Laser Rot and warped CD-Rs

I actually use the inkjet printable CDs, but I've only had my printer for a few months, so I have no problems to report this early.

JMD, as for your problem with the "pops" between tracks, I can only speculate what the problem could have been. Every second of CD audio has 75 frames. When you edit a wav file and the length of the song changes (even if by only a thousandth of a second), the audio most likely will no longer end on a whole frame--it ends in the middle of a frame. I've had an issue with some older software when I used the "track-at-once" burn method. If I edited the song and it didn't end on a whole frame, the software would put a big "click" at the end of the audio to fill up the rest of the frame. Again, this only happened in "track-at-once" mode and only on my old software. Technically, burning software should automatically fill up a partial frame with blank space.

I've never heard of any difference between the quality of data CD-Rs and audio CD-Rs; however, I have read quite a bit about the differences in quality, even between discs with the same brand name on them. Most of the companies who are producing CD-Rs have an outside company manufacture them, and it's not always the same outside company. This would explain why you could have some Maxell CDs that are okay, and some that are completely useless.

I have never had any problems with TDK (yet), and there is also a manufacturer called Taiyo Yuden, who supposedly produces the best CD-Rs in the world. I have been using Taiyo Yuden for about a year, and I have no problems to report.

Here's the ones I stay far, far away from: Sony (complete junk), Maxell (useless crap--at least the older ones), Memorex (I have a bunch that won't read anymore). I don't have much experience with Verbatim and Imation. I've heard that Ritek tends to make good discs. The ones I've been most disappointed with though are the Sony discs. A lot of the Sony discs I own have the "warping" problem mentioned above. I even have some Sony discs where the top layer (of information) has flaked off the plastic. These are discs that have been handled carefully and stored in jewel cases.

(To revive an old thread...)

I've found that so-called "laser rot" is pretty uncommon. Out of the 3000 or so CDs I've owned, I've had a total of 2 with any problems (INXS's "Kick" and a UK pressing of "Pigbag's Greatest Hits", if you must know.)

It's indeed an aluminum-oxiding effect, and although there's nothing you can do to fix it, I found that certain CD players can handle the bad discs better than others. I found a computer that could read bad CDs just fine, and made a CD-R copy. Once the aluminum oxidizes completely, though, game's over and you'll get skips or pops. To the eye, laser rot looks like there's a brownish haze over the CD surface.

The data vs. music CD-Rs are identical in composition, the only difference being a tag in the header to tell the burner what type it is. I've found that certain CD players are fickle with certain brands of CDs, and it's not entirely predictable. I, too had a problem with Memorex, but only on one of my home players. Elsewhere, they worked great. FYI, I routinely use the Verbatim spindles of 100 (available at Sam's Club and other places), which work well in my Denon DJ unit and my radio station's Marantz CD players.

As for deterioration, 99% of the issue is how you store them. Cool and dry is the way to go (the dye in the CD is light-sensitive, so leaving them out in the sun is a bad idea). I had a bad experience with one particular early CD wallet, where the plastic sleeves ripped off the front surface of the CD label. Since then, I use jewel boxes for the prized stuff, and cardboard or paper sleeves for the copies that go out with the DJ gear or to the radio station.

And as an experiment, I ran a CD-R through my dishwasher with my dishes for an entire year. Worked fine afterwards. Just keep them in the dark and you'll be fine.

I should point out that recordable DVDs are more complex - they're made with a sandwich construction, with a glue between the two halves. How will those age? Not sure. Personally, I'm sticking with CD-R, and a backup copy in uncompressed .WAV format on a hard drive.

has anyone encountered a problem with cdrs when the top silver layer comes off the top and has pock marks......then it starts to peal off......i found out that once that happens the disc is trash.....apparently the recorded surface is not the bottom of the disc but the inside layer of the silver lining on top.....once that layer is damaged it's through......anyone have any info on this....