On Sun, 24 May 2009 12:23:30 +0100, Jim Lesurf
wrote:

I've found that some writers may also simply ignore a speed slower than
they can be bothered to accept. For example, the CD writer I have in my
day-to-day-use home machine won't go any slower than x4 even if the
software tells it to. The DVD writer seems to totally ignore any speed
instructions when used to burn a CDR, and what it produces is useless for
my purposes. Fortunately, the CDR writer seems to do a decent job.

I'm not sure it SHOULD let you go slower than 4X with the media
available today. The trick is to find an optimum speed, not "slower
is better".

Doubtless a shop-bought computer will come with the cheapest possible
burner hardware. And, of course, the fact that you have one unit that
burns ONLY CDs (not DVDs) gives a clue as to its age - it's as hard
(and as pointless) to buy a CD-only burner these days as it is to
search out a CD-only player for your hi-fi stack :-)

But you can slot in something like a Pioneer 115-D (or whatever their
current model is) for so little money, it can hardly be considered a
problem.