Topics

Me and others have been shut out of the Polish website:
             
                                      http://chomikuj.pl/tadeusz_baird/2.+Muzyka

Does anyone know how to access the countries and composers?
                                           

I haven't been able to upload music files on Mediafire for the past 24 hours. I can go to their website but my old files don't appear. I think you can still download files that I have  posted but I can't find them. I can't proceed past the home page. Is anyone else having problems?

Is anyone else having a problem downloading from Mediafire today? When I click on a link it says "Preparing to Download" but nothing happens.

Many times I have downloaded a music file and later struggled to find the performers and dates. Now after I make a download and while I am still viewing the post, I press "Print Screen" in the upper right hand  corner of the keyboard. Then go to Microsoft Word and right click anywhere on the blank page and click on "paste". Save the page as a Word Document in the same file as  the music download and you will have the information when you need it.

There was a problem reported in 1994 that first appeared in American Record Guide Magazine of CD bronzing. It was a form of rotting that eventually made the CDs unplayable. The problem affected several labels and was traced to a production plant in the U.K. If the letters PDO appeared in the fine printing around the center hole of a commercial CD, it was at risk of deteriorating. If you owned one or more of these CDs, they were replaced free of all charges including shipping and handling by sending an email to an individual whose address was posted in several articles. The discs were replaced without questioning but the jewel boxes and liner notes were not included. I had about 22 CDs that contained the letters PDO on them and new ones were sent to me in the United States without questions and free of charge and without returning the originals. I have seen CD bronzing on certain labels of CD-Rs that were stored in high heat for several weeks but the manufacturers have disclaimers exempting them from liability.

Warning!!!  If you have a CD that is turning brown, make a copy of it before it is too late.

This a a quote from Amphissa:


Various independent research studies have been showing for years that CD-R technology is not the equal of commercial CDs. The latest I'm aware of is research by the Dutch folks at PC-Active. My Dutch sux, so I'm going on the translations of others. Apparently, they tested 30 brands of CD-R media. What they found was that a large percentage of the discs were unreadable in total or in part within 20 months.

Here is a summary in English:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/6450-CD-Recordable-discs-unreadable-in-less-than-two-years.html

Here is the original Dutch article:
http://www.pc-active.nl/component/content/article/10508

Based on previous research, the reasons for degradation are varied.

1. The laser in typical home CD player/burner is not nearly as powerful as the lasers used to burn commercial CDs. CED/DVD player/burners vary in quality. Most people just buy the cheapest they can find, or settle for whatever is in the computer they buy (which is usually the cheapest the builder can get).

2. Much of the software used for burning CDs does not verify the burn - i.e., it does not do a read step that verifies that what has been burned coincides with the original data. Even if using software that will do this step, many people just don't enable this feature.

3. CD-R media (blank discs) vary tremendously in quality. Brand name is not a good guide for selecting media. There are two major manufacturing plants for blanks. Companies contract with them for product. A few companies require highest quality media only, and cost more as a result. Most companies go for the mass assembly line discs, which are not up to the highest levels of quality.

4. Storage makes a difference. Store burned disks in heat or brightly lit areas or expose them to tobacco smoke - that's just adding to the environmental factors that can hasten degradation. Some discs just degrade with age - the material itself degenerates - even under optimal conditions.

To reduce the risks of degradation of CD-Rs (and DVD-Rs) --

1. Use a high-quality burner, like a top of the line Plextor, and verify burns to assure that the burned data coincides with the original.

2. Use high quality blank discs - top of the line Taiyo Yuden or top of the line Verbatim (which are made by Taiyo Yuden).

3. Store burned discs at cool room temp, relatively low humidity, out of bright light.

4. Retain a digital backup in a lossless format, like FLAC or AIFF, on a hard drive, and copy to newer hard drives every few years.

CD and DVD technology is not a reliable long-term archival solution. Even with all these precautions, about 10% of discs will suffer some degradation over the course of 2-5 years. Some will not read/play at all. Others will have portions of the disc go unreadable, so even if the disc starts, portions may not play.

Of course, if the CD/DVD is just for convenience and replacement is available, all the precautions are less necessary.


______________________________________

Here is another point of view:

According to Robert Harley in the September, 2007 issue of "The Absolute Sound" magazine CD edge treatments that purport to reduce the reflected laser light have more effect on a commercial stamped CD than on CD-Rs because less light is reflected to a CD-R's edges by its concave pits than by the convex pits of a CD. That may be one of the reasons that a CD-R copy of a commercial CD frequently sounds better than the original CD.

Another reason CD-Rs sound better is that the center hole of a commercial CD is stamped after the data is embedded onto the CD and the center hole may not be perfectly centered. As a result the CD player's tracking servos have to work harder than if the disc was perfectly centered. A CD-R already has its center hole cut before it is burned.

The final reason given as to why a CD-R sounds better than a commercial CD is a standard CD burner inverts the polarity of the music on the copy relative to the original CD. And because most CD players also invert the polarity, this is a great sonic and musical improvement for the CD-R relative to the original CD since most CDs are recorded in the correct polarity.

A renowned audiophile entered the Meridian Audio room and was listening to a new CD player with a commercial CD on its transport. Then after a minute the original CD was replaced with a CD-R. The audiophile expert exclaimed, "That's impossible!" The second disc's sound was much better.

I will add a cello concerto by Histada Otaka to the Japanese Music Folder in a few minutes. This is one of my top 5 cello concertos of all time. The structure reminds me a lot of the Dvorak Cello Concerto.