I can't guarentee what most brands buy, except that: as of 4 months ago or so, I know that memorex was buying grade B CDs, whether that's changed (and which type, as in "platinum", they were marketing them as) I don't know.

Sometimes "S" grade CDs are called A+, they basically are for situations where you need a CD with less then 1% chance of failing. In my experience, I havn't had a CD fail in years (outside of my own fault of course!). Maybe I'm just lucky...but I know a lot of people the same way (shrug)....(by the way, we all only buy CMC...except for 90+min CDs from Ritech/ProDisc).

When I said the black's were more scratch resistant, I meant on the bottom layer (I know, that the bottom layer doesn't really matter THAT much). And that is from customer reports and personal experience. Though I don't rate them any where even close to Mitsui's scratch guard CDs, or even ProDiscs Gold bottom (true gold) CDs.

To be honest, Ritech's new CDs (new to us in the store, so probably a couple months old from factory) arn't that great in my opinion. I've had a couple problems with them in the store (test burning)...and I can say with great confidence that their 90+min CDs arn't even close to as good as ProDisc's...but oh well, it's what we have for now :( The Ritechs can only handle 94-95min and the Prodiscs can handle 99:59min I wouldn't have minded if I hadn't been burning a 97:34min CD at the time I found that out....

Hey, here's a question for anybody who knows. Does Mitsui sell 40x rated 74min CDs with their name brand on it? I've never heard of 40x 74min CDs up until now...but we got a shipment of Mitsui's own brand 74min CDs, and we burn tested one to find out their speed, and it burned perfectly at 40x (audio CD even!). Was it a fluke, or is this likely to be what they're rated at. (normally we're TOLD what they're certified at!) Thanks for any info! :)

(in reply to Mrevenings)

When purchasing Memorex discs (fresh discs) they are now using TY and they are not B discs. I purchase them all the time and they are excellent discs (TY). These I have purchased in various stores in the USA, all produced by TY. There are alot of them out there still produced by CMC (Taiwan) however, at least where I live, they are disappearing quick! These discs are silver bottom discs and excellent for both audio and data.

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Even the botom layer of my ceram guards is way better scratch resistant as my friends black Nashua disc's made by (CMC)
The Hispace Carbon's do come close to the ceram guards however.
Then again.
The Parrot's black magic disc where better as the Nashua's but not as good as te Hispace or the Ceram Guards.
So color says nothing about scratch resistance.

Oh by the way I am doing a little test. I am having some cd's outside(exposed to the "much" sunlight we have here in Holland and the rain) with the same burnt image and these are checked every 2/3 days. To see which will last and which won't last.

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Actually, I have NO idea who makes my Black CD-Rs, maybe somebody can help me? the ATIP is as follows: 97m 16s 06f
I don't know what that translates to, but CD-R Identifier has no idea, and all smart burn can tell me is maybe Memorex....but what FACTORY ARGH! anyways, any help would be a appreciated.

By the way I didn't know CMC made blacks...I'm not Surprised, but we usually get prodisc blacks....but that was an old supplier, now I don't know....actually, I don't even trust the guy who supplies these CDs, because he sold us some gold/gold CD-Rs and told us they were ProDisc, but they are actually Ritek! (I would have preferred ProDisc!)

(in reply to Mrevenings)

I think they are Riteks according to that ATIP.

from my list of ATIPs, they one that matches up closes to it're the Riteks with ATIPs of 97m15s17f

(in reply to Mrevenings)

So if they nearly match does that makes them Ritek !!! [?]

(in reply to Mrevenings)

umm, I don't think they're Ritek, if they were, it would say on CD-Identifier or SmartBurn, Ritek pays their fees to Philips so they get their name on the ATIP :)

(in reply to Mrevenings)

no, but if you look at allt he atips, each manufacturer seems to have a range. take the mitsubishis for example. all of them're 34s with maybe 1 or 2 frames of difference.

There might be an manufacturer with an range in 16s, but the only one that's close that i know of is one in the 15s range.

check the cd with alcohol 120% and see what that shows up. maybe alcohol 120%'ll have a more thorough database.

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Well you had a lucky Guess this time because the

Atip code 97m15s17f is Manufactured By Ritek !!!

57 entries in the data base with this RK IP code.

And they are all From
AOpen
Aro (gold hand GmbH)
CD-talk
ednet
elta
HIGHdenzity
i-b@se
IBM
Lifetec (Medion)
Memorex
Octron
Luggage pool of broadcasting corporations Bell
Philips
PrimeDisc
PRIMEON
Tevion (Medion)
Ultron

But before you make any more Guess'S I suggest you do some research !!!

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Laffin Assassin: Actually, we knew that ATIP was Ritek, that's what Graffitti stated already. The ATIP we DON'T know is 97m 16s 06f. I just checked Alcohol 120% and it doesn't recognize it either :( I used to know a german site that had lot's of info and records of what ATIPs were from where, but I can't find it anymore (WHAHH!!!)

(in reply to Mrevenings)

that's wasn't a mere guess laffin. cause I do have a couple of different brand Ritek discs with 97m15s17f

but the problem is still on which manufacturer does the 97m16s disc exactly belong to.

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Well all I can tell you about them is they have Phthalocyanine Dye !!! And all it comes back with is invalid RK IP code !!!!
And Dolphinius_Rex I have just e-mailed you a site see if this was the one you were looking for !!!

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Dolphinius:

How come in your last post you tell Laffin " We already knew they were Ritek" but your post just above that you say QUOTE "I don't think that' they're Ritek?" You're not making much sense there!

Seems we're trying to get too technical with the discs in here. Most users that visit the forum really want to know what brand of media is best suited for their copying needs, not all the techno stuff that we seem to be hung on for the moment.

The original thread was posted by a NEWCOMER to the forum asking about silver discs and which brands, not all this weird stuff and everyone trying to analyze their media.

To be helpful, let's try to answer the question that someone posts as quickly and easily as possible, without causing confusion in the same course. I appreciate the techno info, but I don't think alot of the regular users seeking info would!

(in reply to Mrevenings)

MP3 Mogul: Please examine the ATIPs there are TWO differnt ones being talked about. The problem is that people keep confusing the two. That's why I retype the info EVERY time I post about that subject. However, people seem to KEEP missing that point. [?]

The Discs in question are: 97m 16s 06f
The Discs that ARE Ritek FOR SURE are: 97m 15s 17f

If you look REALLY closely, you'll see that they are DIFFERENT Discs.
The Whole point IS moot however, since we have recently determined that both Discs are Ritek, Or at least all info seems to point that way. Though we weren't sure at the time that I posted "I don't think they're Riteks".

(in reply to Mrevenings)

I don't think we're still sure or not. I can't find a single info on this 16s06f. Everything site that has some sort of database on ATIP has no idea what so ever.

Let's just classify this one as some unidentifiable object from outer space.

(in reply to Mrevenings)

Let's try to stick to the point of my post above please.

(in reply to Mrevenings)