new black cd-r's

[daveleau]

Just curious if anyone has used these and if they work with unmodified playstation 1's? This would be a nice feature to backup those playstation games you may or may not still use.

Dave

(Just realized this should be in data storage. Sorry.)

[This message has been edited by daveleau (edited 06-20-2001).]

[Barney]

I don't think they will. I think Sony made the PSX's CD's black so you could see they aren't a (illegal) copy. I believe the reason why copies don't work in a PSX without a mod-chip because some files from the original CD can't be copied.

[MiKe85]

Anyway to stay on top of the general population being able to burn PSX games. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

[muno]

Barney:
Doesn't the dumb copying burn every error ps cd would have? So I've heard.
Black cds would look kinda cool =)
-M

[OuTpaTienT]

Well, I know the black CDs work most excellent for making audio CDs. They seem to provide above average tracking ability for the player's laser. I have some black CDs that I've burned that actually track better (less susceptible to skipping) than the original CDs.

[HomeYield]

A friend of mine bought a whole bunch of those black CDR's and love's them. He claims they burn faster and produce a better quality.

About the playstation burning, the games are burned not really with errors but with gaps in them. Burners burn from the inside out, but while playstation games are burned all over, with patches here and there on the CD. The mod chip bypasses ,what i guess to be some type of decoder, and tells the playstation to read the CD from inside out instead of jumping around and finding the pieces that it needs. Most playstation games can be fully copied, but its just the way the playstation reads CD's that make it difficult to burn copies. That's the little bit I have gathered from some friends who aren't the most legally minded.

[This message has been edited by HomeYield (edited 06-21-2001).]

[jokostel]

well homeyeild, I dont know how a cd could "burn faster due to the dye color" and if you hold a black cdr up to a bright light you see its a dark red or a magenta type dye.... it works exremely well for audio from what ive seen but as far as video goes... i make svcds with my dazzle dvc-II pci encoder card then burn them in nero... they dont have as good of quality as a green or a dark blue media has...
but thats my opinion as far as video is concerned... http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
jokostel

[Warthog]

I need links/brand names of black CD-Rs

People have been talking about them forever and I have never seen them. I've bought Imation, Memorex and Sony CD-Rs - all of which are purplish/turquise color. With these it is iffy on whether it will read in my cd players.

OUT - what about portable cd players with anti-skip on? I have found this is the best test because the cd spins faster during anti-skip mode.

All I have is crappy CD-Rs now....'bout time to buy some new ones.

Warthog

[OuTpaTienT]

jokostel - No they're not just very dark blue or purple, they are black. Actually I think the black is an external coating in addition to the normal CD plastic. You cannot see any light through them, which is odd considering the laser must get through somehow.

Memorex makes:
CD-R BLACK (http://www.memorex.com/products/compmedia/bdy_compmed.html) .

and PNY Technologies makes:
Black Diamond (http://www.pny.com/home/Products/bd.cfm) (my preferred brand)

Black CDs are expensive. Near a $1 a disc. I don't like to spend that much on blank discs but I also just can't stand how the inexpensive cheapos look, I gotta have cooler looking CDs.

So far the best inexpensive CDs I've found that don't look inexpensive, are multicolored (5 colors), and are excellent quality are the PNY Technologies Multi Colored CD's (http://www.pny.com/home/Products/cdc.cfm) . I like how the entire CD is the color, see:

<A HREF="http://www.pny.com/home/Products/cdcPurple.cfm" TARGET=_blank><FONT COLOR="Purple">Purple</FONT c></A>

<A HREF="http://www.pny.com/home/Products/cdcRed.cfm" TARGET=_blank><FONT COLOR="Red">Red</FONT c></A>

<A HREF="http://www.pny.com/home/Products/cdcYellow.cfm" TARGET=_blank><FONT COLOR="Yellow">Yellow</FONT c></A>

<A HREF="http://www.pny.com/home/Products/cdcBlue.cfm" TARGET=_blank><FONT COLOR="Blue">Blue</FONT c></A>

<A HREF="http://www.pny.com/home/Products/cdcPink.cfm" TARGET=_blank><FONT COLOR="Pink">Pink</FONT c></A>

The last batch I purchased worked out to something like $0.25/disc.

[OuTpaTienT]

Oh, Wart, don't have a portable CD player handy. If I find someone with one I'll test it out for ya.

[Long Haired Hippie Phreek]

There is one thing I can tell you about the playstation capabilities of these disks. My older playstation (oldest of my 3) does not read cd-r disks (not even audio), but it does read audio off of black CDs. So if your playstation has the cheap orriginal laser, use these for the backups (they make for better backups than normal cdr disks anyway.) Also, use PSXcopy or clonecd for the copy, that keeps the disk like it was orriginaly. You will still need a mod-chip though (you cannot copy the bios).

[Kuasimodem]

Hi Warthog, I use PNY Black Diamond (http://store.yahoo.com/jandr/pny-cdr050d16bs.html) CDR's and love them, haven't made a coaster yet! I bought my last bunch at Best Buy, I think it was like $10 for a 20 pack in jewel cases.

PS - I can usually get about 725Mb on these using my Acer CDRW4432A and Nero.

[This message has been edited by Kuasimodem (edited 06-21-2001).]

[DanU]

One of my co-workers swears by black CDRs. I'd be willing to bet that part of the reason they're good is because they command a higher price, so the manufacturer can afford to use a higher quality dye.

The CD's plastic can be of any color... so long as it is transparent in the infrared spectrum. We've all seen the little black windows on our TV remotes that hide the IR LED. Black CDRs probably use the same stuff.

[jokostel]

the brand i was referring to was the pny black-diamond cdrs.... .... but as far as the dye color with the svcds they dont go to well together... but as far as audio goes... not too bad at all..

[Warthog]

If anyone has a portable CD player that they have tried with black CD-Rs, that would be great to know.

See, the absolute only reason I would get good quality CD-Rs is for audio purposes and that is ONLY in a portable cd player (eventually car stereo, but not now).

Warthog

[Warthog]

^ ^ ^

[OuTpaTienT]

Well, get some and try them out Wart.

[Warthog]

Damnit I'm cheap http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[OuTpaTienT]

hehehe. Then email me your address and I'll mail ya one or two. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[Warthog]

Thanks anyway man, but I'll force myself to buy some http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Warthog

[zgf2022]

My friend got some cause he liked the color.
He's burned me several cd's and i cant really tell a difference, except they are slightly harder to scratch

[beard]

Any kind of cdr's do not work on the regular playstations because the grooves in which the tracking parts of the laser follows must 'wobble' at the correct rate so that the playstaion knows its an original copy. -so i'm told, anyway http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

i've not used cdrs in playstations or 'chipped' playstations either, i have however got a playstation emulator for the pc which will play games on any cdrs.

But if your wondering if black is better, its not any different as far as the playstation, or indeed any regular cd player is concerned. the plastic can be any colour, as long as its 'invisible' to the laser. the laser's wave length is 780nm, so any wavelength other than this will work, because if you had a cdr whose plastic wavelength was 780nm, all the light would be absorbed and none returned, therefore the player would think there was no disc in the drive.

It turns out that this is why some dvd players that can play regular cds, can not play cdrs. -the light absorbance at the 780nm wavelength on a cdr MUST be a certain amount, otherwise the disc will not burn correctly, if at all. However, in a dvd drive, the lasers wavelength is different for reading DVDs, and in some dvd dives a 780nm cdr just absorbs all of the light and the disc will not play. You need a duel laser dvd drive...

something like that anyway...

'Quality' wise, the cdrs dye layer must have the correct optical and exothermic properties, and this governs a lot of the discs performance. not the colour of the plastic.

when purchasing cdrs, i'd recommend the pthalocyanine ones (light green dye colour, or silver if its a diamond) if you can not tell what the dye colour is, i can tell you that the black memorex ones have green dye, and are quite good in general, with lowish error rates.

if your looking for a cdr that 'lives' a long time, i wouldn't recommend the blue (cyanine) ones!
these bleach very easily in the light.

Also, get ones with a good amount of protection on the non-recording side, cos if you manage to pierce the surface, you will expose the dye layer and water can get in. this isnt good, as you may find that the reflective layer wants to just peel of after so long! so for reliability and longevity i myself would stay away from the cheap, blue, unbranded ones without a label!

the coloured ones are pretty cool, and there shouldn't, in theory, be any compatability problems.

hope someone finds this usefull...

[daveleau]

I appear to be having problems burning the black cd-rs in my older 4x scsi burners. Anyone else having similar issues? I need to get some regular cd-r's to test out the system.

dave

[ginkgo08]

http://www.cd-recordable.com

these guys sell Green, TruSilver, Purple, Red, Orange & Black cdrs. made in USA...

[beard]

what kind of problems do you get with them dave? (whats reported by the cd creating software for example?)

also, what speed/manufacturer to the black discs claim to be? and what make are your drives?

[Warthog]

Thanks Outpatient!

I bought the PNY Colored disks tonight at Staples. A package of 25 for $15.

Those are cool looking!!!

I popped in a purple one to quickly test it out. Burned just one song and put it in my portable cd player with anti skip on (ultimate test).

Worked PERFECT!!
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
Warthog

[OuTpaTienT]

Cool. I really like the PNY brand colored discs. They're inexpensive but still good quality with lifetime guarantee. And the colors are cool.

Of course it didn't occur to me until it was too late, but it would've been a good idea to color coordinate my burned CDs. Ya know, like maybe have all my MP3s one color, all games another color, etc.

[risc]

In reference to OuTpaTienT's preferred brand (posted 06-21-2001) of PNY vs Memorex, my preferred brand http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif, the PNY's have an archive life of 30 years, while the Memorex has an archive life of 70 years. I have had excellent results while using the Memorex brand (especcialy the black cdr's). I wish that they Memorex would make Black CDRW's, though.

[Warthog]

What is archive life?

I mean, I'm sure I know what it is, it's just hard to believe that would even be a factor unless you plan on keeping this era's pc (CD-ROM usage) for awhile http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

CD-ROMs won't be around in 30 years, let alone 10 years. 70?! That's nuts. In ten we will have moved to digital, no moving parts.

Memorex is ALL Staples had, besides the ONE package of PNY that I snatched up. My prob with Memorex in the past was that it didn't work with my portable cd player.

Warthog

[club_med]

What are balck CDR's ?
Is it just the colour thats different ?

cm.

[beard]

yes cm, the polycarbonate (plasitic) is just a very dark purple (to the human eye) instead of the regular transparent stuff...

[risc]

Archive life is how long it will stay around before it deteriorates. And when you think about it, there are still alot of nuts out there with 8 tracks and beta tapes laying around. Plus, CD's havnt even phased out casettes yet and VHS plans on staying for awhile longer. Also, do you have any really old (hundred year plus) black and white photo's lying around? Color photos (at least in the 80's) only lasted maybe 10 years before fading (as all mine have) while black and white will last for hundred to two hundred years (as im told). So i do believe that historians may dig up my house one day and find the thousands of cd's i have and say "****... win2k sucks" (and only because my cd's will last a hella long time). So as they may not be as prevailant in 70 years (or remembered, for that matter) just remember that I still have a 1.44mb floppy drive in my 486 firewall/router (and a 4x cdrom...)

[risc]

god damnit i hate floppies... hey i hear that, maybe it was mitsumi, but one of those japanese companies is attempting to bring the floppy drive back. they have designed a 32mb floppy. i seem to recall them saying that it worked in standard 1.44mb floppy drives, but i dont know how that would work. i read that in a pc world (maybe pc mag) magazine few months back. anyways, i hate floppies

[Warthog]

Well I guess it's just me then. I always transfer anything from any old format to the new, whatever that may be. I have wav files that I used to store on floppies that I now store on CDs, the floppies long since gone.
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif
Warthog