What brand of CD-R do you use?

[swmdrayfan]

I don't have a dvd burner just yet, so for those of you burning your images to cd-rs, what brand do you use? I've expended my last Imation and before I go out for more, I'd like to know what you think.
Thanks
John

[masdog]

John,

I usually get whatever brand is cheapest. Since I use my CD-Rs for a lot of things, and I'm usually going through them pretty quickly, I can't afford to buy a specific brand. I've never had a serious problem with them, but hten I've never used them for archiving either.

Now, I try to buy CD-Rs that are inkjet-printable. This saves a step or two when printing labels.

Sean

[Michael Fanelli]

I don't have a dvd burner just yet, so for those of you burning your images to cd-rs, what brand do you use? I've expended my last Imation and before I go out for more, I'd like to know what you think.
Thanks
John

A study by JPL done for the Smithsonian showed that the brand of CD-R disk has little to do with the quality and longevity of the disk. What mattered most was the quality and consistency of the drive itself. Worse news: drives, even the same brand and model, vary widely. Sticking with a major brand of CD-R disks is fine, just don't assume any will last more than 3-5 years.

[Lionheart]

Michael:
What about the MAM-A disks? I thought they were supposed to be much more archival than the other disks regardless of brand. I just bought $600 bucks worth of MAM-A DVD-R's and CD-R's based on a thread posted late last year. Did I just waste my money?

[Michael Fanelli]

Michael:
What about the MAM-A disks? I thought they were supposed to be much more archival than the other disks regardless of brand. I just bought $600 bucks worth of MAM-A DVD-R's and CD-R's based on a thread posted late last year. Did I just waste my money?

MAM-A disks are the latest craze. There just isn't enough data to know what they do in real life. I remember when I paid extra for the old Kodak Gold CD disks with their "revolutionary" high-lifetime writing surface. They were the first to die!

At this point in time, CDs are just not a good archive storage medium. At least in my opinion. DVDs? Who knows, once again, there is no hard evidence either way. FWIW, that JPL study I mentioned only looked at CDs.