Originally posted by: pigseye2
OK, I gotta ask. Why does it matter?
How much better could the Japanese CD-Rs be than the ones made in Taiwan?
Honest answer? They aren't - not any more.
It used to be, that Ritek, CMC, and most other Made in Taiwan (or anything other than Made in Japan/USA, and sometimes Mexico (Kodak plant)), were crap-on-toast CD-Rs. Topcoat layer flaking/peeling, pre-groove with so many errors and defects that drives had trouble tracking, uneven dye-layer application, etc.
Back in the day, Kodaks (p-cyanine), Mitsubishi Chemicals (metal azo), and T-Y (cyanine), were the best-made discs of their respective types.
These days, actually, Ritek discs have improved markedly in quality, so much so, that recently, Ritek's higher-quality line of 48x discs, actually tests out better, in terms of lower errors, than 48x Fuji T-Y media. Plus, they are p-cyanine instead of cyanine, which is supposed to have better overall longevity. I personally prefer the Mitsubishi metal-azo media for the longest-term archival stuff, and they have proven to me to have the highest playback compatibility with everything. Unfortunately, they aren't made any more, and my stock is dwindling.
But I would now much rather find high-quality Ritek media on sale, instead of T-Y. But T-Y is still good, to be sure.
You can find high-quality Ritek media in Maxell and certain TDK retail packages. Maxell "Pro" CD-Rs are also T-Y, as are their "Music" CD-Rs.
Originally posted by: pigseye2
For everyday use like game copying, so my kids (all under the age of 8) don't trash the originals, I really don't care that much about CD-R "quality." I'l'l just burn another.
Hmm. Well, I've burned some backups of PS2 games, and even on a finicky older PS2 unit that woudn't accept any copies made on other media types, the high-quality Riteks worked beautifully. Memorex ProDisc and some others wouldn't work at all. It turns out that they did finally work on a different, newer, PS2 unit, but that proves the higher quality and compatibility of the good-quality Ritek media. I've also burned some backups of PSX games, on Fuji T-Y media, that wouldn't boot at all, but would, after burning at 8x to 52x-rated Memorex CMC media. Go figure. The T-Y discs visibly "vibrate" in the PSX's drive. They seem warped. (They were from the new-style Fuji T-Y spindle packaging too, these aren't old discs.)
Originally posted by: pigseye2
Also, I've bought a bunch of different manufacturers of CD-Rs and have not noticed any more coasters from one brand to the next. Am I missing something?
Well, creating a "coaster" while burning, with most drives nowadays that support burn-proof, is a thing of the past. Overall, the media has gotten much better too, in order to support higher-speed drives. In the "bad old days", with uneven dye layers and defective pre-grooves, it wasn't unusual for a drive to report a "track following error" while burning, or a "power calibration error", both of which are primarily caused by poor-quality media. Most strictly "buffer underrun" errors are due to system/software issues. So creating a coaster, or not creating a coaster, really doesn't say anything about the quality of the media, unless it's really, really bad, bad enough that the burner can't even track it. Compatibility and certain error-rate testing tools can tell you a lot more. I use CDDoctor along with a Sony/Lite-On drive, to test for C1/C2 error counts after burning.