At 07:04 AM 02/20/2001 Paul Tiwana wrote:
>"Gold / blue / green colored cd-r's are good for data and audio
>Silver colored cd-r's are also good for Data but they are the best for
>audio because the reflection is higher."
>
>I m totally confused with this concept of color disks.
>As Silver coded is good enough for both data and audio, why bother for others
>Are silver colors are not the ones that came first in the market.....?


Paul:

It's not so much the "color" of the dye but the "type" of dye. All dyes are
supposed to comply with the Orange Book specifications, but every company
develops and patents their own dyes, which results in the variety of dyes
and their colors. The dye layer combined with the reflective layer (24K
gold or a silver-colored alloy), gives the apparent "color" of the disk.

In the beginning, cyanine dye CDRs had a greenish color, the original
gold/green CDRs. When pthalylocyanine dye came out it appeared silver.
Metallazo dyes are a deep blue. Another company invented gold/gold CDs.
Verbatim makes silver/blue CDRs; Silver/silver discs are based on a
different formulation of phthalocyanine dye. And so on...  Technology,
competition, manufacturing improvements and profits also drive CDR
development.

Not all blue or gold or silver or green CDRs are created equal to their
identically-colored brethren...  Just like the paint on a Porsche may be
better than the same color paint on a Mazda, dyes of the same color may not
perform alike when "burnt" by your CDR's laser or scanned by a CDROM reader
or player.

So, you are better off paying attention to the MANUFACTURER of the CDR and
rely on its formulation of dyes and quality control. If you wish, seek
information on what type of dye a CDR utilizes, and check its compatibility
to the CDR burner and CDROM drive you use or plan on using. Test several
CDRs on all your systems.

There are CDR FAQs out there with more detail on the subject. Just run a
search on your favorite engine.

HTH.

John Chin

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