Quality Of Cd-r (or Cd-rw)?..

[gobs]

Hi friends!

A thai friend of mine made me two CD-R of thai songs from his computer... Very friendly and interesting...

Unfortunately, after some 6 or 10 playings, there are scratches, lacks and "jumps" on these CDs! And more I listen to them, more it seems it's worse...

These CD-Rs are from a "first-price" brand: PRINCO.

For my part I use, on my computer, to burn CDs from "real" brands like TDK or SONY... And after many, many playings, I never had a problem...

Are there such differences between CD-Rs brands? The standards of manufacturing are they identical?

Can it be the quality of the "burner"? Brand, reliability?..

Further more, can someone (in brief I guess ) explain to me the principle of the burning of a CD-R, and "how" is built the disc itself...

Thanks

Gobs

[Guest Reimar]

Hi friends!

A thai friend of mine made me two CD-R of thai songs from his computer... Very friendly and interesting...

Unfortunately, after some 6 or 10 playings, there are scratches, lacks and "jumps" on these CDs! And more I listen to them, more it seems it's worse...

These CD-Rs are from a "first-price" brand: PRINCO.

For my part I use, on my computer, to burn CDs from "real" brands like TDK or SONY... And after many, many playings, I never had a problem...

Are there such differences between CD-Rs brands? The standards of manufacturing are they identical?

Can it be the quality of the "burner"? Brand, reliability?..

Further more, can someone (in brief I guess ) explain to me the principle of the burning of a CD-R, and "how" is built the disc itself...

Thanks

Gobs

Princo is one of the most worst CD-Media.

I use mainly RIDATA or Verbatim without any problems and hassle.

Cheers.

[youngkiwi]

Many of the cheap discs are low quality from China. For reliability, you can't beat Sony.

[fisherd3]

I once read a great factual article on CD and DVD quality, the address of which I have in the past posted on this board but don't have to hand. There are three grades of media A,B, & C there are only about five brands in grade A the most revered seems to be Taido Yunden (something like that) which is made in Japan, anything made in Japan is rated. Sony is also in grade A (mostly made in Taiwan but some in Japan), I use Sony DVD-R and CDR mainly because it is consistently available and doesn't cost the earth I pay 650thb for 50 DVD-R and 350 thb for 50 CDR.

In grade B in this article and which I have seen advertised at 380thb for 50xDVD-R on a Thai mail order site is Ritek DVD-R which I intend to try out when I find them.

Princo is indeed very poorly regarded.

Media is mostly made by a few major manufacturers for the different brands, one of the biggest that seems to produce quite a lot of unrated brands is CDC.

Edited June 14, 2008 by fisherd3

[Gary A]

The Thais refuse to buy decent Cd's. Every shop I have found locally only offers Princo and even cheaper Chinese junk. I bought a box of 50 Princo Budget disks and ended up throwing about half of them away. The ones that did burn successfully don't last long.

[JSixpack]

CD-R FAQ here:

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html

I really like Mitsubishi, made in Japan. IT City has them sometimes. Bulletproof!

[Veazer]

CD-R FAQ here:

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html

I really like Mitsubishi, made in Japan. IT City has them sometimes. Bulletproof!

Yeah, i seem to have good luck with the Mitsubishi AZO disks, but they can be pricey.

I try to avoid optical media in thailand though, i've always had bad problems with cd rot.

[angiud]

I use sometimes Princo CDR. Yes, cheap but not so bad quality. Actually I have 200/300 movies and music CDs mastered with Princo. Never a problem.

Yes, of course Verbatim, Sony, TDK etc better quality, but... Always use CD cases, don't touch bottom of CD with bare fingers, avoid dust, etc etc CDR much more fragile than original CD or DVD.

[JSixpack]

I use sometimes Princo CDR. Yes, cheap but not so bad quality. Actually I have 200/300 movies and music CDs mastered with Princo. Never a problem.

Better copy anything you want to save to a better disk. Lost so much stuff on Princo before I wised up.

[gobs]

Thanks for the link, JSixpack!

Very interesting and answers to many questions...

And thanks to all, maybe I tell my friend to avoid PRINCO... Or a next time I give him some SONY or TDK CD-Rs...

Cheers,

Gobs

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

This is a very interesting topic, because i've been there, done that, got the t-shirt too. "Princo" is what you get everywhere, they are SO popular that you get even FAKE Princo, now picture THAT!

Now i used to burn loads and loads of CD's, some years ago. So many in fact that i have boxes full of 50' spindles full of burned CD's, and yeah, most of them are Princo.

And guess what? ALL of them still work excellent. While at the same time i have "Sony" and "TDK" simply falling apart on me - the reflective layer parts with the disc body or whatever that's called (disbonding?) or they, while looking good, just can't be read anymore.

Oh, and maybe i just burn them right? Princo CD's no faster than 16x, DVD's no faster than 8x.

Best regards.....

Thanh

On the other hand i have burned "TDK" discs that i brought with me from Germany, those are like 8-9 years old and still work fine (oh one Windows 95 CD - it's fun running that in a virtual machine to see how it copes with modern hardware!)

Now while i am totally happy with Princo CD's, i had lots of bad luck with DVD's of that brand - those are REALLY rubbish. So there i switched to Verbatims (after trying in vain to find "Taiyo Yuden" which nobody here has ever heard of!) and no problems since.

[JetsetBkk]

...I have boxes full of 50' spindles full of burned CD's, and yeah, most of them are Princo.

And guess what? ALL of them still work excellent. While at the same time i have "Sony" and "TDK" simply falling apart on me....

This is very hard to believe.

I can ONLY burn Princos at 8x or slower. Any faster and I get an error.

Princos used for data storage stop being readable after 6 months or so. Even making 2 or 3 copies is not safe.

Bootable discs on Princos stop booting after a few months. (3 months ago I made 4 copies of Acronis True Image bootable CDs on Princos - I have one left that still boots). Other manufacturer's are still working.

I suggest you try your Princos regularly and when they stop working transfer to something else.

[jfchandler]

Sony is also in grade A (mostly made in Taiwan but some in Japan), I use Sony DVD-R and CDR mainly because it is consistently available and doesn't cost the earth I pay 650thb for 50 DVD-R and 350 thb for 50 CDR.

I've been living off my reservoir of CD-Rs and DVD-+Rs brought from the U.S., all TDK and Sonys..... But that stock is soon depleted....and I've got an upcoming trip back to the U.S.....

Any suggestions of where to purchase the Sony DVDs and CDs here in Thailand, specifically BKK....?

Or should I just grab some spindles while I'm back in the U.S.?? Last time, I was getting 50 pack spindles of TDK and Sony DVD-Rs on sale at Circuit City, Best Buy and such for $12-$13....ie... 400 baht... But the list price for those typically was $20, or about 650 baht... And it'd be easier to not have to be adding those packages to my already overloaded luggage....

[OlRedEyes]

...I have boxes full of 50' spindles full of burned CD's, and yeah, most of them are Princo.

And guess what? ALL of them still work excellent. While at the same time i have "Sony" and "TDK" simply falling apart on me....

This is very hard to believe.

I can ONLY burn Princos at 8x or slower. Any faster and I get an error.

Princos used for data storage stop being readable after 6 months or so. Even making 2 or 3 copies is not safe.

I have to concur. Pure rubbish.

[sniffdog]

I've been ONLY using Princo and burned hundreds of successful discs .... Now tried to burn a PS2 image file and my PS2 refuses to load it ...

Will try to get Taiyo Uden (through their office here in BKK) or maybe Verbatim.

[DP25]

Any suggestions of where to purchase the Sony DVDs and CDs here in Thailand, specifically BKK....?

Or should I just grab some spindles while I'm back in the U.S.?? Last time, I was getting 50 pack spindles of TDK and Sony DVD-Rs on sale at Circuit City, Best Buy and such for $12-$13....ie... 400 baht... But the list price for those typically was $20, or about 650 baht... And it'd be easier to not have to be adding those packages to my already overloaded luggage....

I bought some in Pantip. Sony and Mitsubishi DVD RWs were about 300 baht for a 10 pack. Maybe they are cheaper elsewhere.

And like many others, I've had nothing but trouble with Princo disks.

[Gary A]

Maybe the Princo brand varies by batch. I used them in the past with no problems but the last box of fifty I bought are VERY bad. More than half defective. and the ones that worked OK fail quickly. The last ones I bought were HP and I have not had any problem with the HP brand so far.

[sniffdog]

Well, I have 75 Princo's (DVD-R) lying around .... Since I hooked up my computer to my HDTV/home theater I almost have no function for them anymore.

Does anyone have experience with burning ISO flies to PS2 datatype DVDs? What do you use?

Edited September 7, 2008 by sniffdog

[NHJ]

The brand on the disc means very little, the dye is more than often manufactured by another company, best are ritek and taiyo yuden, you can use discinfo from nero to check the dye manufacturer.

you should stay away of princo and such cheap brands, at the beggining the disc will be readable but after some time, the outer of the disc will become harder to read until it becomes unreadable.

[alien69]

I HATE PRINCO DISCS... THROW them away or use them as coasters or table legs...

PRINCO is used by Privated movies because it is CHEAP and LOUSY...

this are cheap charlie brands...Dont understand why the whole pantip is still selling PRINCO...even the salesman in pantip advised me not to use Princo for important Backup...

If u want to do a serious backup, I recommend u to use VERBATIM...

Edited December 17, 2008 by alien69