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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 119 responses total. |
ashke
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response 25 of 119:
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May 28 19:28 UTC 2001 |
it depends, how fast are you writing, and buy cds in BULK
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scott
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response 26 of 119:
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May 28 20:02 UTC 2001 |
Try a slower write speed to start with, and avoid multi-tasking while burning.
Once you get things working correctly it should be pretty much error free.
I doubt you'll get a reliable full write speed using USB, though. And what
version of Windows?
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krj
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response 27 of 119:
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May 28 22:09 UTC 2001 |
Sigh. Disc #2, although the program claimed to have written it successfully,
also failed. So the score is: one good disc, followed by three failures.
The sucessful disc was built on the assumption that the disc would only
be 74 minutes long, although I have 80 minute media. I thought I had
successfully converted Easy CD Creator to figure time on 80 minutes,
but I guess that should be an area to look at. Everything so far has
been written at 4x; I'll try dropping back to 2x. The media have all been
700mb/80min TDK discs; I have some Imation discs I suppose I could try.
We're currently running the cd writer on a Windows ME (Millenium Edition)
machine, though we'll be dropping back to a Windows 98 machine eventually.
(The Windows ME machine is Leslie's travelling machine so it will be
spending the summer in Europe.) One problem seems to be getting the
screen savers to drop out -- there seem to be multiple levels of them.
I'm trying not to multitask anything while writing the CD, but getting all
the installed software to shut up is being a problem.
CompUSA has 100 650mb/74min discs for $30, without boxes. Unless there's a
cheap source for cases -- preferably the slimline ones -- this doesn't seem
to be much savings, since eventually I want them in cases.
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krj
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response 28 of 119:
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May 29 00:19 UTC 2001 |
Cutting the speed from 4x to 2x, and getting the power management screen
shutoff out of the way, has produced a second successful disc.
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scott
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response 29 of 119:
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May 29 01:29 UTC 2001 |
Check your BIOS for power saving stuff as well.
WinME? Ick. I highly recommend Linux for CD burning, although on a laptop
with a USB unit you'll probably have to wait a year for all the drivers to
be common. You might also look into other CD software; Easy CD Creator has
come under a lot of fire lately for general crappiness as well as a truly
nasty system-destroying bug in a piece of bundled software (probably you
didn't get it with the CD-burner pack edition, though).
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krj
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response 30 of 119:
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May 29 02:58 UTC 2001 |
I've heard about the Easy CD Creator system-killing bug; everything I've
read indicates that it's a Windows 2000 issue, so I'm not going to worry
about it.
I've got MusicMatch software in the bundle which came with the Iomega
CD writer, so I may eventually play with that.
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dbratman
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response 31 of 119:
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May 29 07:37 UTC 2001 |
The previous ten messages convince me, as if I didn't suspect it
already, that home CD-burning is emphatically not worth the trouble.
This prompts me to raise a vaguely related question, insofar as it
discusses disks the same size as a CD. Is it normal for a DVD player
to have trouble reading a perfectly OK DVD? I often have to put mine
in my player several times and let the machine grind away
unsuccessfully before it finally catches whatever it's trying to catch,
after which it plays fine. This happens with most of my DVDs.
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scott
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response 32 of 119:
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May 29 11:21 UTC 2001 |
Home CD burning is quite worth the trouble, although I'll admit it took some
time to figure out under Linux.
There's some little story on The Register this morning about how the Easy CD
Creator bug may indeed affect Win9x, although I didn't bother to read it. In
any case, it's not directly with the CD software but with some kind of system
recovery tool that installs from the same package if you leave the defaults
on.
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krj
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response 33 of 119:
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May 29 18:00 UTC 2001 |
This is still with Easy CD Creator version 5, and (phew!) I'm
hopefully-safely back with version 4.02d.
David, this is fun!
There's just a learning curve involved.
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scott
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response 34 of 119:
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May 29 18:16 UTC 2001 |
(This week I'm finally going to drag my ass over to the home-movie to video
transfer place and get our old family movies done. They claim to be able to
do digital formats, in which case I should be able to just burn copies for
all the family members instead of doing crappy VCR-VCR copies. It's well
worth the effort of setting up a CD burner when you start getting into
applications like this. Then there's the 7 or so CDs worth of scanned family
slides I did...)
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krj
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response 35 of 119:
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May 29 21:00 UTC 2001 |
News item: Gracenote, who have a database of CD titles and song tracks,
has filed a lawsuit against Roxio, the makers of Easy CD Creator.
Gracenote wanted money for all of the users of Easy CD Creator, after
building its database as an open-source style project. Gracenote is
claiming that Roxio's attempt to use a different CD database is a
copyright infringement. Probably should keep the copyright issue in
other items, but I thought I'd mention this item here since we were
discussing Easy CD Creator.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2764843,00.html
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mcnally
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response 36 of 119:
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May 29 23:39 UTC 2001 |
I've never heard of the Easy CD Creator "system killer" bug
(I seem to be growing increasingly out-of-touch..) but I've
been experiencing frequent burn problems ever since I switched
from my old machine to a newer machine into which I had installed
a faster CD-RW unit bundled with Easy CD Creator software.
My error rate has been so high with the new combination that I've
pretty much decided to remove the relatively expensive "new" burner
and switch back to my slower, but far more reliable, old one.
My suspicion is that Easy CD Creator is the problem -- it seems like
a terrible piece of software, but I'm not motivated enough to try and
debug the combination thoroughly..
I have found that with all three of the CD-R or CD-RW units I've owned
over the years that it makes a considerable difference what brand of
blanks I buy. Between Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples I can
generally find one of the office superstore chains that are selling
blanks at some preposterously low price after rebate. At the moment
I've got three or four 50-disc spindles of varying brands, none of which
cost me more than $20 after rebate, and two of which were "free" (excluding
sales tax and a stamp to mail in the rebate forms..)
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dbratman
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response 37 of 119:
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May 30 17:08 UTC 2001 |
It's not your learning curve I'm worried about so much, Ken, as the CD-
burner's learning curve.
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krj
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response 38 of 119:
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May 30 19:01 UTC 2001 |
I'm only out $4 in "coasters" so far, and I buy expensive blanks at
$1 each including the box. (And I still have the boxes!) I've now
done three successful burns in a row; I will leave things set the
way they are for now, but eventually I do want to see if I can go
back up to 4x speed if I have the screen saver/power management stuff
shut down.
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ashke
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response 39 of 119:
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May 31 11:25 UTC 2001 |
Like I said ken, I have boxes from "the beginning" when I did that, 2 years
ago, when you couldn't get cds on a spindle for cheaper. So I have a HUGE
backlog of boxes. However, if you go to Best Buy or CompUSA, you can buy
cases, slimlines are more for the $$ and you can get a lot for cheap. Trust
me, it's worth it.
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scott
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response 40 of 119:
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May 31 13:28 UTC 2001 |
CompUSA tends to creep me out, but they do seem to have the cheapest media
(even if you buy a name-brand spindle instead of a shrinkwrap "too cheap even
for a spindle" bundle of generic media).
Plus you can find interesting orphaned computer stuff being sold off, like
the touchpad mice I bought 3 of a few weeks ago.
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ashke
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response 41 of 119:
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May 31 17:37 UTC 2001 |
CompUSA tends to creep me out too, but sometimes they're cheaper than Best
Buy and just down the walk. I much preferred the one in Novi, until I began
to know more than the sales staff, and I had to stop myself from correcting
them in front of the customers. I don't like going somehwere and they don't
know the difference between a Zip and the new 250 Zip...
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krj
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response 42 of 119:
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May 31 17:59 UTC 2001 |
resp:38 :: mission accomplished. With the power management and screen
saver stuff switched off, I can reliably run the CD writer at 4x, which is its
top rated speed.
Now I'm fussing over between-track timings.
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dbratman
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response 43 of 119:
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May 31 18:38 UTC 2001 |
Ken, you sound a lot happier than you did before. Those initial posts
came across as those of a deeply frustrated man.
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scott
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response 44 of 119:
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May 31 20:37 UTC 2001 |
True enjoyment requires suffering. :)
On the subject of CompUSA and cheap media, has anybody actually tried one of
those generic bundles of CD-R?
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micklpkl
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response 45 of 119:
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May 31 21:41 UTC 2001 |
resp:44 - I'm 3/4 of the way down a stack of 100 of the generic CD-Rs at
the moment. I actually counted the "coasters" last night, and I've made eight
of the buggers, out of the 77 that I've used so far. A couple of these seemed
to be poor quality in the media (weird distortions in the audio upon playback)
but most were a result of my under-powered computer.
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krj
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response 46 of 119:
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Jun 1 01:08 UTC 2001 |
I'm looking for control of between-track spacing while recording as
"disc-at-once." Mickey described a PAUSE column to me in the CD Layout
window, but I don't seem to have that option. My Easy CD Creator is
version "4.02d S45" copyright 1999.
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krj
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response 47 of 119:
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Jun 1 01:14 UTC 2001 |
I found a zdnet page saying that this feature comes with Easy CD Creator
Deluxe, not with the OEM versions shipped with burners. How annoying.
I certainly don't want to touch Version 5. I will need to come up
with ten seconds of silence as a track, I guess, to insert between
an album and the filler tracks.
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ashke
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response 48 of 119:
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Jun 1 03:28 UTC 2001 |
There is no version 5, just 4....to my knowledge. What you could do, is find
someone to loan your theirs or burn a copy of their cd for you to install...
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krj
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response 49 of 119:
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Jun 1 05:45 UTC 2001 |
(See above responses. Easy CD Creator Version 5 is reported to be a
system-killer in Windows 2000 and to cause serious performance problems
with Windows 9x, according to http://www.theregister.co.uk .
The Register tends a bit towards yellow tech journalism, but I've
seen the Windows 2000 story elsewhere. One might also look at
http://www.roxio.com .)
Mickey showed me how to create 15 seconds of silence
with Windows Sound Recorder, and that's all that I need. I just
like a few quiet moments between the end of an album, and the filler
tracks I might stuff in at the end.
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