Best type CD for burning?

jackn2mpu wrote on 11/24/2007, 6:46 PM

What is the best type cd disk to use for burning? I see here that 80 minute capacity disks are problematic in some drives. And that's all I seem to be able to find in CD-R music disks. The only ones that are 74 minutes are CD-RW types, and I had an on again/off again problem with CD Architect this afternoon when trying to do a test before burn routine. CDA would get through to the last part of the test and after a few seconds an error box would come up saying the disk was read-only, which it isn't. I was able to get CDA to erase the disk and tried the test before burn routine, and it would fail again. However, if I just did a disk burn without test beforehand, it would burn the disk okay. And that disk would be playable on not just the computer I did it on, but our regular stand-alone Sony CD 5 disk changer.

I am using the internal cd/dvd drive in my Toshiba Satellite 1955 laptop. It writes to cd's no problem when I want data storage, so this kind of stumps me. Is it a CDA problem or what?

Comments

drbam wrote on 11/24/2007, 7:53 PM

My guess is that your CD burner is the issue. Try burning at different speeds (between 8 & 16 is usually good). There are lots of reports with CD/DVD burners in laptops -even the most current models. That being said, try some Taiyo Yunden silver media. Even tho they're 80 min, many mastering engineers use them and I've been using them for about 5 years and I wouldn't use anything else for audio. I use Plextor burners and with this combination the error rates are so low that its not even worth discussing.

Chienworks wrote on 11/24/2007, 8:26 PM

You don't need CD-R music discs. Those are only necessary if you are going into a music store and buying custom CD mixes. Other than that, by using them the only thing you gain is spending extra money that goes to the recording companies.

Standard data discs are all you need.

jackn2mpu wrote on 11/25/2007, 12:12 PM

Chienworks said:
You don't need CD-R music discs. Those are only necessary if you are going into a music store and buying custom CD mixes. Other than that, by using them the only thing you gain is spending extra money that goes to the recording companies.

Standard data discs are all you need

I replied:
That's good to hear. But what about 80 minute versus 74 minute disks? I know the CDA manual warns that not all drives will work with the 80 minutes disks. Buty is that write, read or what? I burn at a max of 4x; the drive won't go faster than that. Speed of burn isn't all that important to me, but I'd rather not do it at 1x either.
Jack

Geoff_Wood wrote on 11/25/2007, 1:16 PM

That's pretty much old info. The 80/74 relates to the pitch of the pressed 'pre-groove' of the disc - some very old crappy readers/writers/players may have trouble with the finer pitch of the 80s. I believe that here are no real 74 minute discs any more - they are all actually 80's although some say they are 74 minute in their ATIP header for compatibility reasons.

Your problem is likely to be related to the firmware in your writer - trying updating it - or just a crappy light-weight writer. Check it for dust/fluff.

Taiyo Yuden are considered best , now that Mitsui not longer exists. Though it is now uncommon to have problems with all but the cheapest no-name discs. Always use phthalocyanine discs (very light-greeny-silver), not azo (purple).

geoff

Weka wrote on 11/27/2007, 8:22 AM

While on the subject, Geoff, are you able to source Taiyo Yuden discs in NZ? I got Mitzui Gold's recently from Ak: my understanding is that the factory moved, not closed and there was a period of quality issues. The last batch of 100 has been faultless.

Geoff_Wood wrote on 11/27/2007, 11:34 AM

Where these Mitzui or Mitsui ?

Mitsui supposedly got out of CD-R manufacturing/distribution a year or so ago, and sold their technology to company called MAM-A, though they still manufacture the pthalocycnine dyes. The quality was supposed to be iffy for a while, but may be good now. Where did you get them - I'd be keen to give them a try !

Have only ever seen TY at Jaycar - "That's" CD-R is what they were labelled as.

geoff

Weka wrote on 11/27/2007, 12:13 PM

Here you go ...
http://www.finda.co.nz/business/listing/nt99/mrb-imaging-ltd/
Thanks Geoff