CD-R brands and my SCD system

[grolt]

I just wanted to follow up with this thread since getting my 650MB discs.  It has been night and day in disc read performance between the new discs and what I was using before.  Before, the music tracks would drop out or not even load during sequences in Ys IV, and it would sometimes be up to 30 seconds to load a small audible cut scene.  Now, the disc loads as if it were a retail disc - the drive is quiet and not always seeking like before, and things load quickly and without fault.  In my case, having the right disc has made a world of difference.

My setup is a PE Engine DUO, and the discs I'm using that work great for me are MAM-A Gold Archival 650MB CD-Rs.  Before I was using high quality 700MB Taiyo Yudens that were nothing but trouble.  To burn the discs I am doing as what was suggested here - ImgBurn at the slowest write speed possible (in my case 4x).  Not sure if it is the 650MB vs. 700MB change that is making the difference, the gold discs versus the green-based Yudens, or some combination of the two, but it really has worked.  I bought my discs on eBay, but 650MB discs seem to be a hard find these days.  Hope this helps someone else, thanks for all your help everyone in this thread.

[esteban]

Makes sense that 72 min is easier to read than 80 min (because of the data spiral being more tightly packed in the disc) but I still think that the dye and manufacturer has more importance in the ease of read for the Duo.

I think I'm going to buy those 100 packs of Taiyo Yudens 80min and see how it goes. There are some overprints for half the price in amazon... hmmm

I think the dye is a significant factor, too. Perhaps a tech guru can tell us if that is a critical aspect.

[780racer]

I have been having an absolute horrible time with the 700 Light scribe discs I got for free from work getting Super CD games to work. (Using Imgburn on 8x as its as low as I can go with my old burner)

They work great for like, most 90% games on my Duo. But Super Air Zonk, and Rondo have both been massive pains in my ass since getting my Duo over a month ago now. I assume Sapphire will also be a huge pain in my ass as well with the current discs.


I will have to try and find some 650 mb CDRs and give them a shot on the more "Super" games I want... As I dont have any actual media for my DUO yet.

Glad someone has brought this up, so I can learn teh thingz. Thanks Internet. *Fist Bump*

[mickcris]

I think I'm going to buy those 100 packs of Taiyo Yudens 80min and see how it goes. There are some overprints for half the price in amazon... hmmm

I bought a pack of those overprints and they are good. They were Walmart photo CDs iirc that they never used. You can scratch the overprint off to see the logo.

[Punch]

For the record, here's a video I made for reference with a cheap ass CDR with Super Raiden burned on it. I'll see if I can buy the overprint Taiyos and maybe find some 650 MB discs for comparison.

*edit* no reason to post the video now that I think about it. I'll do some testing once I have the cd-rs and post a complete video comparing loading times, track skip, etc.

[SamIAm]

Arrgh, I'm such a cheapskate.

These 650 MB Taiyo Yudens cost more for a pack of 50 than the 700 MB versions cost for a pack of 100. If I got three 700MB/100 packs, I would be set for a loooong time. But if Taiyo Yuden is going out of business, maybe I should bite the bullet and get the 650s.

On the other hand, though I never get the "thunk" sound anymore with 700 MB Taiyo Yudens, I do experience periodic stalls when loading...particularly with Dracula X and Cotton. The thing is, I'm not sure if it's the discs or the drives, because I experience occasional stalls with real CDs, too.

Music never drops out on me with 700s, and I've never had one fail to load completely. Hmm...

I suppose I could buy one 650MB/50 pack and experiment...

[Bonknuts]

Dracula X does a lot of seeking and sector loading from different areas of the data track, per level setup (which is slow. why the didn't load a single fast chunk - I dunno). That's probably making it more prone to stalls.

[SamIAm]

I remember you mentioning that, actually. Didn't you say it takes like nine seeks/reads in order to load a level? That's definitely made me less worried. I wonder if Cotton is doing something similar...

[dave_van_damn]

I bought these Taiyo Yudens from amazon UK - but I wonder, are they 'decent' discs because I see people mentioning that you shouldn't use discs with green dye...? Maybe I'm getting confused.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TAIYO-YUDEN-WHITE-INKJET-PRINTABLE/dp/B001UAT9LK

ANYWAY, I've had an absolute nightmare trying to burn PC-CD games without getting burn errors. I've never had as many problems with .isos for DC/PS/PS2 as I've had with PCE.

I've tried 4 different drives on 4 different PCs and I always get burn errors for example with a pre-patched English version of Dracula X I found on a popular iso site. Other games have caused problems, too. In fact the only one that has worked was an iso of Star Paradier.

On 2 set ups I was burning at x4 and on the other 2 I was using x10. All resulted in burn errors during verification. The only time a disc has burned without any errors was when I burned at x16...BUT ISN'T THAT TOO FAST?!

Anyway I thought I'd try the discs I burned despite the verification errors and I had mixed results. Most of them booted up but it took a looooong time to load. I'm not talking minutes here but noticably longer than an original game. As such I panicked and figured they were causing the drive to do more work so I stopped using them. Even Star Parioder, which burned fine, didn't boot the second time I tried it. I'm probably (definitely) being a bit too paranoid but I don't wanna f*ck up my console cos I was too cheap to buy original discs (unless someone out there can 100% guarantee it'll be fine! )

Ugh, it's a minefield, man.

[SamIAm]

I've heard that some burners don't work well at slow speeds.

For me, 16X has always been fine.

What burning software are you using? It's strange that you're getting burn errors. That's a degree of failure much more severe than what we're talking about when we mention overly-fast burning speeds and bad media. If the drive that burned it can't even read it, something seriously wrong is happening.

If you're looking to test your setup, you shouldn't use a patched game like Dracula X. Try ripping one of your real CDs with TurboRip and burning a copy of it. That will rule out the possibility of your rip being bad.

[dave_van_damn]

I've heard that some burners don't work well at slow speeds.

For me, 16X has always been fine.

What burning software are you using? It's strange that you're getting burn errors. That's a degree of failure much more severe than what we're talking about when we mention overly-fast burning speeds and bad media. If the drive that burned it can't even read it, something seriously wrong is happening.

If you're looking to test your setup, you shouldn't use a patched game like Dracula X. Try ripping one of your real CDs with TurboRip and burning a copy of it. That will rule out the possibility of your rip being bad.

I've been using ImgBurn.

And thanks, that's a great idea, I'll try that

ps. x16 on an ancient CDROM2 briefcase.....good idea or bad idea?

[Punch]

Yeah Imgburn/DVD Decrypter is great. You should be fine software wise, it's your drive that's problematic I guess.

[dave_van_damn]

Yeah Imgburn/DVD Decrypter is great. You should be fine software wise, it's your drive that's problematic I guess.

4 different drives on 4 different systems....everything else (DC/PSX/PS2) burns fine. Surely it's a problem with the ISO and not the drives. Or maybe burning at low speeds is ironically resulting in poor burns..?!

I'll try ripping a legit game and seeing if that works

[Keith Courage]

I have been having an absolute horrible time with the 700 Light scribe discs I got for free from work getting Super CD games to work. (Using Imgburn on 8x as its as low as I can go with my old burner)

They work great for like, most 90% games on my Duo. But Super Air Zonk, and Rondo have both been massive pains in my ass since getting my Duo over a month ago now. I assume Sapphire will also be a huge pain in my ass as well with the current discs.


I will have to try and find some 650 mb CDRs and give them a shot on the more "Super" games I want... As I dont have any actual media for my DUO yet.

Glad someone has brought this up, so I can learn teh thingz. Thanks Internet. *Fist Bump*

Lightscribes are much worse than normal CDRs.

[Koop]

This is pretty insightful stuff but I am confused on the dye part. Is there a consensus on which dye is best?