[Soundbuff]

I've been looking at the various offerings of CD-R media at Media Supply:

http://www.mediasupply.com/cd-r-media.html

The selection of choices is bewildering.

Supposedly, two of the best brands of CD-R are Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui MAM-A.

I've read the Mitsui MAM-A Gold are predicted to have data integrity for 250+ years and the MAM-A Silver is 100+ years. I could not find expected lifespan for Taiyo Yuden CD-R's.

What's a good choice for solid, good quality CD-R media that will last at least 50-100+ years and also has pretty good value?

Another thing I find confusing: Taiyo Yuden is offered in Silver Thermal, White Inkjet, Silver Inkjet, White Inkjet Hub Printable, White Thermal and Everest Approved White Thermal. What are all these distinctions? MAM-A has the same categories too.

Also, I notice some of them are 74 mm and others are 80 mm...80 mm is the correct size to order, right? Why would anyone want 74 mm?

What do you think of some of the other brands offered like Verbatim?

 

[stiben]

74m vs 80m is the recording length in minutes not size in millimeters, ie 650MB or 700MB. CD's are 120mm in diameter.

The different flavours describe the background colour and coating on the non-data side of the discs in case you want to print on them.

Taiyo Yuden (also called Thats) and Blue Azo Verbatim are my favourites.

 

[mightyacorn]

All the discs referring to inkjet have to do with printing labels and silver and white is the color on the top portion of the disc- plain white or silver.

Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui Gold discs have a very good reputation. Whether they last 100 to 250 years is anyone's guess. Can you imagine the archival solutions 100 years from now? Let alone being able to play today's optical discs.

Are you making backups of music cds or archiving data? If it is data, why not go with DVD's?

Here is a great site for a lot of information on CDs and DVDs: CD Freaks

 

[adhoc]

those life expectancy ratings should be taken, at best, as a very rough guide only.

i had a couple of sony cdrs that were purportedly 'rated' to last 80+years. within 2 years, every single one was unreadable.

fwiw, ime cdrs that are burnt at lower speeds tend to be easier to read in general, and last longer to boot.

 

[jpr703]

The dyes used inside the CD-R make a big difference. The dye in cheaper CD-Rs can fade in as little as two years, making the disc unreadble. Stick to Taiyo-Yuden and Mitsui (MAM-A) discs and burn at 16x or slower. If you buy your blanks on-line and in lots of 100, you can get a good price on good quality discs.

 

[jpr703]

Oh, forgot this part. The reason why Gold discs are rated as having a longer life is because Gold doesn't corrode like the materials in the other discs do. I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes in real life, but the Gold Mitsui's are good discs and I've used them extensively.

Prehaps the best advice if you want to prolong the life of CD-Rs is to handle and store them properly. Keeping them out of the sunlight is a big help.

 

[kmcdonou]

Unless you are a professional archivist or just like to spend a lot of money, I would go with the Taiyo Yuden. I have a Plextor Premium drive and can check the C1/C2 error rate. The rates I get are incredibly low with this media. They are definitely high quality and come at a much better rate then the Mitsui. Also, recently on some discussion groups I was reading that the Mitsui discs lately have been not as good as in the past. Whether this is true or not, it doesn't make much sense for someone backing up their music or data to spend at least twice as much for the Mitsui media.

 

[NeilPeart]

1.Taiyo Yuden (Made in Japan Fuji, most Plextor)
2.Mitsui (some Plextor)
3.Mitsubishi Chemical (Yamaha, Verbatim’s high-end)
4.CMC (TDK, Made in Taiwan Fuji, Verbatim low-end)
5.Ritek (Maxell, Sony)

 

[halcyon]

1. MAM-A Gold on Gold Archival (300 year rated), best accelerated aging test results as per independent/scientific NIST study (Oct/2004). The most stable tested CD-R media still in production. Don't buy any of the other MAM-A media (Medical, Pro-studio, generic gold, etc.) Only Gold Archival is the very best MAM-A can offer.

TY, while having exellent compatibility (dye to firmware) and one of the best QA in the industry (bonding/sputtering) is still using cyanine which is inherently more unstable than phthalocyanine used on MAM-A discs.

The same applies to MKM/MCC (Mitsubishi) media.

This is the best independent/scientific (non-hearsay) information available at the time of writing this on CD-R longevity.


regards,
halcyon

 

[MonkeyMan]

What about these?

 

[roadtonowhere08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by halcyon 1. MAM-A Gold on Gold Archival (300 year rated), best accelerated aging test results as per independent/scientific NIST study (Oct/2004). The most stable tested CD-R media still in production. Don't buy any of the other MAM-A media (Medical, Pro-studio, generic gold, etc.) Only Gold Archival is the very best MAM-A can offer. TY, while having exellent compatibility (dye to firmware) and one of the best QA in the industry (bonding/sputtering) is still using cyanine which is inherently more unstable than phthalocyanine used on MAM-A discs. The same applies to MKM/MCC (Mitsubishi) media. This is the best independent/scientific (non-hearsay) information available at the time of writing this on CD-R longevity. regards, halcyon

100% agree. Mitsui (MAM-A) and TY are the only doscs worth buying, IMO. Azo dye seems to develop dark spots after a while in some cases. You cannot go wrong with anything made by Mitsui or TY.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightyacorn Are you making backups of music cds or archiving data? If it is data, why not go with DVD's?

Good suggestion. DVD storage is MUCH cheaper per meg than CD-R... figure an average cost of 30 cents for a 700 meg CD-R, and 40 cents for a 4.7 gig DVD recordable...

 

[uzziah]

buy a cheap older slower hdd of ebay

of course we must know how much you need to store??? but this way would be easy to backup your whole pc as well if you want; unless you have 1000 cd's wherein pc audio tends to lose its charm IMHO

 

[JWFokker]

I'd go with Taiyo Yuden. You won't be using CD's if you're alive 100 years from now, so that's not a realistic factor, and the Taiyo Yuden discs have the best write quality of any discs on the market, bar none. Of course, you'd do well to get a good drive too, Plextor being the best though pricy, and burn at 1x for best quality burns.

 

[JWFokker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Good suggestion. DVD storage is MUCH cheaper per meg than CD-R... figure an average cost of 30 cents for a 700 meg CD-R, and 40 cents for a 4.7 gig DVD recordable...

DVD burn quality is crap compared to CD burn quality and the discs aren't nearly as good either. Sad but true.