Who makes the best CD-R(W)?

I have lots of questions:

Are all CD-R created equally? Are the CDs of a well-known company (like Memorex) more reliable, more durable than the CDs made by a lesser-known company? I need some CDs and DVDs for music and data backup.

If not, which company or companies make(s) durable, reliable, cheap CDs? which company makes durable, reliable, cheap DVDs?

I saw an ad at BestBuy for Dynex CD-R 100 pack for $9.99. At Target, Memorex CD-R 100 pack is also sale for 13.99. Which is deal is better? Should I wait next week for cheaper CDs?

 

To be honest i have never found one CD to be better then any other brand. In my mind it is all just marketing although I'm sure there are people who dont feel this way. I bought a 50 pack of cds at circuit city 2 years ago for 14.99 with a 14.98 rebate and have no problems with them to this day. I have images saved on these cd's for archiving and still have found no problem with them. So to me no there is no difference

 

seems like sometimes store brand you got chance of 'dead blanks' more often than with the regular ones but like TDK, memorex, sony all the same but like the store brand ones sometimes you get dead blanks atleast at compusa like 100 pack usually has like 5 or so dead blanks.

 

Taiyo Yudens are widely considered to be the best blank discs, both CDs and DVDs. They are made in Japan. You can get them online, but best be careful as there are fakes floating around. Verbatims are usually a good second choice.

 

hmm....I think you should just go for the cheap, store brand discs. I bought a pack of store brand discs and a pack of Verbatrim discs. I so far have not seen any difference in performance, or reliability.

I don't think it's worth paying the premium for discs made by good brands.

 

Agree with ZaZ- Taiyo Yuden for CDs and DVDs, Verbatim as a quality second choice. For Dual-layer DVDs, Verbatim should be your ONLY choice.

 

Yep. TY is #1, Verbatim is #2 for everything except DL DVDs, in which case they are #1 because TY doesn't manufacture DLs.

You may have had no problem burning store brand disks, but there's a good chance that they'll stop working in as little as a few months. Basically, you'll put it in your drive, and the data will be gone. Gone. Not good for backup. TYs cost as little as 35c per disk, so why take the risk? Just check the free shipping section of SuperMediaStore.com every week if you're not in a hurry, and pretty soon - sooner rather than later - you'll have 100 DVDs for $35. I think CDs cost less.

Re Memorex et al: Memorex is a brand, not a manufacturer. Memorex uses some ok manufacturing facilities and some really bad ones, and there's no way to know what you're getting, so while you may be ok with one bundle, you'll get bad results with another one. That's particularly bad because you'll think that your burner went bad because you'll think that you're using the same media - but you're not.

So order some TYs and get it over with

Malia

 

um....you guys say bad results.....what are these results? Aside from dead blanks....what are these "results". The disk holds info...thats all it needs to do...

I would go cheap because I've never had problems burning on ANY discs.

 

Ya i havent noticed any bad results from no name branded CDs compared to brand name disks when it comes to realiabillity after the disk is burned, but i have encountered a few defective disks before that wouldnt write.

However when it comes to DVDs i've had lots of falied to write dvds from no-name brands like 5-10 in a pack of 50 so if you want to make sure get some brand name dvds ^_^ of course thats just my experience though.

 

I'd hav to put my 2 cents agains verbatim and memorex as i've had trouble with both, especially in burning music cds. I'd have to go with Sony for my cd-rs though i've also had success with tdk.

 

I've burned over 3K discs between CD and DVD. I've had the least amount of problems with Verbatim overall.

Fuji, as long as you can find the "made in Japan" cakeboxes, are fine for CD also.

Just look for them on sale and stock up.

 

The Fujis marked Made in Japan are TYs.

 

JoeJimGregory,

Thanks for posting this thread! I was in a COMPUSA recently and couldn't figure out which CD-R and DVD-R/W to buy, so I didn't buy anything. I've had problems with CD-Rs being useless albeit about 18-months after buying them.

I will definitely check out the Taiyo Yuden. Thanks everyone!

 

K, somewhat related question:

So, it's NOT a good idea to use DVD's for long term storage?

 

High quality media is probably a good idea.

 

do people still use CD-Rs?

 

I haven't had problems with DVDs going bad, but I don't have any DVDs I burned more than a year ago. They are all TYs or Verbs. No one knows how long they really last since they've only been out for a few years, but nothing is infinite. So it may be a good idea to burn a copy of your backup DVD once a year or so on a new DVD.

General tips: RW media goes bad easier than R, so if you're doing a backup, it's better to use R, even though it's not as convenient. Store them in a cool dry place (like in a case that's not transparent or a wallet, and not in a basement or something of the sort) lying down one on top of one another (instead of on ridges). They should be like this = instead of like this || if that makes any sense. That's that

Malia

 

That's good to know. Thanks!

One more question on the subject: In what situation would you need a dual-layer DVD? Or are they just not worth the bother as apparently DVD-RW's are not worth the extra convenience since they will fail quicker than regular DVD-R's.

 

DL DVDs hold twice as much data, that's about it. They're not worth the money right now for data backup for most people, but if you're backing up a standard-length widescreen movie and don't want the annoyance of splitting it on two disks, you'll need a DL DVD. Unless you want to compress the movie, but that kind of kills it for most people. Fullscreen movies of normal length usually fit on single layer DVDs.

Malia

 

Joining the ever growing crowd, I'll also recommend TY, Verbatim and to a lesser extent, TDK and Sony... their quality can be a little inconsistent.

Speaking of Verbatim, keep an eye out for Mitsubishi branded media, it's the same thing and often a little cheaper.

And while you can get away with using cheaper media and still get good results (especially with CDs), if you're planning on archiving stuff long term then buy the best you can get. Saving $0.15-$0.20 per disc now is going to taste awful bitter when you try reading that coaster in 2-3 years time.

 

Thanks Malia! I appreciate the information and insight.

 

Actually DL DVDs hold 8.5GB of data whereas two single layer discs would hold about 9.4GB. DVD Shrink does a very good of compressing DVD to fit on a single layer disc.

 

Yep, and they're not even real gigabytes either... don't get me started.

I'll agree on DVD shrink and the like doing a good job getting most features down to a DVD5. The trick is to encode the feature only, and discard the languages you don't need. Also, if your application has options for things like "deep analysis" and "adaptive encoding" then use them. It'll slow things down (sometimes by quite a lot), but the results will be MUCH better.

As such, the only thing I ever use DVD+R DLs for is premastering for small run DVD replication jobs... they're still much cheaper than the alternative; DLT tapes.

 

Extra languages, "extras", and so on usually don't take up a lot of space, so removing them still leaves you with a couple GBs too many. I tried compressing a few times - and, well, watching a standard DVD on my 17" laptop screen bugs me enough, quality wise, to want to compress it even more. I feel the same way about MP3s - I'd rather pay twice as much (on allofmp3.com) and get twice the bitrate, because if you get the same CD at different encodings and try to play them on a stereo, you don't have to be an audiophile to notice a difference.

You can now get Verb DLs for as little as $1 a piece after rebates. Compare that to the price of a rental - like, $4, and you'll probably end up returning it late anyway for another 4. It's just not worth it for me to save the extra 60c - and the prices are only gonna go down, so by the time I want to watch the DVD again, it'll be a kicker. I suppose it's a matter of personal preference, screen quality/size, and how often you do it, to compress or not to compress. I mean, I can't see the quality difference if I watch it on my 13" Mickey Mouse TV...

Malia