As the title says. I am new to burning and was wondering.

thanks

about a thousand times i think.

Yep, most manufacturers claim "over a thousand" times. More times than you need to worry about, anyway!

Still, it's a shame they're not more like minidisc, that you can re-write millions of times...!

Rolf.

the more u use them the quality goes down

why are minidiscs so different then? don't they use the same technology?

No, they aren't quite the same.

CD-RWs are what's called phase-change. A (higher power than a reading laser) laser heats the CD-RW material to it's melting point and then either allows it to cool very rapidly, freezing the molecules in a amorphous (random) state, which doesn't relect light well, or allows it to cool more slowly thus forming in a crystalline state, which reflects light much better. In this way, you get less and more reflective components that equate to the pits and lands of a pressed CD.

MiniDisc is a magneto-optical technology. The disc itself is a type of magnetic medium, and the laser heats the surface of the disc, demagnetizing it. While it's still hot, a magnet orients the magnetic field of the bit under it to be either "north" or "south" and as it cools it is fixed in that orientation, and can't be changed by stray magnetic fields like speakers and so on, because it needs to be heated by a laser first to be changeable. These north and south regions equate to the pits and lands of pressed MiniDiscs (which are very much like pressed CDs).

Of course, I'm not an expert - this is from stuff I have picked up on the web at different sites (Sony and the OrangeBook forum used to have good sites - haven't looked recently).

Rolf.

For someone who is not an expert you seem to know your stuff!!!

Have a read here.
http://www.pctechguide.com/09cdr-rw.htm#CD-RW
Explains a lot.

thats a good site Caterman. thanks m8....i've added it to my favorites

also if u keep reusing the disc loads and loads of times they will be scratched and lose quality anyway, unless ur very careful and caring with ur disks;) :tup: