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[comp.publish.cdrom] CD-Recordable FAQ, Part 3/4

From: fadden@netcom.com (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: comp.publish.cdrom.hardware,comp.publish.cdrom.software,comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: [comp.publish.cdrom] CD-Recordable FAQ, Part 3/4
Supersedes: <faddenFCxJ7K.GAA@netcom.com>
Followup-To: comp.publish.cdrom.hardware
Date: 19 Jul 1999 04:26:29 GMT
Organization: Netcom
Message-ID: <7mu9dl$leq@dfw-ixnews9.ix.netcom.com>
X-NETCOM-Date: Sun Jul 18 11:26:29 PM CDT 1999
Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about CD recorders, CD-R media, CD-RW,
	 and CD premastering.

Archive-name: cdrom/cd-recordable/part3
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1999/07/18
Version: 2.13

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: [4] Problems
(1999/06/05)

Problems that arise when burning a CD-R.

Some general suggestions:

 - RTFM (Read The Fine Manual).  Sometimes it's *supposed* to work that
   way.  If you didn't receive a manual with the product, it may be in
   text or Acrobat form on a CD-ROM.
 - Check your software version.  You may need a newer version of the
   software for correct operation with your hardware (yes, even if you
   received the software with the recorder).  Most, if not all,
   CD recorder software publishers have web sites with updates.
 - Update the software.  Even if the software is new enough to be
   compatible, there's some chance that your bug has already been fixed.
 - Check your ASPI layer.  Use ASPICHK, available from Adaptec at
   http://www.adaptec.com/support/faqs/aspilayer.html.  If you own an
   Adaptec product, ASPI updates are available from there as well.


Subject: [4-1] What does "buffer underrun" mean?
(1998/09/05)

It means you have an attractive new coaster for your table.

The CD writing process can't be interrupted in mid-session.  To prevent
this from happening, the makers of CD recorders put a write buffer in
the drive, usually 512K or 1MB.  Data read from the hard drive, tape,
or another CD is stored in the buffer, and pulled out as needed by the
recorder.

If the recorder requests data from the write buffer, but there's none there,
it's called a buffer underrun.  The disc is still spinning, but there's no
data to write, so the recording process aborts.

You can still use the disc with multisession CD-ROM drives by closing the
session and starting another, assuming there's enough space left on the CD,
and assuming your pre-mastering software didn't choose to finalize the disc
for you.

Advice for preventing buffer underruns is scattered throughout this FAQ.
A brief summary:

 - Use a fast, AV-friendly hard drive (i.e. one that doesn't do slow thermal
   recalibrations).  Most drives being sold today fall into this category.
   You don't need a screaming AV-optimized drive.
 - Record at a slow speed - it takes longer to empty the buffer when
   recording at 1x.
 - Don't do anything else with the computer while recording.  Don't record
   from a file server.
 - Defragment your HD, especially if you're doing on-the-fly recording.
 - Record from a disc image file rather than on-the-fly.
 - Depending on your setup, putting the recorder and your hard drive on
   separate SCSI controllers may be necessary.
 - Keep your CD-R cool.  Sometimes the drives fail when they overheat.

Also watch out for things like anti-virus programs that wake up, virtual
memory settings that cause swapping, screen savers that activate during the
CD creation process, unusual network activity, and background downloads of
data or faxes.  One way to check is to run the HD defragmenter in Win95.
If it restarts every few seconds, it's because something is hitting the
drive.

A utility included with Microsoft Office, called "FindFast", will
occasionally start up and scan your hard drives.  Disabling this by
deleting the shortcut in the Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder may
be necessary.

If you're using Windows, see the sub-sections on Auto-Insert Notification
and VCACHE settings, below.


http://www.adaptec.com/support/faqs/bufunder.html has a comprehensive
collection of buffer underrun info.

http://www.adaptec.com/support/configuration/cdrec.html is interesting
reading for users with CD-Rs attached to Adaptec SCSI cards.  They're
pretty far on the conservative side, but if you're having trouble this may
help you.

An article by Dana Parker entitled "CD-R on the Safe Side: Seven Rules of
Successful CD Recording" in the April 1997 issue of Emedia Professional
(http://www.emediapro.net/EMtocs/emtocapr.html) listed the Seven
Habits of Successful CD-R Users:

 1. Defragment Your Disk
 2. Use a Partition for Staging Input
 3. Create a Real Image
 4. Test before writing
 5. Stabilize Your System for CD-R
 6. Shut Down Other Applications
 7. After the Burn: Label and Test


Subject: [4-1-1] What's the deal with Windows Auto-Insert Notification (AIN)?
(1999/07/15)

Some of the Windows-based recording software recommend turning off
Auto-Insert Notification.  Having this on can interfere with closing
sessions or even just inserting discs into the drive.  You can disable it
under Win95/Win98 by opening the "System" icon in the Control Panel, and
selecting "Device Manager".  For each item under CD-ROM, select the device,
click on the "Settings" tab, and make sure the "Auto Insert Notification"
checkbox is unchecked.  [With my vanilla Win95 setup I got SCSI errors when
AIN was off for my CD-R but on for my CD-ROM, even if the CD-ROM drive
wasn't in use at the time.]

If you're using WinNT, you can turn it off with the "TweakUI" program
available in PowerToys (available from the Microsoft web site at
http://www.microsoft.com/), or by modifying a registry key with Regedit32
(0=disabled, 1=enabled):

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Cdrom \ Autorun

If your software automatically turns AIN off, and you can't figure out how
to turn it back on, the TweakUI program may be able to help.  Check the
"Paranoia" settings.  (Incidentally, if installing the Power Toys screws up
your icons, select "Rebuild Icons" from the "Repair" menu.)

Sidebar: the trouble with Auto Insert Notification is that it periodically
attempts to find a valid disc in the CD recorder.  A blank disc isn't very
interesting to Windows, so nothing happens.  When the table of contents is
written to the disc, it suddenly becomes interesting; and if Autorun or
Autoplay are enabled, enough activity is generated by Windows' attempts to
read the disc that the write fails.

Because it only affects CDs with actual data being written to them, a test
write won't end in failure.  It can be very frustrating to have 100%
success with test writes and 100% failures with actual writes!  With
disc-at-once recording, the process will abort very near the start of
recording, probably leaving an empty but useless disc.  With track-at-once
recording, it will fail at the end, and you may still be able to finalize
the disc.  Audio CDs will most likely work fine even if interrupted at the
end of the write process.

IMPORTANT: if you are using DirectCD for Windows, you must have AIN turned
*on*, or some things won't work quite right.  The most obvious failure mode
is that long filenames aren't shown, but some reports indicate that data on
the disc can get trashed as well.  This can make life interesting if you're
also using a conventional writing application, unless the application is
good about turning AIN off before writing.  The other Windows applications
currently sold by Adaptec (notably Easy CD Creator) will automatically
disable Auto-Insert Notification when appropriate and re-enable it
afterward, so you don't have to worry about AIN at all.


Subject: [4-1-2] What's all this about Win95 VCACHE settings?
(1998/08/16)

One problem with Win95 is that by default the size of the file cache is
unrestricted.  This means that all available memory will eventually get
filled up with file data, which will cause the virtual memory system to
start swapping out pages from executing applications.  When something needs
to be executed from a page that has been swapped out, it takes time to pull
it back in off the disk.  While this is happening, the CD recorder's buffer
could drain completely.

The procedure is simple:

 (1) Open the file SYSTEM.INI with a text editor.  This file is usually
     C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI.
 (2) Find the section labeled "[vcache]".
 (3) Add the following lines *after* the "[vcache]" line:
        MinFileCache = 512
        MaxFileCache = 4096
 (4) Save the changes to the file, and reboot.

The [vcache] change has reportedly cured severe buffer underrun problems
with some versions of CDRWIN and removed popping noises during digital
audio extraction with Easy CD Creator.  It's a good thing to do to any PC
running Win95.  It's not necessary for WinNT.  It's not clear whether this
will help with Win98, but it doesn't seem to hurt.

A common rule of thumb is to set maxfilecache to 25% of your RAM, up to a
maximum of 16MB.  Because of (actual or perceived) bugs in Win95, some
people recommend setting minfilecache to the same value.


Subject: [4-2] I can't get long Win95 filenames to work right
(1998/04/06)

Typical symptoms can be described like this:

 - Works fine in Win95 Explorer
 - Under DOS the directories are visible, but instead of "dirname<tilde>1"
   you get "dirname<tilde>57".  Attempting to read them results in errors.
 - Typing 'cd dirname~102' may fail while 'cd "Long File Names without the ~"'
   will work.

The problem occurs when certain CD-R writing programs are used to create
the discs.  The short and long forms of the filenames are sorted
differently, so some of the files can't be found.  Using newer software
(e.g. Easy CD Creator 3 instead of Easy-CD Pro) should produce better
results.


Subject: [4-3] I can't read the multisession CD I just made
(1998/04/06)

The SCSI driver needs to believe that the CD-ROM drive can handle
multisession discs.  Most likely you will need to update your SCSI drivers
before this will work.

(This problem was reported with an HP4020i and a Buslogic BT946C controller;
if you have an HP drive you should get the c4324hlp.vxd driver from the HP
web site.  See section 6 for the address.)

One possible cause of this problem is writing a multisession disc in MODE-1
format.  Some older CD-ROM drives incorrectly assume that a MODE-1 disc
can't be multisession, so they don't look for additional sessions unless
it's written in MODE-2 (CD-ROM/XA) format.

Also, if the final session on the CD isn't closed, standard CD players may
become confused (the NEC 6Xi certainly does under Win95).  This doesn't
mean that the *disc* must be closed, just that the *session* must be
closed.  (Actually, the NEC 6Xi doesn't like open discs either... sigh.)

A note on one of the Ricoh pages indicates that the Ricoh 1420C is unable
to read sessions smaller than 3 minutes (about 26MB) until firmware 1.6x.


Subject: [4-4] Write process keeps failing N minutes in
(1998/04/06)

There's a couple of possibilities.  One is that your data source can't keep
up with the CD-R; try using disc-at-once writing from a disc image with the
speed set to 1x.  If it seems to be getting worse over time, you may just
need to defragment your hard drive.

If that fails, a number of people have discovered that the problem is a
faulty CD-R unit (similar behavior has been reported on Sony and HP units,
which have different mechanisms).  You should try 1x writing from a fast
source and with different sets of data before contacting the manufacturer,
since they will likely tell you to do exactly that anyway.

Be sure that there aren't environmental factors creating difficulties.
CD-R units are usually built to handle small shocks, but having a set of
speakers playing loud music on the same table as a CD-R may cause it to
skip, resulting in a failed write.  Sonic booms, heavy construction
equipment, and nuclear detonations may have similar effects.

It's also possible that you simply have a bad batch of media.  Try a
different type and brand of disc.  Some distributors (e.g. dataDisc) will
exchange media that's provably defective.

Be careful with Advanced Power Management functions on some PCs.  If the
keyboard and IDE devices are completely idle, the system may decide that
nothing is going on and switch to a low-power mode.  Ditto for screen
savers that kick in after the system has been idle for a certain period.


Subject: [4-5] Why did my CD-R eject between the "test" and "write" passes?
(1998/04/06)

Most CD recorders need to clear their memory between the "test" pass and
the "write" pass.  For some recorders, the only command that does this is
"eject".  If the recorder has a tray it just goes out and back in, but if
it uses a caddy manual intervention is needed.

Some CD-R packages allow you to start the real write pass a few seconds
after the test pass has succeeded.  They may not disable this even though
they know that the disc will have to be ejected.  Make sure the option is
set to "wait until told to continue."


Subject: [4-6] My CD-ROM drive doesn't like *any* CD-R discs
(1998/04/06)

A very simple test is to take a CD that DOES work, copy it, and try both
(this ensures that your problems aren't being caused by, for example, a
drive that doesn't support multisession CDs).

Sometimes the firmware can be at issue.  In one specific case, a Goldstar
GCD580B CD-ROM drive was able to read CD-Rs under Win95 but not MS-DOS
6.22.  Upgrading the firmware from v1.01 to v1.24 solved the problem.

If it fails with different kinds of media, the CD-ROM drive either doesn't
like discs written with your recorder, or doesn't like CD-R media at all.
In one case, returning the CD-ROM for an identical unit resolved the
problems.

While there are stringent specifications for discs, there are no such
specifications for CD players and CD-ROM drives.  They just have to play
the discs.  If the disc and the drive are both marginal, you lose.


Subject: [4-7] How do I avoid having a ";1" on my ISO-9660 discs?
(1998/04/06)

The ISO-9660 standard says the version number (a semicolon followed by a
number at the end of every filename) has to be there.  Most operating
systems simply ignore it, but until recently the Mac didn't, causing some
problems.

(For the Mac, look at "ISO 9660 File Access" in the System:Extensions
folder with Command-I.  If the version shown is 5.0 or greater, your system
should handle the version numbers just fine.  If not, you should update
your system software.)

If you can't find a way to work around it, "mkisofs" has an option to omit
the version number when constructing an ISO-9660 image.


Subject: [4-8] I keep getting SCSI timeout errors
(1998/04/06)

http://www.adaptec.com/support/configuration/cdrec.html has some advice on
SCSI configuration.  Basically, check your cabling and termination (see
section (4-17) for more advice there), turn off features you don't need,
and make sure Auto Insert Notification is off (see section (4-1-1)).


Subject: [4-9] I'm having trouble writing a complete disc
(1999/04/29)

(This is for failures other than buffer underruns.  For those, see
section (4-1) and perhaps section (4-4).)

If it's failing right as the disc is being finalized, and you're recording
in track-at-once mode, try recording in disc-at-once mode instead.  It has
been suggested that some recorder+media combinations have trouble reading
the PMA (Program Memory Area, where a copy of the TOC is kept until the
disc is finalized) at the end of a write.  See section (2-19) for the
low-down on disc finalization.

When in doubt, check your ASPI layer.  Find out why at
http://resource.simplenet.com/primer/aspi.htm.

One user with an ATAPI recorder found that disabling DMA (from the Win98
peripheral properties) made things better.


This was happening frequently with the HP4020i running off an AdvanSys SCSI
card under Win311 (i.e. WfWG).  The solution here was to remove IFSHLP.SYS
from the CONFIG.SYS.  (IFSHLP.SYS is somehow involved with 32-bit file
access and network support, so you may have to disable both of these before
disabling IFSHLP.  You may have better luck under Win95.)

Another user with the same setup found that doing power-up diagnostics and
device reset right before burning the CD helped.


Subject: [4-10] What's the CDD2000 Write Append Error / spring problem?
(1998/07/26)

This seems to happen on Philips CDD2000-based units, such as the HP4020i,
usually a short while after the warranty runs out.  The most common cause
is a spring that weakens with age, but it might also be due to lubrication
breakdown.  After a while, the recorder starts failing when trying to write
beyond a certain point on the disc.

The ways of dealing with this range from minor system changes to the
placement of chicken entrails on selected components.  Reducing the DMA
rate on the AdvanSys SCSI card (for the HP4020i) may help, buying better
SCSI cables and checking for proper termination may make a difference, or
even powering off and on again right before the burn.  For some users,
however, the problem is mechanical rather than spiritual.

One user was told by Philips tech support that if error 50h (write append)
occurs, it means the drive has to be returned to the repair center.  Other
users have been told that the error can occur when attempting to write an
empty directory or zero-length file.  Under Easy-CD Pro '95, this is
reported as error 171-00-50-00 (see the Adaptec web site for a complete
list of error codes).

If the fault is caused by the worn spring, it may be possible to fix the
problem by replacing the spring.  This will definitely void your warranty,
and you shouldn't even think about trying this unless the only alternative
is to throw the drive away.  Jonathan Oei posted some details about the
process (search for comp.publish.cdrom.hardware, subject "CDD2000 & Spring
Fix", on http://www.dejanews.com/), and a detailed description of the
procedure can be found on http://www.fadden.com/doc/fix-hp4020i.txt.

This procedure requires some special tools (mini torx drivers and really
fine jeweller's pliers), and involves disassembling much of the drive.  If
you open up the drive and remove the circuit boards, you will see that the
laser writing assembly is moved by a DC stepper motor.  The motor has a
plastic drive gear that is meshed with a plastic "rack" on the laser.  The
spring in question is a piece of wire that pushes the rack against the
drive gear, so when it weakens the gear slips and the write fails.
Replacing the 0.012" wire with a 0.02" diameter wire solves the problem.

The high temperature in the drive may contribute to the breakdown of the
lubricants that allow the laser head to travel.  You may be able to prevent
the situation by installing a fan.  If you do find yourself with the case
open, the discussion on lubricating the JVC XR-W2010 at
http://www.noord.bart.nl/~januzz/howtoget.htm may apply to the CDD2000 as
well.

This question is also covered in the HP4020i FAQ, available at
http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/HP-FAQ.html.


Subject: [4-11] Getting errors reading the first (data) track on mixed-mode CD
(1998/08/16)

There's a 150-sector postgap at the end of the data track.  Most programs
deal with this automatically, some older ones don't.  If you're getting
errors, try subtracting 150 from the total number of sectors to read for
that track.


Subject: [4-12] My recorder ejects blank discs immediately
(1998/04/06)

There are a few of possibilities, some software and some hardware.

It may be that the system is looking at the disc, not finding a TOC (table
of contents), and ejecting it as useless.  One way to tell the difference
between the operating system rejecting the CD and the drive rejecting the
CD is to unplug the SCSI or IDE cable from the back of the CD recorder
before inserting the disc.

If the problem is the operating system, you probably need to disable
certain features.  Under Win95, disable auto insertion for all CD-ROM
devices (see section (4-1)).  One user found that reinstalling Win95
helped.  On the Mac, you may just need more recent drivers.  On a Solaris
system, remove the recorder (probably the "cdrom" entry) from
/etc/vold.conf.

If that doesn't work, make sure the CD-R drive is perfectly level.
Apparently some units are sensitive to being tilted at an angle.  Some
users have had trouble when a CD-R has been on for a while and has
overheated, so if you only have trouble when the machine has been powered
on for a while, try putting a small fan above the unit to blow air over it.

With some drives, improper SCSI termination can cause this behavior.

For the Yamaha CDR-200/CDR-400, this may be a sign that the drive has
broken down and needs to be replaced.  See section (5-1-1).

If nothing helps, there's a strong possibility that the drive is mis-
aligned and needs to be serviced.  This has been known to happen to drives
during shipping.

One user reported problems when using the wrong type of caddy.  It has to
be a Sony-type caddy, which is the kind most commonly found in stores.


Subject: [4-13] I'm getting complaints about power calibration
(1999/02/04)

The power range of the laser in a CD-R is between 4 and 8 milliwatts.  CD-R
discs have a section outside the standard recording area called the Program
Calibration Area (PCA), which is used to adjust the laser for the brand of
media you're using.

The error indicates that the CD-R drive is having trouble calibrating the
power setting.  Try different brands of media, and if that doesn't work you
should have the drive checked.

Some versions of the firmware for the Philips CDD2000 (and HP 4020i) will
report a power calibration error if you try to do a 1x write after a 4x
read.

It's also good to verify, if your CD recorder is an internal unit, that
your power supply has enough capacity to run everything.


Subject: [4-14] My Adaptec 2940 pauses after finding my recorder
(1998/04/06)

This was observed with a Yamaha CDR-100.  The solution is to go into the
Adaptec BIOS (hit Ctrl-A during boot), and disable the "support removable
disks under BIOS as fixed disks" option and the "boot from CD-ROM" option.


Subject: [4-15] I can't see all the files on the CD-R
(1998/04/06)

There's a couple of possibilities: either they aren't there, or they're
there but you can't see them.  Looking at the disc from different machines
(e.g. Mac and PC) should give you some idea.

Out-of-date versions of MSCDEX have been known to "forget" certain files
when browsing a disc.  If you're using DOS or are using the "real mode"
drivers from within Win95, make sure you're using the most recent version
of MSCDEX.

Old versions of certain CD creation programs would occasionally omit things
when asked to burn a large number of files.  These problems haven't been
reported for some time, however.

If you were burning a multi-session CD, read the next section.


Subject: [4-16] My multi-session disc only has data from the last session
(1998/06/14)

A common mistake when burning a multisession CD is to forget to link the
files from the previous session into the current one.  This results in a CD
where you can see the new files but none of the old, unless you have a
program that lets you choose which session you look at.

If you're using Easy-CD Pro for Win31, CD Creator, or Adaptec Easy CD
Creator 3, you can load the contents of all the previous sessions, and burn
a new session that has all the files you want.  This feature isn't
available in Easy-CD Pro 95, which only allows you to link to one previous
session.

The files themselves aren't lost forever though: most packages will allow
you to extract a track as an ISO-9660 image, and you can use WinImage to
pull individual files out of it.  If all else fails, CD-R Diagnostic
(section (6-2-6)) claims to be able to recover data from "lost" sessions.

One caution: without something like Adaptec's Session Selector, you may not
see the last session on the disc anyway.  Some CD-ROM drives stop looking
for sessions after a certain point.


Subject: [4-17] I'm getting SCSI errors
(1998/07/26)

Good SCSI cables and correct termination are absolutely essential.  SCSI
bus errors can cause buffer underruns or corrupted data (especially since
some vendors ship drives with parity checking disabled).

Bertel Schmitt wrote an excellent article on the ins and outs of proper
cabling and termination.  The article can be found in text form at
http://www.fadden.com/doc/scsi-trm.txt.  Granite Digital, a company
that makes high-quality cables and terminators, can be found at
http://www.scsipro.com/.

If you're using an HP 4020i with the AdvanSys SCSI card, reducing the DMA
transfer rate may help.


Subject: [4-18] Why doesn't the copy of an audio CD sound the same?
(1998/04/06)

There are actually two questions here, so I've split them into separate
sections.  The most common problem is that the audio extracted to the hard
drive doesn't quite match the original.


Subject: [4-18-1] Why doesn't the audio data on the copy match the original?
(1998/04/06)

Most problems are due to poor digital audio extraction from the source
media.  Some CD-ROM drives will return slightly different data every time
an audio track is read.  Others, like the Plextor line (e.g. 4Plex, 8Plex,
and 12Plex, but not 6Plex) will return the same data every time so long as
the source media is clean.

The most fundamental problem is that, if the CD is dirty, the error
correction may not be able to correct all of the errors.  Some drives will
interpolate the missing samples, some won't.

Another problem most CD-ROM drives face is "jitter".  See section (2-15)
for details.

See also section (3-3) on avoiding clicks in extracted audio, and section
(5-5) on which CD-ROM drives are recommended.


Subject: [4-18-2] The audio data matches exactly, why do they sound different?
(1998/06/14)

[ I have yet to see an authoritative answer to this. ]

Suppose you extract the audio track from the copy, and it's an exact binary
match of the track you wrote from your hard drive, but the CDs don't sound
quite the same.  What then?

Most people don't notice any difference between originals and duplicates.
Some people notice subtle differences, some people notice huge
differences.  Some say CD-R is better, some say worse.  While it's true
that "bits are bits", there *are* reasons why CD-Rs may sound different
even when the data matches exactly.

The manual for the CDD-2000 reportedly states that the drive uses 4x
oversampling when playing back pressed CDs, but switches to 1x for CD-R.
This affects the quality of the D/A conversion, and can make an audible
difference.

It has been suggested that the D/A conversion process in the CD player is
more susceptible to "jitter" when reading CD-Rs, because the clocking of
the bits isn't as precise.  A quality CD player will compensate for this
automatically.  (Note: this kind of jitter is different from the DAE kind
of jitter described in section (2-15).)  About halfway down on the page at
http://www.digido.com/jitteressay.html are some comments about the quality
of playback being dependent on how a CD-R is recorded.

Others have asserted that *any* two CDs, pressed or otherwise, will sound
slightly different.

Some people believe that audio CDs should be recorded at 1x, while others
have asserted that, for various technical reasons, 2x is better.  Certain
kinds of media may work best at specific speeds.

An extremely technical introduction to CD reading is available at
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~erick205/Papers/paper.html.  This may shed some
light on why reading audio CDs is difficult.

If you are finding noticeable differences, try different media, a different
player, and a different recorder.  There is some evidence that different
brands of media and recorders may work better for audio, but in the end
it's a highly subjective matter.  Some people say CD-Rs sound worse, some
people say they sound better.


Subject: [4-19] Digital audio extraction of a track is slightly off
(1998/04/06)

Some recorders don't correctly extract digital audio if the pregap of the
first track isn't exactly two seconds.  A bug in the firmware causes the
drive to start extracting slightly past the start of the track, and stop
extracting slightly past the end.  This can result in an audible glitch if
the music starts at the exact start of the track, and can cause the drive
to fail with an error when extracting the last track on the CD.

CDs that start at 00:02:32 (0 minutes, 2 seconds, and 32 blocks) are
surprisingly common.  The problem can be worked around manually, by looking
at the output of the Jeff Arnold's (freeware) TOC program (available from
http://www.goldenhawk.com/) and supplying "/start=" and "/end=" parameters
that adjust backward by the number of blocks in excess of two seconds.

For example, if the first track started at 00:02:32, you would subtract
32 from the starting and ending Logical Block Addresses.

A better solution is to use a CD-ROM drive that doesn't have this problem
(and most likely can extract audio more quickly than the CD-R can).

The Yamaha CDR-100/102 and the Philips CDD2600 are known to have this
problem, though it may get fixed by a firmware update.  The Ricoh 6200S
reportedly does not return the disc's table of contents correctly for these
sorts of discs.


Subject: [4-20] I can't play extracted audio files by double-clicking in Win95
(1998/04/06)

The default audio player in Win95 tries to load the entire file into
memory.  When an extracted track is 40 or 50MB, and you don't have that
much RAM, Win95's virtual memory system starts writing pieces out to disk.
The disk thrashes, and you get nowhere.

There are several ways around this.  If you right-click on the file
and select "properties", you will see a "preview" tab.  This will play
it directly from disk.  Another way is to use a different program.
One possibility is the Media Player, which is optionally installed
with Win95.  You can make it the default WAV file player by selecting
View/Options from Win95 explorer, clicking on the "File Types" tab, and
choosing "Wave Sound".  Double-click on Play and change the program name
from "sndrec32.exe" to "mplayer.exe", leaving the "/play" and "/close"
flags intact.

You can also use a program like CoolEdit, which will let you preview WAV
files from the Open File dialog.


Subject: [4-21] I can't read an ISO-finalized packet-written disc
(1998/04/06)

This problem is often experienced by HP7100/7110 users.  HP chose to ship
packet-writing software with their drives rather than conventional
premastering software, leaving users with discs that couldn't be read on a
fair number of systems.  (The HP7200 is the same drive, shipped with
updated firmware and a more complete set of software.)

The following is an excerpt from an Adaptec readme.txt file.  It talks
about DirectCD, but the problem is inherent in all packet writing
solutions:

  "When the disc is in the native format used by DirectCD, you will 
  only be able to read the disc on a CD-R device running DirectCD. 
  This is a direct result of the technology used when writing to a 
  CD-R disc. In order to make the disc readable on a standard CD-ROM 
  DirectCD must write certain data to the disc. This provides 
  compatibility with many of the current drives on the market today.  
  Unfortunately, there are still a number of CD-ROM drives that 
  cannot read the packet written media that DirectCD produces. If 
  you experience problems in this area, you should go to System in 
  Control Panel, select Performance, File System, CD-ROM and set the 
  Access Pattern to "No Read-Ahead". If you still experience 
  problems after making this adjustment, it is likely that the CD-
  ROM drive itself is having problems reading packet written media. 

  It should also be noted that there is an industry initiative 
  called MultiRead that addresses these issues and has the support 
  of all the major vendors of CD-ROM and CD-R/RW devices. This 
  initiative will eliminate the above problems and should be 
  available on all new drives."

If you want to share data between systems, and the remote system isn't
guaranteed to have a MultiRead CD-ROM drive, you should write the disc
with conventional software.


Subject: [4-22] I'm finding corrupted files on the CD-ROMs I write
(1998/05/16)

There have been a fair number of people who have burned a CD-ROM only to
discover that, while they can read text files, run applications, and look
at graphics, they can't extract from .ZIP archives or run compressed
applications (e.g. some "Setup.EXE"s under Win95).

The problem they're seeing isn't just corruption of .ZIP files though.
Most kinds of files have a lot of redundancy in them.  If a single bit is
lost out of a long text file, the chances of it being noticed are very
slight.  For an application, the chances of it causing a failure depend on
where in the file the error falls.  For a compressed file, though, every
bit is significant, and in a .ZIP archive the CRC has a very high
probability of detecting errors.  (CRC is cyclic redudancy check.  Most
file archivers compute a 32-bit CRC on the uncompressed input and store it
in the archive.  When you extract the files, the CRC is checked to ensure
that nothing has been damaged.)

Eliminating these errors could be as simple as replacing a bad SCSI cable.
One way to narrow the possibilities down is to try the disc in different
readers on different machines.  If the same error shows up in the same
place, the error was introduced during writing rather than while reading
the data back.  Another thing to try is to burn the same disc twice.  If
the data written to the CD-Rs doesn't match the original, but they do match
each other, then the errors are happening in the same place every time,
rather than at random, so the trouble might be with a driver or firmware
instead of a flaky cable or bad RAM.

If a file appears to be getting corrupted on the CD-R, try copying it back
to the hard drive and then comparing it to the original.  If possible, see
if the file is missing large chunks or just has sporadic damage
throughout.

If you can identify the problem as being with the reader or the writer you
may be able to focus on just one part of your system.  If the trouble
appears to be with your writer, and you can't get it to work, try to move
it to somebody else's system and see if it works from there.  It's
possible, though unlikely, that the CD recorder is flaky.

Whatever the case, the place to start is to check all cables, connections,
SCSI termination, L2 cache, and RAM.  One user with an otherwise properly
functioning system was able to fix the CD-R corruption problems by
correcting the RAM timings in the BIOS setup.  A couple of others found
that their problems went away when they disabled the L2 cache on the
motherboard.  Sometimes adding a new device will make cables (especially
longer ones) turn flaky.  Sometimes the flakiness only affects one device.
Swapping the cables is inexpensive, easy, and very likely to root out the
cause of your problems.  Section (4-17) has some tips on SCSI stuff.

One last thing: make sure the original files are valid before you go on a
wild goose chase!


Subject: [4-23] Having trouble playing an audio CD in a home or car player
(1998/11/30)

There are a few possibilities.  First and foremost is media compatibility.
Not all players get along with all brands of CD-R media.  You need to find
a combination of recorder, media, and player that get along.  Read section
(7-2) to learn more.

Another common problem is failing to close the disc at the end of writing.
You can't play an audio CD on a common CD player until the session has been
closed.  You may be able to play it back with the CD recorder though.
Also, don't forget that you have to write all of the audio data into the
first session of a multisession CD.  CD players don't know how to find the
later sessions, so tracks written there won't get played.

Sometimes the CD player will have no problem playing the tracks, but will
have a great deal of difficulty seeking between tracks or moving
fast-forward.  Using a different brand of media or a different CD player
may produce better results.

Some media works better at 1x, 2x, or 4x than it does at other speeds.  You
may find that slowing down or speeding up the recorder helps.

Finally, remember that you have to write the disc in CD-DA format!  If you
just write a bunch of .WAV files to a disc in CD-ROM format, it's not going
to work in your home stereo.


Subject: [4-24] Having trouble using a CD-ROM on somebody else's machine
(1999/07/18)

As with audio CDs, discussed in the previous section, there are several
possibilities.  The media compatibility issues mentioned above apply to
CD-ROM as well.

If you're using CD-RW media rather than CD-R media, you have to be sure
that the CD-ROM drive in question is MultiRead compliant.  Some older
drives are able to read CD-RW media, but most are not.

If the disc was written using a packet writing application like DirectCD,
some CD-ROMs will stumble on packet boundaries.  Refer to section (4-21)
for information and a possible workaround.

If a packet-written disc was closed in ISO-9660 Level 3 format, it won't be
usable on systems that don't support ISO-9660 level 3 (e.g. DOS).  If the
disc was *not* closed as ISO-9660, and is still in UDF, you will need a UDF
driver; see sections (6-3) and (6-4) for an overview and pointers to free
drivers.


Subject: [4-25] I can't copy a VideoCD
(1998/08/29)

If you put a VideoCD (White Book) into your CD-ROM drive, you will see a
bunch of files and directories like you would on any other CD-ROM.  In
fact, with the appropriate software installed, on some platforms you can
double-click on a file to play the video.

In practice, however, the video files are stored on separate tracks, using
CD-ROM/XA MODE-2 FORM-2.  This allows more data to be stored on a VideoCD,
at the price of less error correction.  If the video is short enough, you
may be able to copy the disc as a collection of files, but some players may
be unable to play back selections if the original disc had more than one
track.

You need to use a program like Adaptec's CD Copier or GoldenHawk's CDRWIN
to copy the disc track-by-track, preserving the mode of the original.

If your drive only supports track-at-once recording, you may have trouble
copying VideoCDs because the starting address gets shifted when the drive
writes a gap between tracks.  NTI's CD-Copy (section 6-1-12) gives you the
option of dropping the last part of the previous track to preserve the
start position of the next track.

Note that MODE-2 FORM-2 holds 2324 bytes of data per sector, so instead of
a total capacity of around 650MB, you can put closer to 740MB on a disc.
If you don't record the VideoCD data files in the correct format, you will
find yourself running out of room.  (The extra space is gained by throwing
out error correction codes that aren't necessary for video data.  Writing
ordinary data in this format is not recommended.)


Subject: [4-26] The test write succeeds, but the actual write fails
(1998/10/23)

Most often this is a problem with auto-insert notification being enabled
when it shouldn't be.  See the discussion in section (4-1).

One person supposedly fixed a similar problem by replacing the power supply
in their computer.  Apparently the 200W supply wasn't enough to handle
everything that was connected to it, and the extra power drain from the
write laser was causing failures.

If you're using track-at-once recording, and the actual write is failing
when the disc is 100% complete and the TOC is being written, you may be
able to solve your problems by using a different brand of media.  See
the notes in section (4-9).


Subject: [4-27] I can no longer erase a particular CD-RW disc
(1999/07/18)

It's possible that the disc has developed a region that can't be erased.
More likely is that the software or firmware is acting up.  If you're using
Easy CD Creator, insert a good CD-RW disc, and start the Erase process.
Just before you hit the final "OK" button to start the erase, swap the
troubled blank disc in place of the good one.

If this succeeds, you probably ought to run it through the erase procedure
one additional time before using it.

Super Blank, from http://www.ping.be/kris-schoofs/, reportedly accomplishes
the same thing without requiring a disc swap.

If this doesn't work, there is a report that a UV EPROM eraser will do the
trick.  Experiments have shown that leaving the disc out in direct sunlight
for a couple of hours may also help.


Subject: [4-28] Trouble formatting CD-RW discs with DirectCD for Windows 2.0a
(1999/07/15)

This was sent to me by Jac Goudsmit:

"When Adaptec DirectCD refuses to format a CD-RW for packet-writing, it's
possible that the disc is not completely blank. This may happen because you
chose the "quick" option when you last erased it. The quick-erase option
only erases the lead-in area to make the hardware and software think the
disc is empty. This is fine if you're going to use the disc for "normal"
writing as a CD-ROM, audio disc or whatever.

The packet-writing formatter in DirectCD 2.0a however (apparently) requires
the disc to be totally empty, so you really have to do a full erase if the
disc contained data previously.

BUT: there's another problem: after you do a full erase and shut down the
program you erase with (e.g. EasyCD Pro or Easy CD Creator) it's possible
that the DirectCD program won't recognize the disc as valid media, and you
still won't be able to format it, until you restart the computer.

Unfortunately this means that if you want to start using a previously
recorded CD-RW for packet writing, you'll have to wait a total time of at
least an hour and a half for the erase and format to complete..."


It has also been reported that some virus scanners, notably TBAV, can
interfere with the format process and should be disabled.


Subject: [4-29] I can't write CD-Rs after installing Windows 98
(1998/07/07)

There are people successfully writing discs with Windows 98, so it *can* be
done.

If you're using Easy CD Creator 3, try uninstalling it, rebooting, and then
reinstalling it.  This seems to fix the problems for the people reporting
them.  Doing the same for other software may have similar beneficial
effects.  Apparently ECDC3 installs its own versions of some system
drivers, which get overwritten when Win98 is installed.  Uninstalling and
reinstalling the drivers puts the ECDC3-friendly versions back.

Make sure your ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programmer's Interface) layer is up to
date, even if you have an IDE recorder.  You can find the "ASPICHK" utility
and some notes about how to examine your system on
http://www.adaptec.com/support/faqs/aspilayer.html.  You should be at v4.57
or later.


Subject: [4-30] I can't use the copy of a CD-ROM after installing Windows 98
(1998/09/14)

This problem has been recognized by Microsoft.  The resolution is posted on
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q186/2/97.asp.

The basic problem is that, after upgrading to Windows 98, copies of some
CD-ROMs (usually copy-protected games) will refuse to run, insisting that
you insert the original disc.  Microsoft has recommended two methods for
resolving this issue.  The first is to simply use the original disc.

The second recommendation is to make a new copy of the disc under Win98.
Why this works is unclear, and the Microsoft support pages aren't much
help.  They only say that the behavior is not caused by a bug, but rather
"design changes in Windows 98".  (It appears that using Win98 to write a
new session onto an existing disc will also cure the problem, but if you
aren't in the habit of leaving the session open on copies of game discs,
this won't help you much.)

One possibility is that Win98 returns a value for the volume label that is
closer to what is actually stored (perhaps there was some sort of character
set conversion or truncation going on in Win95).  Copy protected games
often check the volume label as a way of obstructing inexperienced software
pirates.


Subject: [4-31] The disc I was writing with DirectCD is now unreadable
(1999/02/06)

Start with http://resource.simplenet.com/primer/udf.htm to get an
understanding of what DirectCD is doing.

A popular way to screw up DirectCD's UDF handling is to remove the disc
without letting the software finish up.  You can accomplish this by
rebooting while it's working, attempting to disable it by doing something
other than uninstalling it (see (6-3-1)), or by turning off auto-insert
notification.

If you have DirectCD 2.x, you may be able to recover the data with the
included Scan Disc utility.  CD-R Diagnostic (6-2-6) may also be able
to recover data.  CD Recovery Services, at http://www.cdrecovery.com/,
may be able to help.

Rule of thumb: don't delete data off your hard drive until the disc is
finalized and verified readable.  Too many bad things can happen when
writing to a disc.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: [5] Hardware
(1999/07/18)

The numbers after the model name (e.g. "CDR-102 (4x2/512K)") refer to the
read and write speeds of the unit and the size of the write buffer.  "4x2"
would be a double-speed writer that's also a quad-speed reader.  If it just
says "?x2", the write speed is double-speed and the read speed isn't known
(but presumably is at least 2x).  Buffer sizes written with a '+', e.g.
"2MB+", indicate that the buffer can be expanded further.

If the recorder can write to CD-RW media, the specification will include a
third value, e.g. "6x4x2/1MB" would be a drive that reads at 6x, writes to
CD-R media at 4x, and writes to CD-RW media at 2x.

Some manufacturers present the speed ratings in a different order, e.g.
write/rewrite/read.  There is no standard approach.

(NOTE: the notation used in the FAQ prior to July 1999 was different.)

Many units are repackaged versions of other manufacturer's devices,
sometimes with slight changes in the firmware.  Value-added retailers have
been known to switch to a different manufacturer's drive without notice, so
don't assume that everything here is accurate.

All CD-R drives are SCSI unless labeled as IDE, USB, or parallel-port.

Many of the models listed have been discontinued in favor of newer models,
and some of them have yet to be released, so you will probably not be able
to find all of the models listed here for sale.

An excellent summary of CD-R features can be found on
http://makecd.core.de/auto/Compatibility_toc.html.

If you're new to SCSI, take a look at the comp.periphs.scsi FAQ,
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/scsi-faq/.  It covers
both novice and advanced questions.

A wealth of information on Enhanced IDE and other storage technologies
is available from http://thef-nym.sci.kun.nl/~pieterh/storage.html and
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/pc-hardware-faq/enhanced-IDE/top.html.


Subject: [5-1] Which CD recorder should I buy?
(1999/07/18)

There are no absolutely perfect recorders, but some drives are better than
others.  The best are listed below, and the risky propositions are
identified with "CAVEAT EMPTOR" warnings in the individual sections.  In
cases where a unit is built by company A and repackaged by company B, the
warnings are listed with the original manufacturer (company A).

Based on the experience of users posting to the comp.publish.cdrom.hardware
Usenet newsgroup, the currently-selling models worth buying are:

 - Plextor PX-R820T
 - Sony CRX100E (often as HP 8100i)
 - Sony 948S
 - Yamaha CRW-4416
 - Ricoh MP7040A
 - Ricoh MP-6200/MP-6200I/MP-6201S (also as Philips OmniWriter/26 and /26A)
 - Teac CD-R56S
 - Panasonic CW-7501/CW-7502/CW-7582 (often as Matsushita or Compro 7502)
 - Sanyo CRD-R800S (often as Smart & Friendly CD Rocket 8020)
 - Wearnes CDRW-622 (also as Memorex CRW-1622 and Dysan CRW-1622)
 - Philips CDD3600 (also as HP 7100/7200)

Some older models that would be worth buying are:

 - Plextor PX-R412C
 - Yamaha CDR-100/CDR-102 (also as S&F 4000/S&F 1004)
 - Sony 920S/940S (also as S&F 1002/2004)
 - Teac CD-R55S
 - Teac CD-R50S (a/k/a Teac 4x4)
 - Yamaha CRW-4001/CRW-4260 (also as Smart & Friendly 426) and CRW-2260
 - Ricoh RS-1420C (also as Turtle Beach 2040R)
 - Philips CDD2600 (also as HP 6020i, but w/o packet writing)
 - Philips CDD522 (also as Kodak PCD225)

These have largely positive responses, but either haven't been around
long enough or just aren't mentioned often enough to make a specific
recommendation:

 - (no entries at present)

These are discussed in the next few sections.  Stand-alone audio recorders
are discussed in section (5-12).

See also the (somewhat Adaptec-specific but still useful) "CD RECORDABLE
SUPPORT" section from "ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/pub/BBS/dos/ezlist.txt".

The model numbers are important!  Sometimes the older or newer models from
the same manufacturer aren't as good.  The units listed were considered
independently from the software that they were bundled with, and it may be
necessary to buy additional software to get the full value from the drive.

If you have specific needs, you should verify with the manufacturer that
the drive will do what you want.  All computer-based recorders can create
audio CDs and CD-ROMs, but some have additional features and some are just
plain better at it.

Many of the devices are simply OEM versions of another company's recorder.
It's unwise to assume that the units are equivalent, however: in many cases
the firmware has been changed, and may not work as well as related models.

External drives are preferred to internal drives because of heat problems,
though this is less of a concern for newer models.  External models can
also be moved between machines, and even between platforms.  Most if not
all SCSI models will work on both Macs and PCs.

I'm not currently listing stand-alone recorders like the "CD Blaster" or
"CD Dupe-It", which are boxes with a CPU, CD-R, and hard drive that can
duplicate CDs without tying up a full machine.  Most of these low-end CD
production boxes are off-the-shelf hardware and software packaged into a
single unit, so listing them separately doesn't make much sense.  Besides,
they're not of much interest to the average user.


Subject: [5-1-1] Yamaha
(1999/07/18)

See http://www.yamahayst.com/
See http://www.yamahacdrwinfo.com/  (was http://www.datac.net/yamaha.htm)

Models are:
  CDR-100 (4x4/512K)
  CDR-102 (4x2/512K)
  CDR-200 (6x2/1MB)
  CDR-400 (6x4/2MB; 'c' is caddy, 't' is tray, 'x' is external)
  CDR-401 (6x4/2MB;IDE)
  CRW-4001 (6x4x2/2MB;IDE)
  CRW-4260 (6x4x2/2MB)
  CRW-2260 (6x2x2/1MB)
  CRW-2216E (16x2x2/2MB;IDE)
  CRW-4416 (16x4x4/2MB; S)CSI and E)IDE)
  CRW-6416S (16x6x4/2MB)

It has been reported that the CDR-102 is the same mechanism as the CDR-100,
but with the 4x writing feature disabled.  There is no known way to convert
it into a 4x writer.  Similar speculation has been made about the CDR-200
and CDR-400, and in fact some people have claimed success.  Learn all about
R621 at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/7023/index.html (or
http://home.t-online.de/home/christoph.dittenberger if you prefer German).
It may also be possible to convert a 2260 into a 4260 with the same method.

Yamaha CDR-100 and CDR-102 units have problems doing digital audio
extraction on some discs.  See section (4-19).

Yamaha CDR-100s with firmware version 1.08 may experience problems when
recording audio (e.g. a click at the end of tracks recorded with the "copy
prohibit" flag set to "off").  Upgrading to version 1.10 is recommended.
Since the CDR-100 and CDR-102 units don't have flash ROM (and apparently
the upgrade involves more than just changing a ROM chip), the drive needs
to be sent back to the dealer for the upgrade.

The CDR-100 reportedly works best when writing in 4x mode, and may produce
poor results when used to write at 2x or 1x.

The current firmware versions for the older Yamaha drives is v1.12 for the
CDR-100 and v1.01 for the CDR-102.  The change was to "allow mastering in
Blue Book specs".  If you aren't having problems, don't get the upgrade.
The Yamaha CDR-400 is somewhere around 1.0g.

The CDR-400 is flash upgradeable, and supports packet writing.  The tray on
the CDR-400 has been described as "flimsy".  The tray eject moves quickly
for the first half and then slows considerably; this is normal.

The CRW-4001/CRW-4260 runs rather hot.  External units or extra cooling
fans are recommended.

Upgrades for the CDR-200/CDR-400 and some .PDF documentation for all drives
are available from ftp://ftp.yamahayst.com/pub/.  Technical support info
can be found on http://www.yamahayst.com/techsup/.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - Yamaha CDR-200/CDR-400.  Reports of units breaking down
after a few months have been persistent.  It appears that, unless the units
are kept well-cooled, they will start rejecting discs after a month or two
of use.  The drives work very well otherwise, and one customer was told
that the CDR-400AT model was a sturdier version.


Subject: [5-1-2] Sony
(1999/07/04)

See http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/products/storage/
See http://www.sony-cp.com/_E/Products/Storage/CD-R/Index.html

Models are:
  CDW-900E (2x2/3MB)
  CDU920S (2x2/1MB)
  CDU940S (4x2/1MB)
  CDU926S (6x2/512K)
  CDU928E (8x2/512K;IDE)
  CDU948S (8x4/2MB)
  CRX100E/CH (24x4x2/1MB;IDE)
  CRX100E/X (6x4x2/1MB;USB)
  CRX120E (24x4x4/1MB;IDE)

The CDW-900E has a separate connector that allows multiple "slave" drives
to be daisy-chained, allowing multiple CD-Rs to be written in parallel.

The Spressa 9211 is a 920 in an external case, the 9411 is a 940 in an
external case, and the 9611 is a 926.  The 940S drive is actually a 924S;
the 940S designation refers to the complete bundle (software, cables, etc).
Looks like each unit can be referenced by three different numbers.

Some people have criticized the CRX100E for being unable to write more
than about 78 minutes on an oversized (e.g. 80-minute) blank.  For many
people this capability is unimportant.

Sony drives have a special "recover" feature, accessible from programs like
Easy-CD Pro '95.  This allows recovery of the CD-R media after certain
classes of failed writes.

All Sony drives can do packet writing.

Firmware for some models can be hard to find.  A good place to start
searching is http://www.ahead.de/en/firmware.htm.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - CDU926 and CDU928.  Believe it or not, the CDU926 and
CDU928 don't support disc-at-once recording (see section (2-9) for a
description).  Instead they use "variable-gap track-at-once", which allows
TAO audio recordings with barely perceptible gaps between tracks.  Some
popular software packages aren't as useful when disc-at-once isn't
available, so people considering these drives should carefully consider how
they plan to use them.

(The older 920 and 924, and newer 948 units DO support DAO.)


Subject: [5-1-3] Smart & Friendly
(1999/06/05)

See http://www.smartandfriendly.com/

Models are:
  CDR1002 (2x2/1MB, based on the Sony CDU920S)
  CDR1004 (4x2/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-102)
  CDR2004 (4x2/1MB, based on the Sony 940S)
  CDR2006 "Pro" (6x2/512K, based on the Sony 926S)
  CDR2006 "Plus" (6x2/1MB, based on the JVC XR-W2020)
  CDR4000 (4x4/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-100)
  CDR4006 (6x4/2MB, based on the Yamaha CDR-400)
  CD-RW226 "Plus" (6x2x2/1MB, based on the JVC XR-W2042)
  CD-RW426 (6x4x2/2MB;IDE, based on the Yamaha CRW-4001/4260)
  SpeedWriter 4012 (12x4/1MB, based on the Teac CD-R55S)
  CD Racer 2x2x24 (24x2x2/2MB;IDE, based on the JVC XR-W2080)
  CD SpeedRacer (16x4x4/2MB, based on the Yamaha CRW-4416S?)
  CD TurboWriter (24x6/2MB, based on the Teac CD-R56S)
  CD Rocket 8020 (20x8/2MB, based on the Sanyo/Caravelle CRD-R800S)

All models are recorders built by major manufacturers, repackaged and
supported by Smart & Friendly.


Subject: [5-1-4] Philips
(1999/07/18)

See http://www.km.philips.com/osc/cd-rw/index.html
See http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/6893/  (2600/3600)
See http://www.honiton5.freeserve.co.uk/  (3600)

Models are:
  CDD522 (2x2/2MB)
  CDD2000 (4x2/1MB)
  CDD2600 (6x2/1MB)
  Omniwriter/26 (6x2x2/1MB)
  CDD3600 (6x2x2/1MB) and CDD3610 (IDE)
  CDRW200 (24x2x2/2MB;IDE, based on JVC XR-W2080)
  CDRW400 (16x4x4/2MB;IDE, based on Yamaha 4416E)
  
The CDD521 (2x2/256K) is an ancient model; if you use one, the firmware
upgrade is strongly recommended (but nearly impossible to find).  The
Omniwriter/26 and /26A appear to be repackaged Ricoh 6200 and 6200I OEMs.
In Europe, the 3600 is packaged in a kit as the PCA350RW, the 3610 as the
PCA362RW, and the 3610 with a parallel-port interface comes as the
PCA363RW.  The CDRW400 might be packaged as the PCA460RW.

The CDD522 does not support reading of subcode-Q data.  The CDD521, CDD522,
and Kodak-labeled PCD225 have a sensor that can read the barcode data from
the inner ring on a CD.

See the HP section for comments about the CDD2000 firmware.  The firmware
is kept in flash ROM, so it can be updated with software obtainable over
the net.  You should be at version 1.25 or later for best results.

Digital audio extraction may not work correctly at higher than 2x on the
CDD2600, especially near the end of the disc.  Philips has acknowledged
that audio CDs and packet-written CDs may not read correctly at 6x, but
many users have had problems at 4x as well.  It may also suffer from the
block offset problem described in section (4-19).  The CDD2600 supports
packet writing, but is NOT flash upgradeable.

The CDD2600 may share the HP 6020i's difficulties with pressed CD-ROMs that
have a small amount of data on them.

The initial release (firmware v1.0) of the 3610 was unable to create audio
discs reliably using disc-at-once recording.  Firmware v2.02 fixed this and
some other problems.

Philips' drives, notably the CDD2600, have been shown to hang on some
Amigas if SCSI disconnect is enabled and you try to read the session
information from a multisession CD.  Philips does not believe this problem
happens on PCs, and consequently has declined to investigate further.  If
you are experiencing hangs when examining multisession CDs, try turning
SCSI disconnect off for the CD recorder.

Drivers are available for the CDD2000 from:
http://www.philips.com/sv/pcaddon/cdr/

Firmware updates are available here:
http://www.km.philips.com/osc/cd-rw/download/index.html

CAVEAT EMPTOR - CDD2000.  Some users of Philips CDD2000 and derivative
units (like the HP4020i) have reported that the drives went bad over a
short period of time, often 1 to 3 months.  While these cases represent the
minority of users, reports have been persistent.  People with the technical
skills (and bravery) required to replace a spring and/or lubricate inside
the unit have reported good results (see section (4-10) for details).  If
you buy a CDD2000-based unit -- of which there are many -- be sure the
dealer or manufacturer is aware of this problem and is willing to fix or
exchange the drive should it arise.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Philips.  Information is
available at http://www.shortbusters.com/.  A copy of the complaint is
at http://www.shortbusters.com/lawsuits/philips/complain.html.


Subject: [5-1-5] Hewlett-Packard (HP)
(1999/06/05)

See http://www.hp.com/storage/cdwriter/index.html
See http://www.hp.com/isgsupport/cdr/

Models are:
  4020i (4x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2000) (#C4324)
  6020 (6x2/1MB, based on Philips CDD2600; i)nt, e)xt, p)arallel) (#C4325)
  7100i/e (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on Philips CDD3610; 'i' is IDE (#C4353A),
  'e' is parallel (#C4358A))
  7500i/e (24x2x2/?MB;IDE, based on JVC XR-W2080; parallel 'e' model is 6x2x2)
  8100i (24x4x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Sony CRX100E)
  8200i (24x4x4/1MB;IDE, based on a Sony CRX120E)

The 7110 is identical to the 7100, but comes with an extra piece of
software and is only available in the USA.  The 7200 is a 7100 with updated
firmware (2.x) and Easy CD Creator included.  The 8110 is the same as the
8100 but with a bunch of extra software; ditto for 8210 vs 8200.  The
6020ep appears to be the external SCSI drive with a parallel-to-SCSI
converter.  It's usable as a SCSI device as well.  The 71XXe drives are
71XXi drives with a parallel-to-IDE converter.  The 7500 series is often
sold as 7570.

The initial release of the 7100/7110 was unable to create audio discs
reliably with disc-at-once recording.  The 2.02 firmware upgrade fixes
the problem.

Some people have criticized the 8100i (same as Sony CRX100E) for being
unable to write more than about 78 minutes on an oversized (e.g. 80-minute)
blank.  For many people this capability is unimportant.

If you are having trouble getting the 7100e to work with your parallel
port, see http://www.hp.com/isgsupport/cdr/tech/7100/par95.html for some
important configuration advice.  If your BIOS is configured to use address
03BCh, you should change it to 0378h or 0278h.

It appears that discs written with a 7110 can't be read on a Toshiba
XM6002B.  Other models of CD-ROM drives, including other Toshiba models,
work fine.  CD-Rs written on other CD recorders work fine with the
Toshiba.  The 3.01 firmware upgrade fixes this.

The HP 4020i got off to a rough start because of buggy firmware and
problems with the AdvanSys SCSI controller shipped with the drive.  Four
firmware upgrades have been made available so far (v1.20, v1.25, v1.26, and
v1.27), and most but not all problems with the firmware have been
eliminated.  HP recommends that users with the v1.20 or later firmware who
aren't having problems should NOT get the upgrade.  Contact HP tech support
for more information.

The comments about digital audio extraction problems and the CDD2600 apply
to the 6020i as well.  Unlike the CDD2600, the 6020 apparently does not
support packet writing.  The firmware is not flash upgradeable.  (As it
happens, the SCSI ID string *can* be changed, and it *is* possible to make
the unit think it's a CDD2600.  A representative from Adaptec has warned
that the procedure could cause problems later on, however.)

The 6020 with v1.07 firmware also has trouble reading some pressed CD-ROM
discs, notably single-track CD-ROMs with less than 27MB of data.

An unofficial HP 4020i FAQ maintained by Greg Volk can be found at
http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/HP-FAQ.html.

Drivers, software, and firmware upgrades are available from
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/information_storage/surestore/cd-writer/.

The 7100/7110 firmware upgrade is available here:
http://www.hp.com/isgsupport/cdr/70index.html

IMPORTANT - 7100/7110.  The 7100/7110 drew a lot of fire because it shipped
with DirectCD (packet-writing software), a CD Copier, and an audio CD
creator.  It didn't include premastering software for data CDs.  Because
packet-written CDs can't be read on all operating systems or all CD-ROM
drives, the inability to create plain Level 1 ISO-9660 discs was a problem
for some users.  People who buy this drive should expect to buy additional
software.  The software bundled with the 7200 was more wisely chosen.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - 4020i.  See the notes on the CDD2000 in the previous
section.  Also, the AdvanSys controller continues to cause problems for
some users, which is made worse by HP's refusal to support people who try
to use a different card.  The best approach seems to be to try the card and
stick with it if it works, otherwise buy an Adaptec board (e.g. the 1522A)
and use it with that.  There may be a newer rev of the AdvanSys board.

A few 4020 users have reported that, after getting lots of "-24 - Target
aborted" errors with jarnold's software, they successfully resolved their
problems by getting a new drive from HP.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against HP (for the HP4020i and
HP6020i) by the same people who filed the suit against Philips.  See the
end of section (5-1-4) for links.


Subject: [5-1-6] Plasmon
(1998/11/27)

See http://www.plasmon.com/products/cdformat.htm
See http://tech.plasmon.co.uk/

Models are:
  RF4100 (2x2/1MB+, based on the Philips CDD522 but with different firmware)
  CDR4220 (4x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2000)
  CDR4240 (4x2/1MB, based on the Panasonic CW-7501)
  CDR-4400 (4x2/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-100)
  CDR480 (8x4/1MB, based on the Panasonic CW-7502)
  
The RF4102 is an RF4100 with more memory.

The RF4100 does not support disc-at-once recording.


Subject: [5-1-7] Kodak
(1999/04/11)

See http://www.kodak.com/  [ no CD recorder info? ]

Models are:
  PCD200 (?x2/256K)
  PCD225 (2x2/2MB, based on the Philips CDD522)
  PCD240 (4x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2000)
  PCD600 (?x6/2MB+)
  4801 (??;IDE, based on the Mitsumi 4801??)

The Philips CDD522, Kodak PCD225, and Kodak PCD600 will interface with the
Kodak Disc Transporter, which supports unattended duplication of up to 75
CD-Rs, making it a useful combo for CD-R production.


Subject: [5-1-8] JVC
(1999/05/30)

See http://www.jvcinfo.com/
See http://www.smartstorage.com/
See http://www.e-cs.com/skx/jvc/xrw2010.htm

Models are:
  XR-W1001 (1x1/64K)
  XR-W2001 (2x2/1MB)
  XR-W2010 (4x2/1MB)
  XRS-201 (2x2/1MB)
  XR-W2020 (6x2/1MB)
  XR-W2042 (6x2x2/1MB)
  [on the JVC web site, no model number?] (12x4/1MB;IDE)
  XR-W2080 (24x2x2/2MB;IDE).
  
The drives are sometimes sold with model numbers that have 2 added, so
XR-W2010 might appear as XR-W2012, XR-W2020 as XR-W2022, and XR-W2080 as
XR-W2082.  The XR-W2626 appears to be an XR-W2020.

The drives often come bundled with JVC "Personal Archiver" or "RomMaker"
software.  The XR-W2010 and XR-W2020 also come with "FloppyCD"
packet-writing software.

JVC only provides support for drives purchased directly from them, but
firmware updates can be found at http://www.jvcinfo.com/service/firmware.htm.
If you don't buy a JVC drive from JVC, make sure your vendor provides a
warranty.

If you are getting "servo tracking error", "seek error", or "track
following error" messages with an XR-W2010 or XR-W2020, your drive may need
to be opened up and lubricated.  Step-by-step instructions for doing so are
at http://www.noord.bart.nl/~januzz/howtoget.htm.  If you're not quite up
to that, try turning the drive off and leaving it off until right before
you're ready to burn.  Some units have trouble when they get warm.

Several users have reported difficulty installing the XR-W2020, but the
troubles appear to stem from the SCSI card bundled with the drive rather
than the drive itself.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - XR-W2010.  Firmware version 1.51 has some serious flaws
that can cause problems when using the drive as either a writer or a
reader.  The v2.05 update fixed most of the problems, but some conflicts
with 3rd-party software remained, so the update was withdrawn.  Until these
problems are fixed, this drive should only be used with the JVC software,
and should not be used as a reader.  Power-cycling the unit (i.e. powering
it off and back on) immediately before a write may cure some problems.  For
examples and some tests, see http://www.fadden.com/doc/jvc-prob.txt.

While there are a large number of people who are using these drives without
problems, one person affiliated with a CD-R software company referred to
the XR-W2010 as their "#1 tech support nightmare".

CAVEAT EMPTOR - XR-W2020.  The mechanism appears to have the same problems
with lubrication as the XR-W2010.  After several months of successful use,
the unit will start returning "tracking error" messages.


Subject: [5-1-9] Pinnacle
(1998/06/05)

See http://www.pinnaclemicro.com/producta1.htm

Models are:
  RCD-202 (?x1/64K, based on the JVC XR-W1001)
  RCD-1000 (2x2/1MB, based on the JVC XR-W2001)
  RCD-5020 (2x2/1MB)
  RCD-5040 (4x2/1MB, based on the JVC XR-W2010)
  RCD-4X4 (4x4/1MB, based on the Teac CD-R50S)
  RCDW226 (6x2x2/1MB)

The -1000, -5020, and -5040 models are flash ROM upgradeable.

RCD-1000 units shipped after Sept 1995 can do audio extraction if they have
firmware v2.35 or later.  An upgrade is available from their BBS.

If you are getting "servo tracking error", "seek error", or "track
following error" with a 5040, see the notes in the JVC XR-W2010 section.

CAVEAT EMPTOR - all drives.  Pinnacle customer support is reported to be
almost nonexistent, except for some recent tech support via e-mail.  Many
owners of the RCD-5040 are perfectly happy with their drives (see the
caveat on the JVC XR-W2010), but most of the stories about Pinnacle's
product support are negative.

Pinnacle earned a bad reputation after shipping drives with buggy firmware,
a poorly ventilated enclosure, and bad customer support.  Some owners of
the RCD-1000 have gotten the unit to work, others have given up in despair.


Subject: [5-1-10] Ricoh
(1999/07/18)

See http://www.ricoh.com/
See http://www.ricohcorp.com/
See http://www.ricohcpg.com/product_index.html
See http://www.ctours.com/ricoh [ was www.microse.com then www.dataweb.nl ]
See http://www.arrakis-ttm.com/cdr/tommp6200.html

Models are:
  RS-9200CD (?x1/1.2MB)
  RO-1060C/RS-1060C (2x2/512K)
  RS-1420C (4x2/512K+)
  MP-6200 (6x2x2/1MB; 'S' is SCSI, 'A' or 'I' is IDE)
  MP-7040 (20x4x4/2MB; 'S' is SCSI, 'A' is IDE)
  MP-7060 (6x writer?)
  
The MP-6200 uses a tray, the MP-6201 uses caddies and has a 2MB buffer.

The RS1060C does not support disc-at-once recording, reading of digital
audio, or subcode-Q data.  (One user reported that his RO1060C *could* read
digital audio, but the drive took a little convincing.  Another user says
that it has always been supported, but not documented, so it can be done
with the right software, e.g. CDDA v1.5.)  The RS-1060C is the RO-1060C
in an external case.

The RS-1420C is flash upgradeable (though it can be a little tricky since
there are different variants of the drive, and each requires a different
ROM image).  It does not support packet writing.  Most of the commercial
versions come with a 2MB buffer (the last digit of the firmware version
will be 0, 1, or 2, indicating 512K, 1MB, and 2MB, respectively).

The firmware on the flash-upgradeable MP-6200 should either be at v2.20 or
later.  Version 1.0 had several problems, version 2.0 didn't get along so
well with DirectCD 2.0, and version 2.03 had some DAE issues.

Firmware upgrades are available from Tom Varghese's page listed above
(arrakis-ttm.com) and http://www.ricoh.co.jp/cd-r/cgi/e-/version.html.


Subject: [5-1-11] Pioneer
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.pioneerusa.com/cds.html  [ mass replication ]
See http://www.pioneerproduct.com/prdsoft/cdr/index.html  [ PDR-05 ]
See http://www.pioneer.co.jp/  [ if you can read Japanese ]

Models are:
  DW-S114X (4x4/1MB)
  
The PDR-05 is an audio CD-R recorder, described in section (5-12).

Does not support disc-at-once recording.  Mainly sold in large jukebox
systems.


Subject: [5-1-12] Olympus
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.olympusamerica.com/digital/products/CDR2x4/CDR2x4.html
See http://www.olympusamerica.com/digital/products/cdr2x6/cdr2x6.html

Models are:
  CDS615E (2x2/1MB, based on the Sony CDU920S)
  CDS620E (4x2/1MB, based on the Sony CDU924S)
  CD-R2x6 (6x2/512K, based on the Sony CDU926S??)
  
The CD-R2 is the CDS615E in an external case.  The CD-R2x4 might be the
external version of the CDS620E.  The CD-R2x6 probably has a name like
CDS640E, but it's not listed as such on their web site.


Subject: [5-1-13] Optima
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.optimatech.com/CDR.html
See http://www.optimatech.com/CDRW.html

Models are:
  DisKovery 650 CD-R (2x2/1MB, based on the Sony CDU920S)
  DisKovery 1300 CD-R (6x2/512K, based on the Sony CDU960S?)
  Optima CDWriter (6x4x2/2MB, based on ??)


Subject: [5-1-14] Mitsumi
(1999/04/06)

See http://www.mitsumi.com/

Models are:
  CR-2200CS (2x2/4MB, based partly on the Philips CDD2000)
  CR-2201CS (same as CR-2200CS but with 2x2/1MB)
  CR-2401TS (4x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2000)
  CR-2600TE (6x2/1MB;IDE)
  CR-2801TE (8x2/512K;IDE)
  CR-4801TE (8x4/2MB;IDE)
  CR-4802TE (8x4x2/2MB;IDE) and TU (USB)
  
In all unit designations, 'C' means caddy, and 'T' means tray, 'S' is SCSI,
and 'E' is EIDE.

The devices based on the CDD2000 are flash upgradeable (you should be
able to use Philips CDD2000 images).

CAVEAT EMPTOR - CR-2600TE and CR-2801TE.  These drives do not support
disc-at-once recording.  Like the Sony 926 and 928 units, they claim to
support track-at-once with nearly imperceptible gaps instead.  Ahead's Nero
can reportedly do this with the CR-2801TE.

The CR-4801TE with firmware 2.01 and later supports DAO recording.  Earlier
versions do not.  If your recording software doesn't believe that the drive
is capable of DAO, you may need to update the software to a version that is
aware of the changes in the firmware update.


Subject: [5-1-15] DynaTek Automation Systems
(1998/12/20)

[ DynaTek has reportedly gone out of business ]

See http://raider.dynatek.ca/optcstor/cdm.htm
See http://www.dynatek.co.uk/

Models are:
  CDM200 (2x2/1MB)
  CDM240J (4x2/512K, based on the JVC XR-W2010)
  CDM400 (4x4/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-100)
  CDE260R (6x2x2/1MB, based on the Ricoh 6200S)

Older CDM240 units were based on the Yamaha CDR-102.  Since the Yamaha
CDR-100 is no longer being made, chances are the CDM400 is now a different
unit as well.

They also sell the CDM4000, which is a stand-alone CD burner.


Subject: [5-1-16] Microboards of America
(1998/06/14)

See http://www.microboards.com/

Models are:
  PlayWrite 2000 (2x2/1MB, based on the Sony CDU920S)
  PlayWrite 2040 (4x2/512K+)
  PlayWrite 4000 (4x4/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-100)
  PlayWrite 4001RW (6x4x2/2MB;IDE, based on the Yamaha CDR4001t)
  PlayWrite 2060R (6x2x2/1MB, based on the Ricoh 6200S)


Subject: [5-1-17] Micro Design International
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.mdi.com/mdinofr/products/cdwriter.htm

Model is the Express Writer.  There are no apparent model numbers.  They
used to sell the "old one" (2x2/1MB, based on a Pinnacle (i.e. JVC) drive),
more recently they sold the "new one" (4x2/?).


Subject: [5-1-18] MicroNet Technology
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.micronet.com/HTDOCS/products.html#cdr

Models are:
  MasterCD Plus 4x4 (4x4/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-100)
  MasterCD Plus 4x6 (6x4/2MB, based on the Yamaha CDR-400)
  MasterCD Plus 4x12 (12x4/1MB, based on the Teac CD-R55S)


Subject: [5-1-19] Procom Technology
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.procom.com/homepage/wbhrcdrs.html

Models are:
  PCDR-4X (4x4/512K, based on the Yamaha CDR-100)


Subject: [5-1-20] Grundig
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.grundig.com/  [mostly in German]

Models are:
  CDR100IPW (4x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2000)


Subject: [5-1-21] Plextor
(1999/07/18)

See http://www.plextor.com/

Models are:
  PlexWriter PX-R24CS (4x2/512K, a cousin of the Ricoh 1420C)
  PlexWriter "4/12max" PX-R412C (12x4/2MB)
  PlexWriter PX-R820T (20x8/4MB)
  PlexWriter PX-W4220T (20x4x2/2MB)
  PlexWriter PX-W8220T (20x8x2/4MB)

For all units, 'C' indicates caddy, 'T' indicates tray, 'i' means internal,
'e' means external.

All units are flash upgradeable.  All units except the PX-R24CS support
packet writing.

Users having trouble with the PX-R412C should try turning synchronous
transfer off for that drive.


Subject: [5-1-22] Panasonic
(1999/01/19)

See http://www.panasonic.com/  [ no CD-R info? ]
See http://www.acscdr.com/4x8x.htm
See http://homepages.tig.com.au/~cdysan/cw-7502/

Models are:
  CW-7501 (4x2/1MB)
  CW-7502 (8x4/1MB)
  CW-7582 (8x4/1MB;IDE)
  
Panasonic is part of Matsushita, so the units may also be sold under the
Matsushita label.

All units are flash-upgradeable.  The CW-7501 should be at 2.0 or greater,
and the CW-7502 should be at vX.10 or later (1.10, 3.10, or 4.10 depending
on which recorder variant you have; check your current version).  Upgrades
are available from http://www.acscompro.com/ (click on "Support").

NOTE: there is a known conflict with the Diamond FirePort 40 and the
Panasonic CW-7502 CD-R drive.  You should upgrade the 7502 firmware to the
latest (http://www.acscompro.com/support/cdr.htm), upgrade your FirePort 40
drivers (http://www.diamondmm.com/products/drivers/fireport.html), and
add "DisableAutoReqSense=1;do_SCAM=0;" to the FirePort driver (go into the
Win95 device settings, select the host adapter, click on Properties, and
select the Settings tab).

This problem may affect other NCR/Symbios Logic-based SCSI cards as well.
Falling back to the original (1.01) NCR SCSI drivers that come with Win95
should fix the problem.


Subject: [5-1-23] Teac
(1999/02/12)

See http://www.teac.com/dsp/cdrec/cdrec.html
See http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/product/cdr.htm

Models are:
  CD-R50S (4x4/1MB)
  CD-R55S (12x4/1MB)
  CD-R56S (24x6/2MB)

Apparently the CD-R50S needs to be at firmware 1.0E or later to do
quad-speed writing reliably.  Power calibration is done via a lookup table
rather than adjusted dynamically, so a flash upgrade may be required before
some brands of media will work.

The CD-R50S and CD-R55S appear to use the same command set as the JVC
XR-W2010.

Upgrades for the CD-R50S and CD-R55S are at ftp://nemus.teac.de/.  You can
also go to http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/product/cdr/updater.htm for a nice
HTML page about the CD-R55S upgrade.


Subject: [5-1-24] Wearnes
(1998/08/07)

See http://www.wpinet.com.sg/
See http://mars.asiabiz.com.sg/~whwang/

Models are:
  CDR-432 (4x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2000)
  CD-R 622 (6x2/1MB;IDE)
  CD-R 632P (6x2/1MB, based on the Philips CDD2600)
  CDRW-622 (6x2x2/1MB;IDE)

The CDRW-622 supports packet writing, and is flash upgradeable.


Subject: [5-1-25] Turtle Beach
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.tbeach.com/products/tbs2040r.htm

Models are:
  2040R (4x2/512K, based on the Ricoh RS-1420C)

Many users have had trouble installing the AdvanSys SCSI card that is
bundled with this unit.  Most of the problems can be corrected by enabling
PnP installation, which is disabled by default.


Subject: [5-1-26] Creative Labs
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.creaf.com/wwwnew/tech/spec/cdrom/2000.html

Models are:
  CDR2000 (2x2/512K, based on the Ricoh RS1060C)
  CDR4210 (4x2/1MB, based on the Panasonic CW-7501)


Subject: [5-1-27] Taiyo Yuden
(1998/04/06)

See ?

Models are:
  EW-50 (4x2/?)


Subject: [5-1-28] Memorex
(1999/03/06)

See http://www.memorex.com/html/mp_peripherals.html

Models are:
  CR-622 (6x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Wearnes CD-R 622)
  CRW-1622 (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Wearnes CDRW-622)
  CRW-2642 (6x4x2/2MB;IDE, based on the Yamaha CRW-4260??)
  CDRW-2216 (16x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Yamaha CRW-2216E)

The CRW-1622 supports packet writing, and is flash upgradeable.


Subject: [5-1-29] Hi-Val
(1999/02/07)

See http://www.hival.com/

Hi-Val doesn't build CD recorders.  They repackage and provide support for
recorders built by others.  The actual model you get will vary (Wearnes,
Ricoh, Philips, JVC, Mitsumi, and others have been reported).


Subject: [5-1-30] Dysan
(1999/02/07)

See http://www.hanny-magnetics-europe.com/products/

Models are:
  CR-622 (6x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Wearnes CD-R 622)
  CRW-1420C (6x2/512K, based on the Ricoh 1420C??)
  CRW-1622 (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Wearnes CDRW-622)
  CDRW-2216 (16x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Yamaha CRW-2216E)

The CR-622 does not support disc-at-once recording.

The CRW-1622 often came bundled with NTI's software, but the version
included didn't work correctly.  Upgrading to a more recent version of the
software (http://www.ntius.com/) resolved the problems.


Subject: [5-1-31] Traxdata
(1999/01/11)

See http://www.traxdata.com/

Models are:
  CDR4120 (12x4/1MB, based on the Teac CD-R55S)
  CDRW2260 "Pro" (6x2x2/1MB, based on the Yamaha CRW-2260)
  CDRW2260 "Plus" (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Philips CDD-3610?)
  CDRW-4260 "Pro" (6x4x2/2MB, based on the Yamaha CRW-4260)
  
The CDRW2260 "Pro" may also use a Philips CDD-3600?


Subject: [5-1-32] Acer
(1998/07/18)

See http://www.acerperipherals.com/

Models are:
  CDW6206A (6x2x2/512K;IDE)
  CDW4432A (32x4x4;IDE)

The 6206A is flash upgradeable.


Subject: [5-1-33] Waitec
(1998/06/14)

See http://www.waitec.com/

Models are:
  WT4046 (6x4x2/2MB; "EI" model is IDE)
  WT2036 (6x2x2/1MB; "EI" model is IDE)
  WT412 (12x4/1MB)
  WT48 (8x4/1MB)


Subject: [5-1-34] BTC
(1998/11/18)

See http://www.btc-corp.com/

Models are:
  BCE62IE (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Philips CDD3610??)
  
The BCE62IPE is the BCE62IE with a parallel-port IDE converter.


Subject: [5-1-35] Caravelle (Sanyo)
(1999/07/18)

See ?

Models are:
  CRD-R800S (20x8/2MB)

Firmware v1.10 or later is highly recommended for the CRD-R800S.


Subject: [5-1-36] Micro Solutions
(1999/02/26)

See http://www.micro-solutions.com/

Models are:
  190100 (6x2x2/1MB;Parallel, based on the Ricoh MP-6200)
  190120/190126 (6x4x2/?MB;Parallel, based on the Yamaha CRW-4261)
  190127 (8x4x2/2MB;Parallel, based on the Mitsumi CD-4802TE)

All products are standard recorders combined with Micro Solution's
parallel-port interface.


Subject: [5-1-37] Pacific Digital

See http://www.1pdc.com/

Models are:
  224ei (24x2x2/2MB;IDE, based on the JVC XR-W2080)
  226ei (6x2x2/1MB;IDE, based on the Philips CDD3610??)
  428ei (8x4x2/2MB;IDE, based on ??)
  428USB (8x4x2/2MB;USB, based on ??)
  416si (16x4x4/2MB, based on CRW-4416S?)


Subject: [5-2] How long do CD recorders last?
(1998/04/06)

The MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) on these drives is typically 25,000
to 50,000 hours, and they come with a 1 year warranty.  Compare that to
hard drives rated at between 500,000 and 1,000,000 hours with a 3 or 5 year
warranty and that should give you some idea.

Most of the drives available today weren't meant for mass production of
CD-Rs; notable exceptions are the venerable Philips CDD 522, Kodak PCD 600,
and Sony CDW-900E.

Incidentally, MTBF is not an estimate of how long the drive will last.
Rather, it's an estimate of the failure rate of the drives during the
expected lifetime of the device.  Once you exceed the expected lifetime,
which is often on the order of a couple of years, the anticipated failure
rate increases.  If you have new drives with an MTBF of 25,000 hours, and
you run 1000 units for 100 hours, you can expect to see four of them fail.
It does NOT mean you can expect them to run for 2.8 years and then all fail
at once.


Subject: [5-3] What kind of PC is recommended?
(1998/08/18)

If you're about to buy a computer system and are seriously thinking about
buying a CD-R, here are some things to keep in mind.  (See the next section
if you're interested in Mac hardware instead of an IBM PC.)

CPU: buy a Pentium, the faster the better.  This is true in general, since
systems tend to be outdated after a year and obsolete after three or four.
A '486 is a *minimum* configuration for a CD-R system; a Pentium gives you
some breathing room.  PentiumPro or Pentium II is overdoing it, but that's
not necessarily a bad thing.

Motherboard: get one with PCI slots.  Not only can PCI cards move data
more quickly, they're much easier to configure.

IDE: whatever comes on your motherboard will work.  See section (5-15) for
configuration notes and a warning about certain bus-mastering drivers.

SCSI: the SCSI interface remains a popular choice for CD recorders and
CD-ROM drives.  Whether it's built into the motherboard or on a separate
card, make sure the host adapter supports ASPI and ASPI for Windows (see
section (5-7)).  Don't bother with Wide SCSI unless you're planning to buy
a disk array or fancy devices - most 7200rpm drives don't exceed the limits
of 8-bit Fast SCSI anyway.  Bus mastering SCSI cards are preferred over
non-bus-mastering cards (they can move data to and from system memory
directly, without the CPU's involvement, making things faster).

Parallel: some vendors are selling parallel-port CD-R drives.  You should
have an EPP-enabled parallel port (if you have a Pentium or better, chances
are you have one).

Sound: the Creative Labs SB16 and AWE32 boards are widely supported and
very popular, but if you're thinking seriously about recording sound
through it, you'll want to consider alternatives.  See sections (3-12)
and (3-13) for other options.

Hard drive: needs to be reasonably fast, and large enough to hold whatever
data you plan to put on a CD.  IDE hard drives work fine.  See section
(5-6) for more details.

Video card and monitor: depends on what you want to do.  A PCI-based video
card is a good idea (though more expensive than an ISA-based card), and a
15" or 17" monitor will work fine for most applications.  If you're planning
on creating multimedia products, you'll want a PCI video card with 4MB of
{D,V,W,SD,SG}RAM and a good 17" or 20" monitor.

CD-ROM: you may want a SCSI CD-ROM rather than an IDE one.  See section (5-5).


Subject: [5-4] What kind of Mac is recommended?
(1999/06/05)

Any Mac of Quadra 700 or higher capability with a reasonably fast disk
should be suitable for 2x writing.  All PowerMac-class machines, and
probably most Mac clones, should work fine.  PowerBook users should proceed
with caution on machines earlier than the 3400 and G3 models.

Any of the SCSI recorders should work.  Verify with the vendor of the
software you plan to use that the drive you have in mind is supported.
Don't try to use an IDE drive on the Mac (some Macs have internal IDE hard
drives, but none of the software supports a CD recorder connected to that
interface).

Creating a disc image and then writing from it is safer than on-the-fly
recording.  If your pre-mastering software has to assemble files and build
an ISO-9660 filesystem on the fly, you need a decent PowerMac.

Using the "simulated cut" feature available on Toast and other software is
also prudent, at least until you get a feel for the system.  Make sure you
turn off file sharing before you start a burn, or things will fail if it
tries to read a file that's already open.  You may also have trouble
writing from the boot/system volume, since it will always have files open.

The good news for Mac owners is that the hardware and software
configuration for CD-R usually goes rather smoothly.  For a not-so-smooth
example, see http://socsci.colorado.edu/~resnicka/cdburn.html.


Subject: [5-5] Which standard CD-ROM drives work well with CD-R?
(1998/04/06)

Besides the obvious question - can it read CD-R discs that you create -
there's also the question of how well the drive works as the source device
when copying discs.  To be more specific:

 - Does the drive support digital audio extraction?
 - Does the drive hog the SCSI bus, obstructing writes to the CD-R?
 - Does the drive support multisession discs?

Plextor SCSI models generally work well.  The Plextor 6Plex and higher can
extract digital audio at high speeds, and come with a set of utilities that
are actually useful.  The 8Plex, 12Plex, and 12/20 are often recommended.
The 12Plex can extract audio at about 9x, and the 12/20 will extract at up
to 20x.  The error correction on the 12/20 seems to slip a little above 8x
though, so unless the disc is very clean you should extract at a slower
speed.  Many hard drives have trouble streaming data at that speed anyway.

The Panasonic 12x IDE and Panasonic CR585 24x IDE have been recommended
several times, as has the Teac CD516S.

The CD-DA FAQ (http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~psyche/cdda/) lists some drives
that work well for DAE, as does http://www.mp3.com/cdrom.html.

NEC models tend to hog the SCSI bus.  Older NEC models (especially the
NEC 3x), some Mitsumi models, and some Acer models (e.g. Acer 8x) may
have trouble reading CD-Rs.

Some IDE CD-ROM drives can be used for direct CD-to-CD copies with some
programs (e.g. Adaptec CD-Creator 2 and WinOnCD).  It's the same story
as with digital audio extraction: some drives work, some don't, and the
ones that do don't work with all available software.  The Teac 8x has been
mentioned as working with CD Creator for CD-to-CD copies of data discs.

There is one hard and fast rule for direct CD-to-CD duplication: the
source drive must be faster than the target drive (e.g. source 4x if
target is 2x, source 6x if target is 4x).

A performance test on some mid-range models can be found at:
http://www.pcmag.com/features/cdrom/cd-test.htm

A quick summary of features for several models can be found at:
http://www.fwb.com/ts/cdt/cdt_support.html


Subject: [5-6] What kind of HD should I use with CD-R?  Must it be AV-rated?
(1998/07/26)

There is a fair amount of confusion over what exactly is an "AV drive".  A
brief discussion is presented here; for more information see Bertel
Schmitt's article at http://www.fadden.com/doc/avdrive.txt.

The most important issue is thermal recalibration.  Your basic hard drive
will pause for up to half a second (or even up to a full second, depending
on who you believe) every so often to adjust the head positioning to the
current operating temperature.  For most applications this goes unnoticed,
but when recording a CD-R you must write the current track to completion
without interruption.  AV drives deal with the problem in a way that
doesn't disrupt the disk activity.

A drive that does a quick thermal recalibration is acceptable if the system
is otherwise fast enough or the buffer in the CD-R unit or in the recording
software is large enough (early drives had only 64KB, while current drives
have 512KB or 1MB, making it much less of an issue).  You need to be sure
that the recorder's write buffer won't empty during the recal period, or
you'll end up with a buffer underrun.

If your recorder's buffer is less than 512KB, or you're planning to record
at 4x or greater, you should seriously consider an AV drive.  Otherwise,
it probably won't matter.  Also, don't believe everything you hear from a
salesman -- verify with the manufacturer that the drive model is AV-rated.

What separates a Seagate Barracuda from a Seagate Barracuda AV is that the
latter is tuned for AV performance.  This is simply a software change that
affects cache allocation algorithms, error correction, and other SCSI
parameters that may will give better performance for transfers of large
blocks of contiguous data.  These sorts of optimizations are more important
for digital video (which runs at a few MB/sec) than CD recording (which is
only 600K/sec at 4x).

If you think AV optimizations will help you, you should take a look at
"Dr. SCSI" at http://www.scsitools.com/.  It will help you do the same
optimizations that the AV drive sellers do, for a price that's about equal
to the difference between a standard drive and an AV drive.

It's not necessary to use a SCSI hard drive.  In most cases IDE will work
just fine.

On a separate but related issue, all reports from people burning CDs from
Win95 OSR2 FAT-32 filesystems have been positive.


Subject: [5-7] What SCSI adapter should I use with a CD recorder?
(1999/03/07)

This section only applies to PC users who aren't interested in an IDE
recorder.  Macs and most non-PC-based UNIX systems have SCSI built in.

Using different SCSI adapters for the HD and the CD recorder used to be
recommended, but may not be necessary with non-ISA adapters.  If your
recorder hogs the SCSI bus the HD may not be able to keep the write buffer
full.  Under some operating systems, particularly OS/2, devices that
support SCSI disconnect will work better than those that don't.

In general, the faster the better.  PCI or VLB is better than ISA, and the
board should support (and have enabled) SCSI disconnect.  It is *not*
necessary to use Wide SCSI on any component.  The speed requirements for
CD-R, not to mention the maximum throughput of most hard drives, are easily
met by "narrow" SCSI.

You should enable synchronous transfers for devices that support it.  Most
CD recorders should.  If the device doesn't work with it on, turn it off
and try again.

The adapter MUST support the ASPI standard (ASPI provides an interface
between software and the SCSI controller) for both DOS and Windows.

For some tips on cabling and termination, see Bertel Schmitt's article
at http://www.fadden.com/doc/scsi-trm.txt.

The next few sections detail the more popular SCSI cards.  There are
many others, e.g:

  Advansys - http://www.advansys.com/
  DTC - http://www.datatechnology.com/
  CSC - http://www.corpsys.com/


Subject: [5-7-1] Adaptec - 1510/1522A/1540/1542CF
(1998/04/06)

See http://www.adaptec.com/

These are all ISA controllers, good for putting a CD recorder on, not so
good for putting a hard drive or fast CD-ROM drive on.  If you have an
IDE-based system and just want a SCSI card for driving your CD recorder and
maybe a scanner or tape drive, any of these (as well as any of the
variations of these) will work fine.


Subject: [5-7-2] Adaptec - 2840/2910/2920/2940
(1999/01/28)

See http://www.adaptec.com/
See http://www.adaptec.com/products/datasheets/specs/

The Adaptec 2940 (PCI) is a popular choice -- if not *the* most popular
choice -- though some users have reported problems with the Adaptec 2840
(VLB).  See the README that comes with Adaptec EZ-SCSI v4.0 and later for
some important performance tests you can do with SCSIBench.

If you're having trouble writing CD-Rs with the 2940UW, go into the
configuration menu (hit Ctrl-A while booting) and make sure the drive is
set for 10MB/sec with Wide Negotiation disabled.

A few notes on the 2910, 2920, and 2940 cards:

  2910
    Bus-mastering, no BIOS, Fast SCSI-2.
  2920A/B
    Not bus-mastering, has BIOS, Fast SCSI-2.
  2920C
    Bus-mastering, has BIOS, Fast SCSI-2.
  2940/W/U/UW/U2/UW2
    Bus-mastering, has BIOS, fast/ultra/wide/whatever depending on model.

Booting from a CD-ROM requires that the card have a BIOS that supports
booting from CD-ROM, and that the PC also supports booting from CD-ROM.


Subject: [5-7-3] ASUS - SC-200/SC-875
(1998/05/16)

See http://www.asus.com.tw/

The ASUS SC-200 is one example of an NCR/Symbios Logic 810-based card (in
this case, the NCR 53C810).  Such cards offer solid performance at a
reasonable price, and may be a better choice than the Adaptec cards for
many users.  (Be sure to examine these types of cards closely though; the
least expensive among them are only meant to work with a motherboard BIOS
that supports SCSI.)

The ASUS SC-875, based on the 53C875 chip, offers Wide SCSI connectors as
well.


Subject: [5-7-4] Diamond - FirePort 20/40/40dual
(1998/05/16)

See http://www.diamondmm.com/

High-performance SCSI cards based around Symbios Logic SCSI controller
chips.  Both cards offer high performance and compete directly with the
Adaptec 2940 series.  The FirePort 20 and 40 are based on the SYM53C875,
and the FirePort 40 Dual is based on the SYM53C876.

A list of compatibility-tested hardware is available from the web site.


Subject: [5-8] Can I use a CD recorder as a general-purpose reader?
(1999/02/18)

You can, but it's not clear that you'd want to.  The seek times tend to be
slower than a standard CD-ROM drive because the head assembly is heavier.
There's also not much need for rapid seeks when writing a disc, so there's
little reason for manufacturers to try to optimize this.  Some users have
reported jerky video playback on a CD-R drive.  (Some of the recent models
actually have pretty good access time figures, so this may be changing.)

The MTBF on CD-R units tends to be low, so it may be wise to use a
different drive for general use to preserve the life of the CD-R,
especially if you have a tray model.


If you're using Win95, some older CD recorders don't show up as readers
without additional drivers, or (for SCSI drives) show up as 8 separate
LUNs.  (LUNs are Logical UNits, useful for distinguishing between different
items loaded in a CD jukebox.)  The reason why some older recorders don't
show up by default is that they're classified as "type 4" SCSI-2 devices,
which is used to indicate write-once devices.  Standard CD-ROM drives are
"type 5".

HP and Philips supply drivers for their older units, Corel used to supply
several drivers for with their CD Creator product, and the Sony 920S works
as-is.  If you have an Adaptec CD recording product, you can get a patch
from Adaptec at ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/pub/BBS/win95/cdr4up.exe that will
allow many type 4 drives, including the Yamaha CDR-100/102 and JVC
XR-W2010, to appear as CD-ROM drives.

If you don't have the drivers, you can still get the recorder to work by
loading the real-mode drivers like this (example is for an Adaptec 2940):

In Config.sys:
  DEVICEHIGH=C:\SCSI\ASPI8DOS.SYS /D
  DEVICEHIGH=C:\SCSI\ASPICD.SYS /D:ASPICD0

In Autoexec.bat:
  LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:ASPICD0 /M:12

Incidentally, to *remove* the Adaptec cdr4up driver, you should remove
the file "CDR4VSD.VXD" from \Windows\System\Iosubsys, and reboot.


For IDE recorders, you need a more specific driver.  The manufacturer's
web page likely has a link.


Subject: [5-9] To caddy or not to caddy?
(1998/04/06)

This is a general CD-ROM question rather than a CD-R question, but since
some of the newer recorders are available in either configuration it
seems worthwhile to address it here.

The advantage of a tray is convenience.  If you want to put a CD in the
drive, you can just drop it in, instead of buying a pile of caddies and
hunting for a free one.

The advantage of a caddy is durability.  CDs are less likely to be
scratched if they're put into a caddy and left there (VERY important if
you have children), and the internal mechanism is less likely to collect
dust.  The tray units usually have a worse MTBF rating, because they have
more moving parts.

There have been reports that, at 12x and higher, some CDs will cause loud
vibrations in tray models, but work fine in caddy models.  Not everyone
has had this problem though.

It used to be the case that you had to get a caddy drive if you wanted to
mount it sideways, but many tray models have tabs that will hold the CD in
place.  Having to use the tabs does reduce the convenience normally offered
by a tray model though.

Which you should choose depends on your needs and circumstances.  If you
are planning to write to a disc several times (multisession, packet
writing, or anything with CD-RW), you are better off with the disc in a
caddy.


Subject: [5-10] Can I burn CDs from a Jaz drive?  Tape drive?
(1998/04/06)

With a little extra care, yes.  For a Jaz drive, defragmenting the drive
right before starting a burn seems to be the key to success.  It's also
very important to ensure that nothing else is trying to access the drive
while the write is underway.

One user reported being able to write at 1x from a DDS tape drive using
Seagate's Direct Tape Access, but this isn't recommended.  Copying the data
to a hard drive and doing the burn from there is much more likely to
succeed.

There are no known instances of successful CD-R burns using punched card
readers as the source device.

Doing a test run is strongly recommended when using any of these devices.


Subject: [5-11] What is "Running OPC"?
(1998/04/06)

OPC stands for Optimum Power Control.  Most CD-R units do a power
calibration test before writing to adjust the laser power to the correct
strength.  Different brands of media require slightly different power
levels.

Running OPC goes a step farther by actively monitoring the write process
and adjusting the laser power as needed.  If the writer encounters dust or
fingerprints, the laser power can be increased to burn through the
obstacles.  This is especially useful for discs that are moved around
between recording sessions, such as CD-RW discs or multisession CD-Rs.

For more information, see http://www2.osta.org/osta/html/opc.html.


Subject: [5-12] What's the story with stand-alone audio CD recorders?
(1999/04/05)

Audio CD-R/CD-RW recorders are similar to computer CD-Rs, except that
they're intended to be part of a recording system rather than attached to a
Mac or PC.  They have audio inputs and front-panel controls like you'd find
on a tape deck.  They are usually more expensive than CD-Rs meant for
computers.  Some CD-Rs have both audio and SCSI-II interfaces.

There are two classes of audio CD-R, consumer and professional.  The units
targeted at consumers require special audio blanks, and employ SCMS (Serial
Copy Management System, section (2-25)) to prevent making copies from a
copy.  The audio blanks used to be 4x to 5x the cost of computer CD-R
blanks and only held 60 minutes of audio, but 74-minute "Consumer Audio"
blanks are now available for moderately more than regular CD-R blanks.

The "professional" units use regular CD-R blanks and don't obey SCMS, and
generally have a wider set of features and input/output connectors.

If you already have a computer, it's probably cheaper to buy a computer
CD-R and a good sound card or digital transfer card (see sections (3-12)
and (3-13) for more info).  The ability to edit the sound on a computer
before writing a CD can be very useful.  However, there are some advantages
to using an audio CD-R (not all features are present on all models):

 - much easier to configure the hardware, and no software to learn
 - the A/D converter is probably better than most PC sound cards
 - automatic DAT start_id to CD index mark conversion
 - sample rate conversion for 32K - 48K DATs
 - analog inputs
 - pause button
 - buffer underruns are unlikely

Of course, since you're recording the music "live", it has to happen at 1x,
and any skips or pauses in the audio input will show up on the duplicate.
Depending on your situation, this may not be a problem.

(Incidentally, the difference in price for the audio CD-R blanks is due
to licensing agreements and volume.  The manufacturer pays a royalty to
a studio consortium under the assumption that everything recorded to an
audio CD-R is pirated material.  The technology is identical; the "audio"
discs just have a mark that says a royalty has been paid.)

It is theoretically possible to convince a "consumer" audio CD recorder to
accept regular blanks, but in practice this would require replacing the
firmware chip.  If somebody has figured out how to do this, they've been
quiet about it.  With the Philips 870/880 units manufactured prior to
November 1998, it's possible to trick the recorder by manually ejecting and
replacing the disc right before recording.  (I don't know how to make
regular blanks work on any of the other units.  If you do, let me know;
it's a popular question.)


Examples of "consumer" audio CD-R units are the Pioneer PDR-04 and
PDR-05 (http://www.pioneerproduct.com/prdsoft/cdr/index.html).

Marantz makes professional-grade CD-R units, e.g. the CDR615 and CDR620.
See http://www-us.philips.com/marantz/product/professional/cdrecorder/.

Philips sells the CDR870 and CDR880 (based on the CDD3600), which support
both CD-R and CD-RW media.  http://www-us.sv.philips.com/sound/cr.html.
If you're interested in the Philips CDR765, a consumer-grade dual CD deck,
see a detailed article at http://www.gallagher.com/music/cdr.htm and some
notes at http://members.tripod.com/~charleswolff/cdr765.html.

HHB sells a "professional" unit, the CDR880.  http://www.hhb.co.uk/.


Subject: [5-13] What's firmware?  How and why should I upgrade my recorder?
(1999/06/28)

In computer terms, hardware is the stuff you can hit with a baseball bat,
and software is the stuff you can only swear at.  Firmware is software that
lives on your hardware.  In more concrete terms, the firmware on your CD
recorder is what controls the operation of the device, and handles
everything from decoding CD-ROM sectors to writing the disc table of
contents.

Sometimes there are bugs or missing features that are added by updates.
Firmware upgrades have been used to add features like disc-at-once
recording and fix bugs like reversed left and right audio channels.
Sometimes the upgrade will inadvertently add bugs, causing the recorder to
work improperly.

Firmware can be stored in an umodifiable form, such as a ROM chip, or in a
rewritable form, such as "flash" ROM.  In the former case, firmware
upgrades are accomplished by physically removing a chip from inside the
device, and replacing it with a new one.  Devices with "flashable"
firmware, on the other hand, can be upgraded by downloading a new set of
firmware over the Internet.

You have to be careful when upgrading the firmware on a drive yourself.  If
it requires physical replacement, you run the risk of breaking pins off of
the chip.  Flash upgrades won't result in physical damage, but in some
cases a failed upgrade can render the device unusable.  Always follow the
instructions exactly, and NEVER do an upgrade with anything that didn't
come from the manufacturer or a trusted source.


Suppose you want to upgrade your recorder.  The first step is to remember
famous words of wisdom: if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

The second step is to figure out if your firmware is upgradeable.  The
manual should tell you.  Most drives are, but some exceptions are noted for
specific drives in the subsections under (5-1).

The third step is to determine what version of firmware you currently
have.  Some SCSI cards on PC or UNIX systems will display a list of
attached devices when the system boots.  There's usually a column with a
version number in it.

On a PC running Win95, go into the Device Manager (either from the Control
Panels or by asking for Properties on My Computer), and find the CD-ROM
drives in the device tree.  Select the CD-R drive, hit the "Properties"
button, and then click on the "Settings" Tab of the window that opens.
Look for "Firmware Revision".

Mac users with Toast can hit Command-R to display the information.  If your
software doesn't have such a feature, you will need to run SCSI Tools to
check the identification string.

The fourth step is to find the upgrade file.  Usually the manufacturer's
web site will have them.  If not, try a repository like
http://www.ahead.de/en/firmware.htm.

The fifth step is to apply the upgrade.  This can be trivial or fairly
challenging, depending on the device.  Be sure to read the instructions
*carefully* before applying the upgrade -- if it fails, the recorder could
be rendered inoperable.


Subject: [5-14] How well do ATAPI (IDE), parallel-port, and USB recorders work?
(1999/07/18)

By all accounts, they work just fine.  Some people have argued that IDE
CD-Rs are easier to install than SCSI.  The only significant limitation
at this time is that a wider variety of software is available for SCSI
drives, but that's changing.

There were some concerns about whether or not a CD-to-CD copy would be
reliable if the source CD-ROM drive and target CD-R drive are both IDE.
The concern was that the increased CPU and bus utilization associated with
IDE would cause buffer underruns.  So far, all reports indicate that the
concerns were unfounded.

Parallel-port drives require an ECP/EPP parallel port, which most (all?)
machines have.  Some BIOSs allow you to switch between ECP/EPP and
"standard" mode; if you're having trouble, be sure it's set correctly.

Some people who have bought off-the-shelf parallel-to-IDE converters have
found that writing at 4x doesn't work very well.  This may account for
why all drives that ship with parallel port support are 2x writers.

USB recorders work fine at 4x when connected directly to the computer.
You may need to reduce speed to 2x if you use a hub.  Some people have
reported that their systems were crashing until they turned auto-insert
notification off (see section (4-1-1)).


Subject: [5-15] How should I configure my system for an ATAPI CD recorder?
(1999/02/27)

You want the hard drives and CD-ROM drives on different channels, or the
slow CD-ROM drive will affect the performance of the hard drive.  A typical
configuration looks like this:

  primary:
    master: first hard drive
    slave:  second hard drive
  secondary:
    master: CD-ROM drive
    slave:  CD-R/CD-RW drive

It doesn't seem to matter whether the CD-ROM or CD recorder is the master.
Having both on the same channel doesn't necessarily impede CD-to-CD copying
(though you're still better off writing from the hard drive).

Keep the cables as short as you can.  Sometimes the longer (60cm) cables
will work fine with one drive but start having integrity problems when two
devices are attached.

NOTE: the Intel PIIX Bus Mastering IDE driver may interfere with the
ability to write to a disc.  Typical symptom is a system hang when
writing or test-writing to a disc.  An uninstaller can be found at
http://developer.intel.com/design/pcisets/busmastr/FAQs.htm#faq3e.  The
Adaptec page http://www.adaptec.com/support/configuration/cdrecide.html
also describes the problem.

NOTE: The VIA Bus Mastering IDE drivers are similarly afflicted.  See
http://www.via.com.tw/support/faq.htm#11.

The ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programmer's Interface) layer is used during CD
recording, even for IDE recorders.  Take a look at Adaptec's FAQ on the
subject, and grab a copy of ASPICHK while you're at it from
http://www.adaptec.com/support/faqs/aspilayer.html.  The original Win95A/B
WinASPI may have problems with IDE recorders.


Subject: [5-16] How important is CD-RW?
(1999/06/25)

It depends on what you're doing.  With the cost of CD-R discs dropping
through the floor, there's less of an incentive to burn a test disc first.
At prices around US$1.00 per disc, the extra time needed to do two full
burns isn't worthwhile unless you're really tight for money.  Besides,
CD-RW discs aren't readable on many older CD-ROM and audio CD players.

The manual for Easy CD Creator Deluxe says that CD-RW discs are "more cost
effective for near-line data storage requirements than CD-R."  The
definition of near-line storage puts it somewhere between online storage
and offline storage.

On the other hand, if you're expecting to use packet writing to treat the
disc as a big floppy, it may be useful.  You should consider other forms of
media for such purposes though, such as Jaz drives, which are faster and
hold more, but are slightly harder to find readers for (but only slightly:
CD-RW discs aren't readable on all drives, and packet-written discs may not
be readable under some operating systems).

Software developers who need to create test CDs frequently will find CD-RW
invaluable.

CD-Rewritable drives can write to both CD-R and CD-RW media, so you're not
going to miss out on anything if you buy a drive that supports CD-RW.  If
you don't mind spending the extra money for CD-RW, it may come in handy,
but if you're concerned about the cost of the recorder, chances are you
won't miss CD-RW if you don't have it.


Subject: [5-17] What is an "MMC Compliant" recorder?
(1999/02/21)

Historically, each manufacturer of CD recorders used a different command
set, and perhaps even altered the commands with each new recorder.  This
has placed a significant burden on CD-R software authors, who have to
write new drivers for each new device.

MMC (Multi Media Command) compliant recorders use a common command set.
Programs that can write to one MMC-compliant recorder should be able to
write to all others, and consumers should be able to use their choice of
software without the long delays usually associated with the introduction
of new hardware.

The reality is not so kind, unfortunately, due to firmware bugs or
deliberate deviations from the standard.  Do not assume that a particular
piece of software will work with your recorder simply because it works for
other MMC-compliant devices.

The spec sheets for recorders usually indicate whether or not the drive
is MMC compliant.

Draft proposals for the MMC-1 and MMC-2 standards can be obtained from
ftp://ftp.symbios.com/pub/standards/io/.


Subject: [5-18] What should I use to record from a UNIX system?
(1999/04/11)

The choice of what hardware to buy is dictated by software availability.
Find the software you want to use (common choices include "cdrecord",
listed in section (6-1-20), and GEAR for UNIX, in section (6-1-3).  Both
support a variety of recorders, primarily SCSI devices.

Consult the software manufacturer's web site for any specific
recommendations.


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