CD-R, Golds vs. Silver, etc.

[overand]

Alright, I know there have been CD-R threads here before, but the last one more or less dissolved into a quasi-flamewar about the speed of the duo CD drive.

What I want to talk about here are issues with burned CDs on the TG-CD.  I've had extremely varied experience with trying to get burned CDs to load on my TG-CD.  The game I've been experimenting with almsot exclusively is the 3-in-1, and yes, I'm using an Arcade Card Pro w/kisado adapter, and I *have* gotten the game to load, and normal TG-CD games work fine.

So- my first attempts at burning the 3-in-1 were made on standard silver CD-R discs, Maxell brand if I remember correctly.  I burned first at 48x, and had no luck loading the disc.  I then stepped down to 8x (the minimum speed my burner allows) and still had no luck.  (I've heard reports of some systems not properly reading discs burned at higher speeds; this is probably due to a difference in the contrast of the dye due to a shorter time being exposed to the laster)  This didn't work, so I tried another brand of CD-R.  Burning at 8x with an IBM CD-R worked, more or less.  The disc appears to be a 'gold' from the top, but I think it may jsut be dyed yellow.  The bottom is a yellowish green, as opposed to the blueish green from the previosu discs.

So "sort of?" you might ask.  The disc loaded, though a bit slowly (admittedly I was used to load times on the duo, which we have established are slightly better due to a faster laser seek time).  The disc worked well, CD-audio and all.  However, as time went on, the performance degraded, the disc took longer to load, the delay between the spotlight and the applause was longer, etc.  At first I was worried, but then I attempted to play a normal disc (Ys books I and II) and it worked flawlessly.  Sure, I imagine my player may have degraded slightly, but it still works quite alright.  So, the question I have here is:

What experience does everyone have here with *specific brands* of CD media, and what burn speeds do you all use?  In many cases I've heard reports of GOLD discs reading more consistently in different players (CD-Audio) than the cheaper silver discs.  This could be the case here.  I would *love* to get some RICOH CD-R discs, but apparently they no longer make that media.  Very disappointing.  Do any of you even know where I can purchase high quality gold CD Media these days?  I'm having a hard time finding anything other than bulk spindles of silver discs with a thin coating on top.  Help, guys!

[Bake]

I burned Ys IV on a memorex silver music cd-r and the thing has worked great.  It doesn't load any harder than any other cd game I own.  I do remember that I burned it very slowly probly around 8x.  So I dunno, these cd r's are a mystery

[GUTS]

Does Ritek make CDRs?  I know they are ACE for PS2 DVDRs, probably the best brand out there.  I've had limited luck with memorex and fujifilm on really low speeds (4X or under if possible).  I remember using Mitsui brand a LONG time ago (like back in 98-99) to burn Dracula X and Macross and they worked flawlessly, but I can't seem to find that brand anymore.

[NFERNO1]

Office Depot discs are made by Ritek, so they do make CDR's. A lot of burning TG discs also has to do with what program you use. I've used Clone CD in the past with no problem, but nowadays I use either Nero, or Alcohol. Burning over 8x isn't good, and as long as your CDR's are some name brand, they should be fine. The plain-jane silver tops stink for anything, so avoid those. If everything works like it should, then what brand you use shouldn't make a difference. I've used and traded CDR's for some years now, getting all sorts of disc brands, and they've always worked fine in my TGCD system.

[GUTS]

^^ I think the TGCD is much better at playing CDRs than a Duo, I used to have a TGCD a few years back and it would play all my CDRs.  My Duo on the other hand is what gives me grief when I try different brands of CDRs and different burning methods.

[overand]

So it's worth noting that the burners I've been using are DVD/CD combo drives, and all of them have really high min speeds (at least as reported by nero) so I'm not sure I even *can* burn below 8x.  I'll try tracking down some name-brand discs.  Still wish I could get ricoh gold CDRs still, those were great.  Sigh.

[D-Lite]

You're best off burning at 2x, no higher than 4x.

This has much less to do with disc type than it has to due with error correction.  The Duo or TGCD ain't so good at error correction and the more errors your disc has, the worse it'll be.  Burning at lower speeds minimizes the amount of errors in the burn process.  

Get yourself a burner that can handle lower speeds.  And if you want to love you CD playing Turbo of any kind, don't play burns.  It's not good no matter how good the burn is.  Play them on MagicEngine.

[dj898]

lucky I still have PowerMac dating back from 97 with Yamaha burner... :p
by the way does Kodak still makes that gold disc? I bought carton full of 'em years ago and now pretty much used them all thanks to missus converting our CD into MP3 so you can burn them back into CD-R for playing on her car...