Elvis Costello Fan Forum

I just received an order of blank CD-r's manufactured by Taiyo Yuden of Japan, as I was told by someone that I trust, that this was the way to go -- that they are probably the most reliable (performance and preservation wise...).

1st, any thoughts / opinions on this brand?

2nd, they look totally generic, with no identifiable markings as to the manufacturer, etc. Is this to be expected, as they apparently are used by name brands, from Japan largely, as their product?

Anyway of telling if I've been had?
I pucrchased ALOT of these, through Amazon, but shipped by a place called Media Supply.

Please ease my mind, as I am inherently paranoid...

The TY's I have seen are blank/generic looking. I think you're safe. I would not have any fear unless there is a stamp on them that says "dishwasher/microwave safe."

Thanks, man.

I bought 600 of these muthers (for $168... I guess that's good...)

I do believe that I've died and gone to Bootleg Heaven.

I've bought various things, most recently a 100 spindle of Mr Data, which were also totally unmarked. A bit tedious, unless you look closely at serial numbers right in the middle, but one time I didn't check which way up a freshly burned CD should be and wrote all over the playing side, rendering it useless. I've developed a theory that blank CDs are the same as painkillers: cheap and basic are as good as expensive, and you're just paying for the brand name and the advertising campaigns that sustain it. Am I wrong? At the weekend I got 100 Imations for 15 quid, so c. $22, or $130 for 600. I was pretty pleased with that. What I can't get in the shop is double CD cases, apart from incredible uneconomical 5 packs. Will have to order online. So many bootlegs are 2 CDs, so they're very handy.

I've developed a theory that blank CDs are the same as painkillers: cheap and basic are as good as expensive, and you're just paying for the brand name and the advertising campaigns that sustain it. Am I wrong?

No, you're right. The secret is the burn speed you use, never more than 8x. Also dont multitask when you're burning, there's a good chance you'll cause interference on the copy you're making.

Well it's nice to hear that! And thanks for the tip. when I first got this new Mac, it was so able to multi-task that I thought nothing of doing 4 other things whilst CD writing (unlike my old iMac, which would crash if you breathed during CD-burning), but have learnt to be more reverential now. didn't know how to set my speed, but explored my iTunes preferences and it was on default of 'maximum', so have set to 8. I also see options on what gap you leave between songs, meaning I can write concerts without the annoying gaps between songs, so it's actually a good thing that I have yet to burn CDs of most of my downloads!

There is a difference in quality in different brands of media. Mostly it's an issue of longevity or lifespan of a burnt disc but I also have had some cheap media not play in all my players.

My oldest CDR's are from around 1998, some still work and some don't, but all of my old CDR's made in Japan still work.

I've only been using Taiyo Yuden since I started trading and torrenting because I've never had any problems with their discs, they are rated very highly, and I can get a 100 pack spool for about $24. It's not worth it to me to go with some questionable media to only save a few bucks.

That being said. How you burn and handle the discs are the most important part of the process.

1. Never burn "on the fly"
2. don't do other things on the computer while burning
3. burn at as slow a rate as possible
4. and always use Exact Audio Copy (it's free) when extracting (copying) a disc to your hard drive.
5. take care of your discs, don't let them get too cold or too hot, and keep them out of the sun.

CDFreaks probably has more info on this stuff than anyone needs
http://club.cdfreaks.com/index.php?

There are different utilities that will tell you the manufacturer of your discs. Nero infotool is one (if you are using Nero). Check out CDFreaks.com

MichaelM wrote:I can get a 100 pack spool for about $24.

That's $24 less for 600 than Dr Luther! You'd better let him know where.

Thanks, MichaelM. Very helpful.

Yeah, my main concern is the longevity issue, and I knew that the Japanese manufactured products were the only ones that seemed to be holding up -- thus far, anyway.

I have been screwing around on my computer while burning -- haven't noticed anything specific, problem-wise. What happens? Glitches, interference, etc?

I always burn @ 8X. (What's "burn on the fly", mean?)
And lastly, what does the "Exact Audio Copy" program do, exactly?

Again, thanks for your input...

Dr. Luther wrote:... what does the "Exact Audio Copy" program do, exactly?

If I might step in for a mo - EAC is held to be the most accurate 'ripper' for a Windoze PC. If can be tuned to handle the small variations in each CD drive model (read offset etc) and so is more likely to give the same result each time (apparently, even commercial rippers are inherently inaccurate).

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de

Otis Westinghouse wrote:

MichaelM wrote:I can get a 100 pack spool for about $24.

That's $24 less for 600 than Dr Luther! You'd better let him know where.

Rima is a good place to start

http://www.rima.com/

I have some other links on my home computer, I'll up those when I get home.

I'll start a "Media Deals" thread tonight for links to sites with good prices for CDR's and DVDR's. Maybe a mod could sticky it and we could all inform each other on good deals out there.

Dr. Luther wrote:Thanks, MichaelM. Very helpful.

Yeah, my main concern is the longevity issue, and I knew that the Japanese manufactured products were the only ones that seemed to be holding up -- thus far, anyway.

I have been screwing around on my computer while burning -- haven't noticed anything specific, problem-wise. What happens? Glitches, interference, etc?

I always burn @ 8X. (What's "burn on the fly", mean?)
And lastly, what does the "Exact Audio Copy" program do, exactly?

Again, thanks for your input...

Back in the day when I first started burning some of the issues I ran into when burning "on the fly" or while multitasking were ticks in the recording, weird diginoise, and sometimes the computer would just crash. Granted, computers are much more powerful now but it's just not worth the risk to me.

Burning "on the fly" is when you are reading a disc from one CD drive and burning it to another CDR drive at the same time. It's a bad idea.

I think I might have bought my first CDR drive in 1997, if not it was early 1998. I worked at home as a graphic Designer and had large files (well large by those standards) to back up. I think the drive was about $250.

I don't know if there is anything like EAC for the mac, but I'm sure Mac users can find some good info at the Dimeadozen forums, I'd give you a link but their server is down. I have a G4 as well as windoze machines so I don't want to exclude the Mac people.

I'm using my old P3 800 as my burning / torrent machine. I put a DVD burner in it and that's all the machine does...downloading, extracting, wave editing and burning.