Just one little question:
There is a thread of dead CD-Rs at afterdawn, but there is no TY discs there, but I've heard (at the thread Best CD-R Media... if I am not mistaken) that no one brand of CD-Rs avoided death after the usage during 5 years, but are Tayo Yudens exception to the rule? I personally try to use for all my music archives only them, but what if they fail?

Mmmmm, is that so hard to make CD-R media lasting like printed CD? Their prices are incommensurable (I mean the prices of plastic, but not of licence), and still printed CDs last decades, while CD-Rs last years... That's bitter
My efforts to save some money by taking some CDs at friends, ripping, encoding them and storing on CD-Rs are senseless, if I have to buy every five years expensive CD-Rs and rewrite old CD-Rs to new media...


Some thoughts (may regard it as a joke)
Suppose I'll live 50 years more, then 50:5(lifetime of a good CD-R)=10(CD-Rs), 10x$0.5=$5 (like licensed printed CD! Or are they more expensive in Europe and USA than here?) But if to take into account compression (MPC 200Kb/sec - 7 CDs to 1 it is not so senseless)... $5:7=$0.8. So we have a licensed CD at $0.8 – for whole life – not so bad! (If not to take into account all the hours, spent on reading hydrogen and searching for friends with CDs )

I'm not sure about Tayo Yuden dying... I though there was one reported dead, but I don't remember why I didn't put it in the dead CDR thread... Maybe there is none yet.
I'd like to know since when Tayo Yuden are available. Were they already manufactured and marketed in 1998 ?

Anyway, I don't see why they would be an exeption. Maybe they last a little longer, that's all. "Printed" CDs last longer because they are engraved, while CDR are burned. It's like comparing ink drawing (with a pencil, or a pen) and felt tip pen drawing, the felt tip drawing will fade sooner or later while the ink drawing will last forever, because the ink used is different.

I've got many dead CDRs, and seeing how things turn, I plan to archive my music in MPC on a hard drive, and regularly backup the hard drive on DVD-RW (weekly or monthly). I give up using CDR as a media for archiving.

I think Mitsubishi is regarded as just a tad better than TY at the mo... Of course, it depends who you ask...

I'm about to buy a few hundred Verbatim DatalifePlus Super Azo 24x btw,... (which are manufactured by Mitsubishi) -- someone shout now if I shouldn't.


Edit: Added the word Verbatim (as if it was needed )

FWIW (what the hell does my opinion count for?) Verbatim are probably my 3rd choice after Mitsui & TY. This is because they have a lot of experience making media (they must have being around that long - doesn't mean it actually is good of course), they have a protective top layer (actually better than Mitsui or TY in my opinion) and I've never had any problems at all burning them (but the same goes for some other brands, even CMC Magnetics!).

The downside is that from what I've read (but never experienced) they are not always made by Mitsubishi Chemicals and the quality does vary quite a bit.

-dave

Off topic from the subject of this thread, but...

from what I recall, Datalifeplus are made by CMC if they do not feature the word Azo in it anywhere. Any prefix then AZO says its Mitsubishi

That's true. But Mitsubishi has several factories (Taiwan, Mexico, India, somewhere in the EU, ...) - one of which was originally a CMC plant - which appear to produce different quality media (at least that's what I gathered from reading several threads on cdrfreaks, afterdawn etc.) - the one in Taiwan is said to be best. I have no proof for this though.

Perhaps one of the experts can shed some light on this issue. I'd also be interested if my "Made in India" and "Made in EU" Verbatim DLP discs are of inferior quality.

I don't know, but wasn't TY the first manufacturer of CDR?
I think I've always heard that: "they invented the CDR". Everything was based on TY. That's what I think I've read, but I don't know...


There were MetalAzos made in Ireland. Probably, that is the "somewhere in EU".
I suspect that Indians Mitsubishis are a bit worse, but no proof...

I have TY cds from 1998, they are Sony SDQ-74BN, not a single C2 error, max 32 C1 errors.

I thought it was Mitsui what was consideered better than TY!

taiyo yuden and mitsui are top quality. mitsubishi is slightly lower quality, but still good enough for "everyday" usage. for sure, though, for important data i recommend taiyo yuden, mitsui, ricoh, or kodak gold + silver

i have some old taiyo yuden sony media burned at 2x, no problems

..Wandering ever more aware from the subject..

What do you guys think of Ritek then?

On a manufactures top 3, I'd have said:

1. TY
2. Ritek
3. <up for debate>

- and only the guys at Hydrogen Audio can change my mind

I've made my choice - definetly TY are the best (of what I can get here)! I buy Verbatim Pastel - they are not so expensive and of great quality. Look at the picture of the disc I wrote yesterday:
http://musiclover.webm.ru/TY.gif
And Verbatims by MITSUBISHI are also good, but not as good as TY. (I've lost the picture of it, but just the line was not so smooth as TY's and the speed was slover...)

EDIT: (of what I can get here)

Nice pic

I worry about coloured discs... I dunno why, but I do. I've got some of those Pastels, and they seem great (look great, too)... and I've got some Nashua which are Deep colours, Green, Red etc,... which are Mitsui's, which also seem great...

But I worry about the colouring. I 'feel' as if its gimmicky and will ultimately reduce the life of the disc... Anyone done any research or got any information on this? (Please proove me to be worrying about nothing)

I have been using Verbatim with good success.
However, buying a spindle of 100 was a mistake. Plextor 24/10/40A and Plextools 1.19 report them as being made by Ritek, which are not good, and show up as "Red" in Plextools. The Verbatim Datalife AZO in jewel cases show up as "Green", and made by Misubisi Chem, Type 3.
Much info on CDR's at CDMedia World.
The site reports TY as being good.
I am going to stock up big time, since we Canadians are going to get it up the chute again very soon.
Info here and here.

I wonder why Ritek seems to have such a bad name lately? I have never ever ever had any problems with them (most of my discs are currently TDK Riteks) -- In Fact, I still have some unburnt 650mb 16x Reflex Ultra's, which are already 2 years old, they always burn fine, and play fine

Its difficult to know what to get in the UK, because the shops are hideously overpriced, and you are never quite sure who the manufacturer is of ones bought on line

Is there any brand of CD-R which is exclusively Tao Yuden made?

I don't know about totally "exclusively", but so far (200 CD's purchased) Maxell CD-R Pro 700mb Made in Japan are all TY.

Regards,
Madrigal

At this very moment in time, ^almost^ all Imation is Tayo Yurden

i think you are wrong. here in canada, all the imation media i have seen recently are made by CMC magnetics. a few months ago, a relative of mine in america bought imation discs thinking it was the best like their floppy disk and it too was made by CMC magnetics. and i have read on message boards that literally all imation media in europe is also made by CMC magnetics. therefore, it is safe to conclude that most imation media out there today is CMC

ah well

- of course, peoples opinion of Ritek seems to be vastly differing. Nowadays they dont seem too bad, and another point of note is that a Mitsibushi Chemicals was owned by CMC and the rumour said they didnt change any technology, just rebranded... Personally I think CMC do a lot of varying quality discs in themselves...

Of course, this may be another Totally and Utterly wrong answer

CDMediaWorld...it looks like the "MP3 quality" google search illness pointing to r3mix' page, with its r3mix=1337 disinformation.
I mean, that page's info on brand quality is BY FAR outdated.

Ritek seemed to be garbage A LONG TIME AGO. Not now. They have made themselves a good reputation, just search on some forums

MPO is qualified as sucky, when Gold and Carbon CDs are really good.
I still have a old cyanine gold one (3 years old), that holds a copy of a PSX game, and it has NO error. It's now in perfect status with even a single bit wrong, as my "also sucky" Gigastorage discs I bought on a spindle when I bought the burner (3'5 years ago) that continue with no error...My burner is a Yamaha 8424SCSI

Its a difficult topic - unless you buy the dirt dirt cheap stuff, it will work.

The problem is is that it takes years for things to degrade - not like ABX'ing an MP3, which you can do there and then...

If you consider 1'20€ that costs a Hi-Space (MPO) Carbon CD "dirt cheap", then...

I bought 20 Philips CD-Rs which turned out to be CMC...
And all my TDKs are Riteks...

madrigal: can you please post the ATIP? i too have maxell 700 MB media, titled "pro" and "xl" that are made in japan, but i found they are hitachi-maxell, not TY :/

I'm pretty sure that I had some Imations made by TY a few years ago. My most recent ones say CMC on the atip info though.

I've heard in CDRLabs or CDRinfo or CDFreaks, that all recent Fujis were Tayo Yuden.

outscape:



Got some here.



According to a PC-Welt (German computer magazine) test, they're of extremely bad quality, with absolutely inacceptable block error rates - perhaps TY sold them at dumping prices because they weren't within the production tolerances or something.


Sled Dog:



It has been said a million times: Only Verbatim's DataLifePlus media is exclusively made by Mitsubishi. The normal DataLife stuff can be made by anybody (I've so far seen CMC, Ritek and 4M reported).

>>>' I'm pretty sure that I had some Imations made by TY a few years ago. My most recent ones say CMC on the atip info though.'<<<

older ones, yeah probably. there was a time when a lot of CDR media were actually high quality, from manufacturers like taiyo yuden, ricoh, mitsui, etc. but in recent years, a lot of companies who put their name on CDR media (i.e. sony, TDK, imation, BASF) have persued cheaper alternatives to keep the cost low and stay competitive. i read in a recent article on CDR media, the author recommends people to buy only "brand name" discs if they want high quality results. in most cases nowadays, this is not true

>>>' I've heard in CDRLabs or CDRinfo or CDFreaks, that all recent Fujis were Tayo Yuden.'<<<

for the last 2 1/2 years, all the fujifilm i bought (here in canada) are taiyo yuden. in my university they also sell fujifilm, but these ones are made in germany and sell for 3.50$ a piece

>>>'According to a PC-Welt (German computer magazine) test, they're of extremely bad quality, with absolutely inacceptable block error rates - perhaps TY sold them at dumping prices because they weren't within the production tolerances or something.'<<<

hehe.. yeah, probably