Re: [ARSCLIST] Personal report of CDRs failing

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Lani Spahr wrote:
> Hello all -
>
> I just received a letter from a colleague and thought I'd pass it on. Has anyone heard of, or know of, the effects that he's reporting to me? I sent him these CDRs about 2 years ago.
>
> Here's the letter:


> My theory is that the faster disks do not burn deeply enough and that the 
> dye changes over time.  According to the CD Rom FAQ article there is also a 
> report that sometimes disks fail *after a few plays*, the playback laser 
> causing further changes in the dye.

We are in familiar territory here. There is an optimal speed for writing 
any medium in any drive. It is most unlikely that that optimum is as 
high (24-32x, quoting the letter) as was used on the failing discs; 
indeed, testing has shown that errors above 16x are such that the 
optimum cannot be so high. It is also unlikely that the optimum would be 
below 4x, but that may be good fortune or discarding of poorly written 
discs when the come from his 21 PCs and assorted standalone drives.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/