"Good" brands of CD-R? (or...have I been buying my brand for all the wrong reasons?)

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I've been a devotee of a brand of CD-R called Verbatim Vinyl, but only because I find the CDs themselves to be aesthetically pleasant and possibly "ironic" in some artsy-fartsy smartass fashion.
Unfortunately, out of, say, 70 discs, I've burned two coasters and recently discovered they don't make the ones that come in slimline cases anymore.
I'm considering switching brands, especially after reading a post on IL* about "use only 'good' brands"

so....
What are "Good" brands of CD-Rs?

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Thursday, 23 October 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I only use TDK. They have been totally reliable. Memorex suck.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Mitsui is usually the brand that comes up when people talk about what's best. I've used them and they work fine. Whether they actually sound better (like some insist), I couldn't tell you. They come in an unlabeled version, which is kinda cool.
I've also used Sony, with no problems.
I also have some of the Verbatim Vinyl. But why don't they give you more room on the label to write on? You can write on the vinyl, but that looks stupid.

I've also heard horrible things about Memorex, so I don't use them.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i was under the impression that they were all pretty much the same until I realized that the last 30 CDRs I burned won't play correctly on some of my players (namely my mp3-cd player and my dvd player). I was pretty sure it was my burner but now I think it must be the cdrs. they were memorex. surprise!

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I have that same problem with DVDs. I thought they were all the same until I learned that the DVDs I burn on my iMac aren't compatible with the DVD player I own.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The cheap Imation CD-Rs that I buy from Morisson (30 for £10!) work fine for me.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Yick. I've burned 3 coasters out of a cylinder of 50 Imation CDRs. I trust them no longer.

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I've also heard that Kodak, along with Mitsui, makes the best CD-Rs in terms of longetivity. Never used them, however.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Strange about the Memorex, I've used quite a few and not had any problems... is there more than one Memorex type?

― person#0 (person#0), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I used the Kodak silver+gold ones for awhile, but can't find them anymore. Also, the last run of CDs I burned on the Kodak's seemed to cause problems. Now I use the Maxell ones, and so far haven't had any problems.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I have found 74 minute CDRs to be much more reliable than 80 minute ones. especially for portable and car players.

― (Jon L), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

ditto on TDK.

― Dean Gulberry (deangulberry), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

The best in terms of being archival are discs with a gold reflective layer and phthalocyanine dye. Like Mitsui Gold. Discs with a silver reflective layer (or a silver/gold alloy) are a bit more compatible with car stereos and older CD players. Mitsui Silver. Kodak no longer makes CDRs, but theirs were quite good. Taiyo Yuden are high quality (though not as good as Mitsui) but almost always relabeled so somewhat hard to find.

It's not the coaster rate so much as the fact that like 8 out 10 low-quality discs will no longer play after about six months.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 23 October 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

There are differences between CDR brands- the differences reducing mainly to the plant in which they were produced. The last time I read about this, a year or so ago- I remember that there a number of chemical processes (azo, cyanine, phthalocyanine etc) that are used to create CDRs (which is why the color of CDRs writeable surfaces vary). More here: http://www.cdrplanet.com/dye-layer.html

The PhthaloCyanine process is often quoted as being the best- but how does one know if yoru CDRs are PhthaloCyanine based? The write surface is gold colored- from this list (http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_dye.shtml) find the factories that produce the PhthaloCyanine discs and then buy CDRs produced from those plants.

PS. I believe Kodak has stopped producing CDRs (at least at the Ireland plant)

― nothingleft (nothingleft), Thursday, 23 October 2003 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been a devotee of a brand of CD-R called Verbatim Vinyl, but only because I find the CDs themselves to be aesthetically pleasant and possibly "ironic" in some artsy-fartsy smartass fashion.

The Verbatim Vinyls are made using the AZO process (hence the blue coloring; made by Mitsubishi) but there have been reports of varying quality. Incidently, (and Im only passing on info) they are actually audio CDR discs even though they arent marketed as such.

― nothingleft (nothingleft), Thursday, 23 October 2003 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

The PhthaloCyanine process is often quoted as being the best- but how does one know if your CDRs are PhthaloCyanine based? The write surface is gold colored-

Not always true. Most discs that use the phthalocyanine dye have a gold reflective layer, hence a gold color but if the reflective layer is silver, the disc will not be gold colored. The phthalocyanine dye gives a green tint depending on a few other factors. Also beware of companies that call their premium line "gold" or use gold labels. This is meaningless.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 23 October 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I've got a stack of 50 Philips CDR80s at the moment. After about 8 of them, they seem ok.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 23 October 2003 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

my main problem is that different brands work for different CD players in my house. the on in my room only takes TDK's, but the one in my den wont play TDK's but loves memorex and imation. i don't really know what's up with that

― Felcher (Felcher), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

i bought a spindle of 50 verbatim CDRs on the cheap and wound up coastering 10 of them and having people complain that the CDRs i gave them would skip or not play on regular cd players - but blue discs are generally bad news in my experience. memorex are pretty bad as well.

i've probably worked through 300-400 tdk discs without a complaint and the only write errors being the fault of my PC.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I figured out the main way of avoiding generating coasters is by ignoring the advertised speed and just burning at the slowest speed the software allows ("4x")

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I never go higher than 8x or they won't play on some players -- this is regardless of brand.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I take back the Philips comment - I twice burned the same DI comp. for people this evening, and twice one track was just total silence (the same track - the one with the Iggy Pop drums sample). Hmph.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 23 October 2003 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Sometimes CDs fucking up is the fault of the burning software or the MP3. I get MP3s all the time that play perfectly in Winamp, but skip or are totally silent in Nero (and therefore on the burned CD). For a long time before I worked this out, I thought the problems came from dodgy CD-Rs. Now I make sure to play through the whole album in Nero (which is clumsy work) before I burn.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 23 October 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Nick Southall:

It took me eight (!) tries to get a CD done that didn't completely fuck up Wire's 'I Am The Fly'. The D.I. stuff I put on went fine though.

Don't get 'Smartbuy', 'Soundrite', 'Disk-eze', or 'SeeDee' brands either. Despite the classy sounding names, they're just not that good.

― Sasha (sgh), Friday, 24 October 2003 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

i burn everything of mine onto a 160GB hard drive on my PC and then I have a another hard drive in a casing which I use as a backup (and keep at work) in case of theft. Getting to the stage where I need another space-wise.

― mentalist (mentalist), Friday, 24 October 2003 08:04 (twenty-two years ago)

i saw some the other day that claimed to have a guaranteed archival life of 80 years. do many others make such boasts?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

> I get MP3s all the time that play perfectly in Winamp, but skip or > are totally silent in Nero

I'm not sure what causes the 'silence' - I've had it happen before in Nero. Converting to WAV before burning seems to fix that problem.

― Kent Burt (lingereffect), Friday, 24 October 2003 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

Does it make a difference if you use a CD-R for audio straight from CD or if you use it as an MP3 CD? I.e. is a better quality CD-R required for the former?

― JoB (JoB), Wednesday, 10 March 2004 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

Due to the fact that MP3s have more data density (128kbps MP3 will be 11X more compacted, "lossy" format)..I would think anything missing from the compressed format would be much more noticable or a strain on the player.

― BNixnorf, Monday, 12 April 2004 07:58 (twenty-one years ago)

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