80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

Hi All,

Wondered if anyone else has had this problem. Last night I installed a
new CD-RW drive in my home PC (made by LiteOn), and burnt a couple of
discs just to check it worked.

I was using TDK 80-min audio CDRs, and the resulting discs played very
grudgingly in my Arcam Alpha 8SE CD player - it took a good 10-15
seconds to read the TOC, and 5 or 6 seconds to find a track. I thought
this might be a problem with the new burner, so I reinstalled the old
burner, and discovered that the same files burnt to the same type of
disk at a lower speed caused exactly the same problem. I then realised
that this is the first time I have tried an 80 minute (well, 79:40)
CD-R in the Arcam.

It has no problems with 80 minute original CDs (or 79:55 anyway, the
longest one I have). It also has never had a problem with 74 minute
CD-Rs, or even with short (~1hr) recordings on the TDK 80 minute
discs.

Is it just that my Arcam doesn't like 80 minute CD-R recordings? Has
anyone else seen this? The Arcam is flawless in all other respects, so
I am not really complaining - I'd just like to know that I don't have
to send the new CD-RW drive back!

Many thanks,

Simon

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

"Simon Long" wrote in message
om...
Hi All,

Wondered if anyone else has had this problem. Last night I installed a
new CD-RW drive in my home PC (made by LiteOn), and burnt a couple of
discs just to check it worked.

(snip)
Is it just that my Arcam doesn't like 80 minute CD-R recordings? Has
anyone else seen this? The Arcam is flawless in all other respects, so
I am not really complaining - I'd just like to know that I don't have
to send the new CD-RW drive back!

No such problems here. I use the same TDK disks all the time and my 8SE
plays them just fine.

My (sorry guys) Bose clock-radio-CD-thingy, on the other hand, does exactly
what your 8SE is doing. Spins the disk (various types and makes, on a
fairly random basis) for ages before finally playing it. Sometimes I can't
cue individual tracks at all, but it'll play through the disk in order. I
would put it down to an inferior transport, but I'll be lynched if I say
that here! ;)

Don't know where your fault lies, but it's not a characteristic of the Alpha
player.

Deep C

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

....
I was using TDK 80-min audio CDRs
....

have you tried _data_ CDRs rather than _audio_ ones ?

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 11:24:01 +0200, "didier gaumet"
wrote:

...
I was using TDK 80-min audio CDRs
...

have you tried _data_ CDRs rather than _audio_ ones ?

My thought exactly ... since "audio" CDRs are intended to be used in
standalone consumer recorders, which typically copy in real time or at
x2, the dye used may be unsuitable/marginal for typical computer
burners (up to x48 these days).

Julian


--
Julian Fowler
julian (at) bellevue-barn (dot) org (dot) uk

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

Hi,

What colour are your TDK CDs? Are they blue?
I ask as I had a similar problem with my 8SE, and found a mention on the Web
of blue CDs being less 'reliable' than others.

This might be total rubbish, but it seems to be born out by my experience.

What happened was that I got a used 8SE, following listening to a friends
similar machine. My one would play commercial CDs fine but not a compilation
I'd made myself on a TDK (CDR-74). The same CD-R would play ok on my
friend's 8SE.
After a bit of hunting I found the thing about blue CDs. I then copied my
blue TDK CD-R to another CD-R which was uncoloured (white?) of Philips
brand. This one plays fine.

As I say, might be complete rubbish, but might be worth a try.
Incidentally, the blue CD plays ok in my PC, in my car stereo and in an Aiwa
micro.

Regards, John





"Simon Long" wrote in message
om...
Hi All,

Wondered if anyone else has had this problem. Last night I installed a
new CD-RW drive in my home PC (made by LiteOn), and burnt a couple of
discs just to check it worked.

I was using TDK 80-min audio CDRs, and the resulting discs played very
grudgingly in my Arcam Alpha 8SE CD player - it took a good 10-15
seconds to read the TOC, and 5 or 6 seconds to find a track. I thought
this might be a problem with the new burner, so I reinstalled the old
burner, and discovered that the same files burnt to the same type of
disk at a lower speed caused exactly the same problem. I then realised
that this is the first time I have tried an 80 minute (well, 79:40)
CD-R in the Arcam.

It has no problems with 80 minute original CDs (or 79:55 anyway, the
longest one I have). It also has never had a problem with 74 minute
CD-Rs, or even with short (~1hr) recordings on the TDK 80 minute
discs.

Is it just that my Arcam doesn't like 80 minute CD-R recordings? Has
anyone else seen this? The Arcam is flawless in all other respects, so
I am not really complaining - I'd just like to know that I don't have
to send the new CD-RW drive back!

Many thanks,

Simon

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

Simon Long wrote:

Hi All,

Wondered if anyone else has had this problem. Last night I installed a
new CD-RW drive in my home PC (made by LiteOn), and burnt a couple of
discs just to check it worked.

I was using TDK 80-min audio CDRs....

One thing you should do is find out who really made the CD's. There are
a few free utilities to do this if you didn't get any software with your
drive.

You should also tell us what speed you were burning at.

I would guess that decent media would help (Taiyo Yuden or Japanese
Mitsui discs are best).

Cheers.

James.

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

"Simon Long" wrote in message
om...
Hi All,

Wondered if anyone else has had this problem. Last night I installed a
new CD-RW drive in my home PC (made by LiteOn), and burnt a couple of
discs just to check it worked.

I was using TDK 80-min audio CDRs, and the resulting discs played very
grudgingly in my Arcam Alpha 8SE CD player - it took a good 10-15
seconds to read the TOC, and 5 or 6 seconds to find a track. I thought
this might be a problem with the new burner, so I reinstalled the old
burner, and discovered that the same files burnt to the same type of
disk at a lower speed caused exactly the same problem. I then realised
that this is the first time I have tried an 80 minute (well, 79:40)
CD-R in the Arcam.

It has no problems with 80 minute original CDs (or 79:55 anyway, the
longest one I have). It also has never had a problem with 74 minute
CD-Rs, or even with short (~1hr) recordings on the TDK 80 minute
discs.

Is it just that my Arcam doesn't like 80 minute CD-R recordings? Has
anyone else seen this? The Arcam is flawless in all other respects, so
I am not really complaining - I'd just like to know that I don't have
to send the new CD-RW drive back!

Many thanks,

Simon

I've had quite a bit of experience with this. A lot of variables, but try
branded data disks and Exact Audio Copy at the very least to rip, and either
Nero or EAC to burn.
HTH
Rob

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

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

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

"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

80 min CDRs in an Arcam Alpha 8SE
 

"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