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Why does TEAC CD-RWs support the most cd-r and cd-rw media no matter if its no name brand or brand name? Why does plextor not, or any other brands support any too easily?
Or do they ? >>
24X Plextors are good, but to my surprise the 24X Teac got better reviews in terms of media compatibility. See
here:
The TEAC CD-W524E has the best media compatibility I have seen in a 24x writer. The TEAC took every type of media I threw at it and wrote to it at 24x. Even the problematic PNY, CompUSA and Fuji media had no problems at 24x.
TEAC pulls off this amazing feat by using two different media tests. You should know that different brands and types of media use different dyes and they require different laser power for it to record properly. If a drive uses too much power, it will create marks that are too wide. These marks can physically interfere with each other. Using too little power will produce undersized marks and will reduce signal levels during playback, or the read will fail all together.
The TEAC CD-W524E uses an OPC or Optimum Power Calibration test to determine the best writing laser power for your drive and media combination. The drive is able to pull the estimated Optimum Recording Power value from the Absolute Time In Pregroove (ATIP) information encoded in the lead-in area of the media itself. The drive then uses this value as a starting point and tests higher and lower power settings. It tests this in a reserved space of a disc called the Power Calibration Area (PCA). After it writes these test marks, it reads them back and looks for differences between the marks (pits) and the lands. If a mark is too short, the laser was underpowered. If its too long, the laser was overpowered. From these marks, the drive tries to find the best laser power for the media you're using.
ROPC (Running Optimum Power Calibration) takes this process a step further. During the OPC tests, the recorder also monitors the amount of light reflected back from the disc. During the writing process, the drive monitors the amount of light being reflected. It then compares this to the results from the OPC test. If there are any differences, laser power is adjusted on the fly. This helps maintain the optimum writing conditions for each type of media.
You can see the results of this in my tests above. The TEAC was able to write at 24x to all of my test media, something no other drive has been able to do yet. Of course there is a trade-off here. The TEAC isn't the fastest 24x writer around but if you want a faster writer you will give up the media compatibility. The choice is yours.
Note that the Teac does NOT defeat SafeDisc 2.51. However, judging by posts online, it's better significantly built than the Lite-On.
By the way, I must say that Plextor has a very lame firmware upgrade Windows app. My friend had a Firewire QPS drive which is a rebadged Plextor 12/10/32A. I installed the QPS firmware update (which is the same as the Plextor one). It found the drive and then installed the firmware, and then the software hung. Fortunately it updated fine to 1.08 from 1.04 but it scared the crap out of me. Then I tried the "real" Plextor one on a branded IDE Plextor 12/10/32A. It found the drive but refused to update it from 1.07 to 1.09. WTF? Actually it "failed" the update and again scared the crap out of me. However, it did work fine fortunately, but with the old 1.07.
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