Music Quality CD-RW

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CD1
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 3:40 pm

Music Quality CD-RW

Post by CD1 »

Can anyone suggest a brand(s) and item number(s) of CD-RW disks that will...

-1- Burn in my computer
-2- Play in my 9 year old Car CD player

I have just spent an hour or more with search engines, online retailers, and phone calls with two different manufacturers.

Current result: major confusion

Hope this is on topic for the forum; mods, please delete with my blessing if not.
DougDbug
Posts: 2172
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Music Quality CD-RW

Post by DougDbug »

What's happening?
When you burn a CD-RW, does it seem to work? Can you play the CD on your computer? Can you burn data onto a RW disc?
Does the player in your car recoginze the disc at all? Does it play at all?

I think any burner can burn CD-RW. And, it shouldn't be a question of brand. (I've had some bad blank discs, and some manufacturers seem to be more reliable than others, but you shouldn't have to match a particular brand to your burner or player.)

I seem to recall that most audio players won't play CD-RW. You'd have to check the user manual for your unit. You might be better-off with CD-R.

Somehow long ago, I got the idea that you couldn't burn an audio CD (CD-DA) onto a RW disc, but I can't confirm that now, and I don't know if it's true. (I'll try some experiments later.)
JackH
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:27 pm

Re: Music Quality CD-RW

Post by JackH »

Item #1 is no problem... any CD-RW discs will do, though I've had poor results with "Ultra Speed" discs, for both audio and data. The "High Speed" discs work fine.

Your problem is item #2... Only audio players specifically designed to do so will play RW discs. If yours isn't, they simply won't work. 9 years is just about as far back as you could expect such a thing, at least with home players. The first I had was a Technics player I got in 2001. The only car CD player I have experience with is a 2002 GM factory unit, and it does not play RWs.

Fortunately almost all CD player of any vintage will play CD-R discs, so you can burn your own discs and play then wherever you want.

Incidentally, you do not need to use the "Music" discs, as long as you're burning the discs on your computer. They are needed only if you're burning discs on a component audio CD recorder.
DougDbug
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Music Quality CD-RW

Post by DougDbug »

I just burned a CD-RW audio CD, and I can confirm what Jack said... The CD failed to play in my (old) living room player and failed to play in my (old) boombox. However, it did play in computer, my 2004 Honda Accord, and in two DVD players.
Incidentally, you do not need to use the "Music" discs, as long as you're burning the discs on your computer. They are needed only if you're burning discs on a component audio CD recorder.
It's true that you don't need to buy a "music CD". Actually, the difference isn't technical. A "music royality" is added to the cost of "music" CDs as required by the Audio Home Recording Act.

I assume you know this, but just in case you don't know... CD-R is a burn-once format. CD-RW is an eraseable format. CD-R's are cheap. I buy them in packs of 100 and I consider them "disposable". I believe CD-RW's are about 5 times the price, so you'd have to erase the RW disc 4 or 5 times to make it worthwhile. (I rarely buy RW's so I'm not that sure about the price.)
CD1
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2010 3:40 pm

Re: Music Quality CD-RW

Post by CD1 »

Yep, I think Jack has the proper science report for the moment. Jack is, by the way, telling me almost exactly the same thing as one of the tech support guys at one of the disk manufacturers was telling me; i.e., for those old players, today's CD/RW disks will not work.

Some website somewhere explains it as a function of laser beams and colored ink or some sort of refractivity index; scientific stuff for my future days as a physics professor (after my future as a rock star, sports jock, media hunk, etc.)

Thanks anyway for the feedback and info from everyone.

This is a 2001 car.

Brass tacks: CD/RW won't work here.
DewDude420
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Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:15 pm
Location: Washington DC Metro Area
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Re: Music Quality CD-RW

Post by DewDude420 »

First of all...while the whole thing about laser reflectivity seems sicency..its EXACTLY the reason your CD players cannot read CD-RW discs. CD-RW discs use an entirely different process than a CD-R. A CD-R has a layer of dye over a reflective layer and the laser physically burns a small area in the dye. The burned spots prevent light from being reflected and you've got essentially the same effect as a physically pressed disc.

CDRW discs use a similar but entirely different method. There's a layer of material that responds to temperature changes. At around 700 degrees C the positioning of the atoms change from a tightly packed structure to a random jumble. The tightly packed structure reflects more light than the when the atoms are jumbled about. This is basically how a CD-RW works...the laser changes the state of the material. This sounds all fine and dandy except this material reflects much less light than a CD-R does to begin with. SO a lot of the problems are normal laser assemblies cannot detect any light coming back at all.

Now...the matter changes with these new higher speed RW discs. You said the ultra-speed discs were failures...well...CD-RW's are the only time where you have a MINIMUM recording speed. Due to the sensitivity of the phase-change states, if you record an UltraSpeed disc in a standard disc....it will not work due to the fact the laser isn't changing states properly. You can generally go backwards in speed with drives..but you can't, for example, record an ultra-speed disc in a high-speed or standard drive since the disc is designed to be recorded at a faster speed and the slower drive will actually hinder the writing of data.

In all honestly, it's not worth a hassle to try to use RW discs for anything these days. The cost of R discs has gotten so cheap in both the CD and DVD areas that it's practically nothing to record a disc and record another one a few days later.

Now, any drive that can read an RW disc will be certified as a MultiRead drive...and many aftermarket CD players will even say they're CD r/rw compatible (at least the mp3 players will...and i haven't bought one in 10 years so i'm lucky and out of the loop)
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