Ive been using these tdk cdr's and the first few burnt great, but now the bottom half of the spindle is riddled with coasters and corrupted data. Is this the media's fault? Or is it that I once used my cdr/dvdr drive to overburn a few disks about a month ago, before that there were no problems.
TDK media is made by CMC mag currently, and almost everyone on this board will tell you that CMC mag is the absolute worst manufacturer of media. So its the TDK's fault most likely since they are not quality. Its hard to find good CD-Rs in retail stores these days, you might have better luck with Maxell or Fuji (especially if they are Made in Japan.) Even Verbatim CD-Rs are CMC mag now. It's a shame.
The last CD-R's I bought a few months back were Maxell from Sam's Club and coded out as Taiyo Yuden. Can't get much better as TY was the pioneer in the CD-R field.
CMC makes Verbatim as well as TDK media. Few people on this board will admit to this because it damages their anti-CMC bias. Most licensed manufacturers of CD-Rs make very good discs these days. Where things are not so good is in the packaging because novices are handling CD-Rs and the veteran workers handle the DVD product. It is possible that overburning damaged a drive; it is also possible that the bottom of the spindle had poor handling. I've seen spindles from factories where the top or bottom spacer was marked "NG," meaning the entire spindle was supposed to rejects and got mixed in with good product. If a trusted disc brand (TY is very good, but the dyes don't last as long as the phthalocyanine dyes used by CMC, Ritek, Prodisc, TDK, and others) also has the same kind of problems, it is possible that the drive is the cause. The least helpful conclusion is to jump to blaming the disc simply because most people on this site hate a factory.
Yeah, I'd say the anti-CMC sentiment is strong here. I've had good and bad experiences with them, and that seems to be the problem: they're not consistent across brands. I have a feeling Verbatim may get CMC's cream of the crop. CMC's rejects which fail Verbatim's quality assurance gets sent to Memorex. Alot of my TDKs stamped CMC and Ritek turned rusty yellow for some reason. I keep all my media in top condition, and I have no idea how it oxidized like that. I've also had problems burning TDKs too, but if you slow down the burn speed, they should be okay.
DogBomb-- Your theory is not possible since Verbatim uses MCC stampers. The molded substrate is the first step in disc production. If any subsequent step produces an unsatisfactory disc, that disc will still have its molded MID code on it. Impurities in the protective lacquer caused the yellowing under flourescent and other types of lighting. It has no effect on the performance of a disc, but it is a cosmetic flaw.
