I would think with all this bad media the general public would be up in arms about it. How come only techno-geeks are the only ones who know about all the bad media?
I can only speculate that it is possible that until recently most people used CDs to burn audio and that when a disc had some bad sectors it resulted in popping and skipping and nobody paid attention. Some people backed up their computer to disc but few ever needed the backup files.
Now with DVDs on the scene more people will be putting their home movies and pictures on DVD. Maybe after enough people loose their precious memories the public will react and disc manufacturers will be forced to produce better quality.
I am just guessing at all this and would like to hear what you guys think.
"Now with DVDs on the scene..."???? Dude, are you stuck in 2000? :)
In answer to your question, for the most part anyone who does substantial burning, whether it be cd, dvd, or blu-ray, figures out very early on in the game that good media are important. Googling takes no time at all and you end up at helpful forums like Afterdawn where you can easily get tips on what works and what doesn't. This isn't specific to "techno-geeks," it's common sense for anyone figuring out how to do something new.
If you're getting lots of pops and clicks in audio cds you're either burning too fast, using your computer to do too many other things during the burn process, or have a crappy burner. The only times I've ever had that problem, many years ago when I actually burned audio cds, was when I burned too fast. Yes, cheap media can be a cause, too, but I used the cheapest junk out there and had successful burns almost always. Most people here have been burning cds for over a decade and will likely tell you the same thing. Of all the optical media types quality is probably least important when it comes to cds, IMO. Stick with TY and Verb for your video stuff if you don't want to go through endless trial and error. Get a quality burner, make sure you've got a good computer with plenty of RAM, and generally learn about what you're doing. IMO bad media exist because casual users don't know any better and don't give a damn in the first place.
