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CD-Recordable FAQ - Section 5
Subject: [5] Hardware The numbers after the model name (e.g. "CDR-102 (4x2/512K)") refer to the read and write speeds of the unit and the size of the write buffer. "4x2" would be a double-speed writer that's also a quad-speed reader. If it just says "?x2", the write speed is double-speed and the read speed isn't known (but presumably is at least 2x). Buffer sizes written with a '+', e.g. "2MB+", indicate that the buffer can be expanded further. If the recorder can write to CD-RW media, the specification will include a third value, e.g. "6x4x2/1MB" would be a drive that reads at 6x, writes to CD-R media at 4x, and writes to CD-RW media at 2x. Some manufacturers present the speed ratings in a different order, often write/rewrite/read. Some drives that support reading of DVD-ROM will be written write/rewrite/read/dvd-read. There is no standard approach. Many units are repackaged versions of other manufacturer's devices, sometimes with slight changes in the firmware. Value-added retailers have been known to switch to a different manufacturer's drive without notice, so don't assume that everything here is accurate. The interface is listed for each drive. "SCSI" means any form of SCSI (SCSI-2, SCSI-3, wide, narrow, ultra, etc). IDE means any ATAPI interface (e.g. Ultra-DMA/33). USB (1.x or 2.x), parallel-port, FireWire, and PCMCIA refer to interface styles for external drives (which are usually just internal ATAPI devices placed inside an enclosure with a power supply and an ATAPI converter). Many of the models listed have been discontinued in favor of newer models, and some of them have yet to be released, so you will probably not be able to find all of the models listed here for sale. If you're new to SCSI, take a look at the comp.periphs.scsi FAQ, http://www.faqs.org/faqs/scsi-faq. It covers both novice and advanced questions. If you want specs, try http://www.t10.org/. A wealth of information on Enhanced IDE and other storage technologies is available from http://thef-nym.sci.kun.nl/~pieterh/storage.html and http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pc-hardware-faq/enhanced-IDE/part1/. If you want to debate the merits of SCSI vs EIDE, please read http://thef-nym.sci.kun.nl/~pieterh/eide-vs-scsi.html. Some brief notes: ATA (AT Attachment Interface) is the official name for IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interfaces. ATAPI is the ATA Packet Interface, commonly used for controlling CD-ROM and tape devices. The ATA-2 changes grew out of vendor-specific "Enhanced IDE" implementations. There have been subsequent enhancements (ATA-3, ATA/ATAPI-4, etc).
There are no absolutely perfect recorders, but some drives are better than others. The best are listed below, and the risky propositions are identified with "CAVEAT EMPTOR" warnings in the individual sections. In cases where a unit is built by company A and repackaged by company B, the warnings are listed with the original manufacturer (company A). http://www.storagereview.com/ has links to reviews of storage devices, including CD recorders. http://www.cdrlabs.com/ has reviews of both hardware and software products. This section used to list specific models that were highly regarded. The manufacturers are coming out with new models so quickly that it's impossible to keep up in an FAQ that is updated monthly. The list of older models is below. See section (8-4) for a list of sites that carry news articles about newly released products. As of late 2001, the most commonly recommended manufacturers (in no particular order) were: Many manufacturers resell the units made by these companies. In some cases the reseller will do nothing more than change the decal on the front, in others they may rewrite the firmware. If you have specific needs, you should verify with the manufacturer that the drive will do what you want. All computer-based recorders can create audio CDs and CD-ROMs, but some have additional features and some are just plain better at it. If you want a drive that works well with a specific piece of software, e.g. CloneCD (6-1-49), then you should check the web page for that software to see which drives they recommend. Some older models that would be worth having are listed below. As of October 2001 this list is no longer being updated.
The model numbers are important! Sometimes the older or newer models from the same manufacturer aren't as good. The units listed were considered independently from the software that they were bundled with, and it may be necessary to buy additional software to get the full value from the drive. External drives were traditionally preferred to internal drives because of heat problems, but this is only a minor concern for current models. External models do have the advantage that they can be moved between machines, and even between platforms. Most if not all SCSI models will work on both Macs and PCs, as should USB recorders. I'm not currently listing stand-alone recorders like the "CD Blaster" or "CD Dupe-It", which are boxes with a CPU, CD-R, and hard drive that can duplicate CDs without tying up a full machine. Most of these low-end CD production boxes are off-the-shelf hardware and software packaged into a single unit, so listing them separately doesn't make much sense. Besides, they're not of much interest to the average user. Interested users can find some relevant URLs in (5-19).
See http://www.yamaha.com/yec/multimedia/products/cdrw1.html Models are: CDR-100 (4x4/512K;SCSI)It has been reported that the CDR-102 is the same mechanism as the CDR-100, but with the 4x writing feature disabled. There is no known way to convert it into a 4x writer. Similar speculation has been made about the CDR-200 and CDR-400, and in fact some people have claimed success. Learn all about R621 at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/7023/index.html (or http://home.t-online.de/home/christoph.dittenberger if you prefer German). It may also be possible to convert a 2260 into a 4260 with the same method, as well as the 2216 into a 4416. Yamaha CDR-100 and CDR-102 units have problems doing digital audio extraction on some discs. See section (4-19). Yamaha CDR-100s with firmware version 1.08 may experience problems when recording audio (e.g. a click at the end of tracks recorded with the "copy prohibit" flag set to "off"). Upgrading to version 1.10 is recommended. Since the CDR-100 and CDR-102 units don't have flash ROM (and apparently the upgrade involves more than just changing a ROM chip), the drive needs to be sent back to the dealer for the upgrade. The CDR-100 reportedly works best when writing in 4x mode, and may produce poor results when used to write at 2x or 1x. The current firmware versions for the older Yamaha drives is v1.12 for the CDR-100 and v1.01 for the CDR-102. The change was to "allow mastering in Blue Book specs". If you aren't having problems, don't get the upgrade. The Yamaha CDR-400 is somewhere around 1.0g. The CDR-400 is flash upgradeable, and supports packet writing. The tray on the CDR-400 has been described as "flimsy". The tray eject moves quickly for the first half and then slows considerably; this is normal. The CRW-4001/CRW-4260 runs rather hot. External units or extra cooling fans are recommended. Some older Yamaha models apparently don't do disc-at-once recording. However, they will do session-at-once (SAO), which is as useful for most things and essential for multisession mixed audio and data discs. With the right software this isn't a problem. CAVEAT EMPTOR - Yamaha CDR-200/CDR-400. Reports of units breaking down after a few months have been persistent. It appears that, unless the units are kept well-cooled, they will start rejecting discs after a month or two of use. The drives work very well otherwise, and one customer was told that the CDR-400AT model was a sturdier version.
See http://www.storagebysony.com/ Models are: CDW-900E (2x2/3MB:SCSI)The CDW-900E has a separate connector that allows multiple "slave" drives to be daisy-chained, allowing multiple CD-Rs to be written in parallel. The Spressa 9211 is a 920 in an external case, the 9411 is a 940 in an external case, and the 9611 is a 926. The 940S drive is actually a 924S; the 940S designation refers to the complete bundle (software, cables, etc). Looks like each unit can be referenced by three different numbers. Some people have criticized the CRX100E for being unable to write more than about 78 minutes on an oversized (e.g. 80-minute) blank, and being unable to "overburn" a disc without resorting to swap tricks. It appears that firmware v1.0n removes this limitation. Sony drives have a special "recover" feature, accessible from programs like Easy-CD Pro '95. This allows recovery of the CD-R media after certain classes of failed writes. All Sony drives can do packet writing. Firmware for some models can be hard to find. CAVEAT EMPTOR - CDU926 and CDU928. Believe it or not, the CDU926 and CDU928 don't support disc-at-once recording (see section (2-9) for a description). Instead they use "variable-gap track-at-once", which allows TAO audio recordings with barely perceptible gaps between tracks. Some popular software packages aren't as useful when disc-at-once isn't available, so people considering these drives should carefully consider how they plan to use them. (All other Sony units do support DAO.)
See http://www.justdeals.com/ Models are: CDR1002 (2x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Sony CDU920S)All models are recorders built by major manufacturers, repackaged and supported by Smart & Friendly. CAVEAT EMPTOR - the company apparently went bankrupt in mid-May 2000. See the article at http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2597858,00.html. The web page was still running as of August 2000, but got changed to a pointer to justdeals.com after JustDeals bought up S&F's inventory.
See http://www.pcstuff.philips.com/ Models are: CDD522 (2x2/2MB;SCSI)The CDD521 (2x2/256K) is an ancient model; if you use one, the firmware upgrade is strongly recommended (but nearly impossible to find these days). Some information that may be of use to CDD521 owners can be found at http://www.fadden.com/doc/cdd521faq.txt. The Omniwriter/26 and /26A appear to be repackaged Ricoh 6200 and 6200I OEMs. In Europe, the 3600 is packaged in a kit as the PCA350RW, the 3610 as the PCA362RW, and the 3610 with a parallel-port interface comes as the PCA363RW. The CDRW400 might be packaged as the PCA460RW. The CDD522 does not support reading of subcode-Q data. The CDD521, CDD522, and Kodak-labeled PCD225 have a sensor that can read the barcode data from the inner ring on a CD. See the HP section for comments about the CDD2000 firmware. The firmware is kept in flash ROM, so it can be updated with software obtainable over the net. You should be at version 1.25 or later for best results. Digital audio extraction may not work correctly at higher than 2x on the CDD2600, especially near the end of the disc. Philips has acknowledged that audio CDs and packet-written CDs may not read correctly at 6x, but many users have had problems at 4x as well. It may also suffer from the block offset problem described in section (4-19). The CDD2600 supports packet writing, but is NOT flash upgradeable. The CDD2600 may share the HP 6020i's difficulties with pressed CD-ROMs that have a small amount of data on them. The initial release (firmware v1.0) of the 3610 was unable to create audio discs reliably using disc-at-once recording. Firmware v2.02 fixed this and some other problems. Philips' drives, notably the CDD2600, have been shown to hang on some Amigas if SCSI disconnect is enabled and you try to read the session information from a multisession CD. Philips does not believe this problem happens on PCs, and consequently has declined to investigate further. If you are experiencing hangs when examining multisession CDs, try turning SCSI disconnect off for the CD recorder. CAVEAT EMPTOR - CDD2000. Some users of Philips CDD2000 and derivative units (like the HP4020i) have reported that the drives went bad over a short period of time, often 1 to 3 months. While these cases represent the minority of users, reports have been persistent. People with the technical skills (and bravery) required to replace a spring and/or lubricate inside the unit have reported good results (see section (4-10) for details). If you buy a CDD2000-based unit -- of which there are many -- be sure the dealer or manufacturer is aware of this problem and is willing to fix or exchange the drive should it arise. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Philips on behalf of owners of the CDD2000 and CDD2600. The case was eventually settled, with Philips agreeing to make restitution.
See http://www.hpcdwriter.com/ Models are: 4020i (4x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Philips CDD2000) (#C4324)The 7110 is identical to the 7100, but comes with an extra piece of software and is only available in the USA. The 7200 is a 7100 with updated firmware (2.x) and Easy CD Creator included. The 8110 is the same as the 8100 but with a bunch of extra software; ditto for 8210 vs 8200. The 6020ep appears to be the external SCSI drive with a parallel-to-SCSI converter. It's usable as a SCSI device as well. The 71XXe drives are 71XXi drives with a parallel-to-IDE converter. The 7500 series is often packaged as 7550 or 7570 (though these are now listed as having only 1MB of buffer, so it's not clear what's going on). There are indications that HP shipped two different drives as the 8250, both with the same read and write speeds. The first was the Philips CDD4201, identifiable by about 18 tiny horizontal indentations along the bottom of the face, with a hinged "drawbridge" loading door. The second was the Sony CRX120E, which has 4 horizontal indentations along the bottom of the face, and no hinged door. The popular consensus is that the Philips versions are problematic. It may be possible to tell the boxes apart using a code on the barcode label: C4464A for Philips, C4464B for Sony. (It appears there may even be a third variety: HP is rebadging Mitsumi 4804TE in their Pavilion 6648C computers. There doesn't appear to be an HP model number associated with the drive though, so it may not actually be sold as an 8250.) It now appears that some 8250i drives are 32x4x4/4MB; these are actually Sony CRX140E drives (32x8x4/4MB) with firmware that limits them to 4x recording. It has been reported that, if you can get the HP9100i firmware onto the drive, it will record at 8x. There are similar indications for the 7500, which appears to have originally been a JVC XR-W2080, but is now a Sony CRX100E with a reduced maximum write speed. Drives based on the Sony mechanism can reportedly be flashed with the Sony CRX100E firmware update and upgraded to 4x recording. Most 9100 uints are based on the Sony CRX140, but there are indications that units identifying themselves as "9100b" is actually a Goldstar CED-8080B. The initial release of the 7100/7110 was unable to create audio discs reliably with disc-at-once recording. The 2.02 firmware upgrade fixes the problem. Some people have criticized the 8100i (same as Sony CRX100E) for being unable to write more than about 78 minutes on an oversized (e.g. 80-minute) blank. It appears that the Sony v1.0n firmware upgrade removes this limitation, but the upgrade was never made available for the HP drive. Some users have had success flashing the drive with a "hacked" version of the Sony firmware, but this can be dangerous (see warnings in section (5-24)). If you are having trouble getting the 7100e to work with your parallel port, see http://www.hp.com/isgsupport/cdr/tech/7100/par95.html for some important configuration advice. If your BIOS is configured to use address 03BCh, you should change it to 0378h or 0278h. It appears that discs written with a 7110 can't be read on a Toshiba XM6002B. Other models of CD-ROM drives, including other Toshiba models, work fine. CD-Rs written on other CD recorders work fine with the Toshiba. The 3.01 firmware upgrade fixes this. The HP 4020i got off to a rough start because of buggy firmware and problems with the AdvanSys SCSI controller shipped with the drive. Four firmware upgrades have been made available so far (v1.20, v1.25, v1.26, and v1.27), and most but not all problems with the firmware have been eliminated. HP recommends that users with the v1.20 or later firmware who aren't having problems should NOT get the upgrade. Contact HP tech support for more information. The comments about digital audio extraction problems and the CDD2600 apply to the 6020i as well. Unlike the CDD2600, the 6020 apparently does not support packet writing. The firmware is not flash upgradeable. (As it happens, the SCSI ID string *can* be changed, and it *is* possible to make the unit think it's a CDD2600. A representative from Adaptec has warned that the procedure could cause problems later on, however.) The 6020 with v1.07 firmware also has trouble reading some pressed CD-ROM discs, notably single-track CD-ROMs with less than 27MB of data. An unofficial HP 4020i FAQ maintained by Greg Volk can be found at http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/HP-FAQ.html. Drivers, software, and firmware upgrades are available from ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/information_storage/surestore/cd-writer/. The 7100/7110 firmware upgrade is available here: http://www.hp.com/isgsupport/cdr/70index.html IMPORTANT - 7100/7110. The 7100/7110 drew a lot of fire because it shipped with DirectCD (packet-writing software), a CD Copier, and an audio CD creator. It didn't include premastering software for data CDs. Because packet-written CDs can't be read on all operating systems or all CD-ROM drives, the inability to create plain Level 1 ISO-9660 discs was a problem for some users. People who buy this drive should expect to buy additional software. The software bundled with the 7200 was more wisely chosen. CAVEAT EMPTOR - 4020i. See the notes on the CDD2000 in the previous section. Also, the AdvanSys controller continues to cause problems for some users, which is made worse by HP's refusal to support people who try to use a different card. The best approach seems to be to try the card and stick with it if it works, otherwise buy an Adaptec board (e.g. the 1522A) and use it with that. There may be a newer rev of the AdvanSys board. A few 4020 users have reported that, after getting lots of "-24 - Target aborted" errors with jarnold's software, they successfully resolved their problems by getting a new drive from HP. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against HP (for the HP4020i and HP6020i) by the same people who filed the suit against Philips. See the end of section (5-1-4) for links.
See http://www.plasmon.com/ Models are: RF4100 (2x2/1MB+;SCSI, based on Philips CDD522 but with different firmware)The RF4102 is an RF4100 with more memory. The RF4100 does not support disc-at-once recording.
See http://www.kodak.com/ [ no CD recorder info? ] Models are: PCD200 (?x2/256K;SCSI)The Philips CDD522, Kodak PCD225, and Kodak PCD600 will interface with the Kodak Disc Transporter, which supports unattended duplication of up to 75 CD-Rs, making it a useful combo for CD-R production.
See http://www.jvc.com/ [no CD-R info? ] Models are: XR-W1001 (1x1/64K;SCSI)The drives are sometimes sold with model numbers that have 2 added, so XR-W2010 might appear as XR-W2012, XR-W2020 as XR-W2022, and XR-W2080 as XR-W2082. The XR-W2626 appears to be an XR-W2020. The drives often come bundled with JVC "Personal Archiver" or "RomMaker" software. The XR-W2010 and XR-W2020 also come with "FloppyCD" packet-writing software. JVC only provides support for drives purchased directly from them, but firmware updates can be found at http://www.jvcinfo.com/service/firmware.htm. If you don't buy a JVC drive from JVC, make sure your vendor provides a warranty. If you are getting "servo tracking error", "seek error", or "track following error" messages with an XR-W2010 or XR-W2020, your drive may need to be opened up and lubricated. Step-by-step instructions for doing so can be found on http://www.smial.prima.de/old/howtoget.htm. If you're not quite up to that, try turning the drive off and leaving it off until right before you're ready to burn. Some units have trouble when they get warm. Several users have reported difficulty installing the XR-W2020, but the troubles appear to stem from the SCSI card bundled with the drive rather than the drive itself. CAVEAT EMPTOR - XR-W2010. Firmware version 1.51 has some serious flaws that can cause problems when using the drive as either a writer or a reader. The v2.05 update fixed most of the problems, but some conflicts with 3rd-party software remained, so the update was withdrawn. Until these problems are fixed, this drive should only be used with the JVC software, and should not be used as a reader. Power-cycling the unit (i.e. powering it off and back on) immediately before a write may cure some problems. For examples and some tests, see http://www.fadden.com/doc/jvc-prob.txt. While there are a large number of people who are using these drives without problems, one person affiliated with a CD-R software company referred to the XR-W2010 as their "#1 tech support nightmare". CAVEAT EMPTOR - XR-W2020. The mechanism appears to have the same problems with lubrication as the XR-W2010. After several months of successful use, the unit will start returning "tracking error" messages.
See http://www.pinnaclemicro.com/producta1.htm Models are: RCD-202 (?x1/64K;SCSI, based on the JVC XR-W1001)The -1000, -5020, and -5040 models are flash ROM upgradeable. RCD-1000 units shipped after Sept 1995 can do audio extraction if they have firmware v2.35 or later. An upgrade is available from their BBS. If you are getting "servo tracking error", "seek error", or "track following error" with a 5040, see the notes in the JVC XR-W2010 section. CAVEAT EMPTOR - all drives. Pinnacle customer support is reported to be almost nonexistent, except for some recent tech support via e-mail. Many owners of the RCD-5040 are perfectly happy with their drives (see the caveat on the JVC XR-W2010), but most of the stories about Pinnacle's product support are negative. Pinnacle earned a bad reputation after shipping drives with buggy firmware, a poorly ventilated enclosure, and bad customer support. Some owners of the RCD-1000 have gotten the unit to work, others have given up in despair.
See http://www.ricoh.com/ Models are: RS-9200CD (?x1/1.2MB;SCSI)The MP-6200 uses a tray, the MP-6201 uses caddies and has a 2MB buffer. The RS1060C does not support disc-at-once recording, reading of digital audio, or subcode-Q data. (One user reported that his RO1060C *could* read digital audio, but the drive took a little convincing. Another user says that it has always been supported, but not documented, so it can be done with the right software, e.g. CDDA v1.5.) The RS-1060C is the RO-1060C in an external case. The RS-1420C is flash upgradeable (though it can be a little tricky since there are different variants of the drive, and each requires a different ROM image). It does not support packet writing. Most of the commercial versions come with a 2MB buffer (the last digit of the firmware version will be 0, 1, or 2, indicating 512K, 1MB, and 2MB, respectively). The firmware on the flash-upgradeable MP-6200 should either be at v2.20 or later. Version 1.0 had several problems, version 2.0 didn't get along so well with DirectCD 2.0, and version 2.03 had some DAE issues. Firmware upgrades are available from Tom Varghese's page listed above (arrakis-ttm.com) and http://www.ricoh.co.jp/cd-r/cgi/e-/version.html. The MP-6200 "red/green" problem, where the drive starts having trouble accepting media, and sits there flashing red and green, appears to be caused by a buildup of oil on the drive's spindle clamp. See the arrakis-ttm.com site for details. Some people have found that the MP7040/7060 will start to "stick" after a while, resulting in consistent write errors at roughly the same spot every time. Some people have found that lubricating the drive helps. This is a dangerous procedure, and should not be attempted unless all other possibilities have been exhausted. Details can be found on http://www.don.cohoon.net/ricoh/ricoh.html.
See http://www.pioneerusa.com/cds.html [ mass replication ] Models are: DW-S114X (4x4/1MB;SCSI)The PDR-05 is an audio CD-R recorder, described in section (5-12). Does not support disc-at-once recording. Mainly sold in large jukebox systems.
See http://www.olympusamerica.com/digital/products/CDR2x4/CDR2x4.html Models are: CDS615E (2x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Sony CDU920S)The CD-R2 is the CDS615E in an external case. The CD-R2x4 might be the external version of the CDS620E. The CD-R2x6 probably has a name like CDS640E, but it's not listed as such on their web site.
See http://www.optimatech.com/CDR.html Models are: DisKovery 650 CD-R (2x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Sony CDU920S) Subject: [5-1-14] Mitsumi Models are: CR-2200CS (2x2/4MB;SCSI, based partly on the Philips CDD2000)In all unit designations, 'C' means caddy, and 'T' means tray, 'S' is SCSI, and 'E' is IDE. The devices based on the CDD2000 are flash upgradeable (you should be able to use Philips CDD2000 images). CAVEAT EMPTOR - CR-2600TE and CR-2801TE. These drives do not support disc-at-once recording. Like the Sony 926 and 928 units, they claim to support track-at-once with nearly imperceptible gaps instead. Ahead's Nero can reportedly do this with the CR-2801TE. The CR-4801TE with firmware 2.01 and later supports DAO recording. Earlier versions do not. If your recording software doesn't believe that the drive is capable of DAO, you may need to update the software to a version that is aware of the changes in the firmware update. Later drives, such as the 4802TE, do support DAO.
Models are: CDRW8424 (24x8x4;SCSI)[ DynaTek reportedly went out of business. However, the UK site seems to be alive and well. ]Older CDM240 units were based on the Yamaha CDR-102. Since the Yamaha CDR-100 is no longer being made, chances are the CDM400 is now a different unit as well. They also sell the CDM4000, which is a stand-alone CD burner.
See http://www.microboards.com/ Models are: PlayWrite 2000 (2x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Sony CDU920S) Subject: [5-1-17] Micro Design International See http://www.mdi.com/mdinofr/products/cdwriter.htm Model is the Express Writer. There are no apparent model numbers. They used to sell the "old one" (2x2/1MB, based on a Pinnacle (i.e. JVC) drive), more recently they sold the "new one" (4x2/?).
See http://www.micronet.com/HTDOCS/products.html#cdr [ site gone? ] Models are: MasterCD Plus 4x4 (4x4/512K;SCSI, based on the Yamaha CDR-100) Subject: [5-1-19] Procom Technology See http://www.procom.com/homepage/wbhrcdrs.html Models are: PCDR-4X (4x4/512K;SCSI, based on the Yamaha CDR-100) Subject: [5-1-20] Grundig See http://www.grundig.com/ [mostly in German] Models are: CDR100IPW (4x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Philips CDD2000) Subject: [5-1-21] Plextor See http://www.plextor.com/ Models are: PX-R24CS (4x2/512K;SCSI, a cousin of the Ricoh 1420C)For all units, 'C' indicates caddy, 'T' indicates tray, 'S' is SCSI, 'A' is ATAPI, 'U' is USB. All units are flash upgradeable. All units except the PX-R24CS support packet writing. Users having trouble with the PX-R412C should try turning synchronous transfer off for that drive.
See http://www.panasonic.com/office/storage/stor.html Models are: CW-7501 (4x2/1MB;SCSI)Panasonic is part of Matsushita, so the units may also be sold under the Matsushita label. All units are flash-upgradeable. The CW-7501 should be at 2.0 or greater, and the CW-7502 should be at vX.10 or later (1.10, 3.10, or 4.10 depending on which recorder variant you have; check your current version). Upgrades are available from http://www.acscompro.com/ (click on "Support") [site was down as of May 2002?]. NOTE: there is a known conflict with the Diamond FirePort 40 and the Panasonic CW-7502 CD-R drive. You should upgrade the 7502 firmware to the latest (www.acscompro.com/support/s_cdr.htm), upgrade your FirePort 40 drivers (http://www.diamondmm.com/products/drivers/fireport.html), and add "DisableAutoReqSense=1;do_SCAM=0;" to the FirePort driver (go into the Win95 device settings, select the host adapter, click on Properties, and select the Settings tab). This problem may affect other NCR/Symbios Logic-based SCSI cards as well. Falling back to the original (1.01) NCR SCSI drivers that come with Win95 should fix the problem. NOTE: the 7502/7503 units may have a problem with writing near the end of 80-minute discs. The problem is fixed by a firmware upgrade. If you get errors reading data stored near the end of the disc (e.g. errors creating a disc image from a full 80-minute CD or CD-ROM), make sure you have the latest firmware.
See http://www.teac.com/DSPD/DesktopCDRW.html Models are: CD-R50S (4x4/1MB;SCSI)Apparently the CD-R50S needs to be at firmware 1.0E or later to do quad-speed writing reliably. Power calibration is done via a lookup table rather than adjusted dynamically, so a flash upgrade may be required before some brands of media will work. The CD-R50S and CD-R55S appear to use the same command set as the JVC XR-W2010. http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/download/firmware/cd-r55s/updater.html has a nice HTML page about the CD-R55S upgrade.
See http://www.wpinet.com.sg/ [site gone?] Models are: CDR-432 (4x2/1MB;SCSI, based on the Philips CDD2000)The CD-R 622 does not support disc-at-once recording. According to the CDRDAO "readme" file, it is possible to upgrade the 622 (and its Memorex cousin) by writing the D4.0 ROM image for the CRW-1622 to a 27c020 PLCC EPROM and replacing the socketed ROM chip in the drive. The CDRW-622 supports packet writing, and is flash upgradeable.
See http://www.tbeach.com/products/tbs2040r.htm Models are: 2040R (4x2/512K;SCSI, based on the Ricoh RS-1420C)Many users have had trouble installing the AdvanSys SCSI card that is bundled with this unit. Most of the problems can be corrected by enabling PnP installation, which is disabled by default.
Models are: CDR2000 (2x2/512K;SCSI, based on the Ricoh RS1060C)Creative sold several drives with the 32x8x4 rating, starting with the Plextor-based 8432. According to http://www.ping.be/satcp/writer04.htm, the 8433, 8435, 8438, and 8439 are similar but different devices. Looks like they did something similar with the 32x12x10 drive. Generally speaking, reading the retail box won't tell you what's inside.
See ? Models are: EW-50 (4x2/?;SCSI) Subject: [5-1-28] Memorex See http://www.memorex.com/ Models are: CR-622 (6x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Wearnes CD-R 622) Subject: [5-1-29] Hi-Val Hi-Val doesn't build CD recorders. They repackage and provide support for recorders built by others. The actual model you get will vary (Wearnes, Ricoh, Philips, JVC, Mitsumi, and others have been reported).
See ?? Models are: CR-622 (6x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Wearnes CD-R 622)The CRW-1622 often came bundled with NTI's software, but the version included didn't work correctly. Upgrading to a more recent version of the software (http://www.ntius.com/) resolved the problems.
See http://www.traxdata.com/ [ site now "under construction" ] Models are: CDR4120 (12x4/1MB;SCSI, based on the Teac CD-R55S)The CDRW2260 "Pro" may also use a Philips CDD3600?
See http://www.benq.com/ Models are: CDW6206A (6x2x2/512K;IDE)A user who was getting nothing but power calibration complaints with the CRW1032A and firmware 7.EZ found a laser power adjustment tool in the 7.GZ update from the www.acercm.com site. The North American version reportedly doesn't come with the tool, but it may not be needed.
Models are: WT4046 (6x4x2/2MB; "EI" model is IDE) Subject: [5-1-34] BTC Models are: BCE62IE (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Philips CDD3610??)The BCE62IPE is the BCE62IE with a parallel-port IDE converter.
See http://www.sanyo.com/ [ no CD-R info? ] Models are: CRD-R800S (20x8/2MB;SCSI)Firmware v1.10 or later is highly recommended for the CRD-R800S. For some reason, the firmware update was only available on the "BURN-Proof" web site at http://www.sannet.ne.jp/BURN-Proof/. [ It doesn't seem to be there anymore. ] It looks like Mirai Technologies (http://www.mirai-technologies.com/) resells these drives.
See http://www.micro-solutions.com/ Models are: 190100 (6x2x2/1MB;Parallel, based on the Ricoh MP-6200)All products are standard recorders combined with Micro Solution's parallel-port interface.
Models are: 224ei (24x2x2/2MB;IDE, based on the JVC XR-W2080) Subject: [5-1-38] Iomega Models are: ZipCD (24x4x4/2MB;IDE, based on the Philips CDD4201) Subject: [5-1-39] Goldstar (LG Electronics) See http://www.lgeus.com/ Models are: CED-8041B (24x4x2/2MB;IDE)The first two *might* be based on the Sony 100/120 models. There are indications that, at the very least, the firmware is different (the Goldstar units reportedly can "overburn" discs, while the mentioned Sony units couldn't when these were released.)
Models are: CR1420C (4x2/512K;SCSI, based on the Ricoh RS-1420C?) Subject: [5-1-41] Toshiba Models are: SD-R1002 (24x4x4/2MB;IDE, reads DVDx4) Subject: [5-1-42] TDK Models are: 8/4/32 veloCD (32x8x4/4MB;IDE, based on ??) Subject: [5-1-43] Lite-On See http://www.liteonit.com.tw/ Models are: LTR-0841 (32x8x4/2MB;IDE)Some of the drives appear to be based on Plextor units. It has been claimed that the LTR-0841 can be upgraded to an LTR-12101B with a firmware upgrade; see http://www.cdrinfo.com/tips/liteon_oc.shtml. Customer support issues are deferred to the dealer.
Models are: CDI CD00000 (20x4x4/2MB;SCSI)All models are recorders built by major manufacturers, repackaged and supported by CenDyne. In many cases the model numbers refer to slight changes in packaging (e.g. Windows vs Mac) or internal vs external variations of the same drive. CenDyne has the distinction of using the least imaginative naming scheme of any distributor (the polar opposite of Waitec).
Models are: VST Portable CD-R/RW (20x4x4/2MB;FireWire;portable) Subject: [5-2] How long do CD recorders last? The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) on these drives is typically 50,000 to 100,000 hours, and they come with a 1 year warranty. Compare that to hard drives rated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000 hours with a 3 or 5 year warranty and that should give you some idea. Most of the drives available today weren't meant for mass production of CD-Rs. The only exceptions are the venerable Philips CDD 522, Kodak PCD 600, and Sony CDW-900E. Incidentally, MTBF is not an estimate of how long the drive will last. Rather, it's an estimate of the failure rate of the drives during the expected lifetime of the device. Once you exceed the expected lifetime, which is often on the order of a couple of years, the anticipated failure rate increases. If you have new drives with an MTBF of 25,000 hours, and you run 1000 units for 100 hours, you can expect to see four of them fail. It does NOT mean you can expect them to run for 2.8 years and then all fail at once.
If you're about to buy a computer system and are seriously thinking about buying a CD-R, here are some things to keep in mind. (See the next section if you're interested in Mac hardware instead of an IBM PC.) CPU: buy a mid-range Pentium-class machine or better. In general it's a good idea to buy a fast machine, since systems tend to be outdated after a year and obsolete after three or four. A '486 is a *minimum* configuration for a CD-R system; a Pentium gives you some breathing room. Pentium II and above is more power than you need, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Motherboard: for SCSI, anything with PCI slots is fine. For IDE, anything above UDMA/33 is overkill. See section (5-15) for configuration notes and a warning about certain bus-mastering drivers. SCSI: the SCSI interface remains a popular choice for CD recorders and CD-ROM drives, though improvements like UDMA/133 are changing the way people build high-end computers. Whether it's built into the motherboard or on a separate card, make sure the host adapter supports ASPI and ASPI for Windows (see section (5-7)). Wide Ultra-SCSI is useful if you're buying a fast hard drive, but CD recorders don't move data fast enough to require it. Bus-mastering SCSI cards are preferred over non-bus-mastering cards, because they can move data to and from system memory directly, without the CPU's involvement, making things faster. Parallel: some vendors are selling parallel-port CD-R drives. You should have an EPP-enabled parallel port (if you have a Pentium or later, chances are you have one). Sound: the Creative Labs SB16 and AWE32 boards are widely supported and very popular, but if you're thinking seriously about recording sound through it, you'll want to consider alternatives. See sections (3-12) and (3-13) for other options. Hard drive: needs to be reasonably fast, and large enough to hold whatever data you plan to put on a CD. IDE hard drives work fine. See section (5-6) for more details. Video card and monitor: depends on what you want to do. A PCI-based video card is practically a requirement these days, and 17" monitors are inexpensive now. If you're planning on creating multimedia products, scale up. CD-ROM: SCSI and IDE both work, but some drives work better than others. See section (5-5).
Any Mac of Quadra 700 or higher capability with a reasonably fast disk should be suitable for 2x writing. All PowerMac-class machines, and probably most Mac clones, should work fine at high speeds. PowerBook users should proceed with caution on machines earlier than the 3400 and G3 models. Any of the SCSI or (for appropriately equipped machines) USB and FireWire recorders should work. Verify with the vendor of the software you plan to use that the drive you have in mind is supported. You may be able to use the internal IDE connector on some Macintoshes as well. Using the "simulated cut" feature available on Toast and other software is also prudent, at least until you get a feel for the system. Make sure you turn off file sharing before you start a burn, or things will fail if it tries to read a file that's already open. You may also have trouble writing from the boot/system volume, since it will always have files open. The good news for Mac owners is that the hardware and software configuration for CD-R usually goes rather smoothly.
Besides the obvious question - can it read CD-R discs that you create - there's also the question of how well the drive works as the source device when copying discs. To be more specific:
You can see speed and quality test results on http://come.to/cdspeed. Older NEC models tend to hog the SCSI bus. Older NEC, Mitsumi, and Acer models (e.g. NEC 3x and Acer 8x) may have trouble reading CD-Rs. There is one hard and fast rule for direct CD-to-CD duplication: the source drive must be faster than the target drive (e.g. source 4x if target is 2x, source 6x if target is 4x). A quick summary of features for several models can be found at: http://www.fwb.com/ts/cdt/cdt_support.html
Any recent hard drive will work fine. Back in 1998 this was the subject of some concern, but modern drives are much faster and more intelligent. There is a fair amount of confusion over what exactly is an "AV drive". A brief discussion is presented here; for more information see Bertel Schmitt's article at http://www.fadden.com/doc/avdrive.txt. The most important issue is thermal recalibration. Older hard drives would pause for up to half a second (or even up to a full second, depending on who you believe) every so often to adjust the head positioning to the current operating temperature. For most applications this goes unnoticed, but when recording a CD-R you must write the current track to completion without interruption. "AV" drives deal with the problem in a way that doesn't disrupt the disk activity. A drive that does a quick thermal recalibration is acceptable if the system is otherwise fast enough or the buffer in the CD-R unit or in the recording software is large enough (early drives had only 64KB, while current drives have 2MB or 4MB, making it much less of an issue). You need to be sure that the recorder's write buffer won't empty during the recal period, or you'll end up with a buffer underrun. Most modern hard drives do smart thermal recalibration. This really isn't something you need to worry about anymore. What separated a Seagate Barracuda from a Seagate Barracuda AV is that the latter is tuned for AV performance. This was simply a software change that affected cache allocation algorithms, error correction, and other SCSI parameters to get better performance for transfers of large blocks of contiguous data. These sorts of optimizations were very important for digital video running at a few MB/sec, back when that was close to the maximum capability of the drives. If you think AV optimizations will help you, you should take a look at "Dr. SCSI" at http://www.scsitools.com/.
Some systems have SCSI built in, some don't. This section is intended for PC users who want to add SCSI devices. Owners of SCSI-less Macintoshes should use an interface recommended by Apple. Using different SCSI adapters for the HD and the CD recorder used to be recommended, but should not be necessary with non-ISA adapters. If your recorder hogs the SCSI bus, though, the HD may not be able to keep the write buffer full. Under some operating systems, particularly OS/2, devices that support SCSI disconnect will work better than those that don't. In general, the faster the better. PCI or the (now uncommon) VLB is better than ISA, and the board should support (and have enabled) SCSI disconnect. It is not necessary to use Wide or Ultra SCSI for a CD recorder; the speed requirements for all existing recorders are easily met by "narrow" Fast SCSI. If you think you may be buying a speedy SCSI hard drive or other device in the near future, though, you may want to buy a card that supports faster protocols. You should enable synchronous transfers for devices that support it. Most CD recorders should. If the device doesn't work with it on, turn it off and try again. The adapter MUST support the ASPI standard (ASPI provides an interface between software and the SCSI controller) for both DOS and Windows. If you want to boot from a CD-ROM on a SCSI drive, make sure the SCSI card supports booting from removable media. For some tips on cabling and termination, see Bertel Schmitt's article at http://www.fadden.com/doc/scsi-trm.txt. The next few sections detail the more popular SCSI cards. There are many others, e.g:
Advansys - http://www.advansys.com/ Subject: [5-7-1] Adaptec - 1510/1522A/1540/1542CF These are all ISA controllers, good for putting a CD recorder on, not so good for putting a hard drive or fast CD-ROM drive on. If you have an IDE-based system and just want a SCSI card for driving your CD recorder and maybe a scanner or tape drive, any of these (as well as any of the variations of these) will work fine.
See http://www.adaptec.com/ The Adaptec 2940 (PCI) is a popular choice -- if not *the* most popular choice -- though some users have reported problems with the Adaptec 2840 (VLB). See the README that comes with Adaptec EZ-SCSI v4.0 and later for some important performance tests you can do with SCSIBench. The 2930 is also a good choice for CD recording. If you're having trouble writing CD-Rs with the 2940UW, go into the configuration menu (hit Ctrl-A while booting) and make sure the drive is set for 10MB/sec with Wide Negotiation disabled. A few notes on the 2910, 2920, 2930, and 2940 cards:
The 2940U2W has four connectors (internal 68pin Ultra2-LVD, internal 68pin Ultra2, internal 50-pin, external 68-pin Ultra2) and comes with a special 50-pin cable that ends in a 50-pin (HD) external plate. So you can have both 50-pin and 68-pin external connectors, as well as 50-pin and 68-pin internal connectors. On previous cards, you could only use two connectors at a time, but on this card you can use all five at once.
The ASUS SC-200 is one example of a Symbios Logic 810-based card (in this case, the NCR 53C810). Such cards offer solid performance at a reasonable price, and may be a better choice than the Adaptec cards for many users. (Be sure to examine these types of cards closely though: the least expensive among them are only meant to work with a motherboard BIOS that supports SCSI. This could cause trouble on other motherboards if you wanted to boot from a SCSI hard drive.) The ASUS SC-875, based on the 53C875 chip, offers Wide SCSI connectors as well. Symbios Logic is currently owned by LSI Logic. For product information, see http://www.lsilogic.com/products/io_standard/index.html.
See http://www.tekram.com/hot_products.asp?Product=DC-390_Series Inexpensive SCSI cards based on the LSI Logic SYM53C875 chip. The DC-390U supports Ultra SCSI, while the DC-390F supports Wide Ultra SCSI.
The "SlimSCSI" 1460 and 1480 are PCMCIA SCSI adapters for use in laptops and other portable devices. The 1460 requires a PC card slot and supports SCSI-2, while the 1480 requires a CardBus slot and supports UltraSCSI devices. The "MiniSCSI" 1350 allows you to connect SCSI devices to your parallel port. If you use this you will be limited to parallel-port speeds, so you may not be able to record at more than 2x.
You can, though there may be reasons not to. The seek times tend to be slower than a standard CD-ROM drive because the head assembly is heavier. Early CD recorders were optimized for writing, which doesn't require fast seeks, and some users experienced jerky video playback as a result. Most current models have pretty good seek times though. The MTBF on CD-R units has historically been lower than that of CD-ROM drives, so it may be wise to use a different drive for general use to preserve the life of the CD-R. Now that CD recorders are cheap enough to be nearly disposable, though, there's not much point in worrying about them. See also section (5-27) on laser diode lifetime.
If you're using Win95, some older CD recorders don't show up as readers without additional drivers, or (for SCSI drives) show up as 8 separate LUNs. (LUNs are Logical UNits, useful for distinguishing between different items loaded in a CD jukebox.) The reason why some older recorders don't show up by default is that they're classified as "type 4" SCSI-2 devices, which is used to indicate write-once devices. Standard CD-ROM drives are "type 5". HP and Philips used to supply drivers for their older units, and Corel used to supply several drivers for with their CD Creator product. You used to be able to get get a patch from Adaptec at ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/pub/BBS/win95/cdr4up.exe that would allow many type 4 drives, including the Yamaha CDR-100/102 and JVC XR-W2010, to appear as CD-ROM drives, but it appears to be gone. You may be able to find these archived on the web. If you don't have the drivers, you can still old SCSI drives to work under Win9X by loading the real-mode drivers like this (example is for an Adaptec 2940): In Config.sys: DEVICEHIGH=C:\SCSI\ASPI8DOS.SYS /DIn Autoexec.bat: LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:ASPICD0 /M:12Incidentally, to *remove* the Adaptec cdr4up driver, you should remove the file "CDR4VSD.VXD" from \Windows\System\Iosubsys, and reboot. For IDE recorders, you need a more specific driver. The manufacturer's web page likely has a link. See also http://www.drivershq.com/ and http://www.windrivers.com/.
This is a general CD-ROM question rather than a CD-R question, but since some of the newer recorders are available in either configuration it seems worthwhile to address it here. The advantage of a tray is convenience. If you want to put a CD in the drive, you can just drop it in, instead of buying a pile of caddies and hunting for a free one. The advantage of a caddy is durability. CDs are less likely to be scratched if they're put into a caddy and left there (VERY important if you have children), and the internal mechanism is less likely to collect dust. The tray units usually have a worse MTBF rating, because they have more moving parts. There have been reports that, at 12x and higher, some CDs will cause loud vibrations in tray models, but work fine in caddy models. Not everyone has had this problem though. It used to be the case that you had to get a caddy drive if you wanted to mount it sideways, but many tray models have tabs that will hold the CD in place. Having to use the tabs does reduce the convenience normally offered by a tray model though. Which you should choose depends on your needs and circumstances. If you are planning to write to a disc several times (multisession, packet writing, or anything with CD-RW), you are better off with the disc in a caddy.
With a little extra care, yes. For a Jaz drive, defragmenting the drive right before starting a burn seems to be the key to success. It's also very important to ensure that nothing else is trying to access the drive while the write is underway. One user reported being able to write at 1x from a DDS tape drive using Seagate's Direct Tape Access, but this isn't recommended. Copying the data to a hard drive and doing the burn from there is much more likely to succeed. There are no known instances of successful CD-R burns using punched card readers as the source device. Doing a test run is strongly recommended when using any of these devices.
OPC stands for Optimum Power Control. Most CD-R units do a power calibration test before writing to adjust the laser power to the correct strength. Different brands of media require slightly different power levels. Running OPC goes a step farther by actively monitoring the write process and adjusting the laser power as needed. If the writer encounters dust or fingerprints, the laser power can be increased to burn through the obstacles. This is especially useful for discs that are moved around between recording sessions, such as CD-RW discs or multisession CD-Rs. For more information, see http://www2.osta.org/osta/html/opc.html.
Audio CD-R/CD-RW recorders are similar to computer CD-Rs, except that they're intended to be part of a recording system rather than attached to a Mac or PC. They have audio inputs and front-panel controls like you'd find on a tape deck. They are usually more expensive than CD-Rs meant for computers. Some CD-Rs have both audio and SCSI-II interfaces. There are two classes of audio CD-R, consumer and professional. The units targeted at consumers require special audio blanks, and employ SCMS (Serial Copy Management System, section (2-25)) to prevent making copies from a copy. The audio blanks used to be 4x to 5x the cost of computer CD-R blanks and only held 60 minutes of audio, but 74-minute "Consumer Audio" blanks are now available for moderately more than regular CD-R blanks. The "professional" units use regular CD-R blanks and don't obey SCMS, and generally have a wider set of features and input/output connectors. If you already have a computer, it's probably cheaper to buy a computer CD-R and a good sound card or digital transfer card (see sections (3-12) and (3-13) for more info). The ability to edit the sound on a computer before writing a CD can be very useful. However, there are some advantages to using an audio CD-R (not all features are present on all models):
You can't copy data CD-ROMs with an audio-only recorder. (Incidentally, the difference in price for the audio CD-R blanks is due to licensing agreements and volume. The manufacturer pays a royalty to a studio consortium under the assumption that everything recorded to an audio CD-R is pirated material. The technology is identical; the "audio" discs just have a mark that says a royalty has been paid. See also section (7-17).) It is theoretically possible to convince a "consumer" audio CD recorder to accept regular blanks, but in practice this requires modifying the hardware. Some dealers will sell modified units, with altered firmware or additional circuitry, for a higher price (and perhaps a separate warranty). With the Philips 870/880 units manufactured prior to November 1998, it's possible to trick the recorder by manually ejecting and replacing the disc right before recording. Some of the "code free DVD" sites also sell CD-R chips, e.g. http://www.dvdupgrades.ch/. See also section (7-18).
Examples of "consumer" audio CD-R units are the Pioneer PDR-04 and PDR-05 (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/). Marantz makes professional-grade CD-R units, e.g. the CDR615 and CDR620. Philips sells the CDR870 and CDR880 (based on the CDD3600), which support both CD-R and CD-RW media. http://www.acdr.philips.com/products.htm. If you're interested in the Philips CDR765, a consumer-grade dual CD deck, see a detailed article at http://www.gallagher.com/music/cdr.htm and some notes at http://members.tripod.com/~charleswolff/cdr765.html. HHB sells a "professional" unit, the CDR880. http://www.hhb.co.uk/. There are many other models and vendors -- Denon, Harmon Kardon, others. Shop around.
In computer terms, hardware is the stuff you can hit with a baseball bat, and software is the stuff you can only swear at. Firmware is software that lives on your hardware. In more concrete terms, the firmware on your CD recorder is what controls the operation of the device, and handles everything from decoding CD-ROM sectors to writing the disc table of contents. Sometimes there are bugs or missing features that are added by updates. Firmware upgrades have been used to add features like disc-at-once recording and fix bugs like reversed left and right audio channels. Sometimes the upgrade will inadvertently add bugs, causing the recorder to work improperly. Firmware can be stored in an umodifiable form, such as a ROM chip, or in a rewritable form, such as "flash" ROM. In the former case, firmware upgrades are accomplished by physically removing a chip from inside the device, and replacing it with a new one. Devices with "flashable" firmware, on the other hand, can be upgraded by downloading a new set of firmware over the Internet. You have to be careful when upgrading the firmware on a drive yourself. If it requires physical replacement, you run the risk of breaking pins off of the chip. Flash upgrades won't result in physical damage, but in some cases a failed upgrade can render the device unusable. Always follow the instructions exactly, and NEVER do an upgrade with anything that didn't come from the manufacturer or a trusted source.
The second step is to figure out if your firmware is upgradeable. The manual should tell you. Most drives are, but some exceptions are noted for specific drives in the subsections under (5-1). The third step is to determine what version of firmware you currently have. Some SCSI cards on PC or UNIX systems will display a list of attached devices when the system boots. There's usually a column with a version number in it. On a PC running Win95, go into the Device Manager (either from the Control Panels or by asking for Properties on My Computer), and find the CD-ROM drives in the device tree. Select the CD-R drive, hit the "Properties" button, and then click on the "Settings" Tab of the window that opens. Look for "Firmware Revision". Mac users with Toast can hit Command-R to display the information. If your software doesn't have such a feature, you will need to run SCSI Tools to check the identification string. The fourth step is to find the upgrade file. Usually the manufacturer's web site will have them. If not, sometimes you can find a repository on the web. (There was a nice one on http://www.ahead.de/en/firmware.htm, but that appears to be gone now.) The fifth step is to apply the upgrade. This can be trivial or fairly challenging, depending on the device. Be sure to read the instructions *carefully* before applying the upgrade -- if it fails, the recorder could be rendered inoperable. Section (5-24) discusses the somewhat dangerous practice of flashing a drive with firmware intended for a different drive.
By all accounts, they work just fine. Most such drives are IDE devices with a converter (e.g. an enclosure with a parallel-to-IDE converter). Parallel-port drives require an ECP/EPP parallel port, which most (all?) machines have. Some BIOSs allow you to switch between ECP/EPP and "standard" mode; if you're having trouble, be sure it's set correctly. Some people who have bought off-the-shelf parallel-to-IDE converters have found that writing at 4x doesn't work very well. This may account for why all drives that ship with parallel port support are 2x writers. USB recorders work fine at 4x when connected directly to the computer. You may need to reduce speed to 2x if you use a hub. Some people have reported that their Windows systems were crashing until they turned auto-insert notification off (see section (4-1-1)). Windows users should be running Win98 or later -- Win95b may or may not work. Be warned that some USB SmartMedia readers install drivers that interfere with the ASPI layer; if you have problems with one, uninstall the drivers for the device and run ASPICHK. You need USB 2.0 to take advantage of drives faster than 6x4x4. Support for USB 2.0 has been spotty, but as of mid-2002 it's becoming more common on new motherboards and software support is improving. A PC user with USB 2.0 ports discovered that their recorder would only work successfully under WinXP or Win2K. Older versions of Windows wouldn't work. If you're having problems when disconnecting a device from the USB hub, see http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q253/6/97.ASP. IEEE 1394 (FireWire/i.Link) devices should only be used with recent versions of Windows on PCs (e.g. Win98SE or Win2K, not Win95, Win98, or WinNT). Linux support for 1394 was still listed as "experimental" in early 2002.
I bought a Western Digital PCI 1394 card, an ADS Technologies Pyro 1394 Drive Kit, and an HP DVD100i CD/DVD+RW recorder with an IDE interface. As an experiment, I put the HP recorder into the ADS case, and plugged it in. Under Windows 98SE, I was able to use the drive as a CD-ROM reader and DVD video player. The HP software got a little confused during installation, claiming that it couldn't find the drive, but when asked to record a CD it was able to find the device. However, neither the HP RecordNow software nor Nero was able to successfully record an audio CD. The drive just stopped working a few minutes in. When the drive was subsequently connected to the IDE bus, it worked fine. Subsequent experiments showed that the problem appears to be some sort of incompatibility with the motherboard -- my VIA-based Soyo K7V Dragon+ seems to be incompatible with 1394 devices. I haven't tried the experiment, but my guess is that the recorder would've worked just fine in the ADS case on a compatible system. For the curious, http://www.fadden.com/techmisc/my-pcs.htm#1394 has the gory details on what I went through.
(This section assumes you're using a PC.) You generally want the hard drives and CD-ROM drives on different channels, or CD-ROM accesses can interfere with hard drive accesses. Most older devices can't share the ATA bus, so only one device can be active at a time. For example, suppose you have a hard drive as master and a CD recorder as slave on the same channel. If you issue a command to write some blocks to the CD recorder, the system can't read anything from the hard drive until the CD write request completes. As long as the system is fast enough, and can read enough data between writes to keep the CD recorder's buffer full, this doesn't create any problems. If you put the hard drive and the CD recorder on different channels, the commands are allowed to overlap. In practice, on Win9x systems this doesn't make much of a difference, because Win9x won't usually access more than one IDE device at a time. On systems like OS/2 and Linux, the difference is more significant. Proposals for command overlap (sending commands to multiple devices simultaneously) and command queueing (sending several commands to the same device all at once) were introduced as optional features during the development of the ATA-3 specification. They're part of ATA/ATAPI 4. For command overlap to be effective, both devices on the channel must support the feature. If the hard drive does but the CD recorder doesn't, you won't get much benefit. If you're not sure that your CD recorder has an ATAPI-4 interface, you probably ought to put it on a separate channel from the hard drive. For information related to this topic, see "Does an old HD or CDROM slow down a new drive?", in section 5.3 of the IDE/Fast-ATA FAQ at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pc-hardware-faq/enhanced-IDE/part1/. The recommended configuration looks like this:
Having the CD-ROM drive and the CD recorder on the same channel doesn't necessarily prevent CD-to-CD copying, but you're still better off writing from the hard drive. At high speeds, the CPU utilization for CD-ROM drives without DMA enabled can be very high. Keep the cables as short as you can. Sometimes the longer (60cm) cables will work fine with one drive but start having integrity problems when two devices are attached. NOTE: early versions of the Intel PIIX Bus Mastering IDE driver may interfere with the ability to use a CD recorder. The typical symptom is a system hang when writing or test-writing to a disc. The latest version of the Intel driver (which includes an uninstaller) can be found at http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/drivers/busmastr/. The Adaptec page http://www.adaptec.com/support/configuration/cdrecide.html also describes the problem. NOTE: early versions of the VIA Bus Mastering IDE drivers were similarly afflicted. See http://www.via.com.tw/support/faq.htm. Win95/Win98 users can resolve the bus-mastering IDE driver problems by installing Win98 Second Edition (a/k/a Win98SE) after removing any manufacturer-supplied bus-mastering drivers. The ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programmer's Interface) layer is used during CD recording, even for IDE recorders. See section (4-44) for information on how to make sure you have what you need. The original Win95A/B WinASPI may have problems with IDE recorders.
Maybe. In an ideal world, the answer would be a resounding "yes". However, some drives in some configurations will not work correctly, so the right answer is "try it and see". If you are having lots of problems getting a drive to work, turn it off. If you're running with it off, and are having performance problems, turn it on. As with any other "try and see" procedure, don't change more than one thing at a time. For example, don't rearrange your drives and toggle DMA without doing some testing in between. Otherwise, if something breaks, you won't know which change caused it. Under Win98, you can toggle the DMA setting by opening the Control Panel window, double-clicking on System, selecting the "System Properties" tab, expanding the "CDROM" branch, selecting the device, clicking on "Properties", clicking on "Settings", and then checking or unchecking the "DMA" checkbox. Under Win2K, you can set DMA on a per-channel basis. Under WinXP, select the adapter that the drive is on rather than the drive. Other versions of Windows may require registry tweaks.
It depends on what you're doing. CD-R media is incredibly cheap these days, so using CD-RW to burn a a test disc doesn't make much sense unless you're burning a *lot* of test discs. Besides, CD-RW discs aren't readable on many older CD-ROM and audio CD players. The manual for Easy CD Creator Deluxe v3 says that CD-RW discs are "more cost effective for near-line data storage requirements than CD-R." The definition of near-line storage puts it somewhere between online storage and offline storage. On the other hand, if you're expecting to use packet writing to treat the disc as a big floppy, it may be useful. You should consider other forms of media for such purposes though, such as Jaz drives, which are faster and hold more, but are slightly harder to find readers for (but only slightly: CD-RW discs aren't readable on all drives, and packet-written discs may not be readable under some operating systems). Software developers who need to create test CDs frequently will find CD-RW invaluable. CD-Rewritable drives can write to both CD-R and CD-RW media, and because the differences in drive construction are so slight, nearly all recent recorders support both formats.
Historically, each manufacturer of CD recorders used a different command set, and perhaps even altered the commands with each new recorder. This has placed a significant burden on CD-R software authors, who have to write new drivers for each new device. MMC (Multi Media Command) compliant recorders use a common command set. Programs that can write to one MMC-compliant recorder should be able to write to all others, and consumers should be able to use their choice of software without the long delays usually associated with the introduction of new hardware. The reality is not so kind, unfortunately, due to firmware bugs or deliberate deviations from the standard. Do not assume that a particular piece of software will work with your recorder simply because it works for other MMC-compliant devices. The spec sheets for recorders usually indicate whether or not the drive is MMC compliant. The MMC-2 standard is documented in ANSI/NCITS 333-2000. You can buy a copy of the standard from http://www.ncits.org/ (specifically, http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-bin/detail?product_id=223931).
The choice of what hardware to buy is dictated by software availability. Find the software you want to use (common choices include "cdrecord", listed in section (6-1-20), GEAR in section (6-1-3), and CDR Publisher in section (6-1-9)). All support a variety of recorders, primarily SCSI devices. Consult the software manufacturer's web site for any specific recommendations. It's possible to get IDE recorders working under Linux, by installing an "ide-scsi" module that makes the recorder work more or less like a SCSI device. This is similar to what the Windows ASPI layer does for IDE devices. See the CD-Writing HOWTO for more details (try http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO.html). The Sun CD FAQ at http://www.datamodl.demon.co.uk/suncd/ has some helpful tips on using CD recorders and creating bootable CD-ROMs for Solaris machines.
You need a way to connect the recorder to the laptop. After that, it's really no different from a desktop. You can connect a typical recorder via USB (if you have a USB connector), SCSI (if you have a port or want to buy a PCMCIA SCSI card like the Adaptec 1460), FireWire (if supported or you have a PCMCIA 1394 card), or parallel port. SCSI is the fastest, but PCMCIA SCSI adapters tend to be expensive. FireWire is the next best bet. USB is a good choice, and should be available on most recent laptops, but you're limited to recording at 6x or less with USB v1.x.. Parallel port works fine, but you will probably be limited to recording at 2x. A small selection of portable CD recorders is now available. These are small, battery-powered devices that come with a PCMCIA connection. Examples include the Ricoh MP-8040SE and Smart & Friendly Pocket RW. In some cases it may be possible to replace the CD-ROM drive included in the laptop with a CD recorder. Search section (5-1) for "portable" devices.
If the software options described in section (3-17) are insufficient, you may want to buy dedicated hardware. You can learn about the types of equipment available at http://www.octave.com/library/cdduplicating.html.
The purchase of a CD recorder often results in what used to be an unusual situation: a machine with two CD-ROM drives in it. This leads to a number of interesting phenomena, usually having to do with poorly-written software that can't figure out which CD-ROM drive it's supposed to use. CD-ROM drives are typically connected to a sound card via a small cable (a couple of wires twisted together, ending in small molex connectors). This allows audio CDs to be placed in the CD-ROM drive and played through the speakers attached to the sound card. Some people, upon discovering that they have two CD-ROM drives and can use both simultaneously, want to connect both drives to the sound card's input. This is where the trouble starts. Sound cards often only have one input. The immediate temptation is to buy or construct a Y-cable, but this won't always work. The trouble is that Y-cables only work when you have a single signal and more than one listener, like a stereo that sends its output to two sets of headphones. The situation with two CD-ROM drives is of two outputs and one listener. Connecting two outputs together is, in general, a bad idea. Remember that electricity isn't like water: it does not come out of the output and flow downhill. The voltage at any point on the wire (ignoring minor distortions) is going to be exactly the same. So if you have a device that's trying to set it to one level, and another device that's trying to set it to another level, the two devices are going to fight, and the results aren't going to be what you want. In some cases, if a device is inactive, it will allow its output to "float". The other device can set the voltage to whatever level it wants. So long as you only use one device at a time, all is well. Many devices, however, force the output to ground level when not in use. This generally manifests as a volume level that is almost inaudibly quiet. Devices that combine multiple audio inputs into something reasonable are called "mixers". Buying one and embedding it into your PC case is probably not the best solution. One possible option, if you're handy with the soldering iron, is to rig up a mechanical switch that selects which signal gets passed to the sound card. So long as you weren't planning to play two audio CDs simultaneously, this should work well. Some sound cards have multiple connectors on them, suggesting that the card itself could handle multiple inputs. More often than not, these connectors are not electrically isolated, so even though they're not sharing the same cable they will still cause the devices to compete. If the sound card isn't advertised as allowing multiple independent inputs, don't assume it can. Some of the Sound Blaster cards, e.g. SB Live!, do have two independent inputs ("CD in" and "AUX"). Stay away from the TAD (Telephone Answering Device) connector though, it's monaural. You may need to un-mute the auxilliary input in the volume control panel. You can get an inexpensive Y-cable with a "passive mixer" from "Cables N Mor" at http://cablesnmor.com/cdrom.html. If you're the build-it-you |