JVC XLR5020-BK CD Recorder - help please

[patsypatton]

I purchased a JVC CD Recorder off E-Bay--Does anyone have one and can you tell me which CDR and CDRW discs to buy and where to buy? I bought Sony CDR (they don't work)--I had on hand some Memorex Music CDR - I tried one it recorded about 30 seconds or so and stopped. Any suggestions? Thanks, Pat

[Les Adams]

Hi,

I am not familiar with this actual model, but if it is a "domestic" machine (i.e. for home hi-fi), you may need to use what are known as "Consumer" or "For music" CDR discs. Some domestic machines require these discs as they have a copyright levy on them and are encoded. It was a legal requirement for machines specifically manufactured and marketed for home use that they will only work with discs that have a copyright fee paid on them. This is because recording and copying music is the sole function of the machine and therefore copyright infringement is likely to occur! Heaven forbid you should copy a piece of Paul McCartney's work and he doesn't get a royalty! (Or rather his ex-wife doesn't!) The JVC machine may not permit the use of data discs as they do not have this encoding. This is probably why the Memorex "Music" disc worked where data ones didn't.

Quite why it stopped in the middle of a recording is a mystery, but it may have been a faulty disc or, more seriously, the burning laser may be wearing out.

I have a Marantz CDR630 professional CDR recorder that allows the use of data discs for music, but when the laser gets worn, it stars to get fussy about which discs it will burn.

Frankly, DVD / CDR burners for the PC are so cheap (about £30 in the UK) that you may be better of considering that route. It will certainly be a lot cheaper than replacing the laser in the JVC. Also, the need to use "music" CD's does not apply when the writer is installed in a PC as there are many "legal" things such as data that can be recorded without breaking copyright law. Data discs are much cheaper as they are not subject to copyright fees. Apart from that, the discs are exactly the same and will play back perfectly in any normal CD player.

Did you ask the seller about disc requirements or compatability and did you get any kind of warranty, or was it "sold as seen"?

[mikemorrow]

The disk (CDR) that you buy must say Music. As far as stopping. It is my thought that this is the CDR, not the recorder. This has happened to me before, and then the next 30 disk will burn just fine. Good luck.