When does it ever end?
 

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
In article , Jim Lesurf
wrote:
TBH The best CD writer I ever used was a SCSI interface Plextor. If I
wrote TDK CDRs with that for CDDA at x1 or x2 speed then they played
on all the audio and computer drives I could find. Can't say that for
*any* writer/disk combination I've found since.

Yes - I got one of those as part of a package that included CDBurn. At
one of the RISC OS shows - Epsom, IIRC. Still in use. ;-)

Mine is on a RiscPC at the anechoic chamber. I still use it for some
purposes. That said, the CD writer in my Iyonix is OK. But the DVD writer
is somewhat flakey. Not worried as I've not needed to write DVDs, and if I
do, can probably use something else.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

When does it ever end?
 

In article , Laurence Payne
wrote:
On Mon, 25 May 2009 10:11:27 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

No, I don't. Are you an enthusiast for something esoteric or
something retro?

But whatever it is, if it takes a CD/DVD drive at all, what can it
use other than an ATA or SATA unit?

The snag is suitable RISC OS drivers ain't available for every drive.
And no two makes of drive seem to be identical.

What's he on then? An old Archimedes? Can't argue with religion I
suppose :-)

No, I stopped using Arcs well over a decade ago. Nothing to do with
religion though. I just use what allows me to do what I want as fast and as
well as I find convenient.

BTW Yes, I have routinely used a variety of other types of machine and OS
for many years, when they seem more suitable for the task. I did start with
ICL1900s yonks ago, but have used Windows, Macs, and all sorts since. Main
preference was Solaris, although I largely stopped bothing with that when I
no longer needed to do the things it did neatly.

So my preference isn't based on not having used a range of systems. But if
you've not used a more modern RO box than an Arc you may not have much
idea what they can do well. For some jobs it isn't what I use. But for
others it is superb in my view. in particular for technical document
production of the kinds I do.

I stopped trying to 'advocate' RO for non-users years ago. Decided that I
didn't have any real urge to do so when I found I could often do the tasks
I was working on done faster or easier than than others using Windows or
Macs. To paraphrase Napoleon, never disturb your competitors when they are
making a mistake. ;-

But yes, I'd agree this is a 'colour of socks' personal preference. We each
work in the way we find suits us best.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

When does it ever end?
 

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:
In article , Laurence Payne
wrote:


What's he on then? An old Archimedes? Can't argue with religion I
suppose :-)

Think Jim uses an Iyonix.

Yes, for most day-to-day desktop work. But have other machines also for
other tasks.

They can do all the common tasks like handling news and email, simple
browsing, word processing etc just fine.

Yes, and in terms of being a responsive GUI, one that I find is quick and
flexible.

Things that need a deal of number crunching like video, not. But ok for
audio.

Alas, the Iyonix suffers from a problem which also afflicts some IBM PC
hardware. The idiotic 'sound card' (actually on the motherboard) persists
in converting everything into 48ksample/sec. So I ignore that for any work.
The machine works neatly for processing sound data, though. Hence the
'!Track' applications on my website for RO users.

Easy enough to import and export sound files in other ways - CDRW, USB
stick, etc. TBH I've tended to prefer decent external recorders or replay
systems anyway. Although my current experiments with Linux may eventually
change that a bit. May even eventually install ROX rather than Gnome or
Xfce to help get the GUI into a sensible shape. :-) That said, Xfce is
quite OK in my view. Reminds me of the ancient Solaris wm's I've used in
days of yore. Whereas Gnome gives me the same "nice eyecandy to hide
everything and not frighten the user" feeling I tend to get with Windows
and MacOS. Presumably this is to make people who've previously mainly used
Windows feel more comfortable if they give it a try. :-)

But I have a PC for tasks it can't handle so well.

Similar here. I did keep a tame Windows laptop for the 'ten mins or so per
month' times I wanted it to do something for me. [1] Otherwise I'd use
Solaris or some other box at (ex-)work. Tool chosen as appropriate for the
job.

That said, I wiped the XP virus off the laptop a few weeks ago when I
installed Xubuntu. Decided it wasn't worth keeping. Waste of disc space.

Slainte,

Jim

[1] The only significant use I made of XP in the last few years was to
drive a mini-VNA for the cable measurements due to appear in HFN in a week
or so. But even that VNA has a linux driver/software so I could have used
that if I'd decided. Beyond that, the only use has been to reformat the
occasional memory device or to search the AES CDROM set since they only
come with compiled executables for searching. And there they have a *nix
version as well. Though heaven knows why the AES were so daft as to allow
someone to do the search routines for them and *not* provide the source
code! If they had, we could use any old OS we liked.

However this is all terribly OT. So I'll stop... :-)

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

When does it ever end?
 

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , Laurence Payne
wrote:
On Sat, 23 May 2009 00:04:47 +0100, Eeyore
wrote:

CDRs really. And I don't know if it's the make of the blank alone ( I
usually use 'name' ones of some reasonably quality reputation ) or the
drives pack up early. I've thrown out more CD drives than any other
piece of PC kit.

The first generation of CD drives certainly seemed to have about a 3
year life.

A lot of my failed CD-Rs date from days before I realised that burning
at the manufacturer's maximum rated speed was NOT a good idea.

I've often had a situation where a newly-burnt CDR would not play properly
in a specific device or drive.



Faulty recordings seem to follow you around somewhat, don't they? I don't
remember more than the very occasional 'coaster' back in the CDR days but
it's been many a year since I was involved with them - thankfully, not more
than a small few (probably less than 3 altogether) DVDR coasters back in
those days either.

With DVDs, it wasn't just a question of the disks and the drives used to
burn them; the player came into the equation also - there was a time that
any disk with the purple Rytek dye (irrespective of manufacturer or brand)
would play in any of the DVD players we had at the time. Then it all seemed
to go off the fang and replay difficulties manifested themselves even on a
few Rytex disks - stuttering, 'hanging', picture break-up, thise dreadful
'digital squeaks' occasionally and machine lock-up! It was as if the players
had evolved away from the media!


I've also found it helps to use a particular brand, TDK in my experience
works well. But this does seem to vary both with choice of writer, and
with
the playback/reading devices.


I have also found TDK to be reliable and don't think I've ever had a failure
with them. Now that it's Bluray, with prices up to £25 for a *single* 50GB
BD-REDL atm, dodgy disks/replay problems are definitely not desirable, but
the TDK disks work well and appear to be reliable as does another disk I
have - a single 5 quid cheaper Maxell which has TDK also. While, OTOH, the
25 Gig 'LG' BDRE bundled free with the LG 'Super Multi Blue' drive (can't
remember the model number) is not TDK dye and is not useable in either of
the Samsung or Sony players we have!

Hardly surprising that the TDK disks should be OK though, as they were
members of the original BDF group:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Founders