🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Wd09LKADwQD3Ew+8@zadsoft.demon.co.uk>, Andrew D. Newbould
<andrewn@zadsoft.demon.co.uk> allegedly scrawls wildly
>
>However, should you ever decide to write Music CD's you really need a
>minimum of a SCSI CDR (Ideally SCSI Hard Disk as well but good EIDE will
>surfice). The problem is that IDE won't stream fast enough at a
>continued rate. CD's (if you manage to write a full one without it
>failing) tend to have odd pauses, clicks & whistles etc. Just NOT
>reliable.
>
This thread is starting to take on all the usual mis-conceptions
regarding CD copying.

For a start, EIDE is capable of burning discs just fine, SCSI isn't
necessary at all.  SCSI offers certain advantages, particularly if you
want other SCSI devices, or are lacking in IDE channels, but the
argument for SCSI only CD writing is history, and is a generally a more
costly option.  If the original poster is interested in a recommendation
for an IDE burner, I have nothing but praise for the Panasonic 7582B
which happily burns reliably at 4x and can be found from around UKP140.
Mine has given me no trouble and burns reliably producing data and audio
CD's that happily play on every other CD reader (data and audio) that
they have been used on.

...and yes, my PC can be used whilst burning as long as it's nothing too
intensive.  I have been able to browse on-line, word process and a few
other tasks.  When burning, the buffer (of incoming data to the CDR)
rarely flickers from 98-100pc full.  This is with a P133, a P200 and now
P400 with UDMA/bus-mastering enabled on my HD and CD reader.  In short,
the computer has to be capable of un-interrupted supply of data and
commands in excess of the burn speed requirement.

As for audio -  Digital Audio Extraction, I can confirm that IDE devices
can quite happily supply the goods.  If you can afford it, or expect to
do a lot of DAE work, then the Plextor CD readers (which incidentally
are SCSI) are the fastest and have specialist DAE features not found on
other drives.  However, I use an Asus 36x drive which does DAE at around
8 or 9x, and is easily fast and competent enough to allow my Panasonic
CDR to burn on the fly at 4x.  As someone stated earlier, you are
advised to burn a disk image to HD first, and you can burn at 1x, but
why?  I have had 100pc reliability at 4x.  I have no pops, clicks or
whistles as described by the poster, they are the symptoms of a poor
quality DAE reader.  Many older CD readers didn't support DAE.  
Incidentally, the Panasonic CDR is also a reliable DAE reader at around
8x.  Audio extracted with both my Asus drive and Panasonic sound as
clean and perfect as the source CD.  Some audiophiles have reported that
they can tell the subtle difference between an original and copy CD.  I
have a relatively keen ear and decent hi-fi, nothing specialist, but
can't hear any difference.

The original poster wanted a cheap CDR and has an IDE based system.
There are lots of people using the Panasonic, Mitsumi and Phillips
drives, all for less than UKP150.  Hardly any singular piece of
equipment is perfect, in this case they all have minor failings, but if
he wants to spend on SCSI, then the Plextor equipment is highly
recommended.  A search of the alt.cd* newsgroups for a few days will
help form an opinion.


Stu
-- 
Stuart Brown