Optimum CD-R's?

[Intimidator]

Not too long ago Staples and a few other places had these Optimum CD-R's in packs of 100. I have heard that people have had no problems with these disks or they are compatible with their burner. They are made by CMC, which is a company that gets shot down quite a bit on various forums that I have seen. They use the phthalocyanine type 6 dye and have a silver top. However holding them up to the light and looking through the opaque area on the top you can see through them. This makes me very uncertain if they really have a very thin top layer which is the critical layer for data survival.

I would like to here feedback from anyone that know any info about these CD-R's and the CMC company.

Is CMC really that bad compared to several other factories and if so what is your source of information.

Thanks

[Action Jackson]

This is just me, but I've never had problems with any media used. My errors were b/c of the burner or the way I burned the CD.

The only exception with bad media for me was a 24x 650mb Plasmon CDRW and a 700mb 10x Princo CDRW.

CMC has never given me any problems since 1998. However, if I wanted something burned to "be around" for awhile, I would definitely use Taiyo Yuden, Kodak, Ritek and yes, even CMC in that order.

[TCAS]

For the past 3 months I have been using both Optmum 32X and 48X from Staples without any anticipated problem. As a matter of fact both disk are being burnt at 52X with my Lite-On 52x24x52x. The quality of burning both for data and audio have been excellent and flawless.

[cd pirate]

no CMC is without a doubt the worst. you are right about them having a thin recording layer. the layer sucks and if its durability your looking for, do not put any trust in this media whatsoever. the poor people who replied and said good things about CMC have no idea what they are talking about (no offence to you fellas). TRUST me CMC make unpredictable low quality media that may happen to burn fine sometines but always suck when it comes to durablility.

[BillyG]

TRUST me CMC make unpredictable low quality media that may happen to burn fine sometines but always suck when it comes to durablility.

"Unpredictable" is a good word to descrbibe CMC media.

The 32x-50x speed CMC's might be better, but I still have BAD memories of their crappy 4-to-16x media. I'd buy a 10 pack of CMC made media (Imation, Samsung, Hi-Val, Hotan) and I could only get 4 to burn - usually at the lowest speed. I got ripped off so many times by CMC I wont buy them anymore.

When you can get quality Tayio Uden media (Fujifilm) for low low prices at Best Buy and other superstores why buy Cheaply Made Crap??

CMC are cranking these CD-Rs out so fast I dont think they do any quality control.

[TheWizard]

I like CMC, and I've never had a problem with their media. This, of course, is just my opinion.

[Action Jackson]

Let's not forget there are other manufacturers out there too.

Verbatim DataLifePlus and Mitsubushi Chemicals and many others.

The general consensus is that CMC isn't good, at least according to
http://forums.afterdawn.com -> CDR Media section.

Remember when the early Riteks were bad too?

A friend of mine thought that Kodaks were bad since his batch started "peeling" or "delaminating". Kodaks failures are rare to say the least.

With everything - your milage may vary.