Recommendations for 90 min / 800 MiB CD-R's

[MediumRare]

I need 10-20 good 90 min / 800 MiB CD-Rs for a project. The ones I've tried in the past:
- MMore (MBI)
- SKC (SKC)
- Vebatim DataLife "Made in Taiwan" (Ritek)
are no longer available (locally at least).

Here's what's currently present in various local stores (Frankfurt, Germany):
- TDK (with VERY gaudy branding)
- PrimeOn (also printable, which is attractive)
- Verbatim DataLife "Made in China"
- Intenso
- Memorex
- Philips

Does anayone know who actually makes these? According to OS-MediaTrade the PrimeOn's are CSI (InstantInfo is rather out of date now: it shows Ritek for different packaging). The only CSI discs I've tried were 99 min jobs (in my pre-DVD days) that were marginal at best.

@RJW- can you comment on this?

G

[RJW]

I need 10-20 good 90 min / 800 MiB CD-Rs for a project. The ones I've tried in the past:
- MMore (MBI)
- SKC (SKC)
- Vebatim DataLife "Made in Taiwan" (Ritek)
are no longer available (locally at least).

Here's what's currently present in various local stores (Frankfurt, Germany):
- TDK (with VERY gaudy branding)
- PrimeOn (also printable, which is attractive)
- Verbatim DataLife "Made in China"
- Intenso
- Memorex
- Philips

@RJW- can you comment on this?

G

What does gaudy mean ????

Back to the media.
TDK - IF this is TDK made in luxembourg stuff which my guess is then I say get these !!! There TRUE 90 minutes disc's unlike the other stuff.
True 90 minutes means no overburning is needed which means these work on drives which do not support overburning because there recognized as 90 minutes. Also they can be burned without C2 errors measured at full speed on my Lite On 52327S. It's the only 90 minutes disc I have seen being able to do that.
Infact It's the only 90 minutes media I personally trust.
Still I have had one bad batch of these which were completely garbage so as with all media it's not perfect but still much better as any other 90 minutes media I have used.


The other stuff
PrimeOn -CSI
Verbatim - Should still be ritek but now made in china !
Intenso - Most likely Ritek or MBIL
Memorex -Ritek I think not completely sure, because I personally avoid memorex cd-r's !
Philips - Ritek Guaranteed !

[MediumRare]

Thank you for the information!

I was afraid you'd recommend the TDK's .

Gaudy means the top is almost completely red- which makes it nearly impossible to decently label them (with a felt marker or stick-on label).

I'm burning a small series with Bach organ music for my father-in-law and they have to look respectable ("seriös" in German). That's why ink-jet printables would be ideal, but I'm leary of CSI media! Do you have any experience with the 90 min. PrimeOn/CSI's?

True 90 minutes means no overburning is needed which means these work on drives which do not support overburning because there recognized as 90 minutes.

Do you mean that the Lead Out coded in the ATIP is 90 min instead of 79:59:xx ? I'm using a LiteOn LTR-48246S and have had no problem overburning, so that isn't a consideration. In a sense you're always overburning anyway with anything more than 80 min.

I personally avoid memorex cd-r's

so do I... and Imation and (normally) Philips as well.

I don't use much 90 min. media- just tried 1 or 2 occasionally. The 2 SKC's were the best I've found, but that could be a fluke. Verbatim/Ritek (Taiwan) was also pretty good.

I guess I'll have to do some trying out.

G

[RJW]

Thank you for the information!

I was afraid you'd recommend the TDK's .

Gaudy means the top is almost completely red- which makes it nearly impossible to decently label them (with a felt marker or stick-on label).

Mine are normally silver branded ones.

I'm burning a small series with Bach organ music for my father-in-law and they have to look respectable ("seriös" in German). That's why ink-jet printables would be ideal, but I'm leary of CSI media! Do you have any experience with the 90 min. PrimeOn/CSI's?

CSI is the companny who owns MAM-E these days.

And I don't trust MAM-E,CSI and PrimeOn. Compannies who seem to like to hide any real information and only want to abuse propaganda.

True 90 minutes means no overburning is needed which means these work on drives which do not support overburning because there recognized as 90 minutes.

Do you mean that the Lead Out coded in the ATIP is 90 min instead of 79:59:xx ? I'm using a LiteOn LTR-48246S and have had no problem overburning, so that isn't a consideration. In a sense you're always overburning anyway with anything more than 80 min.

Yes the atip is seen as 89:59:xx ? So some drives that can not overburn can burn these because they think there not overburning.

I personally avoid memorex cd-r's

so do I... and Imation and (normally) Philips as well.

You could buy Imation just check if it states made in Luxembourg in that case it's supposed to be made at TDK's factory and should work as TDK.
But do check if it says made in luxembourg.

I don't use much 90 min. media- just tried 1 or 2 occasionally. The 2 SKC's were the best I've found, but that could be a fluke. Verbatim/Ritek (Taiwan) was also pretty good.

Never found a other good 90 minutes disc. All the riteks had quite some C2 errors at higher speeds. (Philips, Traxdata, unbranded ) On cheap ass crappy cd-players it crackled.
And the other 90 min disc's I used were even more horrible !

Maybe keep a eye open for the Imation 90 minutes made in luxembourg.
Don't know the top layer if it's red or silver or what other colour.

[MediumRare]

Thank you very much for your feedback- that was very useful information.

I think I'll go with the Verbatim discs, mainly because they have a white/silver surface. I rescanned one disc I burned 19 months ago and it hasn't changed at all. I bought samples of TDK in 2 stores and a couple more Verbatim (Made in China) and they perform similarly (not quite as good as the older Verbatim)- see KProbe scans. With both media types, one disc had C1_ave ca. 1.5 and the other ca. 0.5. Strangely, the true burning speed was 32x- independent of the chosen speed (32x or 40x).

I also tried another one of my SKC's (had to turn Smartburn off to burn faster than 16x) and it's the best of the lot- but unfortunately I can't get them any more.

G

[Gabe]

I don´t use 90 Min often, but sometimes I use 99 Mins. My best experience I Have with the SKC, working great

[MediumRare]

I don´t use 90 Min often, but sometimes I use 99 Mins. My best experience I Have with the SKC, working great

Where do you get SKC these days? I picked up the ones I have at MediaMarkt (Frankfurt Nordwestzentrum) about 2 years ago and haven't seen them since.

G

[Gabe]

U from FFM? Not far away from me, ca. 50km. I´m from a small village near Aschaffenburg.

I get them in the city-galerie from Aschaffenburg, the price is ok, 25er Cake for 7,99 €

The Media-Markt also have 90/99 Min SKC, but the price is much higher AFAIK

[MediumRare]

OK, I stocked up (a bit) on SKC media. The 25 cake box is 99 min. media (which is cheaper than 90 min , but I don't use them).

What initially bothered me was the packaging: the source was "Mediastar Technology", Hong Kong and not SKC Ltd. in Seoul. But they seem to be the genuine thing: www.skcmedia.com appears on every disc and branding, ATIP and performance are the same as my previous batch (except they're now rated @52x).

Thanks for the tip, Gabe!

G

[RJW]

The scans make me wonder is the 52327S much more picky.
At what speed are these measured. Because most cases setting above 24x means C2 errors on my drive.
Also a CDA-3000 showed also that above 24x things went down hill except for the TDK.

So I wonder was I very unlucky with all my other 90 minutes media or is the 48246S much more forgiving or was it measured at lower speed.

[MediumRare]

I always scan my CD's at maximum. For these 90 min discs, the speed even goes above 52x at the end.

I love my LTR-48246S! It's never let me down. All audio CD's I've burned with it (even some marginal media with C2's in the scans) have played in any CD-player I've tried them in. It's also a better audio ripper (with EAC) than either of my DVD-burners, so maybe it's a better reader than your 52327S.

It's my experience with this drive (and the goodies available like KProbe) that led me to stay with LiteOn when going to a DVD burner. The first one (SOHW-1213S) was not so hot, but does OK @8x and served me for almost 2 years until I picked up a 165P6S, which is a lot better!

G

[RJW]

Well my 53327S was a replacement for the LTR-48246S which died after I really started ussing it.(Same as quite some other folks experienced in the area !)
So maybe your just much more lucky. People allways say that I'm unlucky with optical media.

[dolphinius_rex]

People allways say that I'm unlucky with optical media.

UNLUCKY people say you're unlucky with optical media...