Blank CD's and DVD's Part Two

In the last blog, I pointed out two very important facts regarding blank CD's and DVD's...one is that the big name companies who put their names on blank media are almost always not the original manufacturers...and two...big name companies are always changing manufacturers. I made it sound like it is a crap-shoot going to a store and buying blank media. And that is exactly what it is. You never know what you are going to bring home.

That is no way to do business if longevity of your files, photos, and music are important to you. But, there is an answer. There are two good manufacturers that will give you peace of mind when it comes to your backups.

The first one is expensive. These are CD's and DVD's made by Mam-a using a formula originally created by Mitsui.. Their disks are very special in that they use 24K gold in their manufacturing process. Their CD's have a rated life of 300 years and their DVD's are rated for 100 years. They also have an excellent silver-based media which was used for quite some time by Kodak for manufacturing their disks (Kodak, which had a great reputation for high quality media, is no longer making blank media).

Their gold CD's range in price from $1.50 to $2.00 each, depending on quantity purchased. Their gold DVD's are about $3.00 each. The silver CD's are around a $1 each, as are their silver DVD's. As I said, this is not a cheap solution, but it may be arguably the best.

The second manufacturer that will give you incredible quality at a much cheaper price is Taiyo-Yuden. They actually invented the CD-R all those years ago. Their disks are manufactured in Japan and sold under their own name. They also manufacturer disks for other companies. I once bought a package of Fuji DVD's and found them to be manufactured by Taiyo. No guarantees that today's Fuji's would be of the same manufacture.

The one thing that I didn't mention yesterday was that in the manufacturing process, a few unscrupulous manufacturers of blank, unreliable disks have forged their products to read that they are made by Taiyo-Yuden. One way to tell if a disk is a forgery is if the disks read that they are Taiyo's, but are not made in Japan.

So, for us, this means we must find a reliable dealer who sells genuine Taiyo's. Fortunately, there is such a place. Several articles I have read all point to one place to purchase genuine Taiyo's...the on-line Supermedia Store, based in Southern California. I have been dealing with them myself for well over a year and found them to offer good prices and great service. They also have good sale prices every so often. I heartily recommend them for your backup media.

Taiyo blank CD's and DVD's run from about 25 cents to 50 cents depending on several different factors. They due have a "value line" as well as "premium" line. I have read several comments by users and most cannot tell the two lines apart. Since their is so little difference in price between the two lines, you could just stick with the premium line.

As far as other lines of blank DVD media are concerned, Imation is a good product. I recently scanned an Imation disk made over 6 years ago and it is still in good shape. And some of the high-end TDK's are still made by TDK. But, I have simplified my life by just ordering Taiyo-Yuden disks from the SuperMedia Store and everything has worked out just fine.

I hope these blogs have been helpful to you. For more reading on this subject, check out the following Web links:

The Best Blank DVD Media
The Myth of the 100 Year CD-ROM
CD and DVD Longevity
How to Choose CD and DVD Archival Media
How to Tell Fake from Real Taiyo Yuden