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View Full Version : Audio CD-R's vs. Data CD-R's HELP!



Txman2
01-17-2005, 11:43 PM
I have a stand-alone CD-R recorder that will only accept blank Audio CD-R's.
These discs are harder to find and I guess - eventually will disappear from the market altogether. To save my recorder being thrown in the garbage bin, is there any way I can modify or 'hack' the recorder so it will accept standard data CD-R's? I know both types of CD-R's are exactly the same. The Audio CD-R's simply have a levy or tax foisted on them by the music industry which makes them more expensive. But apparantly, in some countries this tax has now been rescinded,leaving owners like me high and dry. The recorder is simply looking for a 'code mark' on the disc and if it can't find it - it won't record. The solution - if there is one- is to trick the recorder not to look for this code. And that's what my problem is. Any help or suggestions?

Herb

Razgo
01-18-2005, 08:32 PM
i am a little confused and haven't heard of this. as far as i know a data CD is also and audio cd if you make it so. i just take an data cd and burn audio to it and and finalize it and now it is a audio CD R i can play in any standard cd player.

i am not sure what your talking about? what brand/model is your cd burner?

ChristinaS
01-18-2005, 08:40 PM
i am a little confused and haven't heard of this. as far as i know a data CD is also and audio cd if you make it so. i just take an data cd and burn audio to it and and finalize it and now it is a audio CD R i can play in any standard cd player.

i am not sure what your talking about? what brand/model is your cd burner?
I think it's just a quality issue. Some of those fancy German cd players are extremely finicky so they burp if presented with an inferior quality CD. The blank cd's sold as specific for audio ar a slightly different color and transparency or opacity from the all-purpose ones. Now I can't rememebr if they are supposed to be more transparent or less trasnparent for best quality, but I have encountered this problem with my dad's car Blaupunkt. It even rejects commercial cd's if they are not top quality (as sometimes is the case). He buys a lot of classical cd's but usually from deeply discounted lots, and often he can't play them in his car.

neilthecellist
01-18-2005, 08:48 PM
EH? I'm soooo confused....i think we need more details on this. Like Razgo said, what is your brand? How old is it? Can it read any other kind of CDs? Are you sure??

ChristinaS
01-18-2005, 09:01 PM
EH? I'm soooo confused....i think we need more details on this. Like Razgo said, what is your brand? How old is it? Can it read any other kind of CDs? Are you sure??
Oops, may be my fault for not reading the original post carefully. He's talking about burning cd's not playing them. Although maybe the same problem may be at the root. But then.... where did I see reference to a car Blaupunkt cd player? :confused: Must be another thread :o

Spoon
01-19-2005, 05:11 PM
There were a brand of stand alone CD writers (that attach to a Hi-Fi), they will on work with special higher priced Audio CD-R (nothing special about the CD except the writer looks out for some kind of disc serial number).

Razgo
01-19-2005, 05:23 PM
well we learn somethng every day , i had no idea that existed.

ChristinaS
01-19-2005, 07:52 PM
Indeed! Some of these manufacturer will try anything to make life hard! :vmad:

donny
01-20-2005, 03:49 PM
well it is easier to them to work with these CDs, cause they are higher quality...

the only way that this could be fixed would be a firmware(basically the program of the burner in the chips) change,so that it would not look for that 'code', but I'm not sure that even that would work, because the hardware still might not work burning normal CDs...

so probably there isn't much you can do...

Txman2
01-21-2005, 05:50 PM
Thanks for all replying. Perhaps I did not give enough info. My recorder is a Pioneer PDR-W839. These and other stand-alone recorders where quite popular between 1998 to 2002 approx. I'm not sure about the levy or tax which may have only been charged in North America (I live in Canada). As I said before, the CD-R discs are nothing special and are the same discs you use in your computer burners. Except these discs are marked "Audio" discs. They cost substantially more (the extra money goes to the music industry to compensate artists for the free burnings of their work) and have a code imbedded on them which these stand-alone recorders can read and allow you to record. The machines won't accept standard "data" discs which do not have this code although technically the discs are exactly the same as you use in your computers.
As I mentioned previously, these special discs have disappeared along with their recorders making all the machines out there obsolete - unless a way can be found to "trick" the machines to accept standard "data" discs. Big problem!

neilthecellist
01-21-2005, 05:57 PM
Thanks for all replying. Perhaps I did not give enough info. My recorder is a Pioneer PDR-W839. These and other stand-alone recorders where quite popular between 1998 to 2002 approx. I'm not sure about the levy or tax which may have only been charged in North America (I live in Canada). As I said before, the CD-R discs are nothing special and are the same discs you use in your computer burners. Except these discs are marked "Audio" discs. They cost substantially more (the extra money goes to the music industry to compensate artists for the free burnings of their work) and have a code imbedded on them which these stand-alone recorders can read and allow you to record. The machines won't accept standard "data" discs which do not have this code although technically the discs are exactly the same as you use in your computers.
As I mentioned previously, these special discs have disappeared along with their recorders making all the machines out there obsolete - unless a way can be found to "trick" the machines to accept standard "data" discs. Big problem!


er..why not just get a new CD-RW drive? They're not that expensive. Over here in SD, California, it's around 11 ~ 22 American dollars....a DVD-+ drive in my area is 50 ~ 70 bucks....16X too!

LtData
01-21-2005, 06:04 PM
er..why not just get a new CD-RW drive? They're not that expensive. Over here in SD, California, it's around 11 ~ 22 American dollars....a DVD-+ drive in my area is 50 ~ 70 bucks....16X too!
If you'll notice, it is a stand-alone recorder. He probably wants to still use it if he can, but a computer CD burner is an alternative options, unless his needs specifically require a stand-alone unit.