Red Book capable CD burners?

[Will_227]

Hi. I am in need of a red book compatible CD burner. I've heard pioneer and lite on burners are the way to go, but I don't know what models and I heard and have found in my own searches, hard to find much from pioneer to buy.

I need a burner that will burn a CD with the least amount of errors, be able to write CD text so that when you insert the CD into the PC you can read the song names, and of course be able to burn the metadata like the ISRC codes.

I would be very grateful to anyone who can post a direct link to one of these burners of where I can buy it from. I am in Canada btw, so they have to ship here.

Please pick a burner in which you would feel confident in mastering CD's, as I plan on sending it off for replication very soon.

Also, are their any specific discs that would be best for mastering? if so, which ones? where can I buy? Thanks in advance!

[MASSIVE Master]

Discs: Tayio Yuden.

Drives: Just get a good drive. If you can find some NOS Plextor 712, 716, 755 or 760's, go for it. Sony, Phillips, Plextor -- Don't cheap out, just get a good drive.

It's the software that dictates what data is going to the disc - Not the drive. Although there were a few drives (mostly in the 90's) that were persnickety about certain things (such as CD-TEXT support, etc.) it's hard to find a drive that won't burn an audio disc.

[joerod]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

Discs: Tayio Yuden.

Drives: Just get a good drive. If you can find some NOS Plextor 712, 716, 755 or 760's, go for it. Sony, Phillips, Plextor -- Don't cheap out, just get a good drive.

It's the software that dictates what data is going to the disc - Not the drive. Although there were a few drives (mostly in the 90's) that were persnickety about certain things (such as CD-TEXT support, etc.) it's hard to find a drive that won't burn an audio disc.

Ehmm, It's Taiyo Yuden, JS (Not that it matters). I work with an old 10-up CD-R duplicator tower put together by MicroSynergy (uses their own software). Every 10 copies, all precise as hell...

[Will_227]

The problem I seem to always have is the CD text. I have a sony CD/DVD burner, and thought I had initially thought that it had supported CD text from something I read on the net, I was wrong, I've yet to burn one with CD Text.

Can you burn CD text, like every song title and the ISRC codes using Nero 8? Is there a special setting somewhere that needs to be turned on? And lastly, those burners you mentioned above, would they be able to burn the individual song titles as well as the ISRC codes?

I want my album to be able to be put in a PC and all of the song titles come up!

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[MASSIVE Master]

That doesn't come from CD Text... That comes from online databases. Very few (if any?) PC CD players read CD-TEXT information. There are a couple of specialized programs (PlexTools Professional is one) that do, but WMP, WinAMP, iTunes, etc., etc., etc. are all reading from GraceNote, FreeDB, etc. The disc needs to be submitted/registered with those online databases.

[John Willett]

As far as I am concerned the best CD burner is the Plextor Premium2 - it fully supports Plextools Pro for error readouts.

It's what I use.

[MASSIVE Master]

Yeah, if you're in the U.K., grab 'em up - Not available on this side of the pond for whatever reason...

[narcoman]

pedantry here - but isn't this ORANGE book? Red book only applies to pressed CD?

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by narcoman

pedantry here - but isn't this ORANGE book? Red book only applies to pressed CD?

Yes - technically a CD digital audio master disc burned onto CD-R is a Red Book spec compliant image burned onto an Orange book (CD-R spec) disc.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Will_227]

I had to resurrect my thread to ask a few more questions!

Now that I have most things in order, I really need to burn the album copy thats going out for manufacturing. I searched all of the recommendations, such as the plextor premium 2 and some pioneer and lite-on drives mentioned on the forums, but I cannot for the life of me find an exact model match from a company that ships to Canada!

Who ever can give me a direct link to a CD burner that can burn with low error rates, and write CD Text (absolutely need to write ISRC codes) will be my hero!

If it help's, I'm using a PC and Nero 8 ultra to burn the disc, which does support the writing of CD text and ISRC codes, even upc codes I believe. It does have an error checking program called speeddisc I think? I know it's not the same as plextools but it does report the errors.

A direct link to a burner capable of the above^ from a company that ships to Canada would REALLY help me out!
Again, thanks for taking the time to read and really and truly appreciate your advice and help!

[MASSIVE Master]

You'd have a harder time finding a drive that does NOT do all of the above. Not built in this century, anyway...

Whether Nero writes to spec I couldn't tell you...

[Will_227]

Well my poor sony burner I bought not even a full year ago does not support the writing of CD text, BUT, I think I may have found a burner!

It's the Pioneer DVR-116DBK. I've read a few reviews, one of them listed it's writing features and CD TEXT was there. Does anyone have experience with this burner? Do you think that this burner would be able to burn a low error and good quality CD with a good quality disc like the TY mentioned?

Thanks in advance!

[Will_227]

Well I feel like an idiot! I downloaded a demo of wavelab 5 as I read you could extract ISRC data from a disc, and to my surprised my ISRC data was there, and to a bigger surprise, so was my song names!

However I have a new problem and I don't know if it's my burner or my disc's. I've checked a few copies of the same burn with nero discspeed and here's what I found.

Up until 80% of the disc being read, the c1 errors average are 1.0 somthing to about 1.09, no c2 errors or jitter, which I thought was good. However when it hit's around the 80% mark the c2 errors jump in a spike on the graph and my CD quality jumps from 96% to 0!

Could it be a bad batch of CD's (Just regular sony discs off a spindle) or could it be the content? The last song on the CD I had cut into 28 tracks without pauses for artistic reasons, could this be the cause? Or a bad batch of discs? Or is my burner just crap?

I'm Stumped

[Will_227]

Well, to add another piece to the tale, I just scanned again using nero disc speed only this time I scanned using the fastest reading speed in the disc quality tab. This time the average c1 errors was 1.62, c2 was all 0's, and no jitter. On the scan disc tab there was also 0 c2 errors and the lowest quality on a track was 94.

Can I trust the Nero check? Should I just send off this copy to the manufacturing plant? Why would it pick up c2 errors on one reading and not on another?

[MASSIVE Master]

I don't trust Speed as far as I can throw a car. I can scan the same disc 10 times and come up with 10 completely different results. With PTPro, at least they're 'pretty much' the same scan after scan.

[Will_227]

I was kind of afraid of that. Since I can't get a plextor drive (except for the new ones which I heard weren't as good as the older ones) I can't use plex tools I don't think. Is there any other software I can use that is good for error checking?

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

I don't trust Speed as far as I can throw a car. I can scan the same disc 10 times and come up with 10 completely different results. With PTPro, at least they're 'pretty much' the same scan after scan.

[MASSIVE Master]

A Clover system. Around $5k if I recall.

Yep - You're running into the same wall the rest of us are. I'm running out of Plextors myself. I should be good for several years, but it's still not comforting.

But the plant is going to run it -- If they find errors, they'll let you know. Send two just for the helluvit.

[Will_227]

Wow, thats a lot of dough, but then again so is everything with audio. Theres just to many things I want to upgrade on my list before a CD burner. 5K would get some really sweet ad/da, but in any case, thanks for your reply! And I think I will follow your advice and send 2 just to be safe, and if there's problems they'll just let me know and I can worry about it then.

Thanks again!

[MASSIVE Master]

$5k would also find you a whole mess of NOS Plextor drives...

[Will_227]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

$5k would also find you a whole mess of NOS Plextor drives...

lol, yea I should hope that 5k would buy me a lifetime of plextor drives! Though, with the decline of the Canadian dollar, who can be sure?

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by Will_227

I was kind of afraid of that. Since I can't get a plextor drive (except for the new ones which I heard weren't as good as the older ones) I can't use plex tools I don't think. Is there any other software I can use that is good for error checking?

The Premium2 is every bit as good as the older ones. I'd agree that none of their other drives are as good for error checking. If they aren't available in the US or Canada then maybe there's an opening for someone to import a few from Europe and sell them on.

Cheers

James.

[esrever Reverb]

Why are Plextor drives so hard to find?? I was on their website looking up contact numbers, and apparently, they've changed their number...! And without providing a new number!! ()

So I call up some of their distributors in my area, and no one seems to have a number for them...nor can they give me the real specs (not what's listed on the website) on the PX-DTS700 unit.

Aaaanyway, does anyone have any info/opinion/experience in regards to these towers? I need something that will burn Red Book and Yellow Book (DDP) discs.

I'm looking into some Microboards burners that seem very versatile, user-friendly, and good-quality. What's the big deal with Plextor, though??

(Sorry to hijack your post, Will! We're in pretty similar situations tho!)

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by esrever Reverb

What's the big deal with Plextor, though??

They used to make some of the best quality burners with features that suited mastering. They are still the only drive manufacturer to officially support low level error checking which is why many people around here use a Plextor drive with Plextools.

Their operations seem to have gone through some major restructuring and, with the exception of the Premium 2, they no longer make their own drives. Development of Plextools seems to have almost come to a standstill and they have now released a non copy protected version of Plextools XL which would imply that they no longer see much commercial value in it.

Cheers

James.

[J R]

My Plextor 760A just quit on me today so I got in touch with technical support and since it is two years old I can't RMA it, even if I offered to pay for the repair. Would likely cost more than a new one anyway which of course, I can't get.

I do have a way to get a couple of Premium2's which I may try for since they seem to be the last of the good ones.

The Plextor number that I got through on is 800-886-3935

Rick

[Cellotron]

NOS 760A's are still available from Saitech Online - Computer Laptop Notebook Hardware Software IT Parts - price at $189 is not cheap but might be worth it to you. fwiw - I received good service from them in the past.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by jamesp

they have now released a non copy protected version of Plextools XL which would imply that they no longer see much commercial value in it.

James -
Do you have a link for this? I'm running LE 3.13 which works very well - but wouldn't mind checking out XL.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[J R]

Steve, thanks for the heads up to the 760A.

Here is the link for the Pro HDD version PlexTools - Info

Rick

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by J R

Steve, thanks for the heads up to the 760A.

Here is the link for the Pro HDD version PlexTools - Info

Rick

Thanks - I've seen all the specs on XL before - but was wondering whether the non copy protected version of it that James P. was referring to was available legally online. As stated before, I have and use the free version of LE 3.13 (which includes Q-Check and many other functions) and it works great.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

James -
Do you have a link for this? I'm running LE 3.13 which works very well - but wouldn't mind checking out XL.

The non-copy protected version is officially only available to registered owners of XL and you have to contact Plextor to get hold of it. I guess that they were fed up with people wanting to use XL on a different computer. Unlike many other copy protected programs, there doesn't seem to be a way to automatically de-authorise Plextools XL and re-authorise it on another computer so you would have to contact Plextor each time you wanted to transfer Plextools to a new computer.

While it is actually available to download by anyone, I don't think the mods (or Plextor) would be happy with me posting a link here though.

Cheers

James.