Hi Michael, Burning to disk is rarely a problem. The issue is how long will that data remain accessible. They (the disks) *will* degrade over time. The degree and speed with which they degrade varies qith the quality of the disk. A lot of cheap stuff (especially CD-RW) is on the market because a large part of the business comes from redundant back-up. If you only need the data to be accessible for a couple days or weeks, no problem.
The real problem arises for the "typical" consumer who wants to store personal pictures and music on CD for, say, 20-30 years. Bottom-line: what's "your need". Check out these sites for more info than you likely bargained for: http://www.cdrfaq.org/ http://top40.about.com/library/weekly/aamp3cdquestions.htm?iam=sherlock_abc http://peripherals.about.com/library/weekly/aa041701a.htm?iam=sherlock_abc Start with that last one first. As well, the following was given to me a while back, but it may be out of date by now: Avoid any hybrid dye products. There are only 3 types of CD-Rs: 1 Azu (blue) dye (Verbatim patent), 2 Cyanine (green) dye (Taiyo Yuden patent), and 3 Phthalocyanine (gold stabilized clear) dye (Mitsui patent). All other CD-Rs, no matter whose name is on it, are either OEMs or hybrids of these three dyes. All dyes EXCEPT Phthalocyanine are unstable (read, moving). Although your recorder/app may verify the write session, the unstable dye may have created a less-than-accurate cut causing unreadable playback. Nothing you can do about this once the CD-R is burned. Don't use CD-RWs for archiving. This is a mutant. In other words, there IS no "color" book (world standard) to the CD-R spec. It may re-write 500 times, or just 5 times. It may readback today, but not tomorrow. This stuff is spooky. HTH On Tue, 25 May 2004, Michael Levin wrote: > I need to burn several CDs of pictures, music and documents on my PB G4 with > Superdrive. I thought about getting a stack of 50 at Staples, but my friend > who was with me said those CDs are junk. He recommended Imitation. > > I have never burned CDs. Is there are a good brand or bad brand on the > market? How good are the CDs at Sam¹s? Is there anything I need to know > before starting this task? My friend say I simply pop the blank CD into the > Superdrive, select the music, pictures or documents and click Burn. Is it > really that easy? > > Thank you for any advice or words of wisdom. > > Michael > > > -- Non Illegitimi Carborundum -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
