Choosing CDR media & Recording Speeds for CDGs

[Misschiff]

I have been burning CDGs for about 6 years now and have always been careful to choose appropriate media for CDG burning.

The best way to determine which discs to buy is to contact the manufactures of your CDR drive. They usually display a list of recommended media. I have recently switched to Verbatim for use with my new Plextor 48x.

A good indication of bad media is when you get that "pizza tray" look -- you know, like crumbs were scattered on your CD and it breaks up the graphics. Some burners won't even recognize certain types of media.

Another thing to be carefull for is the speed at which you burn a CDG. First, every CD has a speed limitation. Some manufacturers (usually no-name ones) may not specify the maximum speed, in which case your software will usually set itself to record at the maximum (that the disc allows) unless you specify otherwise.

Second, your CDG or DVD/CDG player may not like discs that are burned at higher sppeds than what they can read at. In most cases your player's technology is probably quite a bit older than your burner and media you use to play in it! Some players don't like this. I still burn at 8x because I haven't really tested it at speeds higher than that. Most of our players are about 6+ years old.

If anyone has any comments to add, or any performance test results they would like to share, I would be very much interested

Misschiff

[jim in ohio]

Yea my players are old too, what I have found is the faster you read the disc, the better your backup, it's sort of like it skips some of the graphic crap (dots, left over letters, random spots) that is on our older discs, so the backup is better than the old well used disc.
I am limited by my burner a 16-10-40 Plex. so I read everything at 40X and found out that I get good backups that my players have no problems with at write speed at 16X.
The most problem I have ran into is with media, cheap Imation media gives bad backups if you can get it on them.

Jim

[George]

Wealth of discussion on the subject already here:
CD-Recorders and Media Open Forum

[admin]

MTU tested a number of different media specifically for Karaoke CDG use. We now sell what we feel is the best available. If your media is bad, this is one of the hardest things to work through. It is always best to have some MTU Silver media around to prove whether it is your system or your media. Using cheap media is like playing Russian Roulette with 6 cylinders in the pistol... and 5 bullets... you're gonna take a hit!!!

Click here to buy MTU CDC Certified CDR Media.