CD/DVD writer recommendation?

Heedtheadvice

Having some issues of bad writing  on my win 10 PC especially to CDs ( I do not burn DVDs much ) so suggestions please?

Detail:

A bit long in the tooth ( me too! ) so unsure it is the media or is the writer.

Recognising lasers do deteriorate ( especially burn ones of higher power) dvd tracks are smaller ( same writing CDs?) than CD tracks and 

media such as CD-R are inferior to commercially pressed ones I have decided to renew the writer. - results are variable within media brands and across brands.

Need a writer or writers to do DVDs ( single layer or better is fine ) AND CDs ( I know old hat but some still play music on CDs only so I need to burn)

Playing music CDs that I record from PC DVD writer have a variety of problems such as recognition and skips on my HIFI player and the DVD player that recorded them! Results have been good but now deteriorating.

Older burns on the same media types are all ok.

Can cope with internal SATA or external USB  and one or two devices provided burn quality is good.

Recording on to Cd-da audio CDs an advantage but these tend to be via expensive dedicated recorders.

Any suggestions budget probably under £50 but can extend a bit for really good option

EDIT[ CORRECTED SUBJECT TITLE!!]

Neil_Jones

All DVD Writers are backwards compatible and will do CDs as well, reading and writing.  £20 on Amazon.

Brands are all the same and the internal ones are standard 5.25" units, so just pick whatever you can find if you're happy to swap it out.  They're all SATA these days.

No such thing as "burn quality" - it either burns or it doesn't.

Heedtheadvice

"No such thing as "burn quality" - it either burns or it doesn't." 

Ok I maybe used the wrong terminology there- for the sake of a bit of brevity.

I guess that you mean it is digital so go or no go.

I mean reliability of reflection quality of the layer, phase change stability, laser power (and loss of over time ) errors that produce jitter, focus accuracy, size of laser aperture, compatibility of media and writer/player etc. etc. i.e. some of the things that contribute to reliability.

At the moment my writes are hit and miss so poor write quality resulting in variable errors - that I called burn quality....

Or if you prefer it doesn't burn properly.....all the time.

Neil_Jones

CD/DVD drives are to an extent largely mechanically driven, with cogs and belts and gears and things, so after a long period of maybe a few years they will like all mechanical devices they will just eventually wear out.

Lasers do fail but there is no gradual deterioration of them, they either work or they don't.  the issues you've highlighted can be manufacturing errors on the disk but usually they're sold in packs of 25/50/100 so by the time you find a dud disk you're usually halfway through the pack, or they can be hardware related.

Its more likely a mechanical failure or (more likely) a board issue on the circuit boards inside the drive , but the units are so cheap they are not worth doing anything with, when they start to fail it'll be years down the line and you'll have had your money's worth out of it compared to a lot of things of a similar age and usage that pack up a lot sooner.

PHK

Neil_Jones said:

CD/DVD drives are to an extent largely mechanically driven, with cogs and belts and gears and things, so after a long period of maybe a few years they will like all mechanical devices they will just eventually wear out.

Lasers do fail but there is no gradual deterioration of them, they either work or they don't.  the issues you've highlighted can be manufacturing errors on the disk but usually they're sold in packs of 25/50/100 so by the time you find a dud disk you're usually halfway through the pack, or they can be hardware related.

Its more likely a mechanical failure or (more likely) a board issue on the circuit boards inside the drive , but the units are so cheap they are not worth doing anything with, when they start to fail it'll be years down the line and you'll have had your money's worth out of it compared to a lot of things of a similar age and usage that pack up a lot sooner.

This is not correct. Lasers do deteriorate over time (the amount of light emitted, at a specific current and temperature, decreases)

DVD and CD drives include mechanisms and electronics to accommodate the wear to mechanical parts. 

I agree with @Heedtheadvice  who has accurately listed the factors contributing to a bad read or write. 

Heedtheadvice

"  but the units are so cheap they are not worth doing anything with, when they start to fail it'll be years down the line and you'll have had your money's worth out of it compared to a lot of things of a similar age and usage that pack up a lot sooner.  "

Very true. Thanks for posting responses.

Rodders53

One recommendation used to be to not burn the CDRs at an automated high-speed to improve the compatibility with CD players (if i recall correctly from some 15-20 years ago when I used to do such things).

May also be worth cleaning the dust and suchlike off the laser lenses (very, very carefully using some iso-propyl alcohol or similar on a cotton bud)?

GDB2222

There are only a couple of internal ones on Amazon, both priced at around £20. They both have thousands of positive reviews. You may be overthinking this!

Heedtheadvice

Thanks again all.

Not really overthinking but asking.

I have not had any thoughts that did not agree with the consensus of ' they are all similar ' ish on 'new performance' having used several over the years. 

There are different styles and conections and the different media supported but all the PC ones  I have ever had over  the years ( CD readers writers in various media compatibilities and DVD ones ) have eventually become less reliable and then failed. I was hoping there might be some leaders but it seems not. That result includes an I depth pro tech review from a couple of years ago.

Funny that my HiFi player ( based around a Sony device) has been faultless for over 20 years despite lots of use. Cannot say the same for the semi pro CD audio recorders I have had. Maybe I was just lucky with the good one!!

I do generally burn at lowish speeds (16x on  machine and media 52x capable ). Will give a clean and if that does not resolve will put hand in pocket and buy new....again.

Thanks all

Neil_Jones

Your Hifi CD player only has to do one job.  Play CD's.  It doesn't have to do anything else.  Depending on the design the eject methods and disk swapping may vary but ultimately the basic CD play is just that - Play.

The computer models need to be able to do be more things.  They play.  They record.  They write data.  They read data.  All for CDs and DVDs (and Blu-Ray if you get such a unit).  More to go wrong.

_Jem_

Rodders53 said:

One recommendation used to be to not burn the CDRs at an automated high-speed to improve the compatibility with CD players (if i recall correctly from some 15-20 years ago when I used to do such things).

Yes burning at 4x speed was always the recommended speed to reduce errors.