Technical Question About CDrs

[Seth]

Hullo all. Thought I'd float this question here - everyone of my meatspace and Bang the Bore forum acquaintance who I'd expected to know the answer to this has drawn a blank.

I'm going to be starting a CDr label soon, but I want to avoid the pitfall of many CDr labels - that their discs don't play on all players. It's been a bugbear of mine for a long time. Most of my listening is done in the car (by necessity, due to having a baby daughter and sharing my house with three other adults who don't share my tastes), but a hell of a lot of CDrs just won't play. Another Timbre's do; Irritable Hedgehog's don't; and almost none of the burned discs that my local mates' DIY endeavours produce will work. Whereas pretty much everything plays on my Bose and Technics players at home.

What is making the difference here? Why do some work while others don't? If I go to a local company, what should I specify to guarantee that my discs always work?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Moon]

I think this would come down to cd+r and cd-r problems. Basically, +r and -r are different standards and your car's stereo is unable to play one of them (most likely -r). If your friends or Irritable Hedgehog are trying to save some money on cdr's, they might have gone with the cd-r as it's cheaper.

Most players are able to read both, but if they aren't then +r is the one they play as it was considered the "winner" of the little +r vs. -r war. Or -r, is it's an older one. Basically, you can't win'em all.

Another problem with compatibility is for discs that have extended size, like 800mb.

[RFKorp]

I think this would come down to cd+r and cd-r problems. Basically, +r and -r are different standards and your car's stereo is unable to play one of them (most likely -r). If your friends or Irritable Hedgehog are trying to save some money on cdr's, they might have gone with the cd-r as it's cheaper.

Most players are able to read both, but if they aren't then +r is the one they play as it was considered the "winner" of the little +r vs. -r war. Or -r, is it's an older one. Basically, you can't win'em all.

Another problem with compatibility is for discs that have extended size, like 800mb.

This is nonsense. There was such a battle in dvd-r formats. not cd-r. though there was a period where there was such a thing an an audio-cdr (as opposed to one designed for data) that would work as a direct dubbing device to replace tape. I haven't seen those for sale in forever though.

Mostly it comes down to a combination of factors. The age of the player, the speed at which the discs are burned, and the quality of the media. You can only control two of the three obviously. But if you use discs known to be of better quality (I feel like Taiyo Yuden is still the standard even though TDK owns them now. Is Mitsui still around? ) and burn slow and verify the burns. You've got pretty good odds of success in this regard.

[Moon]

Really?
How did I just mix a cd and a dvd??

Anyway, the last part about the 800mb cd-r's is still valid. And car stereos are more sensitive to burning issues.

..Could swear I remember having to choose between buying cd-r and cd+r at some point

Edit: They used the +R on cds to indicate multisession discs.

[RFKorp]

Edit: They used the +R on cds to indicate multisession discs.

really? In what country? Weird.

Around the US, I only remember those ever being called CD-RWs

And yeah. Moon's right. Don't use 800MB CD-Rs for music. (sidebar: They still make those?) I think I've seen 700MB discs too. don't use those either.
I have no idea whether the default standard is still 650MB or if those are a weirder commodity nowadays. But they're the perfect size for a redbook-standard 74 minute-maximum album.

[Seth]

These are much more useful answers than I was getting elsewhere. Thanks chaps!

Simon still uses Taiyo Yuden for Another Timbre releases, that seems to be the way to go. He's been very happy with them.

[snailed]

i've generally heard Taiyo Yuden regarded as tops in the CD-R department from some trusted people.

as far as their reputation with other media (DVD-R, BD-R) i can't say. i know that with BD-R they are considered mid-tier.