Will any blank cd do for copying a music cd?

decbuck

Will any blank cd do for copying a music cd?

or do I need a special one

Agent Smith

cant see why it shouldnt work...

Sleipnir

Stealing is wrong

(source: Jesus)

Optikus

Sleipnir wrote:

Stealing is wrong

(source: Jesus)

lol... true a blank CD is usually best for copying CDs... bit of a no brainer really.

fletch

decbuck wrote:

Will any blank cd do for copying a music cd?

I take it you meant to say for backing-up my cd, isn't that right

radiospan

Just don't use a CD-RW, it probably won't play in most audio CD players.

Sleipnir

ah they do these days. Only auld cd players wouldn't be able to play a CDRW.

smileyrecords

yes make sure its not the cheap cd tho the RUST after a few years

Optikus

smileyrecords wrote:

yes make sure its not the cheap cd tho the RUST after a few years

alternatively store them in a house or any other dry, sheltered place.

Syth

plazzTT wrote:

Just don't use a CD-RW, it probably won't play in most audio CD players.

They probably will paly. It's use that CDRWs are dearer than the write-one CDRs...

sceptre

fletch wrote:

I take it you meant to say for backing-up my cd, isn't that right

Legally it's the same thing so well, it's pointless putting on a backing up excuse. Besides, he could be making a copy of his own music and good luck to him with his music career.

Yeah, any will do - you only need those special audio blanks if you're using it in a standalone audio copier (and there aren't all that many people who bother with one of those)

I've used Dixons/PCWorld/Currys own PC Line brand for quite a while and found them fine. My latest bunch is a nice tub of Imations and they're rather good. Tempted to try out the BENQ ones next.

decbuck

What about memorex? 100 spindle for 25 with elara, and no postage cause I work near them


Will cheaper cdr's loose quality over a number of years.

jessy

Maybe over a few years they might looses some quality, but just recopy them, befour they do.

test999

Cheaper CD's will not loose their quality over the years, HTH.

tribble

SOME CD-R's have (according to some Dutch consumer magazine) corroded - even when kept in IDEAL conditions.

CD-RW's are probably best for long term storage - but as metioned above they have some playback problems with older CD players.

I use DVD+RW's for archival due to their error correction and themoptical nature.

tribble

Linky

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/01/cdrs_deliver_degrading_experience/

tribble

I suppose I sholuld mention that I would use DVD-RAM or MO given the choice

Inspector Gadget

[Edit: Took me so long to write this, others have said the same thing (more or less). Oh well...]

Eh, yes and no. Technically, as long as they're not scratched, they burned without errors, and they can still be read completely, no, they don't "lose quality", at least in data fidelity terms; this is the double-edged sword that is digital audio: consistent quality, but will probably never completely match the quality of a brand-new analogue recording. But hey, most of us simply don't care as it's good enough for most needs.

However, most write-once CDs use an organic dye as their storage layer, which can degrade with time (anything organic is liable to this anyway; the difference between the "good ones" and the "bad ones" is whether it's in months or years).

In addition, some CDs suffer from a rather nasty interaction between the glue holding the whole thing together (a CD is basically a polycarbonate "sandwich") causing discolouration of the written layer and (in extreme cases) the CD to literally fall apart at the seams (again, this is unlikely to happen to "good ones", or at least at the same speed).

Audio CDs are a special case here. Because the data is uncompressed, audio CD players can (and do) "fluff" bits of the track they can't read (after trying ECC error correction first) with interpolated values (in other words, they guess based on the data either side of the gap) so as not to interrupt the flow of playback - this is how audio CD players deal with big gobs of dust and scratches. This does in fact mean that you're not getting the original fidelity of the recording (and why I love EAC's "secure mode").

The best CDs to buy for archival storage use a thin layer of gold (or silver, though as silver is prone to corrosion gold sounds like a safer bet) as their storage layer; however, even these are only given an (estimated) 30 years or so - the reason this is an estimate is that CD-R's haven't existed that long yet . "Standard" (read: cheaper to produce) organic dye-based discs are only expected to last about five. If you can keep your CDs in a cool, dry, dark place in such a way that the burned surface doesn't touch anything, you may even exceed this; but for most day-to-day use of CDs, you run the risk of premature problems.

Hope this helps,
Gadget

tribble

Should also mention that DVD's, unlike CD's (as Gadget correctly pointed out) , don't have the dye layer on the back of the disk - but rather in the middle(ish)