Checkpoints before buying a CD /DVD drive/writer for PC:
Obviously u have to look higher speed. say 52x for CD drives. Other than speed, check for following information....
- Check for CLV(Constant Linear Velocity) tech for reading and writing (for writers). Plextor is the first company to use CLV tech .
- Don't go for drives which supports CAV (Constant Angular Velocity).
- [optional] Check for front audio controls. It will allow you to play Audio CD's without need of any software.
- Check for better error correction supported CD Drives. It is needed for reading scratched CD's effectively. [Important].
- In Windows, Enable DMA option for ur CD/DVD drive/writer. Then only it will copy at a max speed. Windows -> Control Panel -> Device Manager -> your CD-Drive . Right click ur CD-Drive, click properties. U can see "Enable DMA support" , select this option.[This to be done for Windows 9x. Newer versions of windows will automatically enable this option].
Caution: It will not work with ur old CD-Drive or Old motherboard. i.e. Drives came with PC's which less or equal to PII. Some drives which came with PIII . - If u writing Audio/video/MP3 CD's for using it in VCD players or MP3 players or Audio systems... write it at less than or equal to 24x. For very old drives write the CD's at 8x. Its because , VCD players can't read the CD's written at higher speeds.
- Check for cache memory. More cache, better reading/writing. For writing , cache memory in the drive is very important. Latest drives are coming with 8MB cache memory.
- Computer CD drives are not optimized for reading audio or video discs. its because in case of video Cd's, the data was written sequentially. But computer CD drives will works better with random reading . So, If u use Video Cd's to watch any movie from the CD-Drive, it will create a lotof over head to the drive, and it will reduce the life of the C Drive /Writer. Better copy the contents to the Hard-dsik and play it from there. Copying will take only 10 min, it will not affect the driver much. But watching movie from the drive will take >2 hrs, it will reduce the life of the CD-Drive.
- While writing if u get "power failure" error , it means that the CD quality was low ,so that the writer can't able to get the details about the lead-in ( first few sectors) correctly. One way to get rid-off this error on the same CD is to write at 8x speed.
- For DVD drives, check whether the drive supports all or most of the formats. DVD+R, DVD -R, DVD-ROM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, Dual layer DVD's etc.
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