External cd drive

[Debbie Coleman]

Been doing some reading and swotting, on the Brennan website it suggest buying an external cd drive, to prevent wearing out the internal one, [it also states that ripping speed would be faster]  it recommends a couple of suitable ones, I have 3 questions linked to this.

1. Surely the whole point  and function of the B2 is to rip cds up to 2 TB worth and the components should be able to do this.

2. Has anyone bought an external cd drive? If so which one.

3. Neither of the recommendations are available now so what would be a speedy one.

[Daniel Taylor]

I bought this one:  LG Electronics 8X USB 2.0 Super Multi Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer Drive +/-RW External Drive with M-DISC Support (Black) GP65NB60

I'm quite happy with it, but I haven't used in with the B2 yet.  I had a very troublesome 4-disc CD set that was giving my computer's internal CD drive a lot of trouble.  I've found that with several discs, the LG drive seems to be able to read more of them than the old HP LightScribe drive in my computer.  I have intended to try the LG with my B2, and I'm sure I'll get around to it, but since I do all my ripping on my computer, it's not a high priority.

[Debbie Coleman]

Thanks Guys, I have an external cd writer from when I bought the Imac, which doesn't have one, so I am trying to use that having found it in the cupboard, and also found the cable!!

[PMB]

Hi Debbie,

I've used my B2's internal drive to rip a modest 700 odd CDs without an issue and I am sure others have ripped a lot more than that.

An external drive can be faster at ripping, if required.

I have tested an ASUS SDRW-08D2S-U drive but only to check the ripping process with an external drive. Any portable USB 2.0 compatible drive should work. There doesn't appear to be any mains powered desk top units, like the LG GE24, available any more.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Debbie Coleman]

Hi Paul, I had an old Sony SE 206 in the cupboard so I tried that, it works,  it is much faster than the internal Brennan one, and I had 9 cds which the Brennan couldn't rip, the Sony has done 6 of them so a good result.

The compression is ticking along, I have stopped turning off the B2 at night and I just save and leave it to go into standby and do its own thing, we are down to approx 1700 to compress now!!

[Daniel Taylor]

Yesterday, I plugged in my LG GP65NB60 into my B2 and used it just to play a CD.  It paused in the middle of track 1 and then it paused again in the middle of track 2.  It's almost as if the B2 had emptied its buffer and was behind in needing to read more music.  I thought it was very strange.  The disc seems fine - no marks on it - and plays okay on other players.  Just another B2 idiosyncrasy that I will be avoiding.

[Bob West]

Sorry, because some of you have heard this before.  My LG GE24NU40 pauses the audio for several seconds then continues playing normally several times on each track, similar to Daniels problem and this LG is the model that Brennan has said will work with the B2.  FYI when hooked up to my desk top playing the same CD there is no problem.  I bought both the LG and the B2 new.  The only other thing I have thought of to try is to update the software on the B2 and hope that takes care of the problem.  Waiting for the hardware to hook up to the internet and update the 2 year old software.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.