Hi All,

I'm new to this forum but not new to burning. I'm here because I've recently encountered problems with my TDK 48x VeloCD. I replaced an older TDK 16x VeloCD with this. In any case, I will be doing ALOT of audio CD creations soon and need a reliable drive to do this.

I have upgraded the firmware to S7S8 and am using Nero Express 5.5.10.20. I have a whole bunch of old TDK 8x media and Sony 12x media that I was planning to use for my project. My results are as follows:

TDK 8x - Cannot make a decent audio CD. I get periodic static or noise. It's as if I burned at a higher rate then certified or something but I didn't. I have tried 8x and 4x. For some reason, Nero will not let me burn below 4x on this drive. Go figure?

Sony 12x - I'm having better luck with this but it doesn't seem to play well in my car CD whereas my 16x had not problems. Car CD will search "forever" for the first track

TDK 16x data for reference (same Nero version)...

TDK 8x - Able to create decent audio CD but at 8x only. 1x, 4x, and 2x causes the CD to excessively search for tracks.

Sony 12x - Same results as above.

The weird thing is I "used" to be able to burn TDK 8x audio CDs with no problems on my 16x. Now after a Nero upgrade is more difficult.

- I have tried going back to older version of Nero - similar results
- I have tried EZ CD 5.3.4 Platinum with Sony 12x - same results

My final question is whether there are issues with using older, slower rated media in newer faster drives? This is my only theory. The older media "seem" to work better with my 16x drive but I don't get the good results I used to get.

At this point, I have no idea WTF happend. In a moment of despartion to complete my project, I went ahead and purchased a Plextor 48x drive. Unfortunately, I've read some posts that there are problems with this drive too. Is there an answer to all this madness!!!

Any help, insight, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I apologize for the long post but wanted to provide as much info as possible.

Thanks in advance.

I have the 52x and 24x and haven't had any of the problems you mentioned. I'm using up media that's rated 16x and it will sometimes let it burn all the way up to 40x.

Maybe the burner is just bad- get it replaced under warranty and go from there.

I just got my Plextor but it didn't come with PlexTools. Tried one recording with Sony 12x and it was marginally better.

I still cannot explain the TDK 8x not burning well. I have come to believe that CD burners have definitely changed in technology and in the burn process. Perhaps back then the burning technology was done one way whereas today it's different. Maybe a more powerful laser is used or what not.

The other thing, I guess, is that CD-R media has also evolved. Chemical formulas today are different than that of yesterday.

Finally, my car CD is old, from 1998. I believe newer CD players are, for some reason, more compatible with CD-Rs. I have a friend whose 2001 Maxima plays pretty much everything.

In any case, I'm not worried about my drives, anymore. I guess I'm just behind the times. Went ahead an bought an old HP 9300i (which is what I had orginally) in order to be able to burn CDs for my car. Seems a bit extreme but hey I listen to alot of music in the car and I drive long distances quite a bit. Besides, got a new one for $27. Can't beat that.

Thanks for all who read my post.

That's absolutely true !

Unfortunately, the new "green" dyes are not compatible with my Car CD player..


In any case, I discovered this VariRec option with Plextor. Trying a few test CDs with +1 and +2 settings.

Anyone know what it actually does? I'm assuming it's increasing or decreasing the power of the laser. At least, this is what I got from some brief perusals of articles on-line.

Will post results later...

How do you know that ?
I mean, I'm talking about the new types of dyes, which I guess totally uknown for the general public.

As for VariRec, it's important to experiment with the settings there in order to get the best possible sounding result, suitable just for your car stereo. However, be careful with those, some extreme ones may result in coasters.


VariRec

Here's what could come in handy > VariRec in depth published @cdinfo.com

BoSkin,

Thanks for your post. But I was wondering if you could educate me on the charts you are showing. I read the white paper on VariRec before and to me it doesn't provide much detail.

Jitter is defined as deviations from the original sample (?). So in regards to your charts, the lower the jitter the better? Actually I don't seem to correlate how time is used to measure jitter. On the Y axis... is that playing time? So the charts are depicting jitter over some period of playing time?

Sorry but I'm foreign to this stuff.

Also some results...

Both +1 and +2 settings produced marginally better CDs. Car CD still search quite a bit but it's not "forever". I'm not sure if I should even bother with the -1 and -2 settings.

In regards to your question about "green dye", I just assumed that this is the dye that most manufactureres are using. I noticed that both Sony and TDK have moved to a "green" dye as opposed to a Cyanine based dye. My old CD-R media were blue and all the new ones from the same manufacturer are green. I've tried out all "green" dye media in my car CD player and none work. Before, I had 100% success with Cyanine media and now it's marginal but still better than the green dye CDs.

Anyways...