Dvd-r, Dvd-r+w, Cd-r, Cd-r+w

[korgoth]

personal experience as well as general opinion says,., burning at slower speeds helps create a smoother burn, especially with dvd's. I have never heard that the fastest setting is most optimal.

all my software only has one rip speed setting so it never seemed to make any difference to me. The cd drive in your computer is much more picky than a cd or dvd player, so if you can read and rip it to the computer, then the files should be read easily as long as you have a good burn.

but you can hold it to your nose and read the monitor? yeah those are most likely garbage. They will play in some, especially newer players, but youd have much less trouble with better media.

if youre having problems, its probobly the discs.. but id burn slower anyway to see if that fixes it.

 

[brian32672]

Hello, just adding my 2.
I have been burning for quite some time, and will certainly say stay away from cheap brands. Specially CompUSA which actually I found them as a cheap Princo. (DVD-R) On CD-R I have been very fond of Fuji-Film discs, (they are superb) For DVD I use Ritek Ridata's. And Have burned well over 2300 dvd's (much closer to 3000) but only about 1000 cd-r's.
I can also second the motion on using Plextor drive. (Plextor 716 & 712) Very good firmware updates. Constantly updating for new media. As stated it is one of the few drives that does have a 8mb buffer.
I have tried many other burners, but have always relied on the Plextor.
You asked?

I want to make sure I'm getting good burns, perhaps if I slow the burn speed? I left it at the default (48x).

There are many programs that will check the integrity of your burns. It will check for read errors, which are normal to have. Even on store bought pressed discs. But then there are un-correctable errors, and this is where the quality of the burn and media come into play. With Plextor you can use Plextools Proffesional (Free download) Also Nero has a disc checking program, and there are other free ones on the net. You do not have to check each disc, just when you get a new stack of discs, check the first one you burn.

Also there is a program called DVD Identifier (I believe will check cd's as well) And as stated before, even though a disc is labeled Tayio Yuden, it may not be this. And the mentioned program will check an exact manufacture code.

Be very leary of buying unknown TY discs, as there are a lot of fakes. Most true TY discs are unlabeled, with not distinguishing markings, which make them prone to fakes.

Speed, well this is an arguable point. And for dvd's I honestly have no problem running at 4X (just because it says 4x, its actually still transfering 100x's faster(more) data than a cd-r at 20x) And I have run at higher speeds, but have had a few coasters running at higher speeds (up to 16X DVD). CD-R speeds, well I personally see no reason to go over 32X and usually 16X is fine with me. I mean we are only talking about 1 extra minute, if that, in most cases of actual burn time. So, to keep sure that my burns are quality, I will stick to a speed that seems like its doing good burns.

Below is a picture of the amount I am talking about. Each box holds 160 discs, plus this is not counting all the disc albums I have..... The stacks of visible discs are burnt on as well, just I've run out of boxes and albums to store them

 

[ducker]

Great info... wow that's just a could of discs

I used the wrong terminolgy back there.. I ment to say I burned a few more last night.. I'm not ripping thrm from a CD. These are tapped concerts.

I have zero problems with the 2 cd's I burned last night at 8x. I might bump it up a bit higher and see how they turn out.

Again, thanks for all the good feedback. Now off to find some good ripping software with a lot of options to select from.

 

[brian32672]

Now off to find some good ripping software with a lot of options to select from.

I have used many ripping software, some free ones that are good are DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink. And best for me has been Nero Ultra edition works with cd's and dvd's with many projects available. (must have Recode)

 

[korgoth]

those ripping programs were for dvd's, but they work really well. (dvd decrypter/dvd shrink)

for music ripping, you can use windows media player. i use creative sound blaster since i got it with my sound card.

i dont really rip music though

 

[brian32672]

Actually sorry to say, once again having a Plextor comes into play. And the ripping part of Plextools for cd's seems faster for me than Media Player. I do use Media Player quite often. And have no real preference for cd rips. But until recently with the upgraded Media Player, all rips were WMA. Now it allows for MP3's. But for copying a cd, by no means do I use Media Player (just use to Plextools, its much faster)

(Edit)--Also as stated above Nero as well.... Never was fond of Roxio EZ Cd Creator but did use it for about 2 years...

 

[brian32672]

Not trying to out do you, on total burns. But I had meant that the boxes shown in the pictures and the numbers I quoted where mainly (solely) for my 2 Plextor drives, showing reliability. Actually through the many years, its uncountable how many discs I've burnt. With these drives, my NEC, cheap Maddog, Sony, etc.. drives. Probably 10K+ By chance for some reason I keep the empty cases, and must get rid of them. The closet is full of empty cases. Why??? I don't know...

 

[korgoth]

id never buy anything other than a plex.

 

[ducker]

a GREAT FAQ with TONS of information

http://www.cdrfaq.org/