CD-Writers

Can anyone recommend somewhere in Auckland to purchase a CD-writer at a reasonable price?
Cheers

Dunno where, but if your into burning dance cds, get a 700mb/80mins rather then a 750mb/74min Burner

Dance CDS are mostly over 74mins and it sucks when you have to cut a track out..

bounce

jass, ya miss read the question. he didnt ask what is the best CD_R to buy, but what is th best CD_Writer to buy in AK.
well theres afew in Noel Lemming and other computer stores between $289 -$380 yea they are pretty good quality, make sure you get 1 with at least 10x write speed, and a buffer error check thing. helps prevent while you copy you CD to fuck up.

Go for online. Ascent.co.nz is a tad more expensive than some places, but has a really good reputation, and excellent service - free delivery too. They've also got a good range.

In terms of the size of CDs to burn, most new ones can do the 700MB CDs now, but more importantly is their ability to burn copy protected CDs (aka watermarked)

You might want to check potential CD writers here: http://www.elby.org/CloneCD/english/ for what modes they can record in. It has a key to explain what the different modes allow you to do.

Shitty CD writers can fuck up the run-in times on tracks, and some put 2 second gaps in between music trakcs. Really annoying in a good mix CD (or a NiN album!).

RAW-DAO 96 and RAW+96 are good.

Thanx for the advice

*voiceinsideyou* you are a voice inside me! damm.

good on the info man.

Banga69

no i understood his question, and answered with 'i dunno' I then added something else to it just in case he didnt know about Burner MB's, like me before i bought 1...

and for you knowledge, if you have a 650mb burner, you cant burn 80mins/700mb CDs... this sucks because dance cds are generally longer. Some people might not know that, i sure didnt...

sweet as *Jass*..
yea i knew that.
l8r

Dicksmith are selling 16 speed internal for $379 (or there abouts) Have a look at www.dse.co.nz

no worries Banga...

burners are the shit. Luv mine to bits

CD Writers are so cheap now. I paid $400 for a second hand 2x writer a while back. Now that would get me a 16x now!

hey if ya guys wana be cheap about, but this is after when u get a CD-Writer.
Just go to any CD store buy i CD take it home copy it an next day take it back and make an excuse like its scratched or something. it works too.
sgud try it=)

Yeah, United Video in Wellington hire out PC games. I'll let you guess what happens to them.

if you're not too worried about 'service' then www.e-one.co.nz have stuff REALLY cheap, although limited product range. I can get you the VIP price too if you're keen.

Just had a quick look on Ascent.co.nz, and they have Plextor 40/16/10's on there for $420. Plextor are the fucking bomb, they make the best shit.

The other thing you want/need to keep an eye out for with any writer you buy is "buffer underrun protection". Ask the sales guys if it has it before you buy. This prevents you from making yourself a set of nice shiny coasters.

If you don't have a massively powerful PC, or you like to multitask while burning, this can be really worthwhile eh. If you don't get this, check the size of the internal CDW memory buffer. Bigger is better, but 2-4MB is pretty good.

Seriously, it may sound quite geeky, but it is a good idea to check those DAO+96 modes etc on that clonecd site above. (the link I gave above, and then "supported writers" on the menu)

A lot of new CDs are going to start coming out with some kind of copy protection, and having the "correct EFM encoding" setting could be valuable in the future.

Also, clonecd is the best proggy for CD to CD copying I am told.

Hey voiceinside you, one thing I have noticed about AK is that no one hires PC games except for the library! It is very rudeass! I've had to buy games!

*grin* Yeah, I have DSL (just JetStart) and I spend far too much time on KaZaA. Just got NHL 2002, Fifa 2002, Grand Theft Auto 2 and Civilization 3 today. I don't even play games much.... but I've got DSL, so why not do a bit of d/ling. *smile* Still waiting for the nasty e-mail from Xtra.

Hmm, could do with a 700MB copy of Matlab and all the add-ons too I suppose. *starts d/ling*

And I don't have a burner. Damn. I know a fair bit as I have been considering getting one lately, and have been brought up to speed by a mate.

I have been giving word that the Ricoh drives run well for the price, although they're hard to find,

helpful thread

check www.sharkyextreeme.com (mayhaps with 1 e) for forums and reviews on everyting hard and soft.

simpill

Yeah, skarky is good. Also good are anandtech.com and tomshardware.com if you're so inclined.

are there any mirc chatrooms/servers that are good for that sort of angle?
....(inclination).....
.......(incline)-
>///,,<<<\\\\ angle

Shit. And I thought I was a nerd voice... Whats your tomshardware forum name?

pb technology in penrose dude got a 16*10*32 for $320 installed and check this it wa sa richo one not sure of the number but dude high tail it out there blank cds are so farking cheap to haha

voiceinsideyou: himmm matlab, could there be a fellow engineer (or similar) lurking on biggie?

transtemp: Fuck no, I stay away from forums. I just did a fuck of a lot of research before I bought my PC about six months ago (as I built it myself) into all the components. But yeah, I'm sure I am a nerd. It's a hobby damnit, not a lifestyle. (I'm not a counterstrike player -> surely that redeems me somewhat)

trapper: Mathematics + comp. sci student. I don't actually know Matlab, but want to learn. I've done all my maths so far in Maple, and always find I want to be able to do more. But anyway.

When you buy a writer, make sure it has "Burnproof" protection, this helps prevent coaster manufacture...
I suggest "Nero burning Rom" as your software, it will let you create albums that have no gap between tracks, and you can burn upto 90mins if you've brought the right disks....

BigDaddy: Yeah, BurnProof = buffer underrun protection, as I suggested earlier in the thread. There are other names for it as well.

Yeah, Nero is pretty good, but I hear CloneCD is much more powerful. Maybe not for the newbies though.

WTF "Dunno where, but if your into burning dance cds, get a 700mb/80mins rather then a 750mb/74min Burner "

This has nothing to do with your CD writer. Its the size of the media you purchase... ie. 74min or 80min cds...

Yeah, the /really/ old CD burners couldn't burn the 700MB CDs .... And I'm talking /really/ old here. All the ones now do though, and as you say it's just a media issue really.

Ahhhh ol' skool hardware Only really ever
played with newer drives...

Yeah, my mate spent vast amounts of money and got one of the original 8/4 CD writers (no rewriteables here!) and when GC Discotech came out I wanted him to copy it for me for a mate and it wouldn't work on the 700MB CDs that Discotech needed. Anyway.

voice - i have used CDclone too, mainly to back-up Playstation games using direct disk copy (without imaging i think?), find nero easier for music though...

you guys who buy then burn cds are a bunch of cunts!and have no respect for any producer of any music. its like stealing but you have to be a bigger wanker.

Fair call, I suppose. I'm getting one and using it for backup up my personal files and making compilation CDs for myself out of the CDs I already own. Oh, and burning CDs of Futurama episodes.

Anyway, there's a bigger debate at stake hear, re: price of CDs etc. I just can't be bothered going into it.

I have a rather old HP CD Writer, and now I have installed XP, the piece of shit crashes when trying to access this drive. Oh well, don't really need XP anyway.

pooley: not everyone uses CDRs for pirating music.

An interesting thing I came across a while ago was CDRs that had an RIAA fee embedded in the cost of the blank CDs. So you could legally copy relevant artists' material onto these CDs.

Really? I hadn't heard of anything like that.... interesting though. So what was the price of the CDR then? $30? *grin*

I'm sure you must be able to get it working with WinXP....! Have you tried doing a firmware upgrade of the drive? Playing with DMA / sync data transfer? Master/slave?

Oh no, look, you've lured me into horrible troubleshooting!

Nah, haven't played around much. However, I have been informed by my flatmate who is more in touch with his hardware (I'm a software guy) and he says there are definately some problems with XP and the early model HP CD-Writers.

I wouldn't worry about it anyway. The XP drivers for my video cards don't support dual monitors, so I'm going to have to ditch XP anyway ...can't wait around for new drivers, how else will I be able to post on biggie all day and do work at the same time

Haha.

Yeah I switched to 2K, and the only hardware problem I have had (I love it c.f. Win9 is massive problems with my Soundblaster Live 5.1. Fucking shoddy WDM drivers from Creative I reckon.

Anyway, I'm switching my parents to XP Home in a week or so - it'll be my first experience with the OS. I checked all the drivers and stuff, they only need a new printer. (Their old one sucks anyway, and they wanted a new one)