Blank CD's

[Aragon]

What exactly makes a "quality" blank CD quality anyway?...cd's are cd's right?
I'm just wondering because I read in a PC Magazine that you should spend the extra buck (or 2,3,4....) instead of buying the cheap cd's because what you pay for is what you get.

[Mntsnow]

Aragon,

Yes to an extent there is a correlation between price and quality. The better cd's you will be able to burn at higher speeds with a much better quality. I personally use TDK, Maxell and Imation brands. Usually pay around 1.35 each in jewel cases. I have used the "generic's" that cost around 85 cents W/out jewel cases and by the time you buy jewel cases it cost 1.05 to 1.10 and about 1 in 6 cd's fail to make a good burn so the overall cost runs about the same! (not including your time and frustration!).
Hope this helped http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

I can get a bit more technical if that is what you want...Just email me

Mntsnow http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[AuraEdge]

Well TDK also sells a 'tube' of 50 caseless CD's for 35 bucks, and they are the same as the 20 ones in Jewel cases you get for 30 bucks...Just caseless.
The other thing that distinguishes the quality is the color of the underside. Green or blue ones will be the cheapest, while silver and black ones will be more expensive. The silver ones has a little more space (negligible), and cost about 1.5x as much, but play in 100% of CD players/CD-roms, whereas some of the green/blue backs wont in some older ones. The black backs, costing about 2x as much, aside from looking cool (like PSX cd's) have 80 minutes on them (not sure how much in MB)..quite a diff. I dont know about compatablity issues, but im only here to tell what I know

[BBA]

The difference is immediately appearant on inspection. All you need to do is hold one up to a light. If you can see thru is, its a cheapo!

Quality cds have a thicker backing ( which is actually the layer with the data) and will last longer under handling conditions (oils from your hands will disolve the data layer from a cheap cd).

BBA

[gr8vfr]

everything above is what i've found in my usages,cheap cd's,you can usually see the flaws if you hold it up to the light before you burn and burn them at 1x for best result.i burn alot i use the tdk for myself and my freinds get the cheat ones,my freinds are just like yours will be when they find out you have a burner.so when your GIVING away cds you might as well give the cheap ones.

[Ed_S]

The cheapie's I've gotten are junk. Acquired a 50 pak on Comp usa rebate deal, actually made profit after rebate, BUT the only drive that can read the things reliably is the CD-R! Same data put on TDK or Imation, reads anywhere.

They're great to have around, though. Like gr8vfr said, people want things done but don't want to buy anything, use those. After they don't work well, they'll buy good CDs or stop bugging you!

[Gentle Giant]

This site has some specific info.
http://www.esware.net/empire/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.htm