Regarding CD-R: Is music specific media any better? (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

I remember back in the VHS days the companies
used to sell more expensive videotape touted
as being VHS HI-FI compliant.

I used to laugh because really, all videotape
being sold was HI-FI compliant.

Now I see the same thing happening with CD-R media.

I want to transfer some music to CD-R. I have
plenty of regular media on hand, but I can't help
but to be tempted by media labeled specifically
for music.

Thought I'd ask anyway.....

Do these CD-Rs being sold as MUSIC MEDIA have
any sonic advantage over normal everyday media?

And if not, why are they being labeled as such?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

AFIK I don't think they're any better... but some stand alone recorders require that you use CD-R's marked for music in order to record with them. This way they insure some $$ is making its way to the RIAA.

My Philips recorder does this. It wont recognize a CD-R otherwise. How it does this, I don't know... but it's a pain because they're more expensive (thank you RIAA).

 

[Patrick Sun]

The standalone music-recorders also have SCM (Serial copy management), which means it'll only copy the original CD to a blank CD-R (music-only), and it won't copy a music-only CD-R copy (due to the SCM bit being turned on on those "special CD-Rs (music-only)").

 

[Max Leung]

They are identical to CD-Rs except for the identification bits that are hardcoded on each one. The bits flag the CD-R exactly as Patrick said. They are a waste of money and are essentially no different than normal CD-Rs aside from the hardware used to burn them and the increased cost that makes its way to the RIAA.

 

[Christian Behrens]

If you want something special for you music CD-Rs, how about these: http://www.mofi.com/cdr.htm

Whether they offer a better quality over a regular CD-R, I don't know. But they are cool, if you want to spend the money .

-Christian

 

[Thomas Newton]

As others have said, this is part of the AHRA giveaway to the music industry. Standalone consumer audio digital recorders are subject to (a) SCMS, (b) recorder tax, and (c) media tax. Pro decks and computers are exempt.

A standalone audio component CD recorder will only record to a CD that has some special mark, indicating that it's one of the taxed ones.

 

[Ted Lee]

so does this requirement only apply to stand-alone recorders?

i've never once bought a cd-r designated for music, yet i've never run into any issues when creating my own music cd's on my pc?

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Yuip. Private taxation. Bet you thought we abolished that with the Constitution, or at least the Sherman Act; but no! The criminal entities, MPAA and RIAA, are at work to subvert our systems of law. Just read the section of the Consitution on copyrights and patents, and compare that with their vaunting claims of "intellectual property", and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Thomas Newton]

Yes. The music industry wanted it to apply to everything, but the technology industries used their leverage to help keep the music industry's paws off computers. (This was before tech companies entertained the notion of becoming DRM "arms suppliers".)

Since then, we've seen the RIAA unsuccessfully sue Diamond over a device that was perfectly legal (the Rio). (Wasn't one supposed AHRA goal to stop anti-technology lawsuits?)

We've also seen the music industry inflict various copy protection and DRM schemes on formats like DVD-A and SACD that, under the spirit of the supposed AHRA "compromise", should have SCMS, and royalty tax, and nothing more.

 

[MarkHastings]

I don't know if it's true anymore, but since higher burn speeds cause "jitter" and since "jitter" really only affects audio CD's, the "Music Only" CD-R's used to be rated for 4x and under. This was because they wanted to elliminate as much "jitter" by only allowing you to burn at lower speeds.

Also, the stand alone audio CD burners run at single speed (obviously), so they don't need to make them compatible for 24x.