Need LOW CD-RW burn speed (!)

[jml1951]

OK, here's the weird question of the day:

Anyone know if there are new CD-RWs on the market that still burn at 4X?

Reason: The audio CD player in my car is VERY cranky. Burning music CDs at 4X seems to be the only way to ensure that CD player tracks properly. Even burning at 8X is a coin toss. Before I spring for a new car CD player, I'd like to try a cheaper alternative.

Anyway: When my old 40X Philips burner developed problems, I bought a new Teac CD burner which worked fine at high speeds (it's a 52X burner). But when I tried to burn a music CD at 4X, that choice didn't appear in my burning software. When I checked the specs on the Teac web site, I found that the minimum burning speed was 12X. I've since checked Sony, Memorex, etc. Either they don't list the minimum speed (just the maximum), or the minimum speed is either 12X or 8X.

I know that Plextor burners will do 4X, but they're much more expensive that other drives. Besides, the places in my area that are supposed to carry Plextor (Microcenter, Best Buy) only have DVD burners in stock, not CD-RWs.

Anyone know if there's any lower-priced drives (LG, Dynex, etc.) that will burn at 4X? If I can't find a new one, I may have to search for an old puker drive at a surplus store, which I don't want to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John

 

[spiritwalker2223]

Well you can get a new old burner, or just get a new cd/mp3 player for your car. That way your not investing in something old.

 

[corkyg]

Something doesn't make sense. Regardless of the burn speed, the resulting .cda file is the same. Have you tried different media? Sometimes that is the problem, not burn speed.

Anyway - I have a Plextor DVD burner - PX708UF2, and it will burn CDRs at the following speeds:

48X; 32X; 16X; 8X and 4X with Roxio ECM 7.5.

 

[Unkno]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Something doesn't make sense. Regardless of the burn speed, the resulting .cda file is the same. Have you tried different media? Sometimes that is the problem, not burn speed.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

What software are you using? Is software and firmware up to date? Are DMA and buffer underrun protection enabled?

Plextor PX-712
CD Burn speeds - 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x, 48x
Plextools and Nero

 

[jml1951]

For General Ripping: Nero Ultra Edition 6.6.0.16
Music Ripping: Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 5
UltraDMA enabled
Win2K SP4

 

[sniperruff]

trade you my brother's 8x LG for your teac!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Something doesn't make sense. Regardless of the burn speed, the resulting .cda file is the same. Have you tried different media? Sometimes that is the problem, not burn speed.

Anyway - I have a Plextor DVD burner - PX708UF2, and it will burn CDRs at the following speeds:

48X; 32X; 16X; 8X and 4X with Roxio ECM 7.5.

Higher burn speeds result in way more soft errors than low burn speeds. A computer's drive is able to easily, and totally transparently correct these errors. But something that spins the disc slower (no chance to reread sections of the disc to get it right) and is just plain not as bright, like a standalone disc player, can't compensate for the gaps and slightly screwy data. Examples of what happens when a disc is burned at different speeds:
DVD+RW burned at 2.4x
Same disc burned at 4x, after being given a full erase at 2.4x.
For both tests, the read speed was the same.
The 4x burn, though the data is the same, shows a lot more correctable errors. Correctable by a computer that is, but perhaps not by a standalone player.

Now then, if the recorder supports the speed, here's some 4x-10x media.
I had a 40125S Liteon CD-RW drive (something like that) that was still capable of writing at 2x
Check out Kmart, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc - there may be three kinds of CD-RW media. Ultra speed is 16x-24x, which can't be read by a lot of older optical drives. High speed is 8x-12x, which has quite good compatibility. And all that remains should be 4x media.

 

[Zepper]

I second the media suggestion ( I see CD-RW mentioned a lot in the OP's posts - never burn audio on CD-RW (re-writable) media if you want a cheap or older player to read it. Use CD-R media ONLY!). Try a high-contrast media like Taiyo-Yuden (fairly dark blue-green recording side) (such as the Made in Japan Fuji blanks - the ones made in Taiwan are NOT high contrast) OR Verbatim/Mistubishi Chemical Data-Life Plus (dark blue recording side). I've heard that some of the Khypermedia blanks (mainly sold in Office Max, I think) are the Azo or Super Azo like the Verbatim Data-Life Plus (dark blue recording side).
. Also when is the last time you cleaned the CD player in the car? The dry method cleaner disks don't work too well - use a good brand wet system cleaner disk (e.g. 3M). I disassemble my indoor player/burners about every other year and do a manual wet clean on the lenses and vacuum the dirt out. I suppose an automotive one would need it much more frequently.

.bh.