Mini-FAQ on CDR Quality

[Valnar]

This is an FYI to all of you S(x)VCD burning people. Good for newbies, and possibly redundant for those who already know. I just thought I'd pass it along.
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Only a few brands are tested to last from 50-100 years, like Kodak, Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui. Unfortunately, most mass market stores sell only the garbage. Everything sold at CompUSA and Best Buy will deteriorate in less than 5 to 9 years. Maxell, Memorex, TDK and some of the other name brands you recognize are really made by another company - Ritek, which is junk.
(TDK does have some good ones, but they are rare and not the ones at CompUSA!)

See here for more info:
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml
http://www.silverace.com/dottyspotty/issue12.html

The best place I've found to buy KNOWN good CDR's is here:
http://www.american-digital.com/prodsite/category.asp?c=18

It's not just whether it will last 100 years, but it's half-life or quarter-life. Those figures are best case scenario. If you want something to last 30-40 years, like family videos, don't go cheap!

-Robert

[Valnar]

Vitualis,

At the risk of going against forum rules and making this a "bump", can you make my whole message a sticky note?

Or perhaps put something like it in a FAQ on the main page.

Thanks,
Robert

[vitualis]

As long as you are posting something other than "bump" or "up", I'm okay with it...

As for making this sticky... the problem is that this post can be a little bit misleading. I completely agree with the "CD Quality" statement here (except that Verbatim made media were missed). However, in the environment of DVD players that don't have dual lasers, often it is the miscellaneous crappy/cheapo media that works (more out of chance than anything else).

Also, not all cheap media are bad (it depends on who the current OEM producer is) but I would agree that these media are "unreliable" in quality between batches.

As for including this in a FAQ somewhere, you should perhaps give Baldrick an e-mail as this is his site, not mine.

Regards.

[furwatup]

the only thing i have to say about this is considering the last 10 to 20 years who still plans on using cd's beyond the next ten i don't disagree with buying decent quality stuff though with anything as far as that goes

[Valnar]

While the pure gold reflective discs of Kodak's past were made to last the longest, they realized they weren't the most reflective, so some players had problems with them. The newest batch uses a silver/gold combination and are much more compatible, while still maintaining excellent durability.

Yes, Verbatim was missed and is good too. I had a third link that mentioned it, but I lost it. In any case, this kind of info is available all over the Internet as to what CDR's are best, but you'll never see this kind of info posted at CompUSA!

-Robert