I recently bought two 100 pack sleeves of TDK DVD-R media. I've had very few problems with TDK and discs as old as 2 years still play fine. Previous TDK discs have ID'd as TDK but these new discs ID as CMC Magnetics. I searched the forums and most of the feedback is negative but haven't seen any recent discussions. Is there anyone who has used CMC Magnetics with good results recently? And the few people who have defended CMC products in the past, how have the discs held up? I no longer have my receipt and I actually bought these a couple of months ago, just now opened one. I'm kind of stuck with them unless I give them away. I'm not that worried about making coasters. I rarely have that problem. What I don't want is to try to play a movie a year from now and find out it isn't working.
CMC Magnetics manufactures discs for Verbatim, Imation, HP, Philips, TDK, Memorex, and sometimes Maxell and Fuji, among others. Despite being the largest disc manufacturer in the world--or because of it--CMC is often neglected by some drive manufacturers when they write their firmware defining write strategies for optical media. In those cases, if the CMC M-code is not recognized, the drive may: 1) use a default write strategy and hope for the best; or 2) refuse to recognize the drive (or claim it is "invalid" or "defective" or "dirty"); or 3) limit the write speed to slower rates that have wider jitter/error/signal thresholds than the faster speeds.
In those cases where a drive is compatible with CMC Magnetics' M-code, the recording quality is generally very good these days. (Two years ago it was far more common to find the effects of production problems in CMC discs; the factories are much better these days.) The azo-cyanine dyes used for the recognized brand names provides a level of stability similar to that of other azo dyes.
In those cases where a default strategy has "worked" and the disc plays back without apparent problems, the recording quality may be so poor that the high level of errors creeps above a player's error correction in a few months or so. This has led many people to claim that the discs are unstable; but that would only be true if one knew for certain that the original recording had very low levels of jitter and PIE/PIF/POF errors--something seldom checked. On the other hand, the default write strategy may be suitable for the discs. The variability of results often leads people to claim that the "quality is variable," but without determining the drive/firmware/M-code combination, it is not possible to draw a proper conclusion.
TDK is very protective of its reputation, and the group includes excellent engineers. TDK developed the protective coating required by Blu-ray discs to keep them from being confined to a caddy and from being easily scratched. They know what they are doing. I have a great many test discs that show excellent recording quality and more than adequate environmental stability. CMC Magnetics' discs are among them, but they have been recorded on drives that are tuned for them. Most, and maybe all, of the negative responses posted here and elsewhere have been due to incompatibilities of the drive and the CMC disc used. When complaining posters mention their drive and its firmware, in every case I have seen, there is a known incompatibility. And despite the possibilities of real quality problems with older production, I have only read two complaints that describe a true quality problem.
Your drive recognizes TDK's M-code, and you have gotten good results. That does not mean that it will do the same with CMC's M-code even though CMC made the TDK discs and Verbatim's discs. Try a couple of TDK discs with the CMC M-code and check them with a scan. If they work, your drive is suited for them. (There are other brands, typically "store" and "no-name" brands, that also use CMC production using CMC M-codes; but these can be lower cost rejects from TDK/HP/Imation/Memorex/Philips testing. CMC does hurt itself by selling off B-grade discs to brands that either do not care or that have no internal testing programs. That is a legitimate quality complaint.)
Thank you very much for such an extensive reply. I've burned one of the CMC discs and scanned it and it looks okay. Will watch it on DVD player tonight just to make sure it plays okay in the living room. If they all start skipping in about a year I'll let you know.
I've gotten some good burns with Mermorex branded CMC MAGs recently. Not quite as error free as my vebatims or tys according to scans with cd/dvd speed but in the ninety's and they seem to play fine.
I just went back through my backups specifically looking for these discs this evening and found only 3 out of a cake box with 5 left. Either I gave the rest away or the burns had failed. The ones I found rescanned fine with little increase in errors reported (I have the original scans). Its quite possible that the firmware for my burners (mainly lite-on) has finally arrived at a decent way to burn the CMC MAGs.
My DVD player usually freezes & pixillates on CMC media that I've gotten from other people of PD TV shows. I fixed the problem by ripping the disc to the HD then burning it to a TY disc. Played perfect. No I don't usually buy CMC media for DVDr's. I do have a 25 pack of Imation (CMC) 8x that I'm using in a Magavox DVD recorder thats hooked up to my cable DVR. They play back perfect in the DVD player as well as the recorder itself. Now whether the movies will still play OK in a year is a different story that only time will tell.
It's interesting that the alot of the people over at cdfreaks don't have the negative feel toward CMC MAGs as here. Haven't they seen/experienced degradation of the burned discs or is there another reason? Are there different dye formulations and/or quality control specs for CMC MAGs between the US and the other side of the pond? Reason I ask it that there seems to be less US members on 'freaks as here (or they don't 'share' as much).
Originally posted by hobbit112: It's interesting that the alot of the people over at cdfreaks don't have the negative feel toward CMC MAGs as here. Haven't they seen/experienced degradation of the burned discs or is there another reason?
The majority of people on CDFreaks are far more expert at evaluating media quality, and don't go around bashing in the hysterical manner you often see here. Most of them understand the nuances of CMC's overall quality in the exact same way as JoeRyan has pointed out. CMC is considered to be one of the most stable manufacturers of disks on the market, with rare cases of any degradation. All of that is myth that you only hear places like here.
And as for the number of CDFreaks members that are in the U.S or North America, quite a large majority of us are. The difference is that it's an international forum, so you're going to get opinions coming from all over the world. If you think the majority of CDFreakers are from outside North America, you haven't been paying close enough attention.
