CD-R media & burners

[GohanX]

Out of the various systems I've used, my Duos weren't picky about media, I could throw any crappy CDR in them as long as it was a good burn of a proper image file. My TGCD/PCE CD drives are a lot pickier and really need the good Taiyo Yudens to read properly. I had one briefcase a while back that wouldn't read any CDR, but purred with legit discs.

[haightc]

That's a pretty sexy looking reprint.   I'm not necessarily looking to make something that looks professional however.   Basically I just want something that's better than sharpie!

When I was at Seattle Retro Gaming Expo, there was a vendor that had a table full of PCE works reproductions that looked real legit.    They were also selling them for a lot less that what PCEWorks charges direct.   But I couldn't make myself pay $20 - $50 for reproduction ofs cd games, I think they where selling MegaMan for like $30.  Plus I have mixed feeling about buying them, but I still picked up a couple legit games.

As far as el cheapo CD-R I have been using a Super CD-ROM2, it seems to play them the same as real discs for me.

[Punch]

I'm starting to think that maybe my Duo's laser is weak and in need of a replacement. It plays perfectly with pressed discs but it's very, VERY picky about burned discs.

I'll probably need to buy the following:
1. new laser
2. oscilloscope
3. freq. counter
4. late 90's Pioneer CD burner.

If someone knows of a cheap alternative to 2 and 3 please let me know. If I recall correctly some Fluke multimeters have a frequency counter function?

[Keith Courage]

Honestly some black DUOs no matter what adjustments are made or having a new lens can sometimes have issues using CD-R discs. No one really knows why.

I don't know what brands of CD-R you have tried since I did not read the earlier posts but I find that many DUOs will work better with one brand vs another. The best over all as far as my testing is concerned has been Sony CD-R Discs. They seem to work in almost everything. I have then had mixed results with the other following brands. Memorex, Verbatim, TDK, and Taiyo Yuden. With those 4 brands it seems to be hit or miss which system will work with them. Some systems reading all and some systems only being able to handle maybe 1 or 2 of the brands.

Lightscribe, no matter what brand, is the most difficult for any game system to read. Not saying they won't work. Just saying that the chances are much lower especially with a Black DUO. Also, I can hear a considerable difference in volume of CD lens whine with lightscribe vs a non lightscribe disc.

[Gypsy]

I'm starting to think that maybe my Duo's laser is weak and in need of a replacement. It plays perfectly with pressed discs but it's very, VERY picky about burned discs.

I'll probably need to buy the following:
1. new laser
2. oscilloscope
3. freq. counter
4. late 90's Pioneer CD burner.

If someone knows of a cheap alternative to 2 and 3 please let me know. If I recall correctly some Fluke multimeters have a frequency counter function?

If you need a scope, I have a smaller one I don't really use. Tenma 72-300A. If it would suit your needs, shoot me a message.

[Punch]

I'm starting to think that maybe my Duo's laser is weak and in need of a replacement. It plays perfectly with pressed discs but it's very, VERY picky about burned discs.

I'll probably need to buy the following:
1. new laser
2. oscilloscope
3. freq. counter
4. late 90's Pioneer CD burner.

If someone knows of a cheap alternative to 2 and 3 please let me know. If I recall correctly some Fluke multimeters have a frequency counter function?

If you need a scope, I have a smaller one I don't really use. Tenma 72-300A. If it would suit your needs, shoot me a message.

It would, definitely, but the shipping $$$ would probably be more expensive than sourcing one locally. Thanks a lot for the offer though.

[Punch]

An update: I actually bought a 50 disc spindle of Taiyo Yuden 650 mb discs from the Japans and, after some calibration, games run perfectly... it still gives me the problem where it goes too far on the edge of the disc but at least the laser manages to correct itself instead of doing it over and over (I feel like this might be a gear cleaning issue).

Laser calibration is not perfect (I really don't have the patience to finetune it lol) but it's obviously 250% better than regular cds. It even plays It Came From the Desert without glitching itself to death now (I feel like this is the perfect game to test lasers with, since it's streaming stuff it can crash the game anytime), even if there are some pauses during FMVs.

I need to stock up on these.

[geise]

Did you ever get the caps redone? Those also affect the lens.  The replacement hopm3 lasers also seem to be a bit weaker than the originals.  650 mb discs are the way to go though.

[Punch]

Did you ever get the caps redone? Those also affect the lens.  The replacement hopm3 lasers also seem to be a bit weaker than the originals.  650 mb discs are the way to go though.

I think so, I bought it from Galam but he didn't remember if it was done or not. Lots of full size through hole capacitors in the board so I'm assuming yes.

Also I think I celebrated too early, Vasteel still gives me issues loading the title screen audio track at the edge of the disc. This is going to drive me nuts someday. I still think it might be something in the motor's thread, it has some dark stuff in it, not sure if I'm supposed to clean it off or apply more lithium grease. It kinda looks like this pic, but with less "grease" at the beggining of the rotor thing:

[geise]

I would clean and regrease the gears with the white lithium grease. For a long time i would get audio cutting out randomly. A regrease would do the trick. I still had a few issues for a couple years. Knew it probably had to do with the rest of the caps.  Had thesteve here finish the cap replacement for me. Now all is well. I would see if someone on your side of the pond does duo cap replacements. Also i forget, did you hopefully not mess with the pots yet?

[wolfman]

What kind of burning hardware and discs do you use for burning backups and/or PCE development?

I was wondering about decent CD backups lately, and one question came to mind: can burned CDs have the same (or close) quality to pressed discs? I'm pretty much speculating here but wasn't the CDR made to be fully compatible with existing CD technology?

Anyway... I was thinking about buying some Taiyo Yudens and japanese Verbatim/Mitsubishi Phono-Rs to see if I can get most of the games I don't want to pay a fortune for running OK, but based on my experience with silver MAM-As I think I'll need a decent burner, too. At least something capable of writing slower than 10x.

I use standard white labeled (printable) CDROMs, burned with a standard DVD/CD drive in my win10 PC. Always burn them with max speed, never had trouble with that. Will run great on a perfectly setup CDROM2 drive.