Overview
Take yourself back to the 20th century with Verbatim's Digital Vinyl CD-R discs. These CDs have the look and feel of a 45-rpm record right down to the sporty grooves on the top surface of the playing area including the label in the center. It can hold up to 80 minutes of music and comes with Verbatim's patented Super Azo dye coating technology. This adds extra protection against UV sunlight, high temperatures and humidity. While restoring your old vinyl LPs you won't lose the look and feel of the your old records. Verbatim includes five colors of discs. The colors correspond to the 'spindle label' and not the disc's coating or 'vinyl' color.

Price
The 10-pack with jewel cases range from $6.99 (J & R Music) to $7.99 (Office Depot). A 25-pack CD-R spindle (no jewel cases) have a list price of $21.50. At Amazon.com and Office Depot, they will run you $17.99, but I found the best price at Buy.com for only $9.99.

Setup
Insert a vinyl CD into your CD burner, initiate your CD burning software and start recording. That's all there is to it!

In Use
I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of this product since most of the time there is a trade off for a great look. These discs performed flawlessly. They are compatible for music recording at various speeds, and I have tested them at speeds of 4x, 8x, 10x, 12x and 24x. Verbatim's patented Super Azo technology is proposed to add longevity to the discs. While I could not test the longevity, Verbatim backs the Digital Vinyl CDs with a lifetime warranty. I use it to record all my oldies music and I have given them as gifts. All my gift recipients were pleased with both the CD-R Vinyl look as well as the music recorded on them. Since I use them for my old school music, I can always spot them on my desk because they look like little vinyl records.

It would have been nice to have a larger area to label the discs with the contents instead of having to write them on the jewel case, but then that would have taken away from the look and feel of a vinyl record. They come in only five colors for categories (blue, orange, purple, green and pink), which limits the categories and makes it a bit harder to catalog and distinguish all genres of contents. While these particular colors may not appeal to everyone, I loved them all.

Summary
Verbatim's Digital Vinyl CD-R discs are recordable discs with a nostalgic look and feel of the old vinyl 45s we used to play on our phonographs. They are unique in design and store up to 80 minutes of music. Recordable at various speeds from 4x up to 24x, these disks perform beautifully. The only limitations are the writing space on the disk and number of colors, a small price to pay to achieve this unique look. You could always use the jewel case insert to detail your contents. I loved these disks - they are unique, cool and functional. Add to that Verbatim's lifetime warranty, and I would highly recommend these Vinyl CD-R's to anyone who wants to put a little fun in their digital recording.

Pros

• Great mix of nostalgic vinyl look with digital music
• Makes for wonderful and unique gifts
• Stable recording, use just like normal CDs
• Lifetime Warranty

Cons

• Limited colors
• Small writing space on label

Overall Rating

5 out of 5 Mice