I have a few CD-R questions.

I'm looking to buy some higher-quality CD-Rs. I need my CD-Rs to last for the next 50 years at least. I don't want some disc that will be unreadable 10 years from now. I'm currently looking at the following brands: Taiyo Yuden, Mitsui / MAM-A, and Fuji (made in Japan).

Will the branding, or color of the spindle affect quality on the Taiyo Yudens? Some are unbranded, some are silver, and some are white. Does this matter?

Mitsui / MAM-A makes both silver and gold CD-Rs. Is the upgrade to the gold discs worth the extra cost? They also make a Mitsui Archive Gold Spindle, would these even be better than their Mitsui Branded Gold Spindle?

I'm considering the Fujis (made in Japan) as well because I've read that their Japanese made discs are great.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

 

hello there,
Just go for MFSL 24 karat gold cd they record great and will last 300 years which is 6 x more than you want, I hope it helps you!!!! bye bye Anton

 

For me I've never had any one of the brands you've mentioned go bad and some are 8 years old now. I seriously wouldn't be overly concerned about them failing in your life time.

 

Since you are concerned about longevity, I don't think switching to a higher-end blank will make a difference. I have eight-year-old CD-R that still play perfectly, and have seen 14-yr. old ones play perfectly too. They are all of the usual-type brands that you get from, say, Target.

What is important is the quality of the burn, and proper handling and storage.

 

Whatever happened to Kodak CD-R's? Do they make them anymore? I used them in the early days and the still look and sound great. They seemed to be a well made CD-R.

 

I've had bad luck with late-90s kodaks myself

one literally faded into a near-clear plastic disc (transparent light-gray, actually, but unreadable on any player)

 

I always thought they felt heavier and thicker than all other cd-r's and with it's gold color, I equated it as a better product. I'm going to have to pull some old one's out and check their condition and see if this has happened to any of mine.

 

My grandfather's Fujis still play all these fifty years later!

 

You must not keep up. They quit making Kodak several years ago when Kodak decided it was too costly. They always worked great for me.

They DO, however, make them again, but for industrial purposes only.

 

But, seriously, the one thing I like about the Fuji CD-Rs I've come across is that they have a label. I read on this forum that the label side of a CD is important not to scratch because the digital information is closer to that side, so I would think that a protective coating is beneficial.

 

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Mitsui's or Taiyo Yudens. They've served me well for years.

 

I remember reading that the following are the same as the ones offered by MFSL:

http://www.mam-a.com/products/gold/archive.html

 

I like using ink-jet printables because they do have that extra layer of protection on the label side. And, I can make very cool labels without using paper.

 

StyxCollector swears by the Mitsui Archive Gold discs for anything worthy of archiving for years and years. I don't know how often he frequents the forum anymore, but he can probably elaborate.

Dave

 

Problem is, they can do all the accelerated life span tests they want, but nothing replaces cold, hard, real-eorld experience, and we already have had 15 years of it with CD-R. So far, from what I have seen, the evidence for longevity is in the positive column.

 

All of a sudden the market was flooded with cd-r's back then and I just went for the cheapest ones because I thought they were all the same. When I found out there was a difference in quality not long ago, I wondered why I hadn't seen Kodak's anymore. The only problem I ever had with them is that my Mac won't even recognize them.

 

The MAM-A is your only realistic choice AFAIK. Here is the best price I have seen for smaller orders
http://www.inkjetart.com/mitsui/index.html

I hope they work 'cause I am using them. Ask me in a few decades.

Regards
Robert

 

^^Are the MAM-A golds, or even the Archive Golds, worth 2.5 times the price of some branded Taiyo Yudens?

I've read that if a CD is in a jewel case it is literally sitting on air, but in a Tyvek sleeve it is touching the Tyvek itself and may scratch. Is this a true theory?

 

Hmmm - could be a quirk in your CD drive. Have you tried playing them with the Mac using an external CD drive/recorder?

I have a Mac and have not had any issues playing the Kodak Golds - or any other brand for that matter...

 

No. I have a powerbook G4 laptop with no external CD burner so I've never tried one but I mean this thing won't even recognize a Kodak disc.

 

I think a better way to look at the money question is value. Is your project, what you want to keep/store on those cds, worth $1.25 a blank disk? If you want to try to get the disc to last as long as possible, 50 years in your case, then i would say yes it should be worth that. Of course i remember the days of $9 high end blank cassette tapes. Of course i would check the disk every year for errors and once it reached a few percentage then I would re-transfer the material.

 

Hi B&W,

What program do you use to check for errors on your CD-Rs?
Your response would be greatly appreciated by me & maybe
by a few of our fellow Forum Members.

 

Hello,


There are a few programs out there. I use vsoinspector as its freeware and works well for me.

http://www.filepedia.com/video_software/dvd_tools/vso_inspector.cfm

 

The last time I checked, Japanese made Fuji's were Taiyo Yudens.

Personally, I use two kinds of TY's: TY's own inkjet printable (all the way to the hub), and Maxell Pro (which are made by TY).

I use the printable for my needle drops and the LP label reproduction for it, and sometimes just a CD copy but with an LP label reproduction. I use the Maxell Pros for regular for-the-car copies of CDs and needle drops because they (finally) have a decent lined writing area and a good thick coating to write on (older Maxell Pros had a curvey line design that was hard to write on).

 

American Digital has the Mitsui Archive Gold CDs for $1.14 each in a spindle of 100.

I had begun to switch over exclusively to Mitsui. However, I did get a batch of gold (not Archive Gold) CD-Rs that seemed to cause problems with audio. Of course, I've had some problems with almost every manufacturer, so take that with a grain of salt.

Later,
Kevin