You can get excellent information on FAQ of CDR at
Http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/FAQ.html or text format at
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/comp.publish.cdrom.hardware/ This
FAQ contains a lot of information on current models of CDR as well as
various standards such as red book, blue book, etc.
Cheer,
Andrew Luk,
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-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - PC Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
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Sent: Friday, 27 March 1998 19:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] CD-R questions
> I need a CD-R to create music singles for distribution.
> The offers that I can afford myself are
> Mitsumi CD-writer (8/4 external SCSI),
> Panasonic (external PP).
> Seagate (external PP).
As a disclaimer, my experience has been with a SCSI Yamaha CRW 4260.
This decision was made after endless weeks of research, reviews, web
sites and soul searching as to what my needs would be. This unit
seemed to fit those needs best. Yours may be different.
> I wish to make a few questions:
>
> 1. Some musician told me that I should only use SCSI CD-Rs:
> I know that SCSI is faster than EIDE or PP, esspecially on
> multytasking, but us there any deeper reason besides speed? I don't
> have a SCSI card, and I wish my CD-R to be used with various computers.
What is the source for the music you wish to put on the CD? If it is
another CD, you have to make sure that the CD reader is capable of
digital audio extraction (DAE) or else you will need to record the
music to the hard drive as a .WAV file first. I have not done this so
don't know if it adds a level of complexity/distortion that would be
unacceptable to your application. I am not sure if IDE or PP will
support CD to CDR recording. SCSI will with the correct drives. I
have heard that EIDE has problems shuttling information between the
primary and secondary channel.
> 2. I heard that there might be stability problems. A friend of mine who
> has an old CD-R and has a multyboot computer (Win95 and WinNT), told me
> that he prefers not to write CD-R on Win95, but rather on WinNT because
> any swaping/other tasking, may corrupt the media. Is this hold also for
> newer CD-Rs ? Is it so sensitive? does it help that the CD-R is SCSI in
> that matter? In relation to this question, any comments about the
> brands mentioned above? Are there software solutions to this problem in
> Win95?
I believe they may be talking about buffer underruns. My CDRW has a 2
MB buffer (and is a SCSI) and I have never seen it go under 98%.
General rule is to do nothing else while burning the CDR, but I have
heard some people boast that they continue using the computer while
the CDR is running without problems. Other religiously leave the
computer untouched. I have never had an unsuccessful burn.
> 3. General comments about the brands mentioned above? The prices that we
> got for them are much cheaper than the prices of Philips/Sony. Are
> they definitly inferior? How are they from the point of stability, and
> from the point of reliability.
In general, most CDRs use an engine built by RICOH, PHILIPS or
YAMAHA. Each seems to have its proponents and detractors. If
possible, talk to someone with a similar system to yours and see what
models have been successfully utilized.
> 4. What is the fastest writing multiplicity on CD-R that can be normally
> achieved when connecting a CD-R to a parallel port? (directly, without
> compression tricks). Is it a bottle-neck? Is it possible to produce a
> 4 times basic speed parallel-port CD-R?
I don't believe compression has anything to do with how fast you can
write to the CDR. It depends upon the drive mechanism (2X is normal,
4X the tops I have seen) used and the speed at which data can be fed
to the CDR. This is where PP and EIDE may fall short. If data cannot
be delivered to the CDR when needed, (before the buffer is empty),
the resultant CDR media will be useless.
> Thanks in advance,
> any partial help is appreciated.
>
> - Uzi
>
Hope the helps.
Jim
Jim Maki
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