Who Made Your Blank Discs?

You may think that you know what manufacturer made you blank CD or DVD discs, it was  Fujifilm, TDK Electronics, Ritek, Verbatim, Imation, Hewlett-Packard or another recognizable brand. You would be wrong.  In fact, most of this blank media is manufactured by a short list of companies: India’s Moser Baer, Japan’s Ricoh and Taiyo Yuden, and Taiwan’s CMC Magnetics, Prodisc Technology and Optodisc Technology. The major name brands that actually create their own CD’s are Sony and Philips.

Of the manufacturers that actually make the media, Taiyo Yuden is the one recognized as the best, with the highest quality product. Trying to figure out who makes your media is not easy. The best website for talking about the brands and the media and what are some great deals for media online is Digitalfaq.com.

Here is more from the article on Wired… Some media can burn reliably faster than its rated speed. A DVD+R might be rated at 4X burn speed, yet with certain recorders, it can be burned at 8X. The factors that contribute to high- or low-quality media are varied. Several choices are on the market, and which one is used can affect a disc’s reflectivity, and thus its readability. But beyond that, says Pieper, “if your dye is unevenly spread, or the other materials and workmanship are shoddy, it doesn’t matter what dye is used.” Also, Pieper says if the glue job on the platter is sloppy, “the media literally falls apart.”  Taiyo Yuden media stands as the golden child for blank-media enthusiasts. Popular opinion swings the other way for manufacturers such as CMC Magnetics and Princo.