HHB CDR830/CDR830 Plus and media

[Solstace]

Okay, further to yesterday's topic about CF recording, I'm doing a post-mortem on our CD recorders.

 

I've heard a rumour that these HHB units are fussy about the media they're fed - namely that high-speed media (up to 52x, the sort that's most commonly available) is a problem because it's more harsh on the laser assembly than "low-speed" (1>24x) media.

 

Couple of questions:

 

1) If high-speed media is so harsh on the laser assembly, why should this be so?

2) Is this just a disclaimer, or a way of selling 'specialist' media?

 

What have others experienced/found on this?

[Steve_Hole]

I use one to record sermons in church and found through experience that the best option is to use slow media. I currently use HHB CDRW80's and have had no problems with these. I then copy these onto cheep hi-speed media to use as the master / permanent copy and reuse the RW's.

 

I have tried using the hi-speed media in our HHD recorder which sometimes worked ok, but more often than not failed to record anything... IIRK the manual does state to use low speed media, but does not state why (other than it does not work!!).

 

I think it's something to do with the way the cheaper hi-spead media is manufactured the tolerances involved, buy I may be way off ;)

 

Hope this helps :)

 

Steve

[jamesperrett]

If you think about the CD burning process - the burner has to produce a properly defined hole in the CD dye layer. If the laser is too weak then the hole is too small or maybe not even created at all. If the laser is too strong then the hole becomes too large and may start to interfere with adjacent tracks. Different dyes require different amounts of laser energy to create the correct size holes. You therefore have to find media that matches the laser characteristics of your burner. Computer burners are fairly smart and often contain a media database with a list of write powers and write strategies that are suitable for the media that it knows about. This database can be updated when you update your drive's firmware.

 

Audio CD writers rarely have updateable firmware so you are limited to the types of media that were available when you purchased the writer. In addition, an audio writer will rarely work at anything faster than real time whereas computer writers rarely work slower than 4X real time. It therefore follows that typical computer media is unlikely to work will in an audio writer.

 

You really need to find media designed for use at 1X like the media that HHB sell. A good alternative is to try to find some 1X rated Taiyo Yuden discs. While I've not used the HHB recorders, I actually prefer Taiyo Yuden as they seem to be compatible with a wider range of CD players than Mitsui discs (which is what most HHB discs seem to be). It may also be worth buying a few consumer Audio CD-R's to try.

 

Cheers

 

James.