Think I might have sorted it. I went out last night and bought some
Maxell 80 minute data discs, which are gold rather than blue, and did
some playing.

First, I burnt 74 minutes of music to one using Nero, and selected the
option to allow Nero to discover the maximum speed. Depsite the drive
being rated at 52x, and the discs being rated at 48x, Nero burnt at
16x as it claimed it couldn't read the data from the source faster
than that. (A bit odd, as the source was WAV files on my hard drive,
but anyway...)

That disc worked fine in the Arcam. I then tried again with 79:40
minutes of music under the same conditions - still worked fine.

I then tried 74 minutes burning at 48x, ignoring Nero's warning - and
that disc didn't work - couldn't find half the track marks.

So it looks as if the Arcam is fine with long discs, but not with CDs
burnt at high speed - and it looks as if "high speed" for a TDK audio
disc is 16x, while "high speed" for a Maxell data disc is somewhat
higher.

You live and learn - many thanks for all the advice on here. (Now, if
anyone can suggest why Nero is having trouble reading from my hard
drive faster than it can write to disc, I'd be interested to know!)

Simon

"Simon Long" wrote in message
om...

You live and learn - many thanks for all the advice on here. (Now, if
anyone can suggest why Nero is having trouble reading from my hard
drive faster than it can write to disc, I'd be interested to know!)


It might be worth double checking that UDMA is enabled on your hard disk(s).
You didn't (I think) state what OS you are using, but I'm assuming it is
Win2k or XP. Start-(Settings)-Control Panel-System-Hardware-Device
Manager-IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then double click Primary IDE channel,
then Advanced Settings. Make sure "Current Transfer Mode" says "Ultra DMA
Mode x" (where x is 4 or 5). Check the Secondary as well.

If any of your devices are not UDMA, post back and I can help you with the
diagnostics needed to sort it out.

Also, are your WAV's plain old PCM WAV's? Not some fsckd up MP3's with a
RIFF WAV header?

The reason I ask is that if they are MP3's, as they get decoded on the fly,
the maximum write speed will be somewhat limited.

Steve

"Simon Long" wrote in message
om...

You live and learn - many thanks for all the advice on here. (Now, if
anyone can suggest why Nero is having trouble reading from my hard
drive faster than it can write to disc, I'd be interested to know!)


It might be worth double checking that UDMA is enabled on your hard disk(s).
You didn't (I think) state what OS you are using, but I'm assuming it is
Win2k or XP. Start-(Settings)-Control Panel-System-Hardware-Device
Manager-IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then double click Primary IDE channel,
then Advanced Settings. Make sure "Current Transfer Mode" says "Ultra DMA
Mode x" (where x is 4 or 5). Check the Secondary as well.

If any of your devices are not UDMA, post back and I can help you with the
diagnostics needed to sort it out.

Also, are your WAV's plain old PCM WAV's? Not some fsckd up MP3's with a
RIFF WAV header?

The reason I ask is that if they are MP3's, as they get decoded on the fly,
the maximum write speed will be somewhat limited.

Steve