Thread: Faulty CD burning

I use Nero for CD and DVD burning and have no problems at all.

It is either your CD/DVD burner (most likely) or your software (less likely).

If possible try and burn a CD on someone else's burner and see how that goes (preferably with Nero as well, so you have the same software).

Another thing you can try is slow the burn down to say 4x or 8x and see whether you get a better result.

Sounds like the effect you can get when you try and burn copy protected tracks. You can get around that by converting them to .wav format first and then burning to audio CD.

Peter

Thanks guys, some homework to do.

For straight copies try a copy of clone cd it works far better than nero as it akes an exact copy of the cd but for compilations I find Ashampoo "Burn Ya" excellent and was free from PC User mag
Rgds

I don't know now, just played the burnt disc on another, better quality player and it mucked up again, but in a different way! Instead of simply cutting out as it did before (like someone turned the volume right down, then back up again), it came out with periodic crackly distortion. The only thing I could compare it too is that noise you get when a volume knob is turned on old equipment. A commercial CD played straight afterwards showed no signs of that, so its not the player.
I don't think the CD's I'm copying from would have protection on them, as most are fairly old. When did such things become prevelant? I'm leaning towards a writing/burning problem, but it affects each player differently.
One other thought, would Windows Media Player produce a glitch when copying to hard drive?
I will try once more using a really slow write speed.


Cheers,

Do these CDs play OK on your computer?

Do the tracks play OK from the hard drive?

I have never used Windows Media Player to copy tracks from a CD so can't comment on that.

If the tracks play OK from the hard disk that would seem to exonorate WMP.

I have made compilations that play fine in my Yamaha CD player in the hifi system, but skip and carry on in my previous car CD player, but now play fine in my new car CD player.

I have found copy protection on disks produced with about the last 10 years. Crackly distortion is exactly hoe it would sound. I would be very surprised is every track on a home made compilation would have it though. I have indeed had that problem before when using Media PLayer to rip to hard drive. That was with Media Player version 10. maybe try a different ripping program. Nero can also rip straight from the original CD when making an audio CD.

Peter

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Do these CDs play OK on your computer?
Do the tracks play OK from the hard drive?
If the tracks play OK from the hard disk that would seem to exonorate WMP.

I just ran through a number of tracks and they play fine direct from HD, and the newly burnt CD plays OK on the computer too, but that's not always the case!

Originally Posted by petersemple

I have found copy protection on disks produced with about the last 10 years. Crackly distortion is exactly hoe it would sound. I would be very surprised is every track on a home made compilation would have it though. I have indeed had that problem before when using Media PLayer to rip to hard drive. That was with Media Player version 10. maybe try a different ripping program. Nero can also rip straight from the original CD when making an audio CD.

Peter

Fair point regarding the protection, but the tracks wouldn't copy correctly to HD first, would they??
I have just had a battle with Nero7 to change the burn speed (kept going back to the default setting), which was a simple option on the earlier version. I have now uninstalled that one, and will reinstate the older version, and try again.
Don't know why, I find Windows Media Player a pig to use, tried a couple of times to burn using it, but reckon Nero is a lot simpler. How do I go about converting the files to .wav?

Cheers,

Copy protected tracks can often play OK on a hard drive, but not always burn well. The ones I have heard were ones a mate downloaded as MP3's - so they could be played properly on computer as MP3's so they had been ripped, converted and then downloaded and sounded fine. Burn them to CD and then they had problems. I can't explain that. As for converting to wav I can't remember what I use. I just googled for free sound file conversion programs. There are a few out there. If all else fails Audacity may well do it. It is more than you would need as it's a full audio editor, but it should work.

Peter

Were you surfing the web or running any other programs while burning the tracks? Sometimes multitasking can cause burning issues. Have you tried an even slower burn speed?

It is also possible the burner is on the way out. Of all computer components,I have founds burners to last the least amount of time. They are almost a disposable item given how cheap they have become.

Peter

nero should be fine to use. how old is the computer/burner?

Originally Posted by Andy Mac

I just ran through a number of tracks and they play fine direct from HD, and the newly burnt CD plays OK on the computer too, but that's not always the case!

That statement suggests that the most likely culprit is the burner. If it can read it's own discs alright most of the time while other players can't, that's a good indicator it's suffering wear in the head-positioning mechanism and approaching retirement time.

It's probably the main way that cd-drives "fail" besides "it just stopped working" or "I broke the coffee cup holder."

OK, thanks for the suggestions. I might look into replacing the burner, not an overly expensive item anyway!

Cheers,