CD-R or CD-RW??
BobbieJo
Are the cd-rw's readable on most cd-roms? (we have old computers).
If not, is there software to make them readable?
Are they phasing out the cd-r's?
Anyone who has either of these please tell me of your experiences.
Thanks!
BobbieJo
Dennis W. Barbier
My experience is this: Most drives are CD-RW's anyways, but if you can get a
CD-R for a good deal, dont be afraid of it beacuse its not an RW. Here is
the key - you can buy a decent high quality CD Blank for about $2 bucks. A
Decent CD-R blank is closer to 20. How many times do you think your going to
re write a CD? Who cares anyway? They only cost 2 bucks. I would spend my
money on something like a faster unit rather than RW capability.
Dennis
Rick Russell
BobbieJo <bobb...@marslink.net> wrote:
> Are the cd-rw's readable on most cd-roms? (we have old computers).
Yes, "most". But before you commit to anything, it would probably be a
good idea to beg/borrow a written CD-RW from a friend or computer
store and test it. There are even a few modern CD-ROMs which
inexplicably choke on CD-RW or CD-R disks.
If you're a stickler for compatibility, buy a new CD-ROM with the
"Multiread" specification. The Multiread standard ensures that the
CD-ROM will be able to read all CD-R and CD-RW media. At least, that's
what the companies making Multiread mechanisms claim.
> If not, is there software to make them readable?
No. If the reflectivity characteristics of the medium are not
compatible with the CD-ROM, then there is no way to make them work.
However, you might be able to solve the problem by changing your CD-RW
media to a different brand/formulation.
> Are they phasing out the cd-r's?
No. CD-Rs are cheaper, and they are very useful when you need a
read-only medium. You can buy approximately 6 CD-Rs for the price of a
single CD-RW! Although this price differential probably won't last
forever, CD-Rs are certainly going to remain a viable medium for a
variety of tasks.
Rick R.
--
Rick Russell * peripher...@miningco.com
* http://peripherals.miningco.com
BobbieJo
Another question:
Can a CD-R disc created on a CD-RW machine be read by the older cd-roms? (I
want to download demos and shareware and copy them to CD's for my son to
play on his 486 DX266 2XCD-ROM computer).
Thanks!
BobbieJo
P.S. We have NO sense of timing! Whenever we buy something, 2 months later
it's price has dropped drastically! SO... anyone have a guess on the pricing
of CD-RW's?? (i.e. now, after Thanksgiving, or wait until AFTER Christmas??
Rick Russell wrote in message <728c29$nc7$1...@joe.rice.edu>...
Phil Murray
drives will have problems. If your drives are less than a year old, there
is a good chance they will read a CD-RW. You really need to read some of
the information at some of the web site that discuss CD-R/W in depth. The
one site that comes to mind as being very good is Mike Richter's. I don't
have his URL handy but he posts a lot to the alt.comp.periphs.cdr newsgroup.
Any of his post will have the link to his CD-R site.
CD-Rs are not being phased out as far as I know, at least I hope not.
I would say, buy a CD-RW. The difference in price is not that much. I
think after you have one, you will find a use for the RW that may not be
evident to you now.
They are great for dumping internet downloads to, then when you get one
about full, move it all to a CD-R, erase the CD-RW and start over. Also, if
you use a program like Drive Image to backup your hard drives, the CD-RW
disks are just the ticket, reusable.
Phil Murray
E-Mail to:
pmu...@cityscape.net
Home Page:
http://www.cityscape.net/~pmurray
BobbieJo wrote in message ...
>We need help deciding which to get.
>
>Are the cd-rw's readable on most cd-roms? (we have old computers).
>If not, is there software to make them readable?
>Are they phasing out the cd-r's?
>
>Anyone who has either of these please tell me of your experiences.
>
>Thanks!
>
>BobbieJo
>
>
>
Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.
>the key - you can buy a decent high quality CD Blank for about $2 bucks. A
>Decent CD-R blank is closer to 20. How many times do you think your going to
>re write a CD? Who cares anyway? They only cost 2 bucks. I would spend my
>money on something like a faster unit rather than RW capability.
Ouch, where do you live? Blank CDs here are usually less than 50
cents. It's the CD-RW disks they try to kill you on, but even so,
they are only around 14 to 17 bucks each.
However, in interest of the original poster, although we have CD-RW,
we normally use the low cost CD-R disks, write once and toss them when
you run another full backup.
Your other question was is the higher cost of CD-RW vs the speed of
CD-R worth the difference. In reality NO. Especially if you plan on
writing to CDs regularly.
I believe you had another question as to whether CD-RW disks can be
read in most CD-R drives, the answer to that is also NO. Unless they
have been written and locked and purposely made readable by CD-R
drives, in which case, the CD-RW disk is no longer anything more than
a CD-R disk, you cannot add to it anymore. However, some brands of
CD-RWs will allow you to unlock and reuse the disk or give it a
reformat making it useable again.
As technology moves forward, I'm sure CD-RWs will become faster and
faster, but if you consider a CD holds 1 hour of data or music. A 2X
writer will take 1/2 hour, plus 2 minutes to write the CD, if you have
4X writer, you just cut that down to 15 minutes, plus 1-1/2 minutes
for the TOC. So they are not fast by any means. Most CD-R machines
are up in speed on reading to those of CD only drives, however, CD-RW
machines still are lagging way behind in read speed.
TTUL
Gary
Frank Heisler
: No. CD-Rs are cheaper, and they are very useful when you need a
: read-only medium. You can buy approximately 6 CD-Rs for the price of a
: single CD-RW! Although this price differential probably won't last
: forever, CD-Rs are certainly going to remain a viable medium for a
: variety of tasks.
IE: Currently, the audio mastering industry is phasing out a system called
"PCM 1630" which was used to create a tape-stream used to prepare CD-AUDIO
with all the control codes striped to the audio tracks of the tape. Now,
CDR with proper coding is being favoured over the 1630 system as it uses a
medium which is far more reliable (ie: it's not encoded video tape) and
far more accessible.
So there's always going to be a need for CD-R - Especially since only now
are certain media-industries beginning to recognize it as a better medium
for preparing material masters.
--
Cheeri'o...
Frank...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
sami...@bix.com
CD-RW??:
>Another question:
>Can a CD-R disc created on a CD-RW machine be read by the older cd-roms? (I
>want to download demos and shareware and copy them to CD's for my son to
>play on his 486 DX266 2XCD-ROM computer).
>
>Thanks!
>
of bulk-licensed anti-virus software on a regular basis, and have yet to
encounter a demonstrated compatibility problem, even though many of the
target PC's have very old (2X & 4X) CD-ROM drives.
>
>P.S. We have NO sense of timing! Whenever we buy something, 2 months later
>it's price has dropped drastically! SO... anyone have a guess on the
>pricing
>of CD-RW's?? (i.e. now, after Thanksgiving, or wait until AFTER Christmas??
bothers me, too, but I suggest that you "get over it" and buy what you
need, when you can justify it, and ignore the fluctuations.
Scott A. Miller
sami...@bix.com sami...@cyberenet.net
sami...@bix.com
jans
You've probably got all the info you need. This is just a note to share
experiences.
Have an HP8110 RW/R. The /R products are fully compatible with any CDROM
we tried, from 2x to 40 x.
The /RW products will read only on CDROM's that have been labelled or
been certified as Multiread, and of course on any /RW unit. If we need
to make a copy of what is on a /RW disk so that it will be readable on
any CDROM, we copy the entire content to a HD, and then write it to a /R
blank.
Our family digital-photo album is growing all the time on a /RW. From
time to time we
circulate an update on /R to all offspring who can then select the
images they choose.
Great technology. Don't buy cheap. Enjoy.
David Vandenheede
I made a cd on an HP writer in two sessions that would only read in that
drive reliably. It did not work half the tme in my brithers 32x and not
at all in my 4x
Richard Shepherd
it is made (IMHO). There are still many 32x and 36x CDRoms which do not read
multi-sessions CDRs. I was fortunate enough when upgrading from my 4x that I
found a 24x for under $25 which has true multi-session reading capabilities as
well as CDRW capabilities.
This is just my opinion based on experience. I use an Acer 2x4x4 (CDRW write at
2x max, CDR at 4x max, and CD read at 4x max)...