Best Modern CD Burner for Backups?

[agranger5]

I have retail versions of Spriggan and Castlevania and I want to make the best quality back ups of them to play on my Turbo Duo.  Most new CD burners only allow you to burn at a minimum of 16X which does not make the best quality backups.  I've read other posts in this forum that suggested anywhere from 1X to 10X depending on the burner and the medium.  What is the best currently made Burner for making backups for the Duo?

[bust3dstr8]

Every town has their creapy old guy with a store full of old PC parts.

[MissaFX]

Any DVD burner which burns CDs like my Pioneer 112D will will burn as low as 4X, but if you get Diamond Silver CDs and burn at exactly 8X, you should get good results.  I do not yet have a CDROM2 or DUO to test this out in, but they work perfectly in other CD consoles equally as old.  These discs have a special ink which as far as I can tell gives you a 1-2X burn quality at 8X.  Short of that I have found that CDs with a heavy surface for injet printers work better on older hardware than normal CDRs.

So I don't know what the best is, but a Pioneer DVD drive with Diamond Silver CDs at 8X should do you right.  You can even get Diamon Silver CDs with a white injet surface

[spenoza]

I have an ASUS CDR drive I bought about 4 years ago that is excellent. It supports almost every write mode out there (something my much newer DVD+-R drive can't match) for CDs and has given me excellent results even with crappy media, though really, there's only so much a burner can do when you're giving it crap to work with.

[agranger5]

Eureka...I have finally found the perfect combination!

Thanks for all the help and different opinions. I have been experimenting over the last week with different burners and media. I have burned at speeds ranging from 4x to 48x according to what each burner would allow.
The clear winner so far has been the Pioneer DVR112d or DVR212d depending on whether you have IDE or SATA.

When teamed up with the Taiyo Yuden CDs (The cheapest thermal printable ones with the light blue data surface), it blew my mind how good the results were. By burning at 24x with these CDs, my old Turbo Duo responded to these with the same load times and read quality that I get with my originals. I cannot emphasize enough how great my results were with the Pioneer & Taiyo teamup at 24x. I also tested Verbatim LightScribe CD-Rs (because I also have an HP Writer with that Capability) on the Pioneer, but had to burn them at 10x to get close to the same results.
I have not been able to get good results with TDK, Maxell, or Sony CD-Rs using any burner but the Pioneer and then only at 10x. Once again, my Turbo Duo has much longer load times between levels (especially on Sapphire) and the laser makes a low volume whirring - squealing noise as it reads lower quality discs or burns. On the new Pioneer burner and the Taiyo CD-Rs at 24x, the load times are as perfect as original CDs and there is silence as the Laser reads and plays the game backups. In fact these are the best results I have ever gotten with any burner or Cd combination I have ever used in the last 10 years. I hope this can be of help to someone and once again I really appreciate all of the help and input!

Once again...the best combination of Modern CD Burner and Blank CD-R for Turbo Duo Backups is the Pioneer DVR-212d (if you need an SATA Drive) or Pioneer DVR-112d (for IDE) and the Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs.

UPDATE:  The newest models are the Pioneer DVR-115d (IDE) and DVR-215d (SATA) I just put the 115 in my office computer and it works just as well as the 112 or 212 for backups.  I have not been able to find the 215 stateside yet.

[Keranu]

Thanks a lot for the great information, agranger5. It looks like I am going to need to burn a CD-R for something next month and I'm going to make sure I use a Taiyo Yuden CD-R (which I'm pretty sure my brother bought a bunch of). Unfortunately I don't think I have any Pioneer burners.

[agranger5]

One of the most exciting parts of my report on burners and discs that I forgot to share is this...The Pioneer burners that I mentioned only sell for $30.00 on Newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010100005+50001167&name=Pioneer


And 100 of the Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs only sell for $22.00


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817172103


Basically, for $60.00 with shipping, you can have one heck of a party for less than half of what one copy of Dracula X would cost on ebay!   

[Seldane]

The best mode is: any mode. It doesn't matter what burner you use (as long as it's not ancient), or what speed you burn it at. It's just an urban legend. Of shit.

[BigT]

Well, I don't bother to burn at 1x or 4x, but burning mode does matter: you don't want to burn in track at once mode!  Otherwise, you can just burn disc at once with a normal CD profile (probably don't want to turn on error skipping).

[agranger5]

The best mode is: any mode. It doesn't matter what burner you use (as long as it's not ancient), or what speed you burn it at. It's just an urban legend. Of shit.

I wish this were true.  But try using a brand new Hewlett Packard or Samsung writer and TDK media (all reputable names by the way) at their lowest burn speed of 16x and then make a backup of Sapphire.  Then check the load time after each level.  In many cases it will double or even quadruple.  You can still play the game, but your valued Duo will be straining and possilbly wearing out quicker. 

To validate part of your point though, if you use extremely good media like the Taiyo Yuden brand, then you very possibly can use just about any new burner and get great backups!  For the person whose decade old Duo has a weakening laser and is looking for help...my post will hopefully help...where yours probably won't.

Both my question and later discovery were intended for someone who is experiencing
real problems and looking for real answers.  Thanks for juicing up the thread though.   

[nat]

Come to expect no less from FM-77.

[MissaFX]

The media is 100 times more important than the burner as long as your burner was made in the last few years.  You can spend 30 dollars on a burner, but 50CDs will cost you just as much.  If you buy cheap CDs, you simply hate your computer/consoles.

[agranger5]

The media is 100 times more important than the burner as long as your burner was made in the last few years.  You can spend 30 dollars on a burner, but 50CDs will cost you just as much.  If you buy cheap CDs, you simply hate your computer/consoles.

You are absolutely right about the importance of good media.  When Audio & Video Cassettes were mainstream 20 years ago, names like TDK, Maxell and Sony meant superior quality.  You would hope that they would have maintained that same quality.  However, Taiyo Yuden (for CD) and Verbatim (for DVD) now hold the quality reputations today.  I was really uncomfortable with the fact that the Taiyo media was as inexpensive as it was...because like you I generally believe that cheap = trash and future heartaches.  I had heard about them for years but I was uncomfortable using or ordering them.  Therefore, I didn't even give them a chance until I became desperate looking for truly good media.  However after reading about them over and over in different media testing forums, I finally decided to give in and try them and I am really glad I did.  If anyone is looking for really picky approach to media, check out cdfreaks.com.  The way those guys test burners and mediums is incredible.  I am not as hardcore as those guys, but you can get some really great viewpoints and test results from their forum.  I always spend more money for better quality, but more money does not always deliver better quality.  In the last year I have used TDK, Maxell & Sony Media for my Duo.  None of them approach what the Taiyo Yuden are doing for me now.  The Verbatims are a close runner up though

[nat]

I stand by TDK as the media of choice for TG-CD decks. Duos are another story though...

[quoth09]

I would suggest not even playing backups on your real system. I've heard backups can damage Sega CDs and other old CD systems

You heard wrong. Played tons of backups in all my Sega systems and other systems for years with no problems.

Been using the same Saturn to play copies with since around 2001. PS1, 1999. Sega CD, 2002. Dreamcast, 2000, PS2, 2002. etc.... never once had to replace any of these systems due to using/playing backups. It's all just a myth, and the people that are having problems are the ones using cheap media, and putting heavy wear and tear on their systems that would be there from playing originals anyway.

I also only use quality media as well (Taiyo Yuden for years now), so that probably has something to do with it.
Really anything long strategy based is good as well.