I just started using Nero Burning Rom. It really seems to work very well. I had previously used Adaptec Easy CD Creator for years and years. I have a new, extremely fast, TDK CD burner. I have been burning my latest CDs at 20x. I haven't had any problems with them yet. It is amazing to be able to copy a CD in 3 minutes. |
I'm a fairly astute computer user but not a techie by any stretch of the imagination. I use a Hitachi DVD drive for the master and a Sony burner with the Spresa software that came with it. I don't copy directly but rather make a temporary image on my hard drive prior to burning. I do burn at the maximum speed. I use the cheapest media I can buy since I make so many CD's for photo distribution for my customers. My best guess is that I have made 300 CD's of various stuff, mainly photos, and have yet to have a failure.
I have a question regarding drop-out that is mentioned in another post. Some background first. I also rip my CD's into my computer for listening while I work. Winamp uses fewer system resources than playing the original CD through the DVD drive and since this is just background music, I'm not concerned with playback quality. The earliest form of copyright protection seems to be the addition of errors in the original CD which makes a computer confused during the ripping process. There are songs which I can't successfully rip into my computer based mp3 library. I can successfully copy and burn these discs however for use in my truck. If drop-out is real, wouldn't the computer get confused by the missing information (sorry about the non-tech language here) and fail to rip the song from a recorded CD? I just did an experiment with my burned CD's to see if they rip like the originals. They do, exactly. The experiment was done with 3 year old CD's that stay in my truck 24/7/365. The disc manufacturer is Prodisc Technology, Inc. for my media, is bought at Compusa for $15 per 100 and are so cheap that they don't even have a mat finish on the top side. These are finger print nightmares. I also label them with a Sharpie.
Can someone give me some insight into why so many people are having problems doing this? Perhaps put in a better way: do the people that are having problems with drop-out also experience a lot of failures during the burning process? I have yet to make a coaster. |
I am going to try using 1x or 2x in the future and see if this solves the issue. The CD's started out sounding good and ended up sounding bad after as little as 6 months, but I was recording and burning at 8X. Also, my experience with the real cheepo CD's such as the $10 for 100 varieties were that they are totally un-useable. Thanks for all the helpfull suggestions. |
I looked for Yamaha blanks too but to no avail. I read perhaps the same thing you did, stating Yamaha was the best. I think Fujifilm was #2 or so and you can only find those at CVS(!?). Easy CD creator is what I also use and never have any problems. Great little program. |
I use Easy CD Creator 5 with Memorex blanks. I have burn over 100 with only a handful of failures. I burn at 2x speed which is the slowest Easy CD Creator allows.
I remember reading a review somewhere which compared a number of CD blanks for data drop out. It says Yamaha blanks are the best but I have never been able to find any on the market. Anyone knows of any source? |
Memeboy: It's controlled by the software you use. I'm using Nero, and there's a box that allows you to select the speed. By the way, I've had much better results with Nero than I ever did with Adaptec. It really is a remarkable program (but I must warn those with Windows XP--it's not that easy to get it working--it will work but it takes time due to burn rights security issues and a few other glitches I went through). I did just buy a new burner as well. It the Yamaha CRW-F1 available at buy.com. So far I'm very impressed with it--it can burn very fast and I'm starting to experiment with higher speeds for personal use. For masters--I will still do 1x. |
To obtain better results, on my computers in the past I slowed down the read speed to 1x and the recording speed to 1x. But with my new computer, I seem to have no control over the read speed and not much control over the burning speed. Does anyone know how to gain control of those two settings? [XP Home OS]
thanks |
Believe it or not, the CDR's that I've had the most trouble with are the more expensive ones such as TDK and Maxell. |
Imation has been lots of problems for me. I use the audio TDKs now without any problems whatsoever - and at 8x speed. Arthur |
I burn at 1x for masters. 2x for personal use. Nothing faster. I have used many blanks including the imation, which has been inconsistent and thus I use them for family video editing. The ones that have been pretty consistent are the memorex. As I recall there was a thread a while back that went into the different manufacturers and where there actual discs were made. I think there are not that many actual places that make blank CDs, but rather there are dozens of companies that market these blanks. The result is that you want to get blanks made from the "good" source. Some "manufacturers" (meaning imation et al) get their blanks from multiple sources--thus they are inconsistent. While some work with only one source. I do not know these sources, nor do I know which manufacturers use multiple sources, but hopefully someone that does will join this thread. |
Gboren is 100% right on about the audio optimized blanks.
When you burn an audio CD on your computer don't burn at super high speeds. I don't recommend burning higher than 4x. Doing so will sometimes results in too many errors and will cause erratic behavior in audio CD players - it will also result in the drop-outs that some folks have mentioned. If you burn at 4x on good quality media you will end up with discs that sound great and last a long time. |
I think Avideo may have hit it on the head. I would recommend doing a test burn of the same CD at 1x speed and see if you experience the same problems. |
Sorry to hear about your problem. I own a commercial media duplication company, and we've had quite good success with both Imation and Mitsui blank discs. We've also tried the HHBs at times; but for commercial applications the HHBs are just way too expensive.
The first question I think you need to ask is how good was the hook-up you used for transfering your material? Did you actually test it first before burning your discs? Do be aware that computer sound cards and computers themselves often induce noise into a recording. Also, did you record these discs faster than normal playback speed.
We often master discs here for clients; and they are recorded at normal (1X) play speed only on a standalone commercial CD recorder. In the two plus years we've been mastering discs for clients - (we are a 13 year old company that started out in video only) - we've NEVER had a complaint about our mastering work. In fact, two of the larger CD duplicators in out market refer clients to us regularly.
Another item you may want to check is the actual CD recorder mechanism itself. Way too often, the CD drives put into computers are the least expensive the maker can find. Sorry to say it but "quality" is a term rarely used in the computer industry. |
I have to respectfully disagree with Slipknot1 about the "audio optimized" blanks. The only difference between the "audio" blanks and the rest is that the "audio" have the coding to work in consumer class non-computer cd recorders. The extra money goes to a fund to pay royalties, or something like that.
As to the problem, what do you mean by "jittery"? What does it sound like? Jitter is an often over used and misunderstood term. Jitter is the annoying tinny/grainy noise which is caused by clock errors created in the A to D or D to A process. It is highly unlikely that a disk would play fine one day and then have "jitter" a few months later, since the jitter is caused by the DAC, not the disk. If your original source was also digital (ie, another CD), then your DAC or CD player can be the only source of the jitter.
If you are hearing scratchy noise or pops and clicks, then you are experiencing drop-outs, which is possible. CD-R's are made with a softer "wax" than the professionally produced CD's. As such, they are more heat sensitive and, depending on storage conditions, they may degrade. They are certainly not so heat sensitive as to be delicate, but over time they can degrade.
Hope this helps. |
I mainly use the most generic of media purchased for $15 per 100 from Compusa. I've never had any of the problems I occassionally read about in these forums. I admit to not listening to many CD's in my music room often, preferring that medium in my truck. I did a test after reading this thread by retreiving my oldest (3 or 4 year) CD's and playing them in my system, comparing them to the originals. I have none of your complaints. Beyond storage and handling changes, I can offer no suggestions. |
Anybody else having trouble with Imation CDRs? I've never had a problem with them. Stopped using the higher priced blanks (Mitsuis) when I admitted to myself that I couldn't tell the difference. That said, I can't think what else could be the problem. Have you tried using Vivid or Optrix on the troublesome disk? Does it play okay in the burner or other CD player? Just some thoughts. |
I suspect it is your CDR stock. I've never had consistent good luck using Imation CDR blanks. I burn a lot of CDR material in tranfering live location recordings I've made from DAT to CD for listening.
The best thing to do is spend the extra money to get audio optimized blanks. I personally use HHb CDRs, but have found good luck with bulk spindle purchases of Mitsui products as well.
Best of luck! |
