The worst CD media you ever had

[mikk]

A few years back I bought a Laser 74min 4x CDRW for the price of a CDR (There was a whole big box of these in corner)... I burnt it once and it worked perfectly... Then I tried to burn it again and it burnt but it wouldn't read in any player and the colour of the burnt part of the disc was way too light.

[130T|_|L15/\/\]

The one bad CD media I have is the Hewlett Packard CD-RW. This CD-RW came with the HP CD-Writer Plus 8100i. Cannot erase the CD-RW. I can still read the disc, but cannot erase it.

[jeex]

fry's electronics sells GQ "Great Quality" CD-R's.. they're really cheap, you can get 100 for $15.. they're blue on the bottom and silver on top.. these are absolutely the worst cd-r's ever made.. the silver on top peels off after a few days of normal use/handling.. every cd-r's i burned with these has failed.. i would never ever ever use these discs again..

and i've had pretty good luck with memorex cd-r's.. the 48x variety.. they just started using taiyo yuden as their manufacturer.. and taiyo is supposedly pretty good..

[puertorican138]

fry's electronics sells GQ "Great Quality" CD-R's.. they're really cheap, you can get 100 for $15.. they're blue on the bottom and silver on top.. these are absolutely the worst cd-r's ever made.. the silver on top peels off after a few days of normal use/handling.. every cd-r's i burned with these has failed.. i would never ever ever use these discs again..

and i've had pretty good luck with memorex cd-r's.. the 48x variety.. they just started using taiyo yuden as their manufacturer.. and taiyo is supposedly pretty good..

I agree, the "Great Quality" CD-R got corrupted after I burnt it. :P

[oldfart13]

Without a doubt, the Mitsumi 1X - 48X (1 006223070819) from Futureshop are the worst. These aren't good for any video work but *might* work for data. While a lot of people are slagging the Memorex, I've never had a problem with them. I have noticed a new batch though, instead of the White top/Blue Letter ones, there is now a 48X Silver topped batch (2342G522 02970) that seem to work great. My LG 48X burner loves them and they burn at the fastest speed (48X) without any problems. The Mitsumi's on the other hand, although branded at 48X have never burned higher than 16X without making a coaster. Avoid them like the plague...

[ZippyP.]

While a lot of people are slagging the Memorex, I've never had a problem with them.

Seems like the cd-r's are OK, it's the r-w's that are crap.

[Thorn]

I had an entire batch of Memorex 4x CDRW discs that just stopped erasing (or even reading) one day... some worked later but I had better luck with the generics I got at the same time. Now I only use the high quality 10x discs and haven't had any problems.

For CDR discs, the only problem I had was Imation. They were dark blue on the bottom and no older cd player could read them. Computers were fine with them, but I migrated to TDK after that and stuck with them for CDR. DVD-R is another matter, though...

[Still Learning Here]

Memorex CDRW 4X is the terrible. When try to erase them, the burner keep trying and trying for few minutes but never able to success the erase.... reboot the computer or the burner will never stop trying

[dcsos]

No wonder they bundled a lot of those MEMOREX CDRW 4x with my BURNER!
Haven't used them, and now, will make WRITE ONCE out've 'em

MY VOTE goes to HI-VAL
5 out of 5 DISCS in a 650mb five pack failed

HOW DO YOU SURVIVE WITH A 100% failure RATE?

THE WORST IS HI-VAL


ps. once bouight a HI-VAL DVD-ROM 6x player (in 1999)
IT wouldn't recognize anything but DVD's

That is, it wouldn't read CD-R, CD AUDIO or any CD's..
Returned it for another...SAME PROBLEM...
now I returned the second DRIVE for CASH but left an AUDIO CD in the drive..One Year laterrealied my loss when there was no cd in the ALANIS JEWEL CASE

HI-VAL..if you're readin' this you owe me a copy of "BITTER LITTLE PILL" by alanis

[mpb]

As I've never made a Memorex coaster (but Memorex stands for a majority of "bad media" reports here), it seems like there's different batches with warying quality of the same brand floating around, or that different hardware work fine with different CD-Rs.

Memorex buys their CD-Rs from whichever OEM is cheapest. I think I've seen Memorex-branded discs in the US that appeared to be from Taiyo-Yuden, Ritek, and CMC. Taiyo-Yuden is widely considered one of the best major manufacturers, and CMC is widely considered one of the worst (Ritek is somewhere in between). They're often side-by-side on store shelves, too.

This is the literal truth. I've had both Taiyo Yuden and CMC come up on the descriptor for different Memorex spindles, all bought at Fry's Electronics. Memorex: caveat emptor. Trash or treasure.

Back when CD burning was new, most of the "Green" discs were garbage, and if you wanted quality, you bought TY or Mitsui gold/golds, or the old battle-axes: Verbatim silver/blue with printable surface! Those were my mainstays from like 1997 to 1999ish. Fantastic retention quality and scratch resilience, and no coasters.

I like to use Fujis and Yamahas from Taiyo Yuden nowadays. Usually you can tell it's them by the "locking screw nut" on top fo the spindle. However my last batches of Fujis didn't have it, but they were indeed TY discs. I don't see the screw thingy on the blanks at Fry's and Best Buy anymore, so I guess they abandoned those. ???

For DVDs, Ritek seems to have gotten their act in order. I have had excellent results from Ritek G03 and G04 discs.

[Thorn]

One of the main reasons I switched to TDK for CDR was that they were one of the few (only?) manufacturers that made and sold their own cdrs, without this whole who-really-made-it crapshoot. Unfortunately, they too buckled in the who-needs-reliability age and started selling some CMC discs under their name. I'm mostly buying DVD-Rs now and CDR are reliable enough if you buy a name brand, so I don't worry as much.

Anyway, the whole rebranding thing is part of the reason people buy generics: if you're going to get a generic brand anyway, why not only pay the generic price?

[puertorican138]

I also hate CompUSA's brand. The dye is horrible!

[vcdforme]

Hey, you've all forgotten Hi-Val. Pure crap.

I don't get the Memorex complaints, they've always been good
for me.
TDK is hit and miss. Seems there's always a bunch
in their spindles that just plain do not work.
Maybe Costco gets all their reject spindles?

I read a very interesting article by Glen Meadows.
They did a shit load of testing of different discs and
burners.
The conclusion:
Some burner-to-disc combinations just will not work.
It cannot be pinned on just the disc, or just the burner.

[sterno]

I like to use Fujis and Yamahas from Taiyo Yuden nowadays. Usually you can tell it's them by the "locking screw nut" on top fo the spindle. However my last batches of Fujis didn't have it, but they were indeed TY discs. I don't see the screw thingy on the blanks at Fry's and Best Buy anymore, so I guess they abandoned those. ???

I've noticed the same thing, but you can still usually go by the "made in Japan" label. There are only a couple different manufacturers in Japan, T-Y is one and I think the other is Mitsubishi Chemical. Nearly all of the made-in-Japan packages on store shelves will be Taiyo-Yuden.

[solarfox]

Strangely, I haven't had any significant problems with the "Great Quality" CD-R's from Fry's... then again, my current CD-R(W) burners top out at 12X and 16X, respectively, so maybe these discs work OK when burned at lower rates but aren't quite up to their advertised 40-48X speeds?

Those high-speed CD-RW's from Memorex? I hate 'em. Lost a good chunk of my MP3 collection when about half a dozen of those discs started losing data after less than six months...

For DVD-R and DVD-RW media, I'm continuing to stick with TDK for now. (I don't buy the spindle packs, though; I wait for CompUSA to put the 4-packs on sale and stock up when they do.) No problems so far, even from the "new" discs with the frosted label side and the orange/yellow cover art...

[puertorican138]

Hey, you've all forgotten Hi-Val. Pure crap.

I agree, PURE CRAAAAPPPP!!!

[130T|_|L15/\/\]

More details on my worst CD media.

Company: Hewlett Packard
Media: CD-RW C4404A
Features: MultiRead compatible
Manufacturer: DIGITAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD
Dye type: Long Strategy Type, e.g. Cyanine
Recording Speed: 2X - 2X

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Info from VCDEasy

That data below may not reflect the real status of the inserted medium. Reload the medium in this case.
CD-RW: YES
Total Capacity: 74:10:00 (333750 blocks, 651/748 MB)
CD-R medium: DIGITAL STORAGE TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD
Long Strategy Type, e.g. Cyanine
Recording Speed: 2X - 2X
CD empty: NO
Toc Type: CD-DA or CD-ROM
Sessions: 1
Last Track: 1
Appendable: no

Won't Erase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hotwings]

Ditto on the Memorex 4x CDRWs. I thought that CDRW on the whole was doomed because my first CDRWs were those 'cheap' memorex discs...

[puertorican138]

I don't like Ultimate Media either.

[Dcent]

Intenso cdrw 10X ... BLARGHH ... after burned the drive never identified the media again !!!!

[puertorican138]

Intenso cdrw 10X ... BLARGHH ... after burned the drive never identified the media again !!!!

LOL!!! :P

[mikeeve]

Pioneer DVD-RW 1x/2x with CPRM. Avoid CPRM disks like the plague!

This disk wasted days of my time! This is the sample media included by Pioneer with their A05 drive. Most software DVD players are not compatible with CPRM. I kept screwing around with different DVD authoring packages because I couldn't create a disk that I could play back on my PC. I switched to Maxell DVD-RW without CPRM (all that Staples had) and haven't any problem (at least,with media).

[puertorican138]

Golden Quality is a bad brand too.

[jacknjt]

pny is the worst. very very cheaply made, it's so transparent that u can u through it without holding it to the lite.

[SVCDummy]

The old individualy wrapped SONY yellow tops. Got a batch of them that were coated in something. Almost looks like they had been hung in a meat smoker.
Back then they were $3us a piece!

I still don't buy SONY products.

[technogeek]

i have used almost every brand of media available in the marekt. here i my analysis:

Worst Media:

1) Imation branded (manufacturer : CMC magentics) are bad
2) Frontech Professional CDRs
3) HP recordable media (made by Ricoh) - (NOW EXTINCT) - hp shifted to dvd recordable markets.
4) Sony latest from Sony Corporation (blue color dye) (probably made in china)
5) Princo - Princo corporation

Best media:
Verbatim Super AZO blue dye - made by mitsubishi chemicals
samsung 32x - made by ritek
pioneer - Pioneer corporation
Kodak ultima or kodak infoguard
TDK - (some made by ritek)
Acer

[JamesB69]

I have burned hundreds of cd's possibly into the thousands who knows after all it is America's pasttime. I have never really had problems with any brand. I usually buy what is cheapest. Never made any CD coasters except for ones based on my stupidity.

My favs: Imation, TDK

Least: Durabrand...although they still work

[130T|_|L15/\/\]

I would not mind if the generous people out there included the worst DVD media they ever had. Sadly I cannot contribute since I do not own a DVD burner.

[Petree]

imation

bought a pack and after i burned them at 4x they wouldnt read back properly.

but the burner i used then was really crappy
man i had so many coasters

[RadioDaze]

just a question, what speed is everyone burning their media at to achieve these results? As i have an older burner, my top speed is 8x, and i really havent had a lot of problems with any media, even the generic brand ones, and i always burn at 8x. How about everyone else?