I guess I am in the minority. I used Adaptec for a year or so and had not a single problem. Now use Roxio and still not a single problem. We go through a LOT of CDs at work (about a thousand or so this year) but they are on our automated duplicator. It's flawless. But shuffling through CDs that we bulk order...you'd be surprised to see some come with no coating! You can see through them like a haze! As to CDs? I think they're like VCRs. One company makes most of them and others just put their names on them. I tend to buy from companys that I THINK "do their own thing", like TDK or Maxell. Sometimes, a bit more costly that what our agency wants to spend. I look at it the same way a guy once told me about film when I was a practicing photographer: "Think of film as being free," he said, "or otherwise you'll never get the right picture." That's a loose analogy for remembering your data is WORTH it! Spend a few extra cents for each CD. I promise this: if you load a CD one day and discover you can't read it, you'll regret being a cheap ass! As an IT person at work, I can tell you lots of people approach us and ask what happened to their CD. One other item. Go to Neato.com. Not sure it's the case now, but they USED to have a really good writeup on CDs and what makes them go wrong and reflection importance (how scratches on the "label" side are worse than on the "recorded" side, etc.