cd burning speed

Marakanetz - I had bad copies using 8x DVD burner on 16x DVDs. Apple explains that problem might be related to limited range of power adjustment of the laser. Imagine writing 52x CDR with 2x speed. Burner adjusts laser power on a special track (assigned for that) but it might have hard time when moving slow (2x) while CDR is 52x (very sensitive photo-layer). Going much faster might be better but it requires faster computer operation and cause dropouts (buffer under-run). 16x seems like good speed - at least that's what my burning programs use in auto-mode.

I use Taiyo Yuden CDRs (they invented CDR) and burned over 500 of them without single coaster. Photo-layer is guaranteed to last 100 years.

After a while I've burned quite a number of CDs from different formats and noticed that in my current workstation the speeds bellow 8x would stop burning due to the disk error. When I pull this CD out of tray I realize that it's not even half-full...

Don't know about music, but I had to burn .NET at 2x speed. When I burned on 6x i had .ini file blank. Even after filling it out manually I had encountered further data inconsistancy during an application testing.
I think that music isn't less complicated than MSVS.NET and there may be certainly data losses depending on speed.

There have been several posts about this topic in the past; and it might be worthwhile to look them up. I own a commercial media duplication company and we've not only copied thousands of CDs and CD-ROMs, but even more DVDs. Generally speaking, slower burn speeds equal cleaner results. I duplicate most of my personal discs at 2X speed on a dual well Marantz professional CD recorder, and have never had a disc that didn't sound great. As for media types, we have used a lot of Maxell, Mitsui, and Sony CD-Rs with good results. Though we mostly use commercial grade discs; we've consumer stuff in a pich with good results.
As discussed above, don't waste your money on "cheapie" CD-Rs. Many are rejects from major disc makers that didn't pass quality control at the factory. Good luck!

Check out a few online reviews for data CD-Rs; I assume that the quality of data CDs a particular writer will produce is closely correlated with the quality of audio CDs (this assumption may be wrong). Some actually perform _better_ at higher write speeds than they do at lower speeds. But, in general, lower write speeds are better. For many CD burners, you can find their performance with different media at different speeds. For example, check out some of the reviews at cdfreaks.com.

Auda ibn Jad

My Liteon CD burner's lowest speed is 4X.

If you dip it into the 99%alcohol you'll burn it much faster:-)

In general the lower the speed, the better the copy. I would guess that some error correction scheme in in place for the copies. When speeds go higher, the error correction get's call up more, so the data is less uniformly written. This is just a guess.

I notice that my slow work computer (933mhz P3 w/5400rpm ide) must copy at 2x in order to make a good copy. My fast home computer (athlon 1.8 w/twin 15K scsi drives) however reliably makes good copies at 24x and 40x.

Some tips:
1. On your main board you will have two ide connectors. Usually you will have one Y cable coming out of one of them. The destination ends of the Y go to cd rom and cd writer. You should go and buy another IDE Connector cable, connect this to the second mainboard ide controller, and to either the cd or the cdr. The effect being that they are on separate ide channels and won't have to share a single cable. www.outpost.com sells them for 2-3 bucks. This is important.

2. Disconnect any and all unnecessary virus alert, email, or fax monitor software. These things will periodically use up a little cpu for their timer based services. The virus stuff expecially.

3. Don't use your computer while it is copying.

4. Buy high quality cdr's. I use TDK's. I have had consistently poor performance from 'house brand' cdr's. The cheap cdr's work ok for low speed (8-12x copying).

5. (extreme) Get a very fast hard disk for your system, some extra memory, and a fast processor. This will cause it to have fewer 'pauses' while the processor is servicing other programs.

i have old teac burner. and i hate it but i do notice a diffrence in sound quality bewteen a 2x and 4x. not that the 4x sounds bad,it's just that 2x is a *bit*(ok everyone groan)better. and defenitely worth the same the time if i care about a recording.

kb54 at least you tested things for yourself. if it was the same to you that cool. :)

and i do agree with you on the cheap blanks sounding crappy yuck. :(

There shouldn't be data loss at the higher burning speeds, but the copies may exhibit higher inherent jitter due to inferior definition of reflective boundaries. Depends on the blank quality and the burner.

If you are making a copy ... logically, there is no conversion of data. The 0's and the 1's were already decided when the source disc was created and you are just making a straight copy. Can the cd burner make a mistake in copying the bits ... I guess it is possible. I can not hear differences when I make CD copies (Apple eMAC CD burner)... but, if people hear differences ... who am I to say. Regards, Rich