the best cd media

[bokkasrealm]

Imation is pure junk. I have had a burner since 98 and I should know. I've burned thousands of cd's, from VCD to SVCD and I just got a DVD burner. I was pretty happy with the imations at first, they were cheap and my burner accepted them readily. What I started noticing was that they scratched extremely easy. I was bringing a disc back from my car once and I dropped it on my wooden porch. A huge chunk of the top layer fell off and it was unreadable after that.

As for Fuji, I never had a problem with these but they were really flimsy. They didnt really scratch but they had the same feel as the imations.

These days I buy the thicker brands of Taiyo Yuden. Like the SONY brand has some heavy discs. They put a thick label on top of the actual cd-r compared to IMATION and FUJI's cheap painted on covering. I just try to go with the thickest brand.

[gmatov]

bokkasrealm, whatever that means,
I'll have to go over some sites I've been to recently, but I recently read some specs on CDs that gave some absolutes for the thickness of CDs. The requirement, I believe was that they are ALL .062 thick. This makes sense, asw the lasers have a focal length of X, and if they decide to make one thicker, it would be out of focus, and therefore, the hot part of the beam would not strike the dye layer at full intensity, thus not burn the data. Also, if the disk were appreciably thicker, it would be heavier, and harder to spin with what little torque a CD burner has.
When I find the specs, I'll post here.
I'm a little skeptical, too, of the claims that one brand uses a more scratch resistant polycarbonate than another. Is it possible that someone haas been just a little more abusive than they think they were when a disk got scratched.

[Dubber]

Based on my experience, and I did try quite a few makes and flavors, I decided to stick with FUJI 700MB CDRs, the ones made in Japan ( Taiyo Yuden ). No coasters, they get easily read by different players, audio, CD ROMs and DVDs ( with different applications ) ever years later...
Anything cheaper is of lesser quality, and more expensive ones is waste of money IMHO.
I got my last batch in the US for ~$45CAD after tax per 100pcs.
The same in Canada would cost me twice as much as we have to pay $0.21 per CDR in levies (plus 14.5% tax in BC).

[gmatov]

Dubber,
Man, iI get lost on these forums. Every one has a favorite, and it IS the best, and I tried that, and it sucks, and even tho it identifies as made by the same company, same process, same dye, it just ain't as good as the ones I use!!!
I hope the Fujis you buy, for about, what, 28 bucks US?, are great.
In the states, everyone competes to try to give them to you free, after rebate. I don't think I paid anything but tax and the cost of an envelope and stamp for my last 500 or so. And, no matter what the label, run Info Tool, or Nero's tool and they're the same.
Can someone tell me why you should cut the burn speed down to 8X to get a better burn? I burn my (S)VCDs and VCDs at burner max, 48X, and they all read and play perfectly. WHY would you cut your 48-52X to 8X, or as some have advised, 1X, which, I understand is impossible for a 48 X. 8X is the absolute minimum, supposedly. I'll stick to my favourite media, and you stick to yours. Mine is the cheapest available, unless it says Fuji on it.
George

[kenmo]

I've had too may cheaper cd-rs fail on me. These were data cd's (utils, drivers, patches) and only an year or two old. So I'm not willing to take the same risk with a SVCD or CVD after it took me at least 6 hours to compile it (capture, encode & burn) and I no longer have access to the original source.

TDK (made in Japan or USA), Sony (Japan), Fuji (Japan), Verbatim (Japan) and Kodak...are my media of choice AND YES I'm willing to pay more for the confidence my collection is more secure.

The giveaway cd media (Staples, Office Max, Circuit City, Best Buy, Future Shop) I still buy for scratch cd's (making up stuff not critical or for testing SVCDs or CVDs)... These are usually made by Princo, Ritek or CMC.

Just my twisted slant on it...