What's the difference between the different coloured CD-Rs?
 

CD-Rs come in all sorts of colours--even black like the playstation games. I was wondering if there is any real difference between them, like in compatibility or the variety of devices that can read them.

Lately, I've been burning music CD's and, for unknown reasons, by discman can't read the first five songs very well, or at all.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Sometimes its different material that's used for the actual burning of the CD... as in, the stuff that gets heated up by the laser to leave the pits. I don't know a whole lot about it, but all CDRs are not created equal. Different materials have different properties... some last longer than others. Don't read too much into the color though, cause sometimes the plastic itself is dyed to make it look different. Like the playstation games you mentioned, thats just dye in the plastic.

About your discman, try burning more slowly or switching CDR manufactures... see if that helps.

Memorex is the way to go. It's all about the Memorex. As for colors, I wish I could tell you. That's something I don't understand along with the idea of "Music CD-R's" - I think that's just a bunch of bull.

I had a guy at Best Buy try to tell me once that I could only copy audio CDs with the "Music CD-R".
I laughed at him until he cried... :lol:

It could be my imagination, but I think that black bottomed burnt cdrs are less prone to scratching. Or the (green/gold/silver) cursor/maxell/sony ones I'm comparing to are more easily marred.

I've also had 'high-speed' burns fail more often with black ones. No idea why.

Found this interesting little read, may help to some extent.

Linky

Those PlayStation discs will take a beating (the old PS one games).

Like an above poster said, Memorex is definitely the way to go.

I put mine through hell and they still play today. Very good quality CDs.

Ill second (third? fourth?) the Memorex suggestion. Good CDs.

The only difference between the Music CDRs and the data ones is that the music ones have a little stipend added to them that goes to the music industry. A load of bull--the CDs are pretty much identical, and Im not paying more for the same product with a different wrapper.

The only difference between the CDs is the color of foil in them.. Remember, CD's are clear, but they need the foil to reflect the laser back..

No difference really, but older CD burners had crappy lasers that didnt reflect well on the blue foil, but that was fixed long ago

generally if the CDs are made in Japan they are of higher quality. The ones made in Taiwan dont seem to last as long. Incidentally, the Japanese ones tend to have the darker blue writing surface as opposed to the light greenish color on the Taiwanese onecs.

Just observations of a bootleg trader.

For clarification: "Music" CD-R's all have a tax paid to the RIAA included in the cost. There is no physical difference.

at the amount they cost per game its a good thing they do last

Memorex is fine. I have nothing against them except for the cost. At last check they were in the area of 75 cents each. Last time I was at the store I picked up a stack of 100 off-brand dics for $30.

So far everyone of them has worked perfectly (maybe 25 burned so far).

Hmm, do you go to Best Buy ever? I don't think I've ever gotten a spindle of 100 Memorex for more than $40 - many times less.

There is no Best Buy near where I live (western Canada). There is something called Futureshop, which as I understand it the CDN version of Best Buy. But they pissed me off so I don't shop there anymore...ever...dicks.

But anyway, no matter where I look the Memorex discs are the most expensive on the market, whereas I am more than happy with my nonames...not a coaster in the bunch so far.

Damn man, I wish you had your camera with you :lol:

Don't they also try to sell CD-Rs for only Data now? Who the hell believes in that crap? But... with all the burnt software and music these days though you could make a hell of a profit off of it.


Anyway, I try to stick with TDK its cheap and it works for the most part. Used to use Memorex but they started getting expensive around my area as well

Count another vote for memorex. They may be SLIGHTLY more expensive (nowhere near 75 cents a disc that I've ever seen though) but the things work the best. I get fewer coasters off of 'em, and I have yet to find a device that can't read 'em.

i dont think there is any differnce in teh color .. jsut for looks.

but with playstation... they are black because they have a protected film to keep the game from going bad.. as far as i know

Partial credit. Although they do look identical, "music" branded CD-R's are the only CD-R's that can be used with a home audio CD recorder.

Consomer audio decks that can record to CD will only record to music cd-rs. that is the only diffrence. One bit on the disk.

I like Memorex, I'm using some maxell right now, I also like Sony Imation discs, although my last experience with them was quite costly. Honestly though, if a disc burns at the maximum speed that your cd-writer will go, then how can you judge an cd as being poor (outside of beating and scratching the shit out of them)?

I use the Memorex ones and they work great, except for the blue ones. For some reason the blue colored ones won't work on my DVD Burner.

For me it's all about the Maxells...but I'll go for Memorex if they're on a good sale as well. Staples has 50pks of different brands on sale occasionally for $10 at least every other month or so. I buy about 150 and wait till the next sale.

Okay, side question here, you all are suggesting Memorex and Maxell - both fine discs but my question is, why are you buying discs from a company that dosen't even make thier own discs? These companies don't make any of there media, they just OEM the product and then mark it up 30 points. It is a lot cheaper ( keeping into account your talking A stock to A stock or B stock to B stock) to buy a Ritek disc or a Mitsumi disc than it is to buy it OEM'ed from Maxell.

Granted, this will not pretain to retail stores but if you live in a city that has a Fry's, Best Buy or Circut City I'm sure there is a disto for one of the big three media maufatures.

*shrug* I don't buy discs that often and I really don't understand whatall the fuss is over Memorex. Last time I bought blank CDR's, I got 2 100-pack Memorex stacks for free after rebate at Office Max. Not to mention they were on sale at $20 each in the first place.