Please help to cure my ignorance .....

I came across some new CD-R disks recently, and on the packaging it says "For Audio Use Only".

Why would this be? Can't they be used for data disks too? I tried, and it works fine. Why would a blank CD-R only be of use to Audio and not data applications?

[LV426]

They are intended for use in table-top CD recorders. They have a marker of some sort on them that makes such machines accept them. Such machines reject regular (PC) CDRs. I believe they carry some sort of levy which is paid to copyright owners via some route, so as to (sort of) make CD copying "legal". AFAIK, they are chemically the same as PC CDRs and so they work in PCs OK. It's the other way around that's a problem. Because of the levy, they are typically a lot more expensive. It doesn't make them technically better though.

[apul]

Are there any CDrs that are silver on the bottom (writeable side)? And are they any good?
Thanks.

[mjn]

Originally Posted by LV426

They are intended for use in table-top CD recorders. They have a marker of some sort on them that makes such machines accept them. Such machines reject regular (PC) CDRs. I believe they carry some sort of levy which is paid to copyright owners via some route, so as to (sort of) make CD copying "legal". AFAIK, they are chemically the same as PC CDRs and so they work in PCs OK. It's the other way around that's a problem. Because of the levy, they are typically a lot more expensive. It doesn't make them technically better though.

Yep. They knew people would copy CD's when hi-fi cdr's were released, so to try and reclaim some money, they made people buy "audio cd-r's" which include a small amount to cover royalities.

Just be grateful, you don't live in Germany, where you pay a "royality" fee on the actual cd-r drive and blank media, and it applies to PC and hi-fi!

Guilty until proven innocent. And then it's still illegal if you are pirating stuff despite having paid these 'royalty fees' along with every honest person with a CD burner...

[gavan]

Originally Posted by Mandel

Guilty until proven innocent. And then it's still illegal if you are pirating stuff despite having paid these 'royalty fees' along with every honest person with a CD burner...

Yes, ridiculous. AND they even copy protect many CDs too, causing problems playing them on some devices and preventing users from transferring their music to mp3 players and the like.

If across the board royalty fees are introduced on media/recorders then it should be made legal to make personal copies and copy protection should be banned.


Gav