Facts About Ordinary
CDs and DVDs

Most people would agree that they have experienced problems with CDs and DVDs at one time or another. Whether it was from scratches or abrasion or they just didn't record or play after you know you have recorded something on them.

When office networks became more commonplace and companies began installing LANs and WANs (Local Area Networks and Wide Area Networks), a method for backing up the entire system needed to be installed. Usually, this consisted of a backup tape that someone needed to change daily and/or weekly.

But, even magnetic tape backup systems would fail from time to time.vWhen CDs became more prominent and popular, people began backing up their own data on CDs just in case the tape backup system didn't network correctly and get the most recent revisions from a workstation.

Have you ever bought a pack of CDs or DVDs and every once in awhile you came across one that for whatever reason just wouldn't record anything? And then, came across some that said they recorded your data, only to find later that the disc still appeared blank? Yet, at that point, even though it appeared blank, it read as though you had already recorded on it, only to have to discard yet another disc. That was the point where you and I both began to feel that CDs and/or DVDs were not as reliable as we once thought they were. I mean, isn't a disc just a disc? Aren't all discs created equal?

The truth is, most DVDs and especially CDs lost their value early on. Back when CDs were first introduced, they were practically giving them away with new computer purchases just like Microsoft WindowsTM.  Back then, if you bought a new computer with a CD player/burner, you may have gotten a coupon for free CDs or a discount on a particular brand of CDs with your computer purchase (nowadays most computers come standard with a dvd player/burner).

I know that the disc industry frowns on my telling you this, but for years now, you and I have been buying a mixture of grade A, B, and even grade C discs from the local office supply store and especially cheap discs online. But, the truth is the truth and that's what happens. The manufacturers began mixing the great with the good and the bad in order to keep their costs down and to get the general public accustomed to using CDs.

Now that CDs and even DVDs have become "the norm" for recording music, images, photos, and even home videos, people are becoming more aware that somewhere there has to be a better product to store all of these things.

So, here's the jist of all of this. Bad discs are bad simply because they are bad. They are manufactured in mass production runs and at the end of these runs, the stamper die which includes the silver metal layers, the media dye, and the plastic substrate that the disc is attached to, are not pressed as accurately as the those in the beginning of the production run.

In order to save money and in order to make a "complete run" most manufacturers considered 500,000 to be the threshold. Which means that the last 200,000 or so, would be less effective than the first 100,000.

In 2007, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) created a new disc, which we call the Century Disc. This disc is not only fine-tuned to be accurate every single time you use it, it has so many features that I almost have to write a book about it.

The Century Disc has ultra-precise groove tracking simply for one reason. MKM did a lot of testing over the years and decided that 25,000 discs per production run is the threshold where they feel the stamper die begins to lose its near-perfect impression power.

Every manufacturer has to use a machine that "stamps" the metal layer and the media dye on the substrate (the plastic part of the disc). The difference is in how well the stamper die is manufactured, the media dye being used, and the recording layer (which is usually silver or a semimetallic form of silver or alloy).

The machine presses each substrate at a high rate of speed and stamps each disc like a cookie cutter. Each time it presses a disc, it creates pits and grooves on the recording surface. These are the areas the laser writes your data to. If you have a misprint like an offset penny or coin, then you can relate to this analogy and how important it is to get it right from the start.

If the average or ordinary CD or DVD is manufactured at the rate of a half-a-million or more at a time, using the same stamper die/press, and at the end of that run you end up with a mixture of A-rated, B-rated, and C-rated discs all boxed together, how can you tell which of these discs will be good or bad? You can't tell by looking at them, you just have to take your chances, throw some away, hope that the ones you have recorded to are good ones and end up with at least 10% or more being trash.

Until the Century Disc came along, that's the way it was. With the Century Disc, only 25,000 discs are manufactured per stamper die run. Which means, even though you may pay a little more for a more precise and more accurate disc, you get the peace of mind in knowing that every disc you use is dead-on accurate. No worries about whether or not your presentation, video, critical data, or even your photo images are actually on your disc.

The peace of mind to me, is worth the extra cost. I hate it when I used to think that I backed up my files onto a disc, deleted those files from my hard drive (assuming I had them on disc), and later found that I no longer had those files because they were nowhere to be found.

You get the idea. Have you ever had to copy your files, whether photos, data, etc. more than once? I'm sure if you've used discs for any length of time, you have already experienced this problem. I look at what my time is worth and realize that I would rather buy an expensive disc that I can count on each and every time then to buy cheap discs only to re-record something I thought I had already recorded.