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Comment by shimman | Hacker News Reader

Is there a reason why or is it just the quality of the materials?

Stamped = Data pits are a physical, unalterable thing on the disc. CD-R = Pits are still physical, but they are on a die layer that can fade. Some discs are more resilient (blue, gold) than others (cyan). CD-RW = Pits are (mostly) bistable for practical purposes, but will degrade to a neutral state on a long-term basis.

"Unalterable" is a matter of some debate... The physical pits and lands are on a super thin layer of aluminum. Ideally, this is protected with a laquer coating, but a lot of CD manufacturers in the 90s and 00s skimped on this to save money. I owned a lot of CDs where the coating didn't hold up over time and the aluminum just sort of flaked off, or became damaged/scratched easier than they should have with normal handling.

CD-Rs use an organic dye which fades (or in the worst case the bonds holding it on can delaminate).

They hold up much better if stored in a dark place. A spindle on a shelf that sees sunlight is the worst case and they can become unreadable in years.

Also don't CD-Rs need a more sensitive detector in the drive to read? I remember seeing somewhere that early drives have trouble with them

I remember reading about drives/players that wouldn't read CD-R, but I've never encountered one in the wild.

Anecdotally, every time I've tried: A burned CD that works well with one reader works with all others.

It was a hobby of mine at that time. I tried a lot of combinations: I was working at a local hifi shop where we had all kinds of stuff rolling through to play around with.

But the above comment said CD-RW? Those are a crystal.

I assumed it was a typo since the topic was burning mixtape discs for folks and I've never heard of anyone giving out CD-RWs like that

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