When is a CD not a CD? (Tesco CD-R 700MB 52x)

Member Name: boredindunoon

Product:	Tesco CD-R 700MB 52x
Date:	10/11/08 (455 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap. Good For Destructive Cousins (See Review)

Disadvantages: Very High Failure Rate, Stressful & Time Wasting.

It's been a long time since I've actually needed to use a CD-R, as I normally stick to blank DVD disks regardless of whether I'm burning movie files, photos, personal data, or backing up my hard drive.

But my six year old cousin was given a personal CD player for his birthday. Now I know what you're thinking, most likely the same thing I did. Can you still buy those, and why not just get him an mp3?

Needless to say he wanted one and nothing else would do. So I decided that I would put some of his music on to a couple of CD's for him (naturally nobody thought to buy him an actual CD for his birthday.) He is going though the stage of either loosing items or more commonly breaking them. And because I knew that he would more than likely use it as a Frisbee, or play with it in his sandbox, I wanted to buy the cheapest blank CD's I could find. Enter these Tesco branded 52x media.

I had his music (ranging from children's nursery rhymes, to tracks by Hi-5, Milkshake and others) on my computer ready to go. I would need to split the tracks over two disks. So I inserted the first blank Tesco disc. Nothing happened at first. My disk drive just span the it around and around making strange noises before finally spitting it out around half a minutes later. I tried a second time with the same disk and the same thing happened. So I could only conclude at the time that the first disk out the cake box (or spindle) was faulty. So I put it to one side, and inserted another. "Great" I said, as up popped a dialogue box asking me what I wanted to do. "First one was a fluke" I said again, as I began his burning his first disk at 48x (the fastest Nero would let me).

I was about to phone him and tell him the good news that his music was on the way. That was until I stood up and with greeted with a "Burn Process Failed" error message, while the process had only reached thirty percent. Shaking my head I removed the disk and threw it straight into the bin. Next one went in no problems, and I actually sat at my computer watching the percent bar indicator move from one to one hundred. My computer ejected the disk and I was happy to see the "Successful" message" (I even put it back in just to make sure.)

So far my success rate with the disks was one out of three. So I set about burning the second disk. Every thing looked good, until the burn process failed again, this time at nearly seventy percent. And then AGAIN with another, but this time, the burn process failed at a very frustrating ninety odd percent, just as I was convinced that it had worked.

Thankfully as I was about to throw the entire pack in the bin, the next disk I inserted worked fine and completed the burn process.

I think it should be clear by now with my success rate with the disks that they should be avoided. I don't know why I had such a high failure rate with them, as my disk drive has always been more than happy to play or burn to any brand. Maybe someone else would get on better with them. But from my experience, I can only conclude that they are simply poor quality. I just feel annoyed that I spend so much time doing this for my cousin, because of the faulty disks.

Rather than bin them (as the chances are I would never use them again even if I needed to) I decided to ask Duncan (a family friend) if he wanted them (for free). "Sure." He said happily before asking me what brand they were. "Tesco" I told him. Hmm, I don't think I'm allowed to write what his colourful replay was, but needless to say the disks are now in the bin (less stressful that way).

But lessoned learned and in the end my cousin did get his two CD's (and for the moment they seem to work).

Next time I'll pay slightly more and get a better brand (both Sony and Verbatim have been recommended to me.) I suggest you do the same.

Summary: Thanks For Reading.

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