CD-R compatibility with various CD burners

[Brian Levy <xernaut@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello fellow archivists somewhat adrift in the uncertain waters of digital 
possibility, etc.:

I wanted to ask for some recommendations from people who unlike myself are 
using CD Testers.  At Kiwat Hasinay we don't yet have grant monies to 
purchase a tester, but plan to, as per advice of a few participants on 
these lists.  In the meantime, could I please get some recommendations for 
which _specific_ CD burners seem to perform best with which blank 
media.  Right now we are using only Kodak gold (and soon, due to 
discontinued supplies, gold-silver, as discussed a few months ago on this 
list) CD-R's, using computer grade ones, and also Consumer Audio ones.  We 
use a Plextor 8x4x32 internal ATAPI burner for our computer grade burns, 
and also make use of a Harmon Kardon CDR-2 stand-alone burner (which does 
CDR duplications at 1 or 2 or 4x speed) for consumer audio media.  As I 
understand it, there is no archival difference that anyone has mentioned on 
this list between computer-grade and consumer audio media.

However, in light of a recent posting or two, I am re-assessing the issue 
of which media to use in which burner.  Should we switch to Mitsui golds or 
any other brand, given the equipment we currently own?

We hope to buy a professional burner, a stand alone, such as the HHB CDR800 
mentioned some months ago on the list, but still lack funds for that, and 
for a CD Tester.  If anyone would like to briefly mention CD Testers again, 
I am wondering whether a stand-alone tester such as one available from CD 
Associates.com would be as effective as the full computer system CD tester 
also available.  I understand that once we buy one of those, we get into 
the whole arena of what is the acceptable number of errors before needing 
to migrate one's information to avoid complete digital drop-out/disc 
frisbeehood.

Thanks to you, the more technically saavy out there who hopefully can put 
up with my more layman's approach to trying to understand these issues, and 
take fitting action in light of what I am learning.

Please share any recommendations you may have with us.  We really 
appreciate the help.

Brian Levy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Brian Levy
Executive Director
Kiwat Hasinay Foundation
Box 305
Binger, OK  73009 USA
tel: (1) 580-515-6011
kiwat@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.ahalenia.com/kiwat