Description

This article is from the CD-Recordable FAQ, by Andy McFadden (fadden@fadden.com) with numerous contributions by others.

5-5] Which standard CD-ROM drives work well with CD-R?

(1999/09/12)

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 and more recent models 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.

You can see speed and quality test results on http://come.to/cdspeed.

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

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

Continue to:

• prev: 5-4] What kind of Mac is recommended?
• Index
• next: 5-6] What kind of HD should I use with CD-R? Must it be AV-rated?