MCIG01 DVD-Rs - does anybody have them?

[pepst]

Hey guys, does anybody have any experience with the legendary "MCIG01" DVD-R media? Was their recording layer (allegedly unique phtalocyanine dye) truly transparent so they looked more like the gold phtalocyanine CD-Rs?

[kpmedia]

A lot of my raw information is sorted by age, geography and brand -- not the media ID. Given that information, it's always helpful to know the following information:

• When was the disc available? -- List the year, month/year, or generation (i.e., 2x gen, 4x gen)
• What brands was this known to circulate under?
• What geographic locations saw this disc, and of those, where was it most seen?

Not all media IDs and information is still in my head like it once was, so I have to refer back to print documents, spindles, and the available digital information (note that some things were lost in 2005 due to a drive disaster, which cascaded into the local backup). Some of that info is in disarray right now, too, due to its reorganization. These gentle reminders tend to give me that "oh yeah!" moment, where the bulb above my head lights up.

From a rudimentary online search, it appears MCIG01 was a 2x disc, commonly found in Europe, under brands like Teac and MAM-E. There is a slim chance I have a Teac 2x with this ID, but it's going to be a while before I find it. It would be a burned disc in my personal collection, if I do. I know I have some old Teacs in there.

I've decided to start scanning and photographing my rarer, older and fake media starting early next year.

[kpmedia]

I would add this, too:

I've never come across anything other than variations of purple -- be it pinkish, bluish or brownish at most -- for DVD-R (General) or DVD+R media. There is also information written into various patents and technical documents that states phthalocyanine is not stable enough for DVD writing, not in any formulation thereof. Without looking at documents to verify, I believe it has something to do with the reflectivity/absorption spectrum of that dye -- meaning it's not going to work well at 650nm.

So I'd be curious what the root of that information is.

[pepst]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

• When was the disc available? -- List the year, month/year, or generation (i.e., 2x gen, 4x gen)
• What brands was this known to circulate under?
• What geographic locations saw this disc, and of those, where was it most seen?

- 2001-2003, 2x gen
- Mitsui, later also MAM-A, MAM-E, Teac
- no idea

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

I've decided to start scanning and photographing my rarer, older and fake media starting early next year.

That would be great!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpmedia

I've never come across anything other than variations of purple -- be it pinkish, bluish or brownish at most -- for DVD-R (General) or DVD+R media. There is also information written into various patents and technical documents that states phthalocyanine is not stable enough for DVD writing, not in any formulation thereof. Without looking at documents to verify, I believe it has something to do with the reflectivity/absorption spectrum of that dye -- meaning it's not going to work well at 650nm.
So I'd be curious what the root of that information is.

I have heard that it was possible to make the phtalocyanine based DVD-Rs, but only the 1-2x rated ones and the phtalocyanine DVDR dyes were extremely difficult to handle during the manufacturing process (short shelf-time, difficult solubility, etc.).
Unfortunately, I have not seen any phtalocyanine DVDRs with my own eyes, yet. Allegedly, the color of their recording layers is totally different to other kinds of DVDR media.

phtalo.png
Source: High Performance Pigments (Edwin B. Faulkner,Russell J. Schwartz)