Black Bottom CD-Rs

[ejp]

I was looking through the Sunday fliers today in the newspaper for some CD-Rs. I cam across a 100-pack of Black Bottom CD-Rs, specifically the Memorex 32024580. But before I go and buy them, I need a lot of opinions on Black Bottom CD-Rs, pros, cons, etc. Especially opinions on using them as VCDs, SVCDs, etc.

THANKS!

[The village idiot]

I, personally have had problems with those. Things like the cd is no longer bootable. Data can no longer be read. Cheap they may be, but I will no longer buy them. Or the cool colors series either. My burner will not burn the red colored ones at all. The black ones look cool, but I will no longer trust them.

[D_Knife]

yep - I agree with The village idiot on this
I have had some black bottom disc that fail to even be read on both notebook CD's and my cheap chinese DVD players - it reads ok on my Pioneer DVD though. I just can't trust them anymore

[ejp]

Thanks guys. But anyone have any GOOD opinions?

The only CD-R's I have used and with NO PROBLEMS are the Fuji's.
I have the ones that have a swath of color on the top of the CD, not
the bottom.

I believe they are good for up to 16 or 24x. Sorry, can't remember.
Since Nero automatically knows what speed and since I have only burned
at 4x (for VCD's) I really have not paid attention to the speed factor anymore.

GoodLuck!

[devinemi83]

Why do you burn at 4x? Is you burner limited to that? I make vcds and burn mine at my drives top speed(32x) and they look great. I also burned a pack of 16x rated PNYs at 32x and they looked fine as well.

[vitualis]

Black bottom CD-Rs are absolutely no different from any other type of (cheap) CD-R. They contain a dye in the polycarbonate substrate that is transparent to infrared (i.e., the 780nm laser used to read CDs) but blocks most other visible light (hence black).

They are no more resistant to damage than any other CD. What makes a CD-R resistant to damage has to do with the TOP coating rather than the recording layer.

Regards.

[sterno]

Some people say that they get better quality using black CD-Rs for music. But these are usually the same kind of people who listen to everything on a $3000 turntable and rant about how much CD quality sucks.

Why do you burn at 4x? Is you burner limited to that? I make vcds and burn mine at my drives top speed(32x) and they look great. I also burned a pack of 16x rated PNYs at 32x and they looked fine as well.

Not limited in anyway. I have heard all over VCDHelp.com about troubles
with VCD's not playing correctly due to burning speeds. Since I was a
Newbie when I started burning them at 4x I just kept it at that. If it
is not broken why fix it? Besides, at 4x I can start the burn and do other
things around the house and come back after about 15 - 20 minutes and
have my movie all finished.

BTW: Nice system. Good to see a few "Slow Pokes" still around here.
(Just browse my system details and you'll see)

[hp_lovecraft]

The only CD-R's I have used and with NO PROBLEMS are the Fuji's.
I have the ones that have a swath of color on the top of the CD, not
the bottom.

Thats funny- My burner will NOT read Fuji, or those black-bottom CD-Rs, or any CD-R other then Maxwell. (I suspect a hardware problem).
It can get pretty frustrating figuring out what media will work with certain players.

Nick

[Saito]

I havent tried those black bottoms yet. Anyway I gotta say I've never had any problems with Fuji CDRs.

I've had a LOT of troubles with K Hypermedia, the hypercrap sold @ OfficeMax. Also had problems with Memorex(white top) for Audio CDs.

[ejp]

Thanks guys! Seems that most opinions on vcdhelp are bad, while the ones on the net are good. I think I'll trust all your guys opinions. Anyone else have anymore input? Thanks.

[taralee]

I've only used the Black Memorex CD-Rs so far for VCDs/SVCDs, and had no problems in my Pioneer DVD player. Don't know how they hold out long-term, though.

[Thorn]

I've never tried black-bottom cdr, but I always thought they were for burning something to read in a playstation...

Anyway, I've always avoided darker discs because at least for audio, older players don't read them well (or at all). Lighter dyes have higher reflectivity and therefore are easier to read for players not specifically designed for CDR.

Aside from that, while you'll get 15k different opinions on what to use, I recommend using high quality media when possible. TDK (real TDK) is my favorite, but memorex has a good rep. And high quality discs don't cost that much anymore.

[solarfox]

First: The black color of the CD-R's has nothing -- zip, zero, nada -- to do with "darker dye". It is solely caused by having the bottom polycarbonate later made of the same "black" plastic used to cover up the emitter and detector sections of remote-control devices -- i.e. the plastic is nearly opaque to most visible light, but transparent to infrared. Since CD's are read via an infrared laser, it works.

Now, this may cause problems on DVD players which don't have a dual-laser pickup system, because they'll be trying to read the disc using a visible-wavelength laser. Typically, though, those types of players don't read any CD-R(W) media very well.

I have successfully used PNY "Black Diamond" discs for a variety of purposes, including data, audio, and VideoCD. They seem to work about as reliably as any other CD-R media... Whether the same is true of the Memorexes or not, I couldn't say.

[ejp]

So by the looks of all the opinions, I guess Black Bottom CD-Rs are OK, but it all depends on the compatability of it on whatever your playing it on. Maybe when they I find them cheap in a pack of 5 or something, then I'll try it out. Thanks guys. But anyone else have any comments?

[banjazzer]

I've just bought some Traxdata discs which are black top and bottom, with silver logo and label area. Not only do they seem to be excellent for every application I have tried, they also have something called a "Dataguard protective layer" And what is more, the price is right. 8)

[ya_jai]

I have used Black CDR a long time ago only reason I bought becuz it look cooler than other which I use only with audio cd. About quality I think it's about the same with good brand cdr but the price never comes right (never seen a rebate once).

I gave some of my black cdr to one of my friend and he complaint that it can't be read with his notebook. Since then only major CDR I use is Fuji and Verbatim datalife plus (dark blue layer not spindle one).

[weeyoo]

I only use the standard Memorex cd-rs, they work without any problems i have seen and u can usually find them on sale really cheap at most retailers like best buy.

[jkl]

I only use the standard Memorex cd-rs

that's all i use now. IMO, there the best you can get.

[brykasch]

Well I have used the black bottom ones for PSX and DC games, they have worked great on those systems. Sometimes you can get a bad batch of discs too and that can be why they wouldn't work.

[sterno]

I only use the standard Memorex cd-rs, they work without any problems i have seen and u can usually find them on sale really cheap at most retailers like best buy.

Just a point of information. A lot of the Memorex spindles I see now are made by Taiyo-Yuden (in Japan), which is regarded as one of the best manufacturers. If the spool says it's made in Japan, it's fine. TY is also the current Fuji manufacturer, I think.

Some people will talk about how much Memorex CD-Rs suck. They're the people who got the spools made by somebody else (I don't remember who the other main OEM is, I think CMC), made in Taiwan.

And the moral of the story is: read the label.

[ejp]

wait, hold on a second. are you telling me that the quality of CD-Rs are also based on where the spindle was made? .. unless a "spool" is something else. in that case, what's a spool?

[sterno]

wait, hold on a second. are you telling me that the quality of CD-Rs are also based on where the spindle was made? .. unless a "spool" is something else. in that case, what's a spool?

When I say "spool" or "spindle", I'm referring to the 25/30/50/100 bulk-packs of CD-Rs in cake-tin-style containers, since that's what most people buy. The same applies to boxes of CD-Rs in jewel cases. All of them have a "made in xyz" somewhere on the label.

Memorex (and most other companies) have somebody else actually make their CDs, Memorex just resells them. I've seen 50-CD packages of Memorex media that looked almost identical but came from different manufacturers, who had different reputations for quality (or lack thereof).

The main CD-R manufacturers are in Taiwan and Japan. The 2-3 in Japan have good reputations for quality, the ones in Taiwan are more mixed. Some very good media comes out of Taiwan, but so does some cheap out-of-spec media that will start to break down as soon as you expose it to sunlight. So the rule of thumb is that CD-Rs made in Japan are usually of better quality.

[banjazzer]

Yes, you certainly cannot go by brand-name alone. I have had superbly reliable Memorex, but also very poor quality. In fact, the poor quality were so bad that I can no longer bring myself to buy Memorex, although I am sure they no longer produce such coaster material.

[vitualis]

If you buy media from the few companies that still actually produce their own media, you can be reasonable assured of a certain standard and consistent level of quality...

That is: Kodak Ultima and Verbatim Data Life Plus.

Regards.

[ejp]

honestly, i really don't care about what brand i'm actually getting. but what brand do you guys think is the best?

[daliborlanik]

>> honestly, i really don't care about what brand i'm actually
>> getting. but what brand do you guys think is the best?

I use TDK and never had any problems...

[vitualis]

IMHO: Kodak Gold Ultimas and Verbatim Data Life Plus give consistently the best quality media of any brand.

TDK doesn't make their own media (though they usually OEM from a good provider -- this is by no means certain -- i.e., you can't be sure of the quality from one batch to another).

Regards.

[mantisgeek]

Here's a site for more details about quality of CD-Rs. It really depends on the manufacturer rather than the brand.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=91