CD-R Quality, Price and Life
CD-Rs all look more or less the same -- shiny, nice looking, nice logo, nice package. You can buy some of them for practically nothing -- $20 for a hundred, with a $20 rebate, for example. Others may cost $50 or more for a hundred. It's tempting to think that one brand is as good as another when you don't have much to go by but appearances. Even brand names can be seriously misleading.
CD-R quality *does* correlate with price though. (You probably suspected that, eh?) Some of the cheaper CD-Rs fail to last more than a few months, let alone years. The best ones may last 100 years or more (properly stored -- cool, dry and dark). Beyond price, how can you tell the good ones from the others? One thing you can do is make sure you get the premium line of the brand, for example, "Datalife Plus" by Verbatim.
Probably the best thing you can do to find quality CD-Rs is read the test results you can find online. The tests are designed to accelerate aging, so they aren't exactly equivalent to putting them on the shelf for 100 years, but they do give a good basis for comparison. Here's a few places that give information on life:
http://www.cdrfaq.org/ -- home page for the CD-R FAQ (frequently asked questions)
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5 -- specific section on how long CD-Rs last
http://adterrasperaspera.com/blog/2006/10/30/how-to-choose-cddvd-archival-media/ -- choosing CD-Rs and DVD-Rs
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/ -- site devoted to *everything* about CD-Rs and DVD-Rs
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml -- specific information on CD-R quality.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15800263 -- article on CD-R life by Fred Langa
The table below lists the best brands extracted from CD Media World.
| Actual Manufacturer | Brands |
|---|---|
| Mitsui Chemicals | HP, Mitsui, Philips & Sony |
| Taiyo Yuden | Taiyo Yuden, 3M, Sony, Philips, Boeder & Imation |
| TDK | 3M, Pioneer, TDK & Yamaha |
| Kodak Japan | BASF & Kodak |
| Pioneer Video | Pioneer |
| Ricoh | KAO & Ricoh |
Other factors
Competition has induced manufacturers to try to extend the capacity of CD-Rs. They started out at 650 MB / 70 minutes, and most are now 700 MB / 80 minutes. The good ones are still good at this larger size, but 750 MB / 90 minutes is going too far.
The quality of your CD-R drive is another factor of course. If yours came with your computer, you may not even know what brand it is. Yamaha, Ricoh, Plextor, TDK, and Sony are some of the better ones.
Don't bother with CD-RWs. They are going to become unreadable some day -- right in the middle of something you're doing. It's happened to me more than once (but it will never happen again).