"How long will my media be readable?"

That's the big mystery surrounding blank CD/DVD media.

There seem to be three levels of quality: Junk, Good, Archival.

Many companies sell burnable media from both Junk and Good
manufacturers.  Some companies sell Good discs and say they're
Archival.

--) What brand of both CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are _always_ from a confirmed
Good manufacturer?

--) Where can I purchase these online?

--) Is Taiyo Yuden the confirmed leader for quality manufacturing?

--) Is there an actual difference between "Good" and "Archival" quality discs?

---

Clarification of Question by donphiltrodt-ga on 13 Oct 2004 02:13 PDT

Here are some resource that you should include in your research...


http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/08/043254&mode=thread&tid=137&tid=198

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/24/1253248&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=137&tid=198

I had to do similar research about CD-Rs recently.
In general, Taiyo-Yuden is the quality leader. Their disks display a
very low rate of burning errors, and while it is rarely tested, the
aging test results I have seen are generally quite good.
That being said, Mitsui does make a line of CD-Rs that are generally
regarded as being the highest quality in the industry. I believe these
are marketed as MAM-A Gold.
Mitsui's media page: http://www.mitsuicdr.com/products/index.html

Mitsui also makes DVD-Rs, but I have seen little testing to verify
whether these are as good quality as their CD-Rs.

As far as differences go, there are a couple differences that I have
noticed in CD-R production.
The primary difference seems to be the die. Mitsui uses Phthalocyanine
for their MAM-A discs.
http://www.mam-a.com/technology/cd/organic_dyes.html

The most common dye is Cyanine, though I believe Verbatim uses some
variety of Metal Azo for their top of the line disc.

Another common difference seems to be in the surface on the recording
side of the disc. You may notice that cheaper discs tend to get
scratched much easier, and when scratched, are more likely to fail a
read. Higher quality CD-Rs use different materials for the surface of
the recording side, with higher durability, and better optical
properties. For example, the Mitsui MAM-A has what it calls a "Diamond
protective layer".

As far as ensuring you always get a "good" or better disc, you will
find that when buying in bulk (as I assume you are planing to do), you
can specify Taiyo Yuden directly, rather than buying a name brand
(Maxell, TDK), and hoping it will be Taiyo.

If you would let me know your location, I will try to recommend a good retailer.
Most of my experience is with Canadian retailers, but there are a
couple ones in the US who I have dealt with.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot.

Hey.  Maybe you can help me understand something.

You chose to comment, not answer.  I'm finding that in the last few
months, my questions are almost never answered, despite their clarity
and good price (IMO).  I often get great comments, but rarely an
"answer".

Is there something aversive about my question?  Was it too specific? 
Do I seem like likely to give a bad grade or something?

(blink)

Baffling.

I'd like to add a comment as to why you might not get an answer as
opposed to a good comment.

1) If a non-researcher (their user name is NOT blue and is NOT a
hyperlink to their profile) posts a comment that is the answer, it is
considered bad taste for a researcher to then post it as an answer and
collect the fee. You can close the question if a comment has answered
it for you.

2) In cases like this one, and it's often how I feel, the researcher
wants to post their results but doesn't feel they've 100% answered the
question. Or the answer involves dialogue with the asker. They could
post the research as an answer, then have you go through "request
answer clarification" and so forth, but most seem to prefer to comment
until you decide the asnwer is complete and you tell one specific
researcher to post as answer.

3) Somtimes there just isn't a definitive answer to a question.

hope that's info for you!
sparky4ca-ga

Thanks, Sparky.

Passive, I've changed the price.  I'd like you to post your comment as
an answer.  It was helpful.

Also your hardware is important in this case. Check
http://club.cdfreaks.com for more information on how to find the best
combination.