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CD-R discs' transparency...
10 replies
sweepi said on February 6, 2003 18:25:
It is not the first time that my brother comes up to me with this “theory” (heard from friends) about CD-R discs’ (you know, recordable CD-Rs) quality being in some way related with/dependent of their transparency, being that more transparency supposedly means less quality... And, wondering about it ever since he first came up with that, so I would appreciate to hear what the experts ;) around may have to say/add about the subject... (I mean, is this, the discs’ transparency, a detail which I actually should take into account, when choosing CD-Rs?... Or?...) Thank you so endlessly much. :)
Then again, and once on the subject, CD-Rs, something else I’ve also always wondered about: their colour (the colour/reflex of the recordable surface, I mean)... Is this as well (or can be taken as) an indicator of a disc’s quality/performance in some way? I mean, there are silver-coloured ones, golden-coloured, blue-coloured, green-coloured... This variety of colours has to stand for something, no? (Otherwise why don’t they all just look the same, right?) So, doubt here is, which one(s) to go for (if any in preference to any other)? Once more thanx for anything anyone may wanna add about this also... :)
Santi said on February 8, 2003 11:23:
I use all colours, and different brands (though usually TDK) and they all seem to work ok. :o
irvye said on February 9, 2003 06:53:
Usually the darker the write side of the CD is, the better quality the CD is. So if the bottom of the CD is gold it’s not good. If you get dark green or black it’s really good quality.
irvye said on February 10, 2003 03:58:
I’ve never had a bad experience with Kodak CD’s but I have had trouble with other brands that have the gold bottom.
sweepi said on February 12, 2003 11:10:
Hmm... Curious, as this is pretty much the opposite of what I’ve been hearing and reading... See, the idea I was gathering was that golden discs were those offering the best storage performance... Perhaps I’m getting it all wrong?... (I have tried already HP discs, Verbatim’s, Memorex’s, Imation’s... And they all have a golden-coloured writing-surface... I wonder if I’m “messing” with the “wrong” brands?... Hmm...)
Also, in the end, anyone is hardly referring to the transparency issue, which is the one that mainly keeps buggin’ me... Should I take from it that this is perhaps not a detail of that much of importance (rather the bottom colour is)?... Or?...
Then again irvye’s last post just refers me to another Q I’d like to share here.
“...but I have had trouble with other brands...”
So what does “trouble” mean exactly? What does it mean to have “trouble” with a disc? Not being able to burn it?... Having the burning process jammed?... Having problems later when playing it (in the case of audio CDs)?... Being unable to access data on the disc or having problems reading/running it (in case of data CDs)?... I do wonder...
And thanx again to all!
ixtlaner said on February 12, 2003 14:07:
@ sweepi: I personally use the cheapest CD’s I can find (usually pale blue, green or silver in colour, plus somewhat transparent) and I’m pretty content with them: almost no faliures, virtually every PC/CD-player can read them. It only bothers me that they have no ’scratch-protection’. And I have never thought about how long will they last before. (Anyway, I guess in 50 yrs I’ll have completely forgotten them :)
I was gathering info on CD-R’s and burners about 2 years ago and what I read there was:
* generally colour doesn’t matter, but the dark-blue ones (Azo- like the Verbatim ones) didn’t go well with some burners
* no major brand makes CD’s of their own, they just buy some good ones & sell them as their own => the ’small’ unknown brand may also sell the *same* CD-R’s but much cheaper...
* I don’t remember reading anyting about transparensy at all.... But the thing with CD’s is that they have to have good reflective qualities.... And transparency doesn’t aid that, IMHO...
That’s a bit old info now, I guess :). But there are some pretty good sites on CD-R’s on the Net, just look for them, I’m sure they have much info. Sadly there seem to be no big experts in that field here :)
As for troubles:
* I’ve heard people complain of TDK CD-R’s.
* Some CD-R’s, when burnt at certains speeds, can’t be read by most drives/ Audio-systems.
* I myself have had some erorrs while burning ’cheap’ CD’s but I can’t be sure whether it was because of my slow PCl, or was it the CD-R’s fault.
Now I think most CD-R’s are pretty good and cause no ’troubles’. Some ancient CD-players/drives may have their preferences, but then they have to be specially tested, and if they can’t read a certain brand’s CD it doesn’t mean it is bad!! Some burners also may work better with certain CD’s, every CD may have it’s optimal speed to be burned at......
Beware: it can get very complicated if you dig deep into the matter ;)
Good luck!
(and sorry for the long post :)
irvye said on February 13, 2003 03:46:
@ sweepi: Sorry... I really should’ve been more clear when I was posting it. For a long time when I used the cheapest brand I could find I would burn a CD and it would get to say... 57% while burning and all of a sudden it would say “error” and stop burning. When I tried using a better brand of CD (say one with a dark green bottom on it) these errors would stop. I could be crazy but I’ve always found that CD’s with the darker bottom have worked better for me.
coyboyusa said on February 13, 2003 11:59:
donyt be fooled by peopel trying to make u buy more expensive cd r formats just cause they r green or black they r ALL the same
sweepi said on February 17, 2003 19:48:
ixtlaner:
“sorry for the long post :)” *THANK YOU* for it! :)
“Beware: it can get very complicated if you dig deep into the matter ;)” Coming to that conclusion myself. ;) In the end there’s just too many factors to be considered at once: the disc, the burner, the software, the speeds, the compatibilities, later also the reader/player, and again the compatibilities... Just too many points of which the final success is dependent... Still bugged over the one transparency issue, tho’... Shall go on diggin’... :P
irvye:
Have actually experienced such kind of “trouble” myself too, in the beginning. Came to realise that, in my case though, that wasn’t being caused by/had anything to do with the discs I was using, but actually the particular version of the software for burning which I was using, as, after updating it, never got an error report since. Which again, I guess, goes on supporting the idea brought up above: of there being rather many factors which can/do actually condition the final success (or not!) of the whole burning job. Then again, and yet back to the colour matter, when previously I wrote that I’ve been using golden-coloured discs and then asked if I might’ve been “messing with the wrong brands”, I didn’t want to mean I’ve been having problems/bad results with these discs, but rather the opposite actually. :) (I was pointing out specifically to the brands I mentioned, in fact, might anyone have his/her own comment on them.) Thus the idea that “the darker the bottom the better the quality” mustn’t necessarily be a “norm”, I guess? Or?
coyboyusa:
Just how come something which is all the same does not (!) look all the same? As I was saying initially, suppose such differences in the appearence of the discs must stand for some difference between the discs themselves, or?
roxlad said on February 6, 2003 19:33:
As far as I know only a few houses produce CD-Rs... when a disc is produced it has to pass quality standards... the best ones are sold by important brands such as Sony, TDK, Philips et. The ones that didn’t make it are sold by unknown or not important brands... the good ones can last about 50 years I think... the others about 10.
The colour and the transparency depends on the material they are made with. Some believe one material is better than another.... bu I don’t think no-one can really tell. I use green discs and I have great results but a friend of mine uses blue discs and has great results... maybe it depends on the burner you have...
This is what I heard but I’m not an expert, I burn about 1 Cd a month (always the same one by the way updated...).
About CD-R for Audio use only.... they are made for consumer recorders such as Philips CD Recorder... the only difference with the others is that they cost more and have something that lets the recorder to recognize them and so to be able to record... it’s all made for selling them at a higher price I think but they should be the same as the others... but again I’m only writing what you can hear around...