Who here uses generic CD-R media?

[BENSONpc]

Is it any good?

[reboot]

I buy whatever is on sale, at whatever store has it.
Lately, I picked up a box of 10 (slimline cases too) for $8.88CDN.
Turns out they're (probably) made by Maxell (they're black), and burn just fine.

[HAL9000]

Same here, I buy whatever is on sale at the time. So far my writer hasn't had any problems with any particular CD's. The only ones that didn't work well in my drive were by Pacific Media, but their CD-RW's worked fine. Around my area, I look for less than $1.00 per CD if in cases, less than $0.70 per CD (CDN $)without cases.

[Cricket]

Hi BENSONpc,

I've been using the generic CompUSA 74 minute 12x CD-R media and they work fine in the Plextor 12/10/32A and 16/10/40A. I've even burned them at 16x with no problems. You can get 100 for $15.00 if you watch the ads carefully. They're made by Ritek.

:) Cricket

[morriswindgate]

I buy nothing but generic CD-Rs and have since my first burner a couple of years ago. To date I have went through somewhere around 4000 of them with no problems which could be caused by the CD-R itself. It's a bunch of hype about all the brand names being better.
One thing is that recently I started burning my music files to the Diamond (Cleaar/Clear) Cd-Rs, they seem to be recognized by more brands of CD players than the Silver/Green or blue. These to are Generics at $32.00 per 100

[BENSONpc]

I just bought a few pieces and would try it tonight with my new sony 8432 burner.

[wedor]

I had purchased a pack of the generic CDR's from CompUSA and have found that they do not stand up well to anything but very careful treatment. The coating is coming off a number of them rendering them useless. Although they only cost me $0.20 each they are worthless if they don't last. I am currently using some of the PNY brand that I picked up on sale at BestBuy, they cost $0.30 each but have a far superior backing and are less prone to self-destructing.

[HackinCowboy]

I just go with whatever is the best deal going on at the time. It's usually Memorex though. CompUSA sometimes has that "Buy a 100pk for $40 and get a $40 rebate" So I buy like 3 of those. Name brand CDRs might have a better protecting coat, but for quality burning it's really the color that makes the difference. I'm not sure which color is the best though. Anyone know?

[Gintaras]

Whoever lives near ODD JOB Store (http://www.oddjobstores.com/)(locations (http://www.oddjobstores.com/odd_job/frame_oddjob_locations.html)), they have Zenith both data and audio CRs and CDRWs pretty cheap, I never had any problems with Zenith CD-Rs, I bought there Zenith audio CDRs a few times.
Never paid yet(except paying tax and postage to mail for rebate) for Data CD-Rs, all times I bought these, was FREE after rebate- in most cases- Imation.

[Aaron2]

Yep, I also BUY CHEAP. I have only had one or two discs 'not burn' in the last year. I use a PLEXWRITER and a HP.

It is very true that the cheaper COMPUSA discs do chip really easily... but for the price I don't care. I dropped a COMPUSA brand at work just a few hours ago and it trashed the disc - nicked the silver off on top of the disc in three places.

One thing that I have noticed is that PLEXWRITER makes a FINE burner. I love this thing! 12/10/32A - fast / QUIET / and only $130 at buy.com a few months ago.

[Cricket]

I haven't been using my CD burner for very long (2 months) and didn't know about the CompUSA generic CD-R's protective coating being so fragile. Good to know...guess I better start handling them a little more carefully.

Costco carries the TDK brand, they put it on sale once in awhile. The protective coating does seem much tougher on those. Media dye color seems the same though.

I've never tried the Office Depot or Office Max brands, but they also seem to have a much better protective coat on them.

Just don't be fooled into buying the "Audio" CD-R's. They're the same as regular CD-R's, but the maker has to pay royalties to the recording industry...that's why they're more expensive.

:) Cricket

[glc]

If you are fussy and cost is not really an object, the most rugged and durable CDR's made are the Kodaks with "Infoguard".

[morriswindgate]

If you want some really top notch media, including colors and Diamond Type go here. They have outstanding service and their media is as tough as nails, at less of a price.

http://www.cd-recordable.com/

[Jenni]

Sometimes I buy the generic stuff if it is a really good deal, but for the most part I stick with the 50 pack of Verbatims in the slimline cases that Sam's Club has for $24.95. That's $0.50 per disc, with cases! They also have a 40 pack in full cases of Verbatim "DataLifePlus" 16x rated discs for $19.95. But then again, I really don't burn all that many CD's, mostly I just make new copies of my software when the kids scratch the old ones up, and an occasional dump of all my files I'd rather not lose if the computer died.