I have a stand alone Traxdata 900 CD Recorder and a stand alone Marantz CD player, had them now for well over 10 years. Now the problem I have just noticed is when I burn a disc as an audio CD say a compilation of mp3's no matter what speed using Nero or Burrrn the disc will not read or play on the Traxdata recorder, and yet I have burned in the past and it has been fine. I recently bought a new Samsung writer SH-S222A, and it is this I use to burn my discs. I first noticed a problem when I used a high capacity CD-R 800MB, and noticed that on some tracks the search would not work on the Marantz player, for instance if I place a disc in the Marantz, and click on track 3, I will hear it searching then it will fail, but if I were to try a few times it will eventually play the track, now this is on the Marantz CD player. But the main problem are those burned discs using that writer, they don't seem to be able to be read by the Traxdata stand alone recorder, and wondered if there was any reason for this, this problem occurs on many brands of discs, the same brands that used to work on the stand alone recorder with no problems. Would the problem be perhaps down to the writer being too new, and the recorder stand alone being too old? The firmware on the writer is the latest version by the way. And there are sufficient gaps between each track. Any ideas please?
1) The old player wasn't made to read burned disks. Burned disks reflect less light making the signal fainter. The way your burner burns may also be a problem. Maybe it burns bigger or smaller than the old player 'likes'. I bet it burns smaller. If that is the case, burning slower would be better because the burn marks are bigger. I would not worry about firmware not being up to date with your old player & burner. The reverse is likely your burner is too modern. You will need to play around. I sure as hell wouldn't be trying to feed those old boys 800 mb disks. They were built to read 700s. I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Hi Mez, Yeah, it started out that I noticed the problem on my Marantz, they all play on that one, just the odd search problem, then I noticed that none play at all on the Traxdata, so I think it must be the burner as burned discs from my previous writer did and would play fine on the Traxdata, of course I'm talking about 700MB discs not the 800MB type, although they would play on the Traxdata burned with the older writer using the 800MB. I have a Sony player in the bedroom, and I was thinking of bringing that through, do you think it would be ok to add a third CD stand alone player to my amplifier, but I am not sure what to add it to, either the spare tuner, AUX, or perhaps one of the Tape Dats, would any of these be suitable for a CD connection would you think? I suppose I could remove the Marantz and replace it with the Sony. You mentioned about Speed, I actually tried burning one at 8 speed with the Samsung Writer instead of 16, and still it wouldn't play on the Traxdata.
I am not an expert on this but I do know a little more than you. I would guess newer burners burn smaller pits. Smaller pits are much better for DVDs. I believe each reader will have an optimum size. Because CD players output a relatively strong power and Aux is fine a tape would also do fine. A turn table jack would not be fine. You do buy nice stuff. However, good names do not always translate into better goods especially for CDs. Sony uses lite-on drives for many of its players. Lite on is a cheap but good Chinese brand. The models with the lite on drives are cheaper but some of the better players. I read this while I was keeping up on this kind of thing which I do not now. I suspect making a good CD player is pretty much like making a good sound card. It is not an art anymore. If you are going for max performance, that is always an art. The trouble is how do you know which is better? You can't even hear the difference in a commercial card and a professional card. With the right instrumentation you can. Why spend 1500 for a card you cant hear any quality difference over a 30 card? If you read my top sticky you can actually test your ears between a junk sound card and a professional grade. They make it easier for you to hear the difference by capturing an audio then recapturing it 150 times. I still can't hear the difference. The article is audio myths. It is time well spent. The point they drive home is your hearing is a very blunt instrument. Unless you test blind your brain will always confirm what you believe and they explain why. Amps, speakers and turn tables are still more of an art than a science even though that technology peaked 60s-70s. Today, I don't think that make anything as good as the best back then. That is why old broken top of the line equipment goes for more than it did when it was new.
Thanks Mez for that good info. My writer has the date of April 2010, and it's firmware is up to date. I updated the firmware on my normal DVD Rom to the latest version, would you happen to know if by doing so does this change the region codes to what they were previously? For instance on the other DVD-ROM which is also a Samsung now has region 2 on the Nero Info Tool, I can't remember what it was previously prior to the firmware update, but I just wondered if firmware updates change things like region code prefs.
Just to add, one of the reasons for standalone CD players not playing a particular disc is of course mainly drive/media incompatibility..So why not try different media type.. Sony makes decent CD media..And it's good practice to burn @ half the max rated speed.. I however have no issues burning @ 32-40x with my particular drive(s)..A Pioneer DVR-116D and Sony Optiarc AD-740s..Even the memowreck(yikes) CD's.. JM2Cents worth
Thanks for that, however I did mention on my OP that I have already used many different brands of discs.
I burned at the lowest speed available on the burner which is x8 and that didn't help. I have one of those JVC portable players CD, 2 Tape decks, and Radio combined, had it for close to 18 years and they play the burned discs with no problems, they even play the 800MB burned high capacity disc too.
Then you have your answer. I know from experience unless you buy the best, Plexor, there is no telling which player/burner is best. I bought a cheap computer that had the cheapest burner on the market. That is the best burner ever! Later, Lite-on became known as the value brand (cheap but very good). Even Lite-ons are much more expensive and aren't as good but are still a good buy.
