CD-Rs.. The Lies!!

[Alpha]

The Dutch PC-Active magazine has done an extensive CD-R quality test. For the test the magazine has taken a look at the readability of discs, thirty different CD-R brands, that were recorded twenty months ago. The results were quite shocking as a lot of the discs simply couldn't be read anymore:

 

Roughly translated from Dutch:

 

The tests showed that a number of CD-Rs had become completely unreadable while others could only be read back partially. Data that was recorded 20 months ago had become unreadable. These included discs of well known and lesser known manufacturers.

 

It is presumed that CD-Rs are good for at least 10 years. Some manufacturers even claim that their CD-Rs will last up to a century. From our tests it's concluded however that there is a lot of junk on the market. We came across CD-Rs that should never have been released to the market. It's completely unacceptable that CD-Rs become unusable in less than two years.

 

Credits: Crash Override & http://HavocForums.com

 

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I liked this thread and I thought I should share it. Right now all I am thinking about is the other countries and all they sell is copies of everything that are put on CD-R's. Looks like China, Japan, Germany, and Russia are all gonna go out of business, jk.

[emsley]

Dam my movie colection, i cant handle the thoght that they wont work one day.

I must have about 50 CDs with movies on.

[Gouken]

Wait, this all has an weird ring to it. I burn dreamcast games (as do 70% of this forum) and some of them, not scatched up, have not worked in the past 2-3 weeks. I went on a burning spree about a year ago and made almost every DC game I could find. Now they arent working, could this be related to those tests?

[nicknicknickandnick]

Well, I've always chosen according to "you get what you pay for" and have stuck with what I figure are good brand names and CD-Rs that are described as durable on the manufacturer's websites. You can't be sure though, so back up stuff more than one way to be safer. I bought an external hard drive, for instance. For CD-Rs, I've used Verbatim DataLifePlus, Imation, and Kodak CD-R Ultima 80.

 

Here are links that I found over a year ago:

http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-5

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom...d_quality.shtml

http://www.cdrfaq.org/

[poekie]

boooooh, this sux. How am I going to backup f*cking 400 cd's of backups

 

I think I am going to cry

 

Mmmmmmm, maybe I should put them in a freezer and then they'll stay well?

 

But seriously. This is bad news

Edited September 23, 2003 by poekie

[DreamCastLover]

Wait, this all has an weird ring to it. I burn dreamcast games (as do 70% of this forum) and some of them, not scatched up, have not worked in the past 2-3 weeks. I went on a burning spree about a year ago and made almost every DC game I could find. Now they arent working, could this be related to those tests?

That probably has more to do with CD-Rs wearing out your GD-ROM laser. When you read normal CDRs on a Dreamcast drive, the laser has to read backwards so it puts a lot of stress on it. Over time this kills your drive.

 

You should try various things like using your Dreamcast upside down (no I am not joking) to see if it makes any difference. Eventually you might have to recalibrate your laser but that's only a drastic last measure.

 

It could also of course actually be the CD-Rs but it's best to check all possibilities

[Gouken]

Damn....

 

My laser must be real screwed up then. I've been playing CD-R's since I lost my collection. Well, the recalibrating thing, tell me about it just so I know what to do when the time comes.

[hairytash]

Ive seen CDRs that are about 9 years old of various brands and im happy to report all are still working except 1 which has suffererd minute scratches. Look after them and theyll be fine.

[DreamCastLover]

Damn....

 

My laser must be real screwed up then. I've been playing CD-R's since I lost my collection. Well, the recalibrating thing, tell me about it just so I know what to do when the time comes.

Ok I'll write you a little guide here but first you should try cleaning the lens to make sure that isn't the problem. Use some rubbing alcohol or zippo lighter fluid on a cotton bud (cue tip) and *VERY* gently clean the lense. After that you want to use a new cotton bud and clean it again gently with soft water(eg store bought bottled water) on the bud. This doesn't always solve reading problems but it can, so is worth a try.

 

If that doesn't work then you are going to have to open up your DC What this basically does is increase the intensity of your laser, so your drive should read disks a whole lot better.

 

First step, you want to open up the casing and gently move the laser assembly away from the rotary nub (to the far end of the spindle). Next you should carefully unclip the wires from the outside of the laser mounting assembly, and then flip the assembly over. Next to where the ribbon cable plugs in you will see a pot (potentiometer). This is where the tricky part comes in. You have to drop its resistence down between 50 and 100 ohms. If the potentiometer is glued down, or you just don't own a multimeter then you will have to be extra careful or just ask someone with good experience with electronics to help you.

 

It is pretty risky but if it's your last resort then it's not so bad. Also if you get it wrong you can re-adjust it till you get it right. I still don't think you should try except as a last last last last resort though

[emsley]

Just do it man!

Rip your dreamcast apart :}

[Gouken]

Well my dreamcast still reads everything, just a few games stopped working on it that work on a buddy of mine's dreamcast. Before I do all that im just gonna reburn the 4 games to try and see if it helps. If not....I dunno, might think of that recalibration method.