It's been a few years since I last built a computer to burn CDs;
I used SCSI drives, Plextor for reading and Yamaha for writing.
Now, I find that several manufacturers have exited that market,
including Yamaha.

The currently manufactured burners seem to be all-in-one devices
(CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, etc.). Empirically, CD-Rs I've
burned on a Sony DVD+RW drive seem to be less compatible with audio
players than the same manufacturer's media burned on the old Yamaha.
So I'm inclined to be cautious selecting drives for a new machine.
What manufacturers and models do audio people prefer these days?

Thanks,
Romain

In article ,
Romain Kang From: wrote:
It's been a few years since I last built a computer to burn CDs;
I used SCSI drives, Plextor for reading and Yamaha for writing.
Now, I find that several manufacturers have exited that market,
including Yamaha.

The currently manufactured burners seem to be all-in-one devices
(CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, etc.). Empirically, CD-Rs I've
burned on a Sony DVD+RW drive seem to be less compatible with audio
players than the same manufacturer's media burned on the old Yamaha.
So I'm inclined to be cautious selecting drives for a new machine.
What manufacturers and models do audio people prefer these days?

Look at the Plextor Premium CDRW drive.

"Romain Kang From:" wrote in message
...
It's been a few years since I last built a computer to burn CDs;
I used SCSI drives, Plextor for reading and Yamaha for writing.
Now, I find that several manufacturers have exited that market,
including Yamaha.

The currently manufactured burners seem to be all-in-one devices
(CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, etc.). Empirically, CD-Rs I've
burned on a Sony DVD+RW drive seem to be less compatible with audio
players than the same manufacturer's media burned on the old Yamaha.
So I'm inclined to be cautious selecting drives for a new machine.
What manufacturers and models do audio people prefer these days?

100% in favor of the HP 640i.

Glenn D.

"Romain Kang From:" wrote in message
...
It's been a few years since I last built a computer to burn CDs;
I used SCSI drives, Plextor for reading and Yamaha for writing.
Now, I find that several manufacturers have exited that market,
including Yamaha.

The currently manufactured burners seem to be all-in-one devices
(CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, etc.). Empirically, CD-Rs I've
burned on a Sony DVD+RW drive seem to be less compatible with audio
players than the same manufacturer's media burned on the old Yamaha.
So I'm inclined to be cautious selecting drives for a new machine.
What manufacturers and models do audio people prefer these days?

Thanks,
Romain

The Plextor Plexwriter Premium is a great CD-only drive.

jb

"Romain Kang From:" wrote in message

It's been a few years since I last built a computer to burn CDs;
I used SCSI drives, Plextor for reading and Yamaha for writing.
Now, I find that several manufacturers have exited that market,
including Yamaha.

The currently manufactured burners seem to be all-in-one devices
(CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, etc.). Empirically, CD-Rs I've
burned on a Sony DVD+RW drive seem to be less compatible with audio
players than the same manufacturer's media burned on the old Yamaha.
So I'm inclined to be cautious selecting drives for a new machine.
What manufacturers and models do audio people prefer these days?

Liteon and Asus make nice drives for reasonble prices.

Romain Kang From: wrote:
It's been a few years since I last built a computer to burn CDs;
I used SCSI drives, Plextor for reading and Yamaha for writing.
Now, I find that several manufacturers have exited that market,
including Yamaha.

The currently manufactured burners seem to be all-in-one devices
(CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-/+R, DVD-/+RW, etc.). Empirically, CD-Rs I've
burned on a Sony DVD+RW drive seem to be less compatible with audio
players than the same manufacturer's media burned on the old Yamaha.
So I'm inclined to be cautious selecting drives for a new machine.
What manufacturers and models do audio people prefer these days?

If I could afford to, I'd go all Plextor... best reason being this one I
read years ago: Plextor makes *only* optical-disc drives; they HAVE to
always turn out the best product they can. One bad batch could end the
whole company. That level of quality control isn't such a concern to
outfits like Sony, Yamaha, LG, etc., to whom optical drives probably
account for only a fraction of a percent of their business.

That said, I've had a Plextor 4X SCSI CD-R drive that's been working
flawlessly for a good, oh, 7 or 8 years now...

Of course, your average ATAPI CD-RW drives can now be had for around
$50, and most carry a one-year warranty... then again, with DVD drives
now sporting DVD+/-RW/RAM/DualLayer support for well under $100, I
haven't found a reason to recommend anyone settle for a CD-RW or even
CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive anymore.

Matt Ion wrote:

If I could afford to, I'd go all Plextor... best reason being this one I
read years ago: Plextor makes *only* optical-disc drives; they HAVE to
always turn out the best product they can. One bad batch could end the
whole company. That level of quality control isn't such a concern to
outfits like Sony, Yamaha, LG, etc., to whom optical drives probably
account for only a fraction of a percent of their business.

Plextor does not manufacture optical drives. The drives they sell are
OEM'd by various manufacturers and then loaded with (mostly) Plextor
firmware and bundled with (mostly) Plextor utilities.

They're still great drives...

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:19:49 -0800, Kurt Albershardt wrote:

Matt Ion wrote:
If I could afford to, I'd go all Plextor... best reason being this one
I read years ago: Plextor makes *only* optical-disc drives; they HAVE
to always turn out the best product they can. One bad batch could end
the whole company. That level of quality control isn't such a concern
to outfits like Sony, Yamaha, LG, etc., to whom optical drives probably
account for only a fraction of a percent of their business.

Plextor does not manufacture optical drives. The drives they sell are
OEM'd by various manufacturers and then loaded with (mostly) Plextor
firmware and bundled with (mostly) Plextor utilities.

They're still great drives...




Having taken a couple of their drives apart I've not noticed anything that
was obviously made by anyone else. If they were OEM drives then surely
other manufacturers would incorporate many of Plextor's features. The only
Plextor branded drives that are probably rebadged are the small laptop
style drives.

Are you sure that you aren't confusing Plextor with companies like Lacie
or HP?

Anyway, I'd also echo the recommendation for the Premium but I'd also
suggest looking at the PX712 or 716 DVD drives which incorporate all of
the Premium's testing features.

Cheers.

James.

Plextor does make their own drives.Other companies rebadge them as their
own.




James Perrett wrote in message
news
On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:19:49 -0800, Kurt Albershardt wrote:

Matt Ion wrote:
If I could afford to, I'd go all Plextor... best reason being this one
I read years ago: Plextor makes *only* optical-disc drives; they HAVE
to always turn out the best product they can. One bad batch could end
the whole company. That level of quality control isn't such a concern
to outfits like Sony, Yamaha, LG, etc., to whom optical drives probably
account for only a fraction of a percent of their business.

Plextor does not manufacture optical drives. The drives they sell are
OEM'd by various manufacturers and then loaded with (mostly) Plextor
firmware and bundled with (mostly) Plextor utilities.

They're still great drives...




Having taken a couple of their drives apart I've not noticed anything that
was obviously made by anyone else. If they were OEM drives then surely
other manufacturers would incorporate many of Plextor's features. The only
Plextor branded drives that are probably rebadged are the small laptop
style drives.

Are you sure that you aren't confusing Plextor with companies like Lacie
or HP?

Anyway, I'd also echo the recommendation for the Premium but I'd also
suggest looking at the PX712 or 716 DVD drives which incorporate all of
the Premium's testing features.

Cheers.

James.

Troy wrote:

James Perrett wrote in message
news
On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:19:49 -0800, Kurt Albershardt wrote:

Matt Ion wrote:

If I could afford to, I'd go all Plextor... best reason being this one
I read years ago: Plextor makes *only* optical-disc drives; they HAVE
to always turn out the best product they can. One bad batch could end
the whole company. That level of quality control isn't such a concern
to outfits like Sony, Yamaha, LG, etc., to whom optical drives probably
account for only a fraction of a percent of their business.

Plextor does not manufacture optical drives. The drives they sell are
OEM'd by various manufacturers and then loaded with (mostly) Plextor
firmware and bundled with (mostly) Plextor utilities.

They're still great drives...




Having taken a couple of their drives apart I've not noticed anything that
was obviously made by anyone else. If they were OEM drives then surely
other manufacturers would incorporate many of Plextor's features. The only
Plextor branded drives that are probably rebadged are the small laptop
style drives.


Plextor does make their own drives.Other companies rebadge them as their
own.

Citation, please?

"Troy" wrote in message
news:isr2e.844146$Xk.781341@pd7tw3no...
Plextor does make their own drives.Other companies rebadge them as their
own.


Plextor are made by NEC, as are 90 percent of the other brands.

jb

Has anyone here had experience with an HP Lightscribe drive yet? I'm
not sure if they're available on the loose yet or just in store-bought
HP and Compaq computers, but I did see some disks advertised a couple
of weeks ago (first time for that) and in small quantities, they were
about 40 cents a piece. That's on par with a dime disk and an
injet-printed label when you consider the cost of the ink.


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

"Mike Rivers" wrote ...
Has anyone here had experience with an HP Lightscribe drive yet? I'm
not sure if they're available on the loose yet or just in store-bought
HP and Compaq computers,

Froogle lists several hundred sources including WalMart.

but I did see some disks advertised a couple
of weeks ago (first time for that) and in small quantities, they were
about 40 cents a piece. That's on par with a dime disk and an
injet-printed label when you consider the cost of the ink.

But monochrome which is not a fair comparison with
color inkjet.

In article writes:

Has anyone here had experience with an HP Lightscribe drive yet?

But monochrome which is not a fair comparison with
color inkjet.

Depends on what you compare. If you don't need to set up the printer
with a jig to carry the disk (probably means you have a printer
dedicated to this), if you don't have to wait for the ink to dry, if
the disks don't stick together eventually, if you're not doing a
"ready for market" product (which I think an inkjet-printed CDR
isn't).

Most of the time I just write on a CD with a Sharpie despite warnings
of many years ago about the solvent qualities of the ink. I just think
that handing someone a reference CD with the info neatly printed on it
would be nice. I don't have a disk-ready printer so I print paper
labels, and never have a working color cartridge in my printer anyway,
so they're always monochrome.

In other words, I don't give a hoot about your objection. Got a better
one?


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo