P3D CD-R hell...

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999
>From: Tom Hubin <thubin@xxxxxxxxx>
>..................................
>have had to go back to my 80486/33 to get some CDs made and shipped.
>Philips says that the machine is too fast for the software. I argued
>that they should then upgrade my software under warranty. They tried to
>say that a Pentium 150 was too modern for the software a year ago. I
>pointed out that the Pentium 150 has been out several years now so they
>were shipping obsolete code.
>
>I won the argument 2 days ago. Now I need to send in some paperwork and
>they will send me newer software that they were including with the
>writer as they were phased out. No guarantee that it will work. If it
>does not work then I will be shopping for new software for the writer.
>

******  Ohhhh!!!!  That sounds familiar. I had very similar problems dealing
with HP. They started bundling better software about two weeks after I and a
friend bought our CD-R machines. They refused to upgrade our software even
though the stuff they had provided was obsolete and virtually worthless. We
ended up *buying* the additional software and will never buy HP hardware
again. We thought Philips might be the better choice, but obviously we
haven't dealt with them yet, and with your message, I'll avoid Philips too!

I guess the trick is to deal with a dealer directly, and get *them* to
assure you that the very latest and best software is *included*. If
possible, get it in writing. Don't give them money without such assurances,
and insist on upgrades if things turn out to be like 6 month old bread.

BTW, I too find that the silver/blue blank discs work better than the
gold/green ones. Several HP disks sent to me directly from the factory as
replacements for some that got damaged during hardware problems, were
defective or at least did not work in my HP machine.... About 30% or more of
my stack of generic gold/green discs turned out to be worthless. I have
better success with the silver/blue ones and can get them in bulk for about
$1.50 or less.

I've taken to recording back-ups to my back-ups in case what I've put on
disc  ends up unreadable... Usually that doesn't happen except to partial
discs that I intend to add more material to before closing the recording
session. Once closed and tested for readability, they seem to remain
readable. I've learned to NOT TRUST the meter that tells you how much more
room is available on the disc. I've ruined many discs by overfilling them.
The problem is that the index is the last thing recorded, and the software
never calculates that volume properly. The result is that half way through
the final step I get notified that the disc will be unreadable on normal CD
readers. I generally stop recording now at or near the 610 MB level.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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