Computeer burned CD's

[TomTerw]

I have an extensive collection of audio CD's burned from my computer. Invariably, after a year or so they start going bad. I know it is not my CD player, because when they go bad, they also will not read back on my computer at anything approaching full speed. Typically when the computer read speed gets down to 1.0x or less the CD will no longer play on the CD player (not surprising). Over the years I have tried numerous different brands of blank CD's. Some seem to be better than others, but all seem to develop problems after a couple of years of storage. After burning a CD, I always re-read it on my computer, and it always reads at 20x or better, so it would seem the burn process is working ok. Now, I also have numerous commercial CD's, many well over 10 years old, and none of them have ever had any problem (so, again, I am assumimg my CD player is fine).

Anybody have any ideas and/or suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong?

[PDN]

Interesting observation. This is not a highly researched answer. My instinct tells me that the quality of the CD burning machines and recorders used by the national record companies are at the professional level and the little CD burners in our PCs are low end cheapo units good enough for copying data CDs. Remember too that the factory CDs we buy are produced from the original studio master recordings. By the time the music gets to your CD-R, it's just a copy. If you copy a factory CD, your CD-R is a clone of that digital music. If you burn a CD-R from a compressed MP3 file you downloaded, it's also a copy of a copy. Know what I mean?

[poppachubby]

I don't have any extensive knowledge on this subject. What I can tell you is that you need to get a Plexwriter. An engineer friend of mine gave me his old one. I burn CD's at 12x speed, with the laser burning really deep.

Believe it or not, when you rush the process it effects the burn. Also, you need a burner that can control the laser strength, like the Plexwriter. Combined with a top shelf blank CD, my discs sound great and last forever.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/5328/1

Hope this helps...

[02audionoob]

I've never had CDs fail but I suspect you should use quality name-brand CDs and a quality name-brand drive, as noted in the replies of others here. It could just be luck, though. Those things don't last forever.

[TomTerw]

I don't have any extensive knowledge on this subject. What I can tell you is that you need to get a Plexwriter. An engineer friend of mine gave me his old one. I burn CD's at 12x speed, with the laser burning really deep.

Believe it or not, when you rush the process it effects the burn. Also, you need a burner that can control the laser strength, like the Plexwriter. Combined with a top shelf blank CD, my discs sound great and last forever.

OK, I am not familiar with a plexwriter. Is it a replacement for my computer CD burner drive? Where do I get it and how much does it cost?

[Feanor]

I have an extensive collection of audio CD's burned from my computer. Invariably, after a year or so they start going bad. I know it is not my CD player, because when they go bad, they also will not read back on my computer at anything approaching full speed. Typically when the computer read speed gets down to 1.0x or less the CD will no longer play on the CD player (not surprising). Over the years I have tried numerous different brands of blank CD's. Some seem to be better than others, but all seem to develop problems after a couple of years of storage. After burning a CD, I always re-read it on my computer, and it always reads at 20x or better, so it would seem the burn process is working ok. Now, I also have numerous commercial CD's, many well over 10 years old, and none of them have ever had any problem (so, again, I am assumimg my CD player is fine).

Anybody have any ideas and/or suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong?

Original CDs are made in a completely different manner than CD-Rs so it's not surprising that they won't have the problem.

I don't know the whole story, but the life span of CR-Rs has often been questioned. Neverthless a year is an exceptionally short life span. Since you've tried different blank CD-Rs and they have the same problem ... guess what? ... the culprit is probably your computer's CD burner. Get a new one.

[Ed_in_Tx]

Only ones I've had problems with either staticy pb or not playing are those with adhesive labels on them. Other CD-Rs I have from 10 years ago play fine. Those are mostly Verbatim, Maxell, Sony, and some gold "GQ Great Quality" Fry's house brand. I've also always burned audio CDs at 2X or 4X with an HP drive in that computer, an older PIII-850 I have pretty much dedicated just for making or copying CDs, or 2X on a Marantz dual well CD recorder.

What's startin' to piss me off though are some CDs I have BOUGHT are actually CD-Rs. When I get one like that I make back-up copies.

[Feanor]

Only ones I've had problems with either staticy pb or not playing are those with adhesive labels on them. Other CD-Rs I have from 10 years ago play fine. Those are mostly Verbatim, Maxell, Sony, and some gold "GQ Great Quality" Fry's house brand. I've also always burned audio CDs at 2X or 4X with an HP drive in that computer, an older PIII-850 I have pretty much dedicated just for making or copying CDs, or 2X on a Marantz dual well CD recorder.

What's startin' to piss me off though are some CDs I have BOUGHT are actually CD-Rs. When I get one like that I make back-up copies.

Ah! Very interesting.

You say the only ones that don't play have adhesive labels? I suppose you put on the labels after the discs are burned? I wonder if the labels are the problem somehow? For instance, perhaps they attract a static charge that increases over time?

[Ed_in_Tx]

Ah! Very interesting.

You say the only ones that don't play have adhesive labels? I suppose you put on the labels after the discs are burned? I wonder if the labels are the problem somehow? For instance, perhaps they attract a static charge that increases over time?

From what I've gathered the label issue has to do with the adhesive of some labels gradually seeping through the acrylic coating on the back of the CD-R that protects the aluminized reflective layer, messing up the reflectivity. I think I have an example here, one here less than 3 years old a friend made on a Memorex CD-R used to play fine, now plays with horrible static until it quits playing altogether. It has a label on it.

[audio amateur]

I thought CDRs lasted forever..

[poppachubby]

OK, I am not familiar with a plexwriter. Is it a replacement for my computer CD burner drive? Where do I get it and how much does it cost?

Did you read the link I posted? Yes, it's a CD burner and player for your comp. It would replace your existing model, which by the sounds of it might be done anyhow...

[Glen B]

From what I've gathered the label issue has to do with the adhesive of some labels gradually seeping through the acrylic coating on the back of the CD-R that protects the aluminized reflective layer, messing up the reflectivity.

I had a similar problem with one of my earlier CD-Rs with adhesive labels, before I started using printable disks. When I tried to peel off the adhesive label, it pulled the entire reflective layer along with it. I've been keeping an eye on my other CD-Rs with adhesive labels and they're all still okay. Now, when I do needledrops, I save the WAV files to my hard drive in case I ever need to burn a new CD-R.

[noddin0ff]

It's just the quality of the CD-R. Quality varies. Generally, cheap, off brand CD-Rs will fail faster than premium brands. The inner layer oxidizes away and there's a dye that is used that also degrades. Brand isn't completely reliable as an indicator of longevity but it's the best you have. Shop shrewdly, shop for quality.

Also you can read up on Wiki under 'Expected Lifespan"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R

Wiki suggests a inconclusive link to paste-on labels (i.e. speculation).

[Feanor]

Here's another instance where our original poster has apparently never returned.

Why? Dunno: I guess either (1) he forgot he asked, (2) got what he wanted and forgot to say "thanks", or (3) he's given up because he didn't get the monosyllabic, one-line, definitive answer he's able to understand.

[bfalls]

I burn a lot of CD-Rs and DVD+Rs at work (Sony). There are several burning apps which have a "burning optimizer" (IMGBurn to name one) which calibrates the laser to burn at an optimal level. Burning at too low or too high a level can cause jitter.

Although most of our media arrives via high-speed data transfer, many still provide DVD masters and CDs on burned media. We usually don't keep burned media after it's transferred to our mastering system, so I can't provide any feedback for disc longevity. I'll ask our Premastering dept. They may have some experience with it.

[Feanor]

I burn a lot of CD-Rs and DVD+Rs at work (Sony). There are several burning apps which have a "burning optimizer" (IMGBurn to name one) which calibrates the laser to burn at an optimal level. Burning at too low or too high a level can cause jitter.

....

Thanks, bfalls. I'm going to give IMGBurn a try.

[audio amateur]

Here's another instance where our original poster has apparently never returned.

Why? Dunno: I guess either (1) he forgot he asked, (2) got what he wanted and forgot to say "thanks", or (3) he's given up because he didn't get the monosyllabic, one-line, definitive answer he's able to understand.

Annoying isn't it?
He did actually return once, so he's not as bad as others.

[Feanor]

Annoying isn't it?
He did actually return once, so he's not as bad as others.

My appologies to him; he did return once.