Test Results of a Scratched Century Disc DVD-R are In

Today, I scratched a Century Disc DVD-R seven ( 7 ) times with a razor knife.

Then, I played it on my DVD player. It played flawlessly. It has a resin-based scratch resistant recording surface (SRS Technology) that protects your recordings from fingerprint smudges, scratches, abrasions, and other elements that could easily render a disc useless.

After playing the disc in the DVD player, I tested it on my laptop using VSO Inspector. I first ran the 'Surface Test' which showed absolutely no flaws, errors, or problems. Immediately after the Surface Scan Test, I ran the 'File Test.'

Again, no errors, no problems. The software didn't even detect the scratches. My disc drive didn't skip a beat.

Check out the report and screen shots at
http://rmgproducts.com/store/Scratched_CenturyDisc_Results.html

Checking Out a New Widget

Found this widget on Shop.org thought it was cool.

Keepin On!

Friday is supposed to be my day to take a little time and blog about the Amazing Century Disc. As you can see, it has been almost a month since I have posted a new blog.

I have been a bit overwhelmed with things. I have been learning how to be an affiliate manager. If you have never managed an affiliate network or affiliate program before, I suggest getting some help. That in itself can be a full time job.

Then, there is the new Century Disc Rewards Program I have been developing. This is a program that will allow consumers (hopefully like you) buy the Century Disc at a discount, using a coupon code. This coupon code will allow you to either earn points (which can be converted to cash), or allow you to donate your points to your favorite charity or non-profit organization.

The trick is, once we launch this program, we need to have every single item in place beforehand. So, I have been working on the database program that will allow us to update all of the organizations or charities into a searchable webpage so you can see if yours already exists in case you want to donate to them, and hopefully be able to add them to your signup form with the click of a button.

This program will also allow us to keep from having too many redundant entries in the list. Who knows how many people may want to sign up to donate to one of the thousands of churches in the country by the same name in different locations.

So, I am working on organizing the categories each will go into (like adoption, children services, housing, homeless, and so many more), the search criteria, and all sorts of other things related to keeping this organized once we launch.

Then, there is the “Landing Page.” Not only do we need a landing page for people to come to and get excited about the program, we need them to be able to immediately see why the Century Disc stands out from all other competitors and want to buy it for themselves.

So, we need a landing page for the products (Century Disc CD page and a Century Disc DVD page), we need a landing page for the program, we need autoresponders to notify people that they have been accepted into the program. Then they need some sort of page they can put up on their own website if they want, we need a professional looking email document so we can email people with their personlized coupon code, and so many things that have to be created and put online before a program of this caliber can actually be launched.

In addition to all of this new venture, I have my regular duties in fielding calls and emails from promoters, web SEO and SEM companies, designers, video people, and all sorts of other services everyone seems to think we need. I am sure we could use all of them and more but we would have to have an enormous budget to implement all of these things.

As the marketing director for RMGProducts.com and the Century Disc, it is my job to sort through all of these offers as well as present these options to the money man. If the money man doesn’t think we need it or diesn’t want to put it in our marketing budget, it probably will be put on hold.

I am also working on a proposal/letter to send to The Big Idea with Donny D. So, Donny, if you're out there, check out the Amazing Century Disc, we have the exclusive on this product and no one else has it unless they got it from us. We need your help buddy! You're Awesome!

So, even though I may sound like I am venting, I am not. I am just updating the blog so those of you who read this know that we are still working away and are getting ready to make some serious noise online.

Thanks for tuning in, I’ll try to get back soon.

Century Disc Hard Coat Protection

I find it interesting that "Hard Coat Protection" for CDs and DVDs has been available since at least 2005. It appears that TDK, Mitsubishi, and others had been developing the hard coat protection coating for the new Blu-ray discs knowing that the surface would have to have this protection in order for us to adapt to the new blu-ray media. Blu-ray first came out in a cartridge because even the slightest of fingerprint smudges would render the disc useless.

Then, they started using the coating on DVDs, TDK first introduced their hard coat version back in 2005. RMGProducts (us) introduced this disc as the LuxPro. It is and was a very good disc. It was a basic TDK shiny silver DVD with a heavy duty hard coat protection on it. It protected the recording surface from some serious scratches and fingerprint smudges.

The problem was that TDK shut down the Luxembourgh plant and discontinued that version of the hard coat DVD.

Last year, Mitsubishi introduced us to the Century Disc, which we now have the exclusive distribution rights in the U.S.A.

The Century Disc is not just another shiny silver DVD with a hard coat. It is a truly Archival Gold Layer Disc with a shiny silver layer for compatibility. The reason we have found that the hard coat version of other discs hasn't really taken off is because you have to have a really excellent disc to start with.

The Century Disc works because every disc is one of only 25,000 produced per stamper die run. Which means, they make 25,000 nearly-perfect discs before they add the hard coat resin which protects the recording surface.

I'm not sure why the other manufacturers' hard coat discs haven't really taken off but I can tell you there really hasn't been a whole lot of hype about them. Until the introduction of the Century Disc, I didn't even know there was a hard coat disc that actually worked, let alone knowing that there was such a thing.

I an tell you that Mitsubishi tells us that this hard coat protection is many times harder than the disc itself. I can tell you that I tried to scratch it with my car keys and it wouldn't even scratch. I can tell you that I have taken razor blades, a serated butter knife, a pair of scissors, and other items to scratch the surface and all of them play flawlessly even after some serious scratches.

The Century Disc uses a spin-coat technology that allows the resin to be poured onto the disc, then spun at high speeds in order to create an even coat all over the recording surface.

This resin is another product which Mitsubishi Chemical Corp created for their blu-ray discs. This resin dries clear and is so transparent, it barely adds additional block errors (BLER) to the Century Disc. Which goes to show you, if you have an excellent, near-perfect disc to being with, adding a clear coat to protect the recording surface may take away a little bit from the clarity, but in this case, it really is only a little bit.

We have had the Century Disc tested and each one is only 15 BLER (Block Errors per Second) or less. The results stated that on average the BLER for the Century Disc is 15 and at least one out of ten has an even lower BLER of about 10.

Considering Taiyo Yuden discs, which are an excellent product, have an average of 40-50 BLER and doesn't have a hard coat, I'd say the Century Disc's doing something. In fact, at there rates, I have to say, the Century Disc blows away its competition. There is no other disc on the market that even compares. If I am wrong, please feel free to let me know and I will post those results here.

I digress. I started this conversation about the hard coat and got a little sidetracked. The Century Disc has a scratch-resistant coating which we call SRS technology. It is a resin applied to the surface exactly the same way they put the Ultra Hard Coat on the new blu-ray discs. It is a proprietary spin-caot process which applies an very even coat over the entire surface ensuring clarity, even thickness throughout, and is so clear, you cannot even tell there is a coating on it until you scratch it.

Even with scratches like I have never seen on a playable disc before, the Century Disc still plays. In fact, it play flawlessly even with scratches and multiple fingerprint smudges. I wasn't aware that oily fingerprint smudges could, over time, render a disc (especially DVDs) useless. I guess it only makes sense that since a DVD has grooves 7 times smaller than a CD, that it is easier to damage and render useless.

So, I guess in all of this rambling (it's late and It's past my bedtime) I really only wanted to share how amazing this hard coat protection really is. I always think of the Century Disc as the predecessor to the Blu-ray disc.

It has precise groove engineering, which if the blu-ray didn't have, it couldn't work because the grooves on the blu-ray are about 35 times smaller than those of an ordinary CD. So, in this respect, the Century Disc is not only a near-perfect product (Thank God someone finally began making one), it also has the hard coat option using the exact same material used on the blu-ray discs. The Century Disc also has a deep dye color due to the newly formulated AZO Media Dye. Which some tests state that supposedly the Pthalocyanine media dye lasts longer, not! I don't care what 'they' say. We live in Florida and our sunshine is intense Y'all. Our company stuck many varieties of discs out in the sun for days at a time and at the exact same time of day, every day. When all was said and done, the only discs still working at the end of the study, were the Mitsubishi discs (including the Green Tune for Audio Mastering CD-R) that used the newly formulated AZO Media dye.

Because of the hard coat, the deep purple/blue media dye, the 24-karat Gold Archival layer that protects the silver compatible layer, and the Universal Printable label surface on the Century Disc, and the Ultra Precise Groove Engineering that goes into every Century Disc made, are the reasons I call this the predecessor to the Blu-ray disc.

I like to say "The Century Disc, is an ALL-Options Inclusive disc, and Failure is not an option.

Did I mention this is an A++ rated disc? It is the highest rated disc quality on the market in terms of any CD or DVD made.

Read my article on why ordinary discs fail. "Ordinary CDs and DVDs Exposed!" This article will give you a little insight to disc ratings and why most ordinary discs have such a high failure rate. You can also download the Disc Grade Chart from the PDF downloads page.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

We recently joined an Affiliate Network mainly to push the Awesome Century Disc. We decided to go with the PepperJAM Network due to their ease-of-use Web 2.0 interface, their attraction to top-level affiliate marketers and a whole lot of other reasons.

When we first started, it took us a few weeks to get past the 'Learning Curve' and not only learn how their interface works, but to learn that there are a whole lot of things we still need to learn. At least we are willing to learn.

Which only means that we still have a lot to do, a lot of changes and additions, and this is like anything else in life. Depending on what you put into it, will determine what you can expect to get out of it.

The first major holdup we ran into was getting their sales tracking code to interface with our ShopSite Shopping Cart.

We were having problems with the Pixel Integration. First we tried to implement the code ourselves in the back office of ShopSite. It wasn't tracking correctly. Then, we called our ISP. The ISP put us in direct contact with one of the founders of ShopSite who referred us to Michael. It's not that they did not want to handle this in-house, because the people at ShopSite are great to work with. But, this just happened to be one of those perplexing problems that ShopSite had not run into before and it would probably have taken them longer to get back to us then the solution they gave us.

For some reason, our integration with PJN was a little different than other integrations they had encountered. So, Gary, a really nice guy, sent us to Michael Masin, who got us up and running in about 20 - 30 minutes.

Michael wrote us a script that didn't alter the PJN pixel code but incorporated it smoothly. A simple solution but, not simple to someone who has not worked online in over seven years now (and really didn't have time to figure this one out).

If you have a ShopSite problem or would like a new template created for your ShopSite shopping cart interface, contact Michael Masin through his development website @ www.ssdev.us.

Not only will Michael treat you right, his honesty, integrity, and work ethics in the way he does business is well worth the price. Which by the way, his prices are probably the most reasonable I've seen in months and highly recommend Michael Masin to anyone.

I just met him last month during this situation so I am not touting his services because he is an old pal or anything of that nature. He is a 'find' in this industry and we look forward to working with him for our new templates (he writes the code, your artist has to do the design work) for our RMGProducts.com Shopsite shopping cart.

I asked Michael if he would mind sending us a little background info? This is what he sent me. I hope this will help someone find him if they need his specialty services. We are glad we found him. Thanks Michael!

I’m a ShopSite Certified Developer. I build and maintain ShopSite stores, custom templates, Order and Shipping APIs, and programs for processing XML, importing/exporting data, etc. I work with end-users, end-user’s designers and other ShopSite providers on any size projects from a whole store to a small template change.

Betting on the Century Disc is not a Gamble

Well, it's Friday night and I'm home alone for the first time in almost a year. There's that part of me that wants to go out and do something and then that part of me that just wants to relax and enjoy the silence.

I was thinking about going to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in St. Petersburg, Florida near Tampa. They recently installed slot machines and that's one of the few things I like to do when it comes to gambling.

As I think about it, as I have almost all week, I thought back to a time when I took a cruise to the Bahamas. Going to the Bahamas from Florida is a lot cheaper than going there from other states (it used to be).

I went on a cruise that left out of Miami to Paradise Island and a couple of other surrounding islands. On that cruise they had a casino and the only other time I had been in a casino was when I flew to the Bahamas the year before (haven't been to Vegas, yet).

On the cruise, they have one night that used to be the 'black tie affair' night and was now just called the 'formal dinner night.' The dress code is basically dress slacks, dress shirt, and at least a tie. Though, trying to be a gentleman, I wore a sports coat as well.

Earlier that evening, before the formal dinner, my date was in the stateroom resting and I was in the casino. I remember having about $22 in quarters remaining and I felt like I had to get rid of them. I needed to stop myself and go get ready for dinner.

I had already won and lost a little here and there. I was still up about $400 from the two days before and the next day, my cruise was over. So, I wanted to get my fill and play the slots a bit more.

I started dumping 3 quarters at a time into the machines and I literally hit the jackpot. The lights went off, the bells were ringing, and the quarters started falling out of the machine. Wow! What a cool feeling.

One of the manager's came over and asked me not to load up on the quarters, that they would issue me a check and they would clean up the quarters.

So, I did as asked, I had my picture taken in front of my 'lucky' machine and they even gave me a couple of 'jackpot winner - Lucky 777' t-shirts. Which I've never worn, but still have somewhere.

As I look back at that fun time in my life, I started to think about gambling in general. All of the tips and rules people tell you about gambling and such. Things like never gamble more than you can afford to lose, never use your bill money to gamble, quit while you're ahead, etc.

Then, I got to thinking about the brand new Century Disc CDs and DVDs and how they really are a sure bet for people who use them, and for those who need them, but do not know that they are available, yet. That's partly because we just started selling the Century Disc this year and had a lot of marketing materials and things to prepare for a national rollout of this awesome new product.

Of course there is the time period where we needed to study the competition, observe the industry, and a lot of other things. Including who our market is, what retail stores might be interested in carrying them in their photo centers, setting up a website, shopping cart, Google and Yahoo accounts, credit card processing, tying in FedEx and UPS, and on it goes.

So, as I think about how awesome this Century Disc really is, I can only think about how much of a gamble it is to put your precious lifetime memories, family videos, transfer slides, scan polaroids (instant photos), and all of the new digital photos on an ordinary off the shelf CD, DVD, or even a USB drive.

The gamble is, as everyone has known over the years, is that most off the shelf CDs and DVDs are not stable and are unreliable in general. There is a rating system used to rate the quality of CDs and DVDs that is not applied to the packaging on the discs you buy off the shelves in any of the stores. These ratings being A++, A+, AAA, AA, A, B, and C grade discs. A++ being the highest or the highest available to the buying public.

The Century Disc is an A++ (A - plus, plus) rated disc. Now available to you for the first time. They are fine tuned to the point that they really are a near-perfect disc. You can read about the Century Disc on our website at http://www.rmgproducts.com and later in articles I plan to publish here in this blog. So check back often.

The point is, when you buy off the shelf discs, the manufacturers' really don't want you to know that what you are really buying are a variety of grades of discs all in one package. That's why sometimes you get A discs, B discs, and even C grade discs all in the same stack of 25, 50, or even 100 discs.

How many 50 or 100 packs have you purchased in terms of CDs or DVDs? Of them, did any of those fail? If not right when you used them, did you try to use them later only to find that your CD player or writer thought the disc was blank? All of these things and more have happened to all of us who have ever used CDs and DVDs for any length of time.

I still have a stack of a brand name of CDs that every once in awhile I go to use them and 1 out of 10 or even 2 out of 10 will fail on me. Either when I record/burn to them or after I have burned my data or music on them, only to find that either the disc didn't finalize or maybe it never recorded in the first place, or maybe it burned but the dye didn't take like it is supposed to, in order to accurately record my data.

The point again is this. Most off the shelf discs are a combination of A, B, and even C grade discs all discombobulated together in one package. Early on, manufacturer's were practically giving CDs away just to get people used to buying the drives, the discs, and upgrading their computers to one with a CD drive.

Once this caught on, they started selling computers with a CD burner already in them. Remember when they did away with the 5-1/4" floppy disc drives and only offered 3.5" disc drives and CD burners? Now you don't even get the extra disc drive, you get a DVD reader or DVD burner that is downward compatible with CDs.

Once the CD generation caught on, it was only a matter of time before they pushed this as 'the way to back up your personal files and hard drives.' Until the discs' life started to give way and people got tired of backing up on discs that failed or were unreliable. But, in order to make them affordable for the manufacturers' to even make them for us, they had to produce them in serious mass quantities. They would use the same stamper die for up to as many as 1 million discs. Generally, 500,000 discs per stamper die was about the limit before major failures. Some companies still use a silver alloy or other inexpensive materials in order to not only fill the demand for cheap discs but, to be able to compete in the cheap disc marketplace.

So, I guess when you look at that scenario and you look at what appears to be an expensive disc like the Century Disc, you have to really know what you are betting on. With the Century Disc, you have a Royal Flush in every disc. Guaranteed to work every time you use it, even after it has been burned. The Century Disc has been tested to last over 100 years. With the off the shelf discs, sometimes you get a pair of Aces, sometimes you bet the farm and lose.

Visit www.rmgproducts.com and read about the Century Disc or you can watch the videos on youtube at www.youtube.com/centurydisc.

If you're going to gamble or want to bet on a sure thing, bet on the Century Disc CDs and DVDs for all your lifetime memories, critical data, and anything you wanted to store on a disc but were afraid to, until now.

One day I hope you'll be able to say how lucky you were to have found the Century Disc!

BTW, the cruise cost me $558 + $90 port fee and I won a total of $1,487 that cruise.

Century Disc Videos

We just setup a page on youtube with our new videos of the Century Disc. You can check them out at www.youtube.com/centurydisc . We are in the process of setting up the new Century Disc website and hope it will be complete next week. At least the first edition. From there we can always tweak it and work toward improvements.

In the meantime, check out the videos on youtube and visit our current site at rmgproducts.com