[CentOS] Live CD?

Fri Jun 6 19:12:57 UTC 2008
John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com>

>>> The CD-R media I usually buy are Imation or Verbatim. Never had a
>>> problem. There are probably other brands equally good.
>>>       
>> Memorex to a range that they call "Memorex Professional" - about 10% more
>> expensive than their basic range.  I've found that I can let K3B run
>> full-tilt on them, doing a fast burn and getting good results.  Prior to
>> finding them I always had to throttle back.
>>     
>
> I'm somewhat fond of TDK, but their newer, high-speed (16x+) DVDs have
> been pretty iffy for me - the old ones (4x), and their CDs, are rock
> solid, and the newer Memorex and Sony discs have been fairly reliable
> for me (but Costco only carries TDK - foo).
>   



TDK, Memorex, Imation, Verbatim, I don't believe ANY of those actually 
make their own disks.   My TDK's have a media code of "CMC MAG. AM3", 
which is, I believe, CMC Magnetics, a middle grade disk, OK but not 
great.    Note that there's some OTHER CMC disks which are apparently 
pure garbage.    These "AM3" code disks can be found with Ricoh, , 
Memorex, Staples, and god knows how many other brands on the label.   
And, a different label of TDK disk might be from a different pressing plant.

that said, I've burned 100s and 100s of the Costco 16X TDK "CMC MAG. 
AM3" DVDs with very very few problems.   I've had several DVD burners, 
currently mostly using a Pioneer DVR-112D (16x DL), previously I had a 
"Sony" that was really a rebranded LiteOn, but after a couple years of 
heavy use, it started getting too many burn errors, so I retired it.

I have noted that DVD video is best burned at 8X, which is a CLV mode 
(16X is a CAV mode), as the error rate goes up considerably on the last 
20% or so of the disk when it actually hits the 16X speeds, too many of 
my 16X burned home videos have glitches near the end..     "16X" CAV 
burns actually average about 11X, so its really not that much slower to 
burn 8X overall.      I've also found my computers are much less fussier 
about the disks than regular DVD players.

Supposedly, disks by Taiyo Yuden are the best, these are often sold as 
"That's DVD"

These guys have extensive reasonably technical evaluations of burners 
and media, http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Home.aspx?CategoryId=1
they actually do error rate plots on every disk, and try different 
drives with many different media types.     Reading too much of this can 
be depressing, when you realize just how marginal all this stuff 
actually is  :)