keskiviikko 3. tammikuuta 2018 17.16.08 UTC+2 Brian Gaff kirjoitti:
I have a relatively new computer which has two brand new cd/dvd writers in
it. Neither of them seem to be able to produce universally readable standard
CD recordings. Many cd decks give up when looking at them, but a DVD or an
el cheapo cd player from tesco read them fine, as do many in car units.
These are standard, not mp3 cds.
Now on a machine upstairs I have an almost identical recorder, a previous
version which will make good ccd copies. is the issue likely to be the
hardware or something weird about the machine down here?
For the life of me I cannot think of a reason for it not to be just
hardware, so I'm tempted to do a swap over, assuming windows 7 can find
drivers for the older drive as the old machine is xp and quite slow in
comparison.

Any thoughts?
Brian

You are right. All CD-R burners are not born equal, but the same can also be said of CD-R blank media and also CD players, so to find a reliable combination of all three is not always easy.
People often confuse CD and CD-R. Even though the discs look similar, the data on them is put there in a totally different way, although they end result looks the same to a CD player. Commercial CDs are “stamped� from a glass master in a single action, in an injection molding machine, while CD-R's are written, by a laser which follows a pre-groove and writes in a dye developed by Taiyo Yuden. CD blanks are not sold retail, but CD-R blanks are made by a large number of manufacturers and widely available. Some players seem to have problems with CD-RW. Interesting that the terms “father, mother, matrix and stamper� used in the vinyl days have been carried over to CD manufacture.
Companies which offer CD-R reprocation seem to favour CD-R blanks made by Taiyo Yuden. The best blanks (I am told) have silver, gold or light green dyes, and the CD-R writer laser is adjusted to suit the blank being used. It seems that the brighter the reflective layer the better chance a CD player has of being able to read it.
CD-s proper are manufactured in clean-room conditions, and have a brighter reflective surface.
I make more that 1 000 CD-Rs a year, concerts , rehearsal CD's for bands and orchestras, archive recordings of theatre groups, etc etc. I used to use a desktop PC with three CD-R writers, but found this slow and not very reliable. The method I use now offers almost 100% reliability. (One “suspect� CD-R returned last year. It played perfectly.
My method is as follows:
I write a physical CD master in real-time to a Tascam CD-RW 900/II recorder, which stands on a 50x50cm paving stone, with a cast concrete slab on top of it to eliminate vibration. When the Tascam is writing, I listen on headphones, and sit with remote in hand in my chair, with the door locked. I then title the CD, name the tracks and finalise. Next, I then play the CD back, and listen carefully start to finish on vintage Studer A730 CD player, which still has the original lens. Its a pretty “selective� player, so if my master plays, then I feel I am on safe ground.
For reprocation, I have a tower system, with 21 trays. It can copy from files on an internal hard disc, from USB stick or memory card. I choose to use a physical master (CD) as these are easy to archive and cannot be overwritten. I use Taiyo Yuden Silver discs with white printable surface, available in packs of ten or on spindles of 100 pcs. As a reserve, I keep a supply of Verbatim discs which have also proved to be reliable.
I put the physical master into the top tray, and select “Check�. The system verifies the integrity of the master. Only then am I ready to start to make copies (or rather clones:-)
The system can write at 52x, but I choose a much lower speed x16 which writes a full music CD 5 minutes. After writing, the system verifies each disc, and so is turning out 21 discs at seven minute intervals. I have two colour inkjet printers which print the label info direct onto the discs when they are ejected from the trays, so the tower is producing CD's faster than I can print the label info.
The secret to producing reliable CD-Rs seems to be to use high grade blanks, write at a slow speed, and be sure the system is not subject to vibration when writing.

Iain