Can someone tell me the difference between CD-R quality?

[zeester]

I've been seeing all kinds of deals up here on CD-Rs, and I was wondering if people could give me the ratings on what the best CD-Rs are in a descending order. IE: is blue bottom best or sliver? gold or greenish-blue?
I have an old burner so sometimes I can't read certain cdrs in certain players...is that my burner or th cds? just wanted to know because I want to take advantage of the best cd-r deals here. Thanks everyone.

[Tuvi]

silver is the best quality. that makes sense because you want it to look like a normal cd as much as possible. the dark colors are the worst - like dark blue and green. i think dark blue is the worst, with green being a little better. i'm not totally sure on that though. i dunno about blue-green. hope this helped.
tuvi

[CluelessSi]

Are you sure about that Tuvi? I heard that the dark colors are better exspecially the black. ie. PSX cds. they are supoose to last the longest which is true since i saw badly scratched up PSX cds play perfectly

[AJ]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Tuvi:
silver is the best quality. that makes sense because you want it to look like a normal cd as much as possible. the dark colors are the worst - like dark blue and green. i think dark blue is the worst, with green being a little better. i'm not totally sure on that though. i dunno about blue-green. hope this helped.
tuvi<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


i agree with clueless, dark is better, I thought cause its more reflective...light ones scratch real easily, esp. cheap ones...

[Justin42]

Whatever works best *IN YOUR BURNERS AND READERS* is the best stuff to buy.

Flippant answer? Nope-- because for every person who SWEARS that brand X or colour Y is the best, 2 people will say "No way!! Brand X sucks!!".

Check out the Adaptec CDR list archives (http://listserv.adaptec.com) and you'll see the pattern.

Buy small quantities of a few brands and see what happens...

[2002]

i've heard that quality generally follows this trend from worst to best; green, blue, silver, gold. also the top of the cd has a lot to do with the quality also.

[Tuvi]

thats what i always heard, 2002. i've always heard that silver was the best. but oh well whatever.

[spigidygak]

Actually silvers are third on the list of top quality. The best are a new type of cd-r that are labeled as "platinums" They appear to look just like pressed cd's. The next are gold/gold (which have a blueish appearance on the bottom). Then comes silver/silver (also have a blueish tint on the bottom). Another thing about people that are talking about the "darker" the cd-r appears the better is not true. The visible light that we see on the cd-r is not the same wave light spectrum that laser lights use. So a light green compared to a dark green or light blue to a dark blue does not matter at all. Another factor of the durablilty is the top side like 2002 mentioned. One trick that will help is to put a label on the top side. The better coating and protection the top side has the more durable it is. For more info on cd-r's and cd burners goto: http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/



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And at band camp. . . http://www.geocities.com/bandtour99

[JIWC]

this is a bit of topic......but I heard in the Taiwanese-American newspapers a while ago, that Taiwan developers have created a totally transparent CD-R........but dont' expect it in the stores soon........cause it may only be used for businesses now.

[Bluto]

I have an older burner too, and what I've found is it depends on what you are burning. For PSX "backups" I find that darker CDR's work better (my playstation just reads them better). For music cd's I find the silver and gold work better.
I think the silver ones are more scratch resistance, my playstation just doesn't like them much. So it just depends on what your burning.

[zeester]

wow...thanks for all the input guys!

[jiahau]

www.cdmediaworld.com (http://www.cdmediaworld.com)

you'll find all you need there.

[colossus]

The quick and simple answer - there is a generality that can be made...more expensive is better.

I've personally used brands of burners from HP, Ricoh, Yamaha, Plextor, to TDK. I've also burned on everything from $0.12 generic junk to expensive $5.20 Ricohs when they first came out.

Reliability is NOT always the same as readability!!!

The most reliable CD-Rs will probably be the gold/gold ones that cost on average $1.20 to $3.00 per disc. Sony, Ricoh, and Maxell are among the companies that make good ones. The gold/gold not only have highly stable die, they have features like surface antiscratch protectant and "thicker" plastic. The reliability is also based on how well the CD edge is sealed so moisture and air doesn't oxidize the inner media. If you look at a generic vs an $3.00 Ricoh gold you'll know what I mean.

Now, you'll notice that some of the gold/gold are hard to read on the older CD-ROMs and CD players. This has to due with reflectivity and the energy (AKA wavelength and amplitude) being sent back.

For this reason, choose your media based on purpose. Most people won't want a copy of Diablo or Win98 10 years from now. They will, on the other hand, want a copy of a collectors Beatles CD or something like that. So put you're prized CDs on some gold/gold media with a surface protectant. Don't know if they're still around, but Ricoh sold some gold/gold under the name Kao with SafeKeeper technology. That sucker is very hard to scratch. Sony makes a similar disc.

If you're doing plain Jane audio, use what works in your and your friends' CD players. My experience has been Sony, TDK, Ricoh, and Imation all have played flawlessly in every CD player. Only the new "cyan" Imations seem to have problems in some players like my stock Ford stereo.

In the furure, please post questions of this nature in the hardware forum. Tons of people will give their input on this matter - myself included http://www.gotapex.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Ço£o§§ü§ - yeah you can read into it...

[coleslaw]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JIWC:
this is a bit of topic......but I heard in the Taiwanese-American newspapers a while ago, that Taiwan developers have created a totally transparent CD-R........but dont' expect it in the stores soon........cause it may only be used for businesses now.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
these transparent disks go beyond the DVD scope in that they contain 40 layers of data. if i recall, one disk will contain around 4 gigabytes of data. however, i don't remember what kind of light/beam is used to read/write. oh well.

[spigidygak]

About those multi-layer disc info. The company developing them has successfully created 10 layer discs that hold 140 gb of data. They also are developing a card that is like a credit card sized, 20 layer that holds 10 gb. This is palnned to take over the smart media cards. The goal is for a terrabyte storage. Check out the info at: http://www.c-3d.net/press2.htm

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And at band camp. . . http://www.geocities.com/bandtour99

[bubbagump]

For me, the best cds I have burnt on are KODAK GOLD (Dark Gold) and Acer (Light Gold, 80 minutes). The Acers used to be available for $1.00 a piece in a jewel case at buy.com. They might actually be what people are referring to as platinum, as they only have a tint of gold in them. Kodak discs sell for about $2.00 per unit in a jewel case. Try http://www.cdrexpress.com . They sell all of the $$$$$ brands there and seem to actually have moderately good prices.

Bubba