Been searching around this morning about CD-R's. Seems that there are 1000's of brands of CD-R's out there but only 12 manufacturers, each with different methods of making discs, quality..etc. The color plays a factor too..gold and orange, green, silver, green-yellow, black, solid blue (the worst). Looks like the best ones come from factories in Japan while the crap comes from Taiwan, Mexico, US, etc.
Those cheap CD-R 100's packs from your computer store w/o labeling may in fact be better than those expensive SONY CD-R's, which seem to be the worst.
Found the best manufacturers are
Kodak (out of production, but still available online..uses some kind of gold-silver alloy on the reflective side for the best protection and longevity. also very expensive) Taiyo Yuden (the first manufacturer to make CD-R's apparently. better product over the years. uses a special black painted top that is scratch proof and green bottoms) Mitsui FujiFilm
-from a CD media forum
TOP 10(the best first):
Kodak
Mitsui toatsu
Richo made by richo(not those made by ritek).
MPO
Fujifilm (their new phthalocyanine media is REALLY good)
Tayo yuden
Prodisc
Acer gold
ritek(and richo made by ritek), only phthalocyanine
Moser baer india/multimedia masters & machinery, only phthalocyanine type.
apparently here in the US, the 50 packs of FujiFilm CD-R's (the ones with the swirls on top, in multicolor sets) are manufactured by Taiyo Yuden while the FujiFilm 100 Packs are made by ProDisc. Something to be wary of.
everyone has their opinion on what they think is good. having a good burner is also a big factor. u also may not want to spend $40 on a 50 pack of TY's when u can get a pack of GQ's from Fry's for $5.
i'm not sure about that list cause i've been using tdk's for years and their cdr media kicks ass. it's the most durable of all i've used and have had no problems with it whatsoever.
I've always used memorex and I really like the quality of them. I remember when I first got my burner I'd always buy the GQ ones at Fry's cuz all the other CDR's were soo expensive at that time. They actually were pretty good
They're a few of the 100's of companies that go to the manufacturers and buy cd's, label them with their logo, and sell them. Whomever they pick depends on what price they want to charge for their cd, the quality..a lot of factors.
there is a standard in the CD-R technology called ATIP (Absolute Time In Pre-groove) code. Without this data/info the CD-R cannot be used by a writer. The ATIP contains information about the manufacturer, but also technical information that is used by the CD-RW drive to write to the CD-R correctly. There is software that determines the ATIP code and tells you what manufacturer it's from.
there are only a few factories and hundreds of brands you will understand that there are a lot of brands that share the same ATIP code, while their prices might differ a lot. it is pretty useless to discuss what brand is the best. Discussions should be, what factory is the best, and what brand is currently selling CD-Rs from that factory
TDK could be great for you, but everyone has had they're own experiences. different things like longevity, scratch resistance, price, etc. all play into it.
another note. i may buy a DVD burner too..thinking about them, they can write CD's too right? maybe a LiteOn burner, good price. I'll do a post on quality of DVD-R's too.
i've read reviews about the tdk burner, and it doesn't look like a good idea. i just got an nec 8x from newegg about a month ago and that thing kicks ass.. it's only like 115 bucks too! i really recommend it, just take a look at the reviews
Fujifilm is the only brand i buy. Stay away from the ones that are made in Taiwan, and buy the ones that are made in Japan, as they are Taiyo Yuden. Heck, they even have Napster CD-R
I dont know bout you guys but I buy them cheap GQ from frys. I cant really tell the differnce in quality. The only thing that I notice the difference is the write speed. The GQ from frys says it is 48x or so but they only do like 16x on my cd burner. When I use the brand name one like TDK or others that cost more, they burn at around 32x or so.
Since the CDS or so cheap I never really take care of them, I would just burn it and keep them in the car. I never really keep any cds for longer than a few months. In a way I kinda treat the disk as "disoposbile" disk, I use them for a few months and toss them away. I have most of the musics backuped on my HD.
The only time when I buy blanks disk is when Frys have a sale like the 100pk for $7 or so.
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