I saved this filmscanners post from July 2000 which I think might be
useful to current listmembers.
---- Original Message -----
On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 08:17:34 +1200, Stu <stupid@clear.net.nz> wrote:
Vlad -
Mitsui Gold on Gold are often touted as the best CD-Rs - in my
experience TDK are good in that I have never had one with a defect out
of a spindle of 150 CD-Rs. below is an email from earlier in the year
which is very on the topic:
Stu
________________________________________________
To: Filmscannerslist <Filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
Subject: OT FYI on CD-R's
From: glenn mclaughlin <indacity@bellatlantic.net> Add to Contacts
Date: Fri, May 26 2000 2:54:37 PM -0400
I came across this info and thought everyone might like to have for
their FYI files. Never can seem to find it when you need it most and
have no time to search. Full thread may be found at:
<>
Regards,
Glenn McLaughlin
in summry Erich Hammer wrote,
"The warning: Although you may think that archiving your data on CD-Rs
is safe (optical storage supposedly lasts years longer than magnetic),
apparently it ain't. "
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 15:13:01 -0800
From: RJ Polito
Subject: CD-R failures
Ric,
A note about Erich Hammer's comment about "cheap CDRs". Unfortunately,
this happens to a ton of people who buy cheap CD-Rs. As a distributor
of Mitsui Gold on Gold (since 1994) and a technical consultant for
CD-R media for the pro audio industry there are way too many factors
that determine the quality and longevity of CDR media. Here are some
visual tests to eliminate the really cheap ones:
1. Hold the disc up towards a light source and check for
transparency. If you can see thru it like a piece of wax paper, stay
clear of this stuff.
2. If you can see little pin-like holes in the disc, it's a
disaster waiting in the wings.
3. Avoid any hybrid dye products. There are only 3 types of CD-Rs:
Azu (blue) dye (Verbatim patent), Cyanine (green) dye (Taiyo Yuden
patent), and Phthalocyanine (gold stabilized clear) dye (Mitsui
patent). All other CD-Rs, no matter whose name is on it, are either
OEMs or hybrids of these three dyes.
4. And, avoid any media with lots of design "painted" on the
surface of the CD-R. This has been proven to interfere with the read
and/or write session. CD-Rs with surfaces covered entirely with
"paint" are suspect. This technique is usually used to conceal the
very, very thin dye layer under the surface.
Other factors:
1. All dyes EXCEPT Phthalocyanine are unstable (read, moving).
Although your recorder/app may verify the write session, the unstable
dye may have created a less-than-accurate cut causing unreadable
playback. Nothing you can do about this once the CD-R is burned. (To
get the idea, place a sheet of paper on a table, and while someone
shakes the paper try to draw a straight line. Here is your pit and
land geometry from unstable dye CD-Rs.)
Use a stable dye based CD-R and this won't happen.
2. Cheap green dye CD-Rs are notorious for losing data just after a
few weeks. These unstable dye CD-Rs cannot tolerate even the slightest
change in temperature, humidity or UV light even tho the manufacturer
has published test results like 75 years longevity (anybody remember
the Magneto-Optical spec wars ?). Be aware that even quality green dye
CD-Rs can lose data after a year. This has been going on for a decade
now. Still, very few buyers are aware of this problem. For critical
longevity use gold-stabilized clear dye.
---- End copied message ----
Regards
Yuri.
