otheos
10-24-2001, 12:33 PM
Ok, after having heard the same question for a million times, I thought I should put this as a general tip.
So you have CDROM! great! Get yourself one small tool to see what it's capable of.
Get it from here (http://www.cdspeed2000.com/files/NeroCDSpeed_083.zip) or visit cdspeed2000 (http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=download.html) site for all the details.
Now some basics.
CDROMs can read both data and audio (in audio CD format, the one that plays on your home/car CD player). The way they read data is different to the way they read audio due to the inherent differences of the two formats.
When you buy a CDROM that is rated as 40x you expect it to read data at a speed of 40x at the outer edge of the disk (hence the max). So it will start at say 17x in the inner part and finnish at about 40x. All modern CDROM's are CAV, i.e they start at a low speed in the inside and build up to their max speed at the outside.
Note:
CAV stands for Constant Angular Velocity, which means that the disc speed (rpm) does not change, but the speed that the data passes under the laser beam does (basic physics). This is the linear velocity. Older CDROMs used a Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) method but speeds higher than 16x in the centre parts of the discs are not possible (the laser can't read).
Do a search at google for more on that....
So your brand new 40x CDROM can read data disc fine. What about audio discs? Well CDDA (Compact Disc Digital Audio, aka audio disc) is read in two different ways:
1. Playback (you put your CDDA in your CDROM, hook headphones on the front connector and push the play button). This is done only at 1x. No matter how fast your CDROM is, audio playback is 1x!
2. Rip (aka DAE). Say you want to transfer a song (track) to your hd, to convert to mp3 or to maka a compilation. You open the CDDA on explorer and you see a list of files with extension CDA. You drag them on your deskop, doulbe click on them and as long as the CDDA is in the CDROM they play. Check these files: They are a few kb big. Hardly a full song. These are NOT the songs, just the pointers to where the songs are on CD.
You need to rip the songs! DAE is a read process different to reading data for your CDROM and the 40x rating means nothing when DAE is considered. Usually cheap CDROMS have poor DAE capability. Check this list (http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=daeresults.php3) for information on various drives.
But you can also test!
Put a data CD on your CDROM and test it with CDspeed (see link at the top). This will tell you your CDROM's data reading ability.
Put an audio disc and try it again! See the difference? This is your drive's DAE ability.
DAE is important when you're trying to make a copy of a complete CDDA on the fly. You put the original in your CDROM and a blank in your burner and burn away..... and boom, a coaster. If your CDROMs DAE speed is at any point lower than (or even equal to) your burners's writing speed you will certainly have a coster. You can either burn at a lower speed, make an image first, or rip (DAE) on disk with the burner (usually they DAE better/faster than cheap CDRoms) all the tracks and then burn them.
For all your DAE needs I find EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to be the best (it can also burn). Find it here (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/).
Good luck.
So you have CDROM! great! Get yourself one small tool to see what it's capable of.
Get it from here (http://www.cdspeed2000.com/files/NeroCDSpeed_083.zip) or visit cdspeed2000 (http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=download.html) site for all the details.
Now some basics.
CDROMs can read both data and audio (in audio CD format, the one that plays on your home/car CD player). The way they read data is different to the way they read audio due to the inherent differences of the two formats.
When you buy a CDROM that is rated as 40x you expect it to read data at a speed of 40x at the outer edge of the disk (hence the max). So it will start at say 17x in the inner part and finnish at about 40x. All modern CDROM's are CAV, i.e they start at a low speed in the inside and build up to their max speed at the outside.
Note:
CAV stands for Constant Angular Velocity, which means that the disc speed (rpm) does not change, but the speed that the data passes under the laser beam does (basic physics). This is the linear velocity. Older CDROMs used a Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) method but speeds higher than 16x in the centre parts of the discs are not possible (the laser can't read).
Do a search at google for more on that....
So your brand new 40x CDROM can read data disc fine. What about audio discs? Well CDDA (Compact Disc Digital Audio, aka audio disc) is read in two different ways:
1. Playback (you put your CDDA in your CDROM, hook headphones on the front connector and push the play button). This is done only at 1x. No matter how fast your CDROM is, audio playback is 1x!
2. Rip (aka DAE). Say you want to transfer a song (track) to your hd, to convert to mp3 or to maka a compilation. You open the CDDA on explorer and you see a list of files with extension CDA. You drag them on your deskop, doulbe click on them and as long as the CDDA is in the CDROM they play. Check these files: They are a few kb big. Hardly a full song. These are NOT the songs, just the pointers to where the songs are on CD.
You need to rip the songs! DAE is a read process different to reading data for your CDROM and the 40x rating means nothing when DAE is considered. Usually cheap CDROMS have poor DAE capability. Check this list (http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=daeresults.php3) for information on various drives.
But you can also test!
Put a data CD on your CDROM and test it with CDspeed (see link at the top). This will tell you your CDROM's data reading ability.
Put an audio disc and try it again! See the difference? This is your drive's DAE ability.
DAE is important when you're trying to make a copy of a complete CDDA on the fly. You put the original in your CDROM and a blank in your burner and burn away..... and boom, a coaster. If your CDROMs DAE speed is at any point lower than (or even equal to) your burners's writing speed you will certainly have a coster. You can either burn at a lower speed, make an image first, or rip (DAE) on disk with the burner (usually they DAE better/faster than cheap CDRoms) all the tracks and then burn them.
For all your DAE needs I find EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to be the best (it can also burn). Find it here (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/).
Good luck.