WTK: Kodak CD-R Ultima Gold

[TaranScorp]

I found a bunch of Kodak Utima Gold and CD-R Ultima CD-R's in the basement. I think they are old and made in Mexico. Are these worth using up?
Thanks

[mcorpse]

I'd save them for only the most special of special of burns.

Kodak's CD-Rs, before they died and were reborn as cheap rebrands, were the best CD-Rs ever made, period. Made by Yuden (I believe? Might have been made by Kodak themselves... Can't quite remember...) but made to Kodak's exclusive design and specs, including scratchproofing layers and etc, Kodak's old Ultima CD-Rs have been proven to last longer than any other writable CD media produced. Sadly, they stopped making them a couple of years ago, and what you found is a bit of a goldmine. The Mexico bit is a bit odd, though. Kodaks are normally Japan, and my old (already burned) Kodak discs say Japan on them.

[TaranScorp]

I don't know about made in Japan but since I posted this I read on the net they were made in Mexico and Ireland and the ones made in Mexico were preffered because of better quality.
What I found are
Kodak CD-R Ultima 80 Silver+Gold and
Kodak CD-R Gold Ultima 74min

on both the packaging reads
Made in Mexico

do you think they are better then Taiyo Yuden's silver?

[mcorpse]

If they are similar to the Japanese-made Kodaks I have, you can bet they are. Lab tests involving accelerated aging and such have determined that they do indeed last the longest. Something I find that's a fairly decent approximation of the quality of a disc is how much distortion in the prism effect you get on the edges of the disc when reflecting light off of it at an angle. For example, some Princo and Ritek discs I have give an extremely wobbly "rainbow", whereas my Fuji-branded TYs give much less, and my Kodaks give none. I'm not entirely sure if there's anything scientific about this, as it's quite likely actually caused by how perfectly the plastic was molded at the edge of the disc, but I find that the discs reputed to be of higher quality do in fact distort the light a great deal less, however.

[vitualis]

Kokak Ultima Gold discs were definitely one of the best.

However, all CD-Rs actually have a "use-by" date as it were before it isn't as good for burning. Some of my Kodak discs (which were over 2 years old when I burnt them) did have some write errors. If your discs are very old, then I suggest that you verify the data after writing to it.

Regards.

[Lobe]

I still have some of these Kodak Golds from Mexico also, These were always great discs UNTIL I got this order(4-5 years ago?) that were Made in Mexico. Ok, they all worked fine, BUT if you hold them up to the light you could see pinholes in the gold--- so I never really trusted them for the most important things- especially not redbook audio.
Previous Gold's never had these holes. That said, I personally haven't had one fail on me.

[TaranScorp]

The shelf life thing has got me bugged.
I hope the one's I found are good.
I found this on the web, it is rated according to the dye.
I don't get the Taiyo's being on the bottom of the list because they have the least desirable dye for longevity. I don't get it because on this site they are touted as the best in both CD-R and DVD-R.

Top Quality Name-Brands, in order of preference:

A. Mitsui Gold CD-R & Kodak Gold Ultima - Phthalocyanine dye + Gold.
B. Kodak Gold Silver+Gold - Phthalocyanine dye + Silver & Gold.
C. Mitsui Silver, Ricoh Platinum - Phthalocyanine dye + Silver.
D. Mitsubishi/Verbatim - Azo + Silver.
E. Taiyo Yuden - Cyanine + Silver.

[Lobe]

hold one of your Mexico Gold Kodak's up to the light, can you see very small holes in it? maybe I just got a bad batch.