CD-R's - Does Manufacturer Really Matter?

[deadevil13]

Okay, so I've heard all manner of things about once write CD's (CD-R's). Mainly on the side of 'reliability'. Now different people (a quick google on this type of discussion will show you) have very varied views on what affects the 'reliability' of a written blank CD.

Common ones are:

Burning Software
The Burner (i.e. your ODD)
The speed at which you burn
The manufacturer of the disc


Now one of the discussions i was reading just of late was from around the early 00's - and as we all know technology has definitely changed since then. So the things they were complaining about then may not be as problematic in todays world.

This is what I do/use at the moment. With the example of burning Audio-CD's for backups.
- Burn between 4x to 10x (down to how patient I am feeling :rolleyes:)
- I pretty much use this CD burner freeware called CDBurnerXP - for all burns
- I burn to Verbatim CD-R's, the white ones
- Using a LG DVD-RW drive thats about 2 years old

The thing is I read on this discussion board that the 'green' coloured discs (which these Verb's are) have a lower reliability. But they talk about Verb's being great CD-R's; when all I can really find are the ones I have.

Also im not a fan of spending say £10 (about $20) on 50 CD-R's - when i can get double that for a similar price (what I did just of late, 100 for £10).

Ive so far *fingers crossed* not had any problems with my Verb's. I have tried many types (Datawrite, Mr. CD, Poundland, TDK, Tesco, ASDA) - in which only the really cheap ones (from Poundland mainly) have let me down (i.e. i had a backup copy of VisualBasic 6.0 on one and it just wouldnt install).

So what's your take?
Does it really matter that the discs are 'green'?
Who would you say are the best, in your opinion, for reliability and price?

Feel free to drop links too ;)

[P.s for DVDs i use TDK's which are purple? Is purple better?]

[xr4man]

if you haven't had any reliability issues, then keep using what you have been.

the only thing i have really read about was to burn audio disks at 12x or slower because some older cd players have issues reading the burned disks if they are burned at higher speeds. this was claimed to be because the "pits" aren't as dark when burned faster.

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

being a person who has burned "backups" of 360 games (yes i did own them i just wanted to be able to systemlink with my g/f) verabatim tends to be the best for burn quality... whenever i used cheaper brand i would get dirty disc errors... and seeing as they were fresh burns... and i hadnt even touched the writing side... it wasnt finger prints.. (burned at the slowest speed possible)

[x88x]

Wow...CD-R's. The last time I used one of those for something other than a Linux install was..six years ago? I just got a giant stack of random off-brand ones off Newegg back in '05 or so and have been using them ever since. Nice, printable surface, and in the 100 or so I used (god knows how) I don't think I've had more than 4-5 bad burns. They're so damn cheap that I just burn at the max speed and have it do a checksum test at the end of the burn. If it fails, I toss the disk and do it again.

[Konrad]

I personally think disc technology is mature enough that all the big brands are comparable and basically interchangeable. There are still incompatibilities between some discs and some drives.

But the colour of the disc indicates the dye used as the recording medium, each one is a patented formula. Some of these have longer shelf-life than others (ie, will store intact data for longer periods). A lot of very serious studies (nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/jres/109/5/j95sla.pdf) have been performed by the disc manufacturers and by large agencies who depend on the media for reliable long-term archiving.

I can't recall all the details behind my decision, but my preliminary research (on the internet) determined the blue/silver discs should be the best choice, regardless of who makes them. Burning speeds and cost-per-unit weren't my priorities, since they're inconsequential these days anyhow; I consider long-term reliability important, there's no point in burning discs that will randomly fade and degrade a few years later.

[rgathright]

the only thing i have really read about was to burn audio disks at 12x or slower because some older cd players have issues reading the burned disks if they are burned at higher speeds. this was claimed to be because the "pits" aren't as dark when burned faster.

:up:

I follow this rule as well. Right now I have been using a spindle of Sony CD-R 700Mb SUPREMAS for the past three years and they work great.

[NightrainSrt4]

I've had several spindles of Dynex CD's and DVD's just stop working on me i.e. they would burn fine, but after a period of time the disks wouldn't read and any unburned ones in the spindle wouldn't burn either. The dye/organic material seems to break down faster on some brands than others.

I keep trying them because the keep going on sale at Best Buy, but they've burned me too many times. Haven't had any other brands give me problems though.

But I stay away from spindles made in China if I can.

[Cale_Hagan]

yeah, verbatim are one of the best. the colour of the shiny side of the disc is usually the life, as different ones have different shelf-life. if it works, use it. just re-backup every 8 or so years.:up:

[x88x]

Or just don't back up anything important to CD/DVD in the first place? :whistler:

No, but seriously..
Looking at the cheapest of each that Newegg carries:
CD-R:
Verbatim 100 pack : $13.99 : 19.9857 cents/GB

DVD-/+R:
HP 100 pack DVD+R : $15.99 : 3.4021 cents/GB

DVD-/+R DL:
TDK 50 pack DVD+R DL : $29.99 : 7.0565 cents/GB

BD-R:
TDK 50 pack : $139.99 : 11.1992 cents/GB

BD-R DL:
Verbatim 10 pack : $89.99 : 17.998 cents/GB

HDD:
2TB WD Green : $79.99 : 3.9995 cents/GB

Does it really make sense anymore to back stuff up to optical disk? Heck, where I work we're even moving our nightly backups from tape to HDD (IIRC we still do tape once a month or so). Granted, to more expensive HDDs, but for home use, are optical disks really worth the hassle anymore? Especially if you're going to be replacing the disks every '8 or so years'? Even if your data is valuable and irreplaceable, I would do a RAID 10 or 50 long before I would commit it to optical disk. Maybe once BD-R and BD-R DL gets down in price it'll be worth it, but...well, let's just say there's a very good reason companies like Backblaze do their stuff the way that they do. HDDs are cheap...very cheap..and with the right RAID configuration, you can get just as much peace of mind as other backup solutions (imo) and without all the hassle that so many removable storage options create.

[Twigsoffury]

Compact Discs in any form are obsolete

: P

Hell my car stereo has a SD reader

http://www.degadget.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/Blaupunkt-Melbourne.jpg

110$ for it and not overely flashy as to attract the urban car terrorist's stereo jihad .

[Konrad]

SSD/flash media cost much more per GB than optical discs.