there is many brands of Cd-r's, does the brand name make a difference
in quality, what about the color of the bottoms, i think a CD-R is a
Cd-R
what do you think, someone i know argues that some brands are way
better and to not buy junk brands

The answer is yes to both of these items. The brand matters and the
dye color matters. To make matters worse, different CD-recorders have
different levels of success with CD-Rs - so a brand that might work
perfectly on your friend's computer might not work on your computer
and vice versa.

And finally, different brands of CD are likely to last longer than
others. I have some relatively new CDRs that have fractured for no
good reason while CDRs from the dawn of time are still playing
perfectly.

Here's why it matters. Despite the fact that data is stored on a CD
digitally, the science with which the data is stored is anything but
exact. It relies on the fact that if you write the same information to
a CD enough times, it has to be done correctly at some point - the
hope is enough times for the CD player to be sure that it read it
correctly.

The surface of a CD-R contains a colored dye - this is the color you
see on the bottom of the disc. This dye gets changed slightly during
the burning process - the result being similar in result (although
totally different in process) to a photograph.

In the same way that kodak photo paper is better than the cheap photo
paper you get from the worst of your photo processing plants - some
dyes work better than others. Not only that, some dyes LAST longer
than others - so even if two discs burn ok - one may last many times
longer than the others.

There is also a lot of variability in the manufacturing of the disc -
the ability  of the CD manufacturer to get an even dye treatment, a
nice silver reflective surface behind the dye - and to mold it all
together in a way that won't fall apart of fracture (like mine did).

So different brands have different factories... and these different
factories have different levels of skill at making a good CD. It isn't
the brand that makes the CD better - it is the way in which it was
manufactured that makes the difference. Some brands are very strict
with their factories and always produce good CDRs. Some brands have
different results based on which factory it was made in. For example I
bought some CDs that were "made in Japan". They worked perfectly. I
bought some CDs from the same manufacturer that were "made in Taiwan"
- 90% of them did not burn correctly.

Some brands do not manufacture their own media and rely on other
manufacturers to supply their CDs - so the quality of these brands
varies depending on who supplied them with their CD-Rs.

Bottom line is - figuring out what brands are best is a very tricky
task - because different factories result in different quality and
even a good factory will produce a bad batch - you can find batches of
name brands that contain nothing but duds.

These websites explain it far better than I can :
CD-R Quality
http://www.cdpage.com/dstuff/BobDana296.html
CD Freaks.com
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/51

And if you want a comparison (based on user experience) go to :
http://www.overclockers.com/articles317/
or
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_cdr_info.shtml

I realise I've written a lot for a $2 answer - my mistake for not
being concise in my answer.

Hope this helps

calebu2-ga

Google Search Terms
cd-r brand quality comparison
cd-r quality reviews

very good in depth answer well worth 2 bones

A general rule of thumb that I give to people when they ask me the
same question is that most brand names you recognize usually are good
quality.