Crappy CD-Rs

Are we entering a new age of crappy CD-Rs?

A few weeks ago an electronic consumer goods shop advertised two 50-pack CD-Rs for $5 total. I bought two, the sticker on each had a regular price of $14.95. Why would any retailer mark CD-Rs down that much?
Well, every second one was unreadable, that's why. I should really publish the brandname and the retailer name. I tested on 3 or 4 PCs.

I had run out of CDs so on Saturday I went to PLE, a local cut-price computer parts retailer. They have their own 'PLE' brand of CD-Rs, that I have bought many times in the past, with 100% satisfaction. I bought two 100-packs at $21.00 each. One thing I noticed, a slighty different physical appearance to previous PLE CDs.

I popped in a CD-R and ran my 'burniso2cd' program, and the CD burner drive went crazy. Horrible grinding noises. I wasn't able to stop it, had to press the reset button on the PC.

The 2nd CD worked (only complained a little bit), the 3rd once again horrible noises and I had to reset the computer.

I returned one pack to PLE as it had its seal intact. The other pack, well, I guess I'm stuck with those.

Hmmm, dust on the laser lense maybe? Nup, looks fine. I use this drive every day without trouble.

So, today I went to Kmart, bought a 100-pack of brandname CD-Rs, Verbatim "Silver inkjet printable", clearance price $22.95.

I tried the first one, works perfectly. Verified the burn, okay. Second one, perfect again. Not even the slightest hint of complaint from the drive. Third one, perfect again, fourth perfect -- well, you get the picture!

Guess what, I'm going back to Kmart this afternoon and buy up the remaining stock of those Verbatim CD-Rs.

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Comments

minix
Username: linuxcbon
I am studying minix. I think it is better than linux. Do you think you could use it instead ? I guess they dont have drivers for all kinds of HWs like linux has...

Rewritable MiniCDs
Username: capoverde
"Last week I bought two rewritable Mini-CDs at a local Chinese shop (they're mainly selling oriental food, and the MiniCDs are branded "Banana"..!). I was quite skeptical about their quality, but I had never found MiniCDs-RW anywhere 'round here and the price was low, so I gave 'em a run. Well, Puppy 4.2.1 boots perfectly from one of those things, which formerly had Puppy 4.2SMP going fine and has already been erased and rewritten once; Upup Alpha6 boots OK from the other. BTW, the written area is uncommonly visible -- it's often hard to spot on most standard CD-RWs. Today I'll get some more "Banana"s if possible...

cds
Username: paulh
"barry -- always buy cd's marked "made in japan" if you can find them; these are usually manufactured by tayo yuden and are really excellent quality. your verbatims may be these -- when i find verbatim !made in japan" i buy up stock of them!

Re: Verbatim
Username: BarryK
"I sent an email to PLE, this is their reply: [i]We currently sell copius amounts of the mentioned PLE CD-R Media without any issues. If you have had issues with it, I would suggest a higher quality media such as TDK or Verbatim which use a higher quality dye, usually resulting in less failures and a better quality burn. If the Media is deemed as a manufacturer defect, then you may return them with the receipt for a store credit.[/i] I guess that those CD-Rs probably just have a problem with my drive. Perhaps a mismatch of laser frequency and CD dye? But, my Acer laptop drive is a pretty common one, so others would also be affected. I did buy some more of those Verbatim CDs! No, not made in Japan, made in Taiwan. Verbatim is owned by Mitsubishi, a Japanese company. I reckon if they are being made in Taiwan it would be because of lower labour costs, but would be to Verbatim standards.

Verbatim CD-RW
Username: happypuppy
"If you can find some of those "Pastel" Verbatim discs,buy them immediately :) They're the highest quality discs ever made.

Tags: general