Quality of CDs

[cheri1122]

I've got a new hobby, courtesy of Linder Caffee, (who credits Terry O'Connell with introducing it to her): downloading audiobooks, from Audible.com. While Linder downloads hers to an iPod, I dowload to my computer, then burn them onto CDs. The cost, including the blank CDs, is about the same as renting the audiobooks, but owning, rather than borrowing, is a better use of the money, I think.
Here's the question: is there a specific type of CD I should be using, for long term quality? The ones I've been getting, 'el cheapos' from WalMart, have a tendency to refuse to be ejected from the disc player sometimes. As this never happens with the rental discs, I attribute it to the quality of the disc I'm buying - a different thickness, perhaps?
Anyone know of a high quality CD to recommend?

 

[greg334]

Maxell
Sony
and HP should be of the quality you are looking for. All of these should not give you any problems at all.

Just an FYI, many burners won't recognize certain brands of blanks because of the firmware in the actual hardware. It sometimes amazes me that they didn't make universal firmware for these burners.

Also if you can, that is if you have a DVD burner, consider putting several books on one DVD.

And try to keep them out of the sunlight. Even todays archival CD/DVDs that are $20 each still degrade in sunlight.

 

[cheri1122]

Thanks, Greg. I haven't had any problem with the incompatiblity issue, other than having to download Nero to burn them, as Windows Media player won't do it. The problem is the CDs refusing to eject, so I have to remove the faceplate of the player, and pull them out - not something I want to do while driving - especially at night.
I hadn't thought of using DVDs to hold several books, but that's a good idea, I think.

 

[TeamCaffee]

I could never get more then one book to fit on a CD and some books took many CD's which is why I went to the IPOD. Once you have an IPOD you will never go back!

You know the saying so many books so little time to listen! One of the great joys of this job is getting to hear more books then I ever have in my life. With books and the computer who has time for TV?

 

[greg334]

I can fit 30 something, almost 40 books on one DVD. I have right now about 120 books, but only 45 of them are put in order while the others are just thrown into a directory and not properly tagged. I started to reorganize my audio collection, retagging them correctly and back it up on DVD (dual layer or 8gb disc).

 

[TeamCaffee]

Greg, not many things can read those CD's though can they? With what we used you could listen to the CD in your computer, on the CD player or on the TV.

 

[cheri1122]

The Nero software doesn't recognize the DVD discs, sigh. On the other hand, I found an excellent CD storage thingy at Wallyworld: a box, the size of a CD, except about 6" deep, that holds 60 CDs in hanging sleeves, like for file folders - I like it! (Yeah, I really do need to get out more, lol)