I don't know if I am the only one experiencing this but for the past 2 years I just cant purchase proper quality CD-R's,this has really been getting under my skin the last month or so. I have tried every verient of "48-52X" Verbatuim, Sony, Memorex,and TDK discs, I could find, and they all seem to be terrible on game consoles,the trend seems to be: long load times, disc read errors, skipping FMVs, on multiple of my consoles. Now Ive tried some things to ensure that it really was the media, different writers (purchase a new lite-on, digging out my old 24x aopen cd writer), burned at slower speeds, faster speeds, made sure the lasers in my consoles were not to blame and still the exact same result, spurattic read problems on all my consoles, and masses of not reading discs. The most effected seems to be my PSX, PSone and dreamcast. Now a few weeks ago while cleaning the back-room I found 25 unused, and sealed 12X Aopen CD-Rs, these where never the best quality in my mind, but I decided to test a few with a modern writer to compare them with the 52x discs floating around, and the results were astounding, the 12x discs looked far more crisp after burning,it read quicker,didnt give me a single DRE till date, and gave me the same results as my old backups I used years ago ray: Now this leaves me thinking that all current 52X discs are inferior simply because they most likely use cheaper less effective dye, hence why visually the burn looks better on old discs with it being clearly visible where the data was recorded, if only I could hunt down some more old CD-Rs somewhere to test this a bit more. Has anyone els experienced something similar? Edit: If this is in the wrong section feel free to move...
A lot of stuff is made cheaply these days. It's depressing too. Many CD-Rs I buy are horrible too I experience that load time problem you're talking about.
I would argue that although the price of CD-Rs seem to have come down, it is more the cheap quality of the dyes used which for office and home pc storage, music cds and the like is fine but trying to do fast access storage on consoles it is not great. In our office we use Sony CD-Rs and stuff burnt 10 years ago is still happily readable. Many years ago you would be spending about $2 to $3 per CD and these used better quality dyes, do a search for Archival CDRs and be prepared to pay between $1 to $3 per CDR and you will see a marked difference in quality.
Staples CD-Rs Those are actually quality CD-Rs no joke But if that isn't good enough for your get a spindle of these http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-9615...YXNO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320500604&sr=8-1
To be honest I have never seen or heard of "Archival CDR" till now, they dont seem that bad but found a review about Memorex gold archive discs http://www.cdrinfo.com/sections/reviews/specific.aspx?articleid=17324 will try and pick some up soon, thanks guys!! While it might be a bit expensive it means I don't have to reburn everything from time to time its well worth it. Would you mind posting the media ID on those Staple discs GodofHardcore, as for those verbatim I'll grab a five pack and give them a go if there better than what I've got now I'll go that route. Like I said above Ive tried a few different writers and setups (old and new) it does the same.
I'm sure they're just crapping out CD-Rs as cheaply as possible, since they can't be that popular anymore, thanks to USB sticks. Same thing happened with floppy discs.
Minimum speed possible, most discs dont allow less than 16x these days, but I tested on everything from 16x-52x
You shouldn't burn faster than 8x. The dataside will be better readable. Test it out. Burn an image with 4x, 12x and 32x (or a multisession to compare it easier). You can even see it with your own eyes. The data of the slowly burned disc looks more "solid". Never had any problems with my PSX games or Dreamcast homebrew discs. Even with the worst CD-Rs. My current LG DVD burner luckily supports 8x.
Jenkins, I regret that modern writers determent the slowest your allowed to burn a disc at according to the Media ID/Info and small database in the writers firmware, almost no discs allow you to burn slower than 16x,with very few allowing 8x,if you select slower the writer will just default to a higher speed, if your lucky to still have a older writer that allows you to burn slower, thats another story. And yes with my older writers I could burn slower but it made little to no difference,1 in 5 discs have problems reading, and 4 out of 5 read difficult and took long to load. Trust me I have extensively looked into this over the last 2 years, its the actual quality of the dye used on the discs themselves. @barrydeeking I love TY but I cant find them here any more , apparently TDK was using them for a while but the ones I got weren't TY.
@ fasman Where in the world are at? I only use Taiyo Yuden also JVC since they are the same company now. Verbatim DataLifePLus [AZO], It must have the AZO logo because if they don't then they are crap. MAM-A Gold, I only use them on very important data. http://www.meritline.com/verbatim-52x-cdr-silver-inkjet-hub-printable-94798---p-18251.aspx http://www.meritline.com/jvc-cd-r-52x-silver-inkjet-printable-jcdrspysb---p-43161.aspx http://www.mam-a-store.com/20113-100.html
Don't forget that current CD/DVD writers on the market are pratically the same thing done by the same company, just rebadged for Samsung, Pioneer and so on. Plus they don't have the same quality like they used to. I'm starting to buy parts for my new PC and i'm really looking into this. I don't want a Blu-ray drive now (saving for other parts), and all DVD writers on the market cost pratically the same thing.
I have no idea what a media ID is. But here's a link http://www.staples.com/Staples-50-Pack-700MB-CD-R-Spindle/product_452555 Any coasters I got with theses were an issue with the Disc Image and not the disc. I do have an odd problem with CD-Rs some work in one Dreamcast but not the other (I have a thread on this somewhere) I think it's mroe a dreamcast problem than a CD-R Problem. I have never gotten an unreadable DVD or CD-R in my PS2.
They sell 50 packs of Verbatim CD-Rs at a local store for 5 dollars, and surprisingly, I've never had an issue out of them. They read great on my PS2 and they read great on the Dreamcast I use to have. Although, some Sony discs I have are good.
I've also noticed a drop in quality in most CD-Rs today. And that also goes for DVD-R's (don't know about +R since I rarely use them). What really annoys me is that the current crop of Memorex DVD-Rs don't work in my six year old set top DVD recorder. It makes no sense, because a spindle bought a year ago works just fine.
I wont touch Memorex, even if they were given to me for free. I've had way too many coasters from that brand. I mainly stick to Sony or Verbatim media in terms of DVDs and CDs.
Anytime anyone asks me for a DVD RW Sata drive I link them to this because it's a surprisingly good DVD RW drive. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-099-LG In terms of CD-R's I just get Maxell ones. Never had trouble with them.
