What are the best CD-Rs for burning games?

[Moirai]

I'm specifically talking about CD-R's for burning Saturn and Sega CD games.

Give me some suggestions! Don't bother mentioning anything with gold as I can't really afford them.

I'm thinking I'll buy these: http://www.amazon.com/Taiyo-Yuden-JV...pr_product_top But what are some other good choices? I hear that low quality or certain CD-Rs can cause more stress on the system's laser, is that really true? Also I hear that some CD-R's are better for music and others are better for Data, what's the deal with that? What's really the difference between "music" CD-R's and "data" CD-Rs?

Please don't flame me for pirating discontinued games for discontinued systems that the original developers aren't making money off of anymore!

[NeoVamp]

From what I've read in the past the Taiyo-Yuden were the best, but things might have changed since then.

[StarMist]

Those will work fine on Saturn. I can't speak to the SCD. Just ensure you try to burn at a speed compatible with the disk, eg don't try to burn at 8x if your disk minimum is 16x.
I've read a number of debates on audiophile sites and there's never any conclusion that cheap CDs will harm a laser/drive; the majority seems to be against that idea, as for one thing the first mass produced CDs, such as games were made on, would not pass for high quality by today's standards. Besides, most of the quality in current CDs is directed at durability and sustainment, to wit those Taiyo Yuden of yours which are self described as of archival quality, archival as in they won't get disk rot within ten years or whatever else (depending on how much you worry about that sort of thing and believe the manufacturer).

btw many companies do release compilations or downloads of those discontinued games. Just saying.

[Assman]

I bought those exact Taiyo Yuden CDs from Amazon a couple months ago for the exact same purpose. I haven't burned any SCD games with them yet, but I've burned about 15 Saturn games and they all play perfectly fine.

I take that back, I burned one disc that had some read problems. That could've been completely my fault too; I don't remember.

I definitely have had better luck in the past burning playable SCD games with Taiyo-Yuden than with any number of cheaper discs.

[goldenband]

I generally find that Taiyo Yudens read perfectly on anything -- the best of any CD-R I've tried -- and they work very well on my CD-based systems, including Sega CD. But their dye layer can be very fragile: I've had more Taiyo Yudens with physical damage to the dye layer than any other brand.

Because of that issue, I recently bought a couple spindles of inkjet-printable Taiyo Yudens. Unfortunately, my laptop's CD burner died shortly after I got these, so I've had to use an external burner, which adds an extra variable since it can't burn at slow speeds. I will say, though, that the audio discs I've burned with this inkjet-printable batch have been a lot more prone to skipping on my car's CD player, but that's too small a data point to work with.

[ThunderForce]

Taiyo Yudens are the best for CD-RS for anything really. Audiophile then to use the Gold CD-Rs for better longevity. I have some Mitsui Gold CD-Rs that I use for my rare audio recordings.

[Aarzak]

I bought those exact Taiyo Yuden CDs from Amazon a couple months ago for the exact same purpose. I haven't burned any SCD games with them yet, but I've burned about 15 Saturn games and they all play perfectly fine.

I take that back, I burned one disc that had some read problems. That could've been completely my fault too; I don't remember.

I definitely have had better luck in the past burning playable SCD games with Taiyo-Yuden than with any number of cheaper discs.

Mind if I ask how you got your Saturn to play backups? Seeing as its emulation is still sub-par, I may score me a cheap one in the future.

[synbiosfan]

Mind if I ask how you got your Saturn to play backups? Seeing as its emulation is still sub-par, I may score me a cheap one in the future.

You put a modchip in it

[Barone]

I'm specifically talking about CD-R's for burning Saturn and Sega CD games.

I use Philips CD-Rs with them (along with the 3DO) and never had a single problem.

V Saturn RG-JX2
Mega CD 2
Panasonic 3DO FZ-10
All Japanese models.

[Silanda]

Taiyo Yuden or Mitsubishi/Verbatim are probably the best. Verbatim also sell a lot of discs manufactured by CMC and Moser Baer though, so getting the good ones can be trickier these days.

[xelement5x]

Taiyo Yuden or Mitsubishi/Verbatim are probably the best. Verbatim also sell a lot of discs manufactured by CMC and Moser Baer though, so getting the good ones can be trickier these days.

That's basically my advice too. I also try to get the 650MB/74min ones when I can find them but I almost never use burns in my PC Engine/Duo since there seems to be a solid consensus they can kill the lasers over time. I've never had a problem using burns in the Sega CD/Saturn/PS1/3DO/LaserActive though.

[Barone]

Just ensure you try to burn at a speed compatible with the disk, eg don't try to burn at 8x if your disk minimum is 16x.
I've read a number of debates on audiophile sites and there's never any conclusion that cheap CDs will harm a laser/drive; the majority seems to be against that idea, as for one thing the first mass produced CDs, such as games were made on, would not pass for high quality by today's standards.

This.