ones were better quality..
What does better quality mean in a cd? I have been using cheap CDs for a while with no complaints.. sound quality? burn stability? what's the deal? thanks..

 

[smp]

Oh yeah? so read speed is an issue too eh? Not while playing burned music though right? only if you're copying files to your HDD or something???

 

[konichiwa]

No, when he says 12x he means write speed. And the quality of CDRs can be very important. Because some DVD Players, CD Players, Car CD players, etc are very finnicky about the CDRs they will play. For instance, my car CD player will only play Taiyo Yuden CDRs.

 

[Need4Speed]

They dye used also makes a difference as to how long a cd will "last". Though all of them last longer than anyone would ever want...unless you are archiving geneology or something like that

 

[madthumbs]

Some readers and writers may have problems with some brands of CDR.

CD Media World

 

[smp]

I don't know Konichiwa..
"

<< The biggest difference I've noticed with different CD qualities is read speed; I find the green ones to be slow as molasses while golds are stable. Platinum CDs read almost as fast as &quot;real&quot; CDs. >>


I think he was talking about read speed... that's why I'm all curious now..
Need4Speed: the dye? so what colours last how long? if you know.. ??

 

[Shadow926]

go check out http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml#Related Links

 

[Adul]

CD quality doeds matter. I had s0ome crappy stuff that wouldnt read i other cdrom, while some of the better stuff worked like a charm.

 

[Wingznut]

Fwiw, I've had excellent success with Imation and Memorex cd-r's. The Imation's are my favorite, as you can usually find some real good prices. (i.e. $14.99 for a 50pk spindle of 12x 80min cd-r's, at the local Best Buy, when they are on sale.)

 

[Zenmervolt]

In my experience, CD-RW drives will read almost anything. Cheap CD-R's work fine on every CD-R drive I have had experience with. However, cheap CD-Rs only have about a 50% success rate on normal CD-ROM drives in my experience. So CD-R quality will almost definitely come into play if you ever plan on playing the discs back on another drive. Read speed is also much better for higher quality CD-Rs, I backup data on Imation CD-Rs, but when I transfer music from my LPs onto CDs I use an off brand that I have found has great compatibility, but a slower read speed (which is a non-issue with music CDs as they read at only 1x).

Zenmervolt

 

[IskandarTaib]

Common wisdom has it that Taiyo Yuden, TDK, Ricoh and Kodak = good, while CMC, Ritek, Gigastorage = bad. I must say, my writer is very omnivorous - it burns everything I put in it. But when people say &quot;quality&quot;, most people are talking about how long the disks will last once written to.

The key, I think, is the top layer. CMCs, for instance, are very fragile. I've heard of them shedding in very fast CD-ROM drives. Next time you get a coaster, try scratching the top with a coin. You won't believe how fragile some disks are, and how tough others are. But to be honest, without testing over some years, we won't really know.

 

[Soccerman]

here's my experience..

my CDRW drive (RICOH MP7060A, morphed from MP7040A) doesn't like to burn dark blue CDRs at high speed (6x), or the CDRW's I have (rated at 4x) at 4x. it's possible it's the morphing software (I'll test that later), but I think I had these problems before.

it's weird, when I burn CDRWs at 1x, they read EXCELLENT, in fact, I think my DVDROM drive (Panasonic 5x DVD) reads them better then my CDRW! I have never tried 2x though I will shortly with my CDRWs..

I once burned a blue bottomed CDR at 2x, and it was almost good. even when using EAC to recover the data in exact form, I still recieved a small amount of glitches.

I used to buy Maxell CDRs rated at 8x, but they suddenly started to make theirs blue on the bottom, so I switched to Memorex, which are much better. they're not special edition ones or anything like that either..

it's also possible that my CDRWs aren't of very good quality, and are what is holding me back in that area, so eventually I'll be getting some better ones to test that theory..

 

[PliotronX]

Ritek and CMC have gotten sneaky.. I was wondering why I could all of a sudden get a 20 pack of TDKs with full size jewel cases, and I thought that maybe they've improved the manufacturing method or something... I used CDRIdentifier, turns out these damn discs are Ritek crap.

I also checked my Memorex and Teac 80 minute CDRs, and they're CMC :|

The expensive Mitsui and TDKs are the only ones I can trust..

 

[IskandarTaib]

Yup..

A lot of the major brand stuff is actually Ritek.

The &quot;Made in Taiwan&quot; TDK 100 spindles from buy.com, the 100 spindle Samsungs, the 50 spindle IBMs at Staples..

 

[DaLeroy]

I use olympic cd-r's. El cheapo jobbies and they burn fine at 8x. No problems whatsoever.

 

[dalfollo]

i bought a 50 pack of 'compusa' brand cdrs about 2 years ago to use with an HP 2x writer i had bought at the time...i just installed a tdk 12/10/32 the other night and to slap together a cd i filled it with music and ripped it at 10x...yes 10x...4-5 inutes later out pops a cd that my wife can play on any cd player we have...one of them a sony bought in 1991...

figure that one out...if i am woryied for the data on the cd (backup data, backup cd) i will certainly use a good quality disk...but for a lot of things this color/speed/maker discussion is moot...

 

[smp]

so you guys think that there is a difference between Kodak gold and silver? I'm thinking of switching to the Kodak silver.. I can get em for a decent price..
thanks for all the replies..

 

[slpaulson]

I've had bad luck with imation and nashua. Well the burn fine but for some reason my friend can't read them in his cd-player if they are burned at 8x, but they work fine at 2x.

Now I try to get taiyo yudens (hp, some sony) kodak, or tdk.

 

[SiliconVandal]

I use TDK 12x's..work fine in my plextor.