best cd burner?

  • Thread starter Thread starter billy3000
  • Start date Start date
billy3000

billy3000

New member
Hi All....I was wondering if a garden variety burner would suffice.....

and it occurs to me that different burners may be more compatible with various cpu's motherboard etc......

I have an elite motherboard, nuthin fancy and a 1GIG AMD cpu.

any thought on CD burners much appreciated. thanks!

Bill
 
If you can find a name brand, for a reasonable price, get that. I've used HP, Sony, NEC, and Maxtor. They have all performed just fine for me. Your computer should handle anyone fine, and you can get some pretty fast ones for low prices these days.
Good luck.
Ed
 
There is only ONE CD burner in the world anymore.

That burner is the Plextor PlexWriter Premium.

All others bow down before it, as they are trash. Even if they're really nice, they're still trash. :confused: Hell, I have several other drives here - All trash, of course. :eek:

PLUS - With the PWP, you wind up with PlexTools Professional - which IMHO, is worth several times the price of the drive itself, but is also dependent ON the drive - The two work together to a point...

The drive (and that suite of tools) is the de facto standard audio writing drive.

www.newegg.com has them for under $70, BTW...

For just a little more info (just a little) - http://www.massivemastering.com/html/disc_errors.html
 
What Massive Master said.

+++ I read a thread at a pro engineers' forum where somebody asked, "what CD burner do you use?" One hundred percent of about 80 responses said, "Plextor Premium." I got mine new for $82US. I would have paid that for the Plextools Pro software.
 
I'm sure you're mistaken about the Idiot part :)

Dogman said:
If you can find a name brand, for a reasonable price, get that. I've used HP, Sony, NEC, and Maxtor. They have all performed just fine for me. Your computer should handle anyone fine, and you can get some pretty fast ones for low prices these days.
Good luck.
Ed
Click to expand...

I'm cornfused! I got so many replies my head is swimming! Thankyou!

I will research all suggestions. Thanks Mate!



Bill
 
To Yourself and Massive Master:

lpdeluxe said:
+++ I read a thread at a pro engineers' forum where somebody asked, "what CD burner do you use?" One hundred percent of about 80 responses said, "Plextor Premium." I got mine new for $82US. I would have paid that for the Plextools Pro software.
Click to expand...

Thankyou Gentlemen. How can I NOT look into the Plextor Premium now?

Thank all of you 3 gentleman so much. I'm certain my answer is contained in these 3 posts.

If others post me, I shall ebgage them in a pleasant conversation about the weather.

I'm off to newegg :)

"Quickly Robin! To the Bat Poles!"
 
You're welcome.

No one mentioned it, but the value of the Plextools is that you can check both blank media and burned CDRs for errors. You'll find that every CDR has errors, but as long as they are under a certain tolerance (and of the "right" sort), and you have software that burns to Red Book standards (currently Sony CD Architect seems to be the cheapest, at $130) you can have CDs manufactured from your CDR without problems. Another point is that different media exhibit higher or lower error rates. People whose projects I work on sometimes leave me spindles of CDRs and it's rather astonishing the variation. For some brands, I throw away 1 out of 3, for other brands it's 1 out of 10. Taiyo Yuden brand has a very good reputation, and I expect I'll buy some when my current stock of several hundred of other brands runs out.
 
I buy the cheaepest. The last one was $20 after rebates from Best Buy. The CDs work for my friends.

I'm not a computer engineer, but it seems like the error rates have to be miniscule for the CD to be worth anything, thus I don't think it matters much.
 
it seems like the error rates have to be miniscule...

A lot of times the error rates are within the tolerance, and often they are not. I prefer to know, since all I need is to send off one faulty CDR to a replication plant for my little studio to close its doors. Imagine 1000 coasters. If you're just doing it for friends, no problem, and if one doesn't play maybe the next one will.
 
Is this the bad boy?

lpdeluxe said:
A lot of times the error rates are within the tolerance, and often they are not. I prefer to know, since all I need is to send off one faulty CDR to a replication plant for my little studio to close its doors. Imagine 1000 coasters. If you're just doing it for friends, no problem, and if one doesn't play maybe the next one will.
Click to expand...

right cheer?

http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Plextor_PlexWriter_Premium_PX_PREMIUM_SW
 
That's the one.

As usual, I paid more than everyone else....
 
lpdeluxe said:
A lot of times the error rates are within the tolerance, and often they are not. I prefer to know, since all I need is to send off one faulty CDR to a replication plant for my little studio to close its doors. Imagine 1000 coasters. If you're just doing it for friends, no problem, and if one doesn't play maybe the next one will.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd be way careful in that case, too.

But I do wonder...

One bit wrong in a file that's executable code, and it won't run, right?
 
I guess I've been damn lucky. I know my cd's are probably full of errors (most are from what I understand), but I haven't burned one yet that didn't play. Of course, I am giving them to friends and family, not a production place to burn a couple thousand of them...
 
and it won't run, right?

It's useful to look at what a CDR is, in order to understand what the errors consist of. Digital data does not spontaneously corrupt itself, but sometimes it gets help from the media or the burner.

A manufactured CD works because it is made with a microscopic spiral pattern of pits that cause light from a laser, reflected off the pit tracks, to reproduce digital data that can be read by a photo sensor and then converted into sound. A CDR consists of several layers of organic dyes on a platter that is covered over with clear plastic. When you "burn" a CDR, what you are doing is driving a laser that changes the reflectivity of the dye in a way that emulates the physical pits of the "real" CD. This allows the same player to play back CDs or CDRs or, for that matter, CDRWs.

The problems arise when either the laser mistracks or misfires (and it is a tiny, very precise system that drives it, and no wonder that errors occur) or the CDR is not up to snuff or has suffered damage (exposure to sunlight or heat, or being dropped or scraped or whatever).

There are 3 kinds of errors, in general terms: data errors, which occur when the laser doesn't exactly reproduce the data from the original files or disc (these are C1 errors, and the Red Book standard allows for 220 of these per second, which is HIGH in my experience -- cheapo CDRs seem to run around 80/sec and better ones around 20. The CDR standard specifies error correction and provides strategies for your player to find its way through a CD even with the errors); media problems, in which the dye layers don't properly respond to the laser for whatever reason, which means that when you play it back either the track can't be read or is misread (these are C2 errors, and the RB standard allows for exactly ZERO of these); and errors arising from areas of low transparency on the disc outer layer such as scratches or smudges (these are CU errors, and, like C2, the RB calls for ZERO).

Newer consumer CD players have pretty robust error-reduction systems. For example, I have tested a CDR and found CU errors, and still managed to play it. As in all things audio, regardless of what you're playing back on, you must master to the highest standard you can manage. It is probably unnecessary to add that, if you are planning replication, you want to be SURE that you're sending off the best master you can (apparently some replication outfits reproduce whatever you send them, with no error checking). Otherwise you end up with something different from what you wanted. Massive Master reports that pro CDs have a lot more problems with bad CDRs, by the way.

I hope this helps.
 
Hi Again!

Massive Master said:
There is only ONE CD burner in the world anymore.

That burner is the Plextor PlexWriter Premium.

All others bow down before it, as they are trash. Even if they're really nice, they're still trash. :confused: Hell, I have several other drives here - All trash, of course. :eek:

PLUS - With the PWP, you wind up with PlexTools Professional - which IMHO, is worth several times the price of the drive itself, but is also dependent ON the drive - The two work together to a point...

The drive (and that suite of tools) is the de facto standard audio writing drive.

www.newegg.com has them for under $70, BTW...

For just a little more info (just a little) - http://www.massivemastering.com/html/disc_errors.html
Click to expand...

I thought for certain that you had mentioned a favorite brand of blanks CD's but I can't find it anywhere in this thread. Am I hallucinating?

I could have sworn you or someone posted a top grade quality/brand name of blank CD's ........

I should have written it down! :)
 
I think the ones I saw at Sam's that you can print on are cool.
 
I believe Massive Master said he uses Taiyo Yuden but he's the expert. TY makes printable CDRs (and Epson sells a printer for around $180 to print them with).
 
Taiyo Yuden

lpdeluxe said:
No one mentioned it, but the value of the Plextools is that you can check both blank media and burned CDRs for errors. You'll find that every CDR has errors, but as long as they are under a certain tolerance (and of the "right" sort), and you have software that burns to Red Book standards (currently Sony CD Architect seems to be the cheapest, at $130) you can have CDs manufactured from your CDR without problems. Another point is that different media exhibit higher or lower error rates. People whose projects I work on sometimes leave me spindles of CDRs and it's rather astonishing the variation. For some brands, I throw away 1 out of 3, for other brands it's 1 out of 10. Taiyo Yuden brand has a very good reputation, and I expect I'll buy some when my current stock of several hundred of other brands runs out.
Click to expand...

actually, it turns out it was you that mentioned them first.

thanks! I have only 20 or so unused disks. so, when they run out I'll know what to buy now.

I should be more clear. I think faster than I can type. which is not a compliment to either accomplishment, btw :)

I will certainly be in the experimental stages for some time, and more budget minded blanks will surely be fine.

EVENTUALLY, I'll buy some taiyo yudens. cheers!
 
Last edited:
Massive Master said:
There is only ONE CD burner in the world anymore.

That burner is the Plextor PlexWriter Premium.
Click to expand...

Is this the one I've been hearing about that puts data on one side and then you flip it over and it will print a label? Or something like that...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top