HELP - DVDR drive not in MTU's list
 

I'm looking to purchase a new HP laptop to replace my old one for my Show & need to be sure this drive will work prior to purchasing it. However, HP only identifies the drive as "Optiarc" with no other description or #.

I searched "Optiarc" and came up with "Sony NEC Optiarc".

MTU's list shows several "NEC" drives and also several "Sony" drives. Neither uses the word "Optiarc".

Can anyone tell me if Hoster will read CDGs using this drive? before I purchase this new laptop.

I didn't know a list still existed?
If you don't get the drive from MTU it's hit or miss as to whether it will work satisfatorily. A drive that works well for one may not work well for another. To see if a drive is going to work for you MTU recommends trying three different disks and brands and check your results.

For what it's worth I have an Optiarc AD-7530A in my Acer Laptop. On a 15 song disk I probably end up with 8 tracks that are perfect, 4 tracks that are so-so and 3 tracks that are nearly unusable.

Your only sure bet is to buy the laptop if you like it but budget for replacing the drive. If the drive works for you then you'll save a few dollars.

Sam

if the list does excist, i doubt it is up to date with all the new burners coming on the market every day !


test test test

FYI - MTU list of CD/DVD drives
 

Thanks for telling me you have an Optiarc. I really want to know how it works at a Show particularly with homemade CDGs singers bring in, so I don't have to keep carrying a player too. I even tried using my external Plextor, but it was just too much for my 5-year old laptop that after 2 hours, things would slow down even with 512RAM. Yes, I could buy first, but if I have to replace the drive, I might as well buy a laptop with one I know will work.

Below is a quote from MTU's page which tells all about Microstudio. I believe that MTU updates this list frequenty after testing new drives. I have watched this list grow on a regular basis.

"Microstudio 4.002 supports an extensive list of CD/DVD drives,"

That used to be the case up until they changed over to using the mmc connection which most newer drives use. The old method of communicating with the drives was hardware specific which is why they had a list.
The only problem now is even if a drive will communicate with the MTU programs that is still no garrantee that it will read the CDGs completely or cleanly. As Sam said it may read part of the disc cleanly and the rest not. The only drive that MTU will garrantee to work is the ones they sell, which they do have a laptop drive in their store. They also sell a laptop with the drive in it.

:) I would recommend the external usb drive they sell right here on the mtu site. I bought one over a year ago and it works great!! The best thing is that you can use it with any computer. I use 2 laptops. One is my primary and the other is my backup. Therefore they are never used at the same time and the external drive can be used for either.

Adding homemade disks to Songlist
 

Thanks for the info. I do have an external Plextor drive that I tried using when I first started using my laptop for my Shows. Although it reads original disks fine, it still had trouble reading many homemade disks.

So, I'm wondering if even the internal drive that you can buy here will read as many homemade disks as my stand-alone player will do? I had hoped that putting all my disks on computer would also eliminate the need to carry an extra player!

Simple solution....tell them they need to bring the original to prove that it is legit.:g Seriously, it would depend on what program they are using to create the copies. CDG players are more tolerant than computer drives. I can remember back when DVD movies first came out, they would no play on computers, but played fine in DVD players. If you make a copy with Microstudio do you have any trouble reading it? If not you can always recommend it to them.

Good response!
 

You're absolutely right! More than likely most of these disks are illegal, as they don't bring copies of disks, they bring in disks full of songs from different disks usually made by friends. If they knew the brand for each song, I more than likely have the same version anyway. Also, where I live there's karaoke on every corner, most who are not computerized. These people are simply spoiled; and so I do try to accommodate everyone, just to avoid the complaints (like - "my disks play everywhere else"). As hard as I try, I do know "you can't please everyone!"