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	CD and DVD Recordable Drives: Things to Consider

I began to do some CD writer hardware research to find a drive that would fit both my data and audio CD needs. I talked to several people that currently work in the industry, spoke to existing CD-R owners/users, and e-mailed to people who have used different CD-R software packages. I've never stopped keeping up on the technology and this page also reflects my understanding of DVD writers as well.

Here are my results but please feel free to send me e-mail if you have something to add, correct, etc!

[ Updated: 11/28/02 ]
See the ChangeLOG at the bottom of this page to see what's changed.

When buying a CD or DVD writer, you need to consider the following:

Interface: IDE, SCSI, USB, Firewire, or Parallel port:

IDE:	This solution is definately the least expensive solution since the drives typically cost ~$100 less than it's SCSI counterpart and you don't need a SCSI controller. Yet, you limit your CD-R's mobile and platform flexibility. IDE drives can only be internally mounted and usually can only be put in IBM PC/clone machines. Yes, some new Sun/Apple/etc machines are now using IDE interfaces for cost reasons but driver support will be questionable. Another important issue to understand about the IDE interface is that it requires more CPU processing power for data transfers. If you get a IDE-based CD-R drive, don't plan on using your PC heavily while you are burning a CD or risk creating coasters (defective CDs). UDMA IDE controllers have helped a lot but the problem is still somewhat there.
SCSI:	By using SCSI, you can now have an external (mobile) CD-R unit that will run on ANY hardware/software platform that supports SCSI. This includes IBM PCs, Apple, Sun, Hp, SGI, Amiga, etc with strong OS support from M$ Windows 95/NT, Linux, OS/2, MacOS, Solaris, HP-UX, etc. SCSI is a higher performance solution that requires less CPU cycles compared to IDE but it's usually 2x the cost of a comparible IDE writer.
USB and Firewire:	USB and Firewire (IEEE1394) drives have been out for some time now and most modern operating systems support them just fine. Some of the benfits of a USB or Fireire drive is that it can be portable, can be plugged and un-plugged from your system without having to power it off, etc. It should be noted that some of the fastest CD-R drives out there consume a LOT of bandwidth (52x drive x 150Kb/s (per 1x speed) = 7.8Mb/s). The older USB 1.1 specification offers 12Mb/s over the bus which is enough to handle a 52x CD-R drive. Yet that 12Mb/s performance is therorectical and real performance will always be somewhat less that that. It should also be noted that the more USB devices on one bus, the slower the bus will be. You should also know that some devices can't deal with bus hogs (CD or DVD writer drives are a good example). Firewire or IEEE 1394 is a very similar bus technology to USB but is more intended for video camrecorders, etc. since that system can run without a computer telling what the devices should do and not do. Basically.. the Firewire protocol is SMART while USB is dumb. The price of the two technologies reflect this though Firewire isn't much more. Firewire's current data rate is 400Mb/s and USB 2.0 now runs at 480Mb/s. Unfortunately, only the newest computers come with USB 2.0 but USB 2.0 PCI cards are VERY inexpensive ($20 US). Obviously, both Firewire and USB 2.0 are a LOT faster and thus the potential for starving data rate sensitive devices like CD-R drives is much less.
Parallel Port:	These devices are the most flexible since almost every modern PC (in the last 5 years) have a bi-directional parallel port (EPP) built-in. Basically, the standard EPP Parallel port can run at ~1Mb/s. These CD-Rs are usually external devices that connect to a parallel port on the PC and interface to an external SCSI CD-R drive. A classic example of this setup is the Hp SureStore solution. One thing to note with parallel port attached CD-Rs is that they require the largest amount of CPU power of the three interfaces, do NOT work well while other appications are being used, and are usually only work with slower burners (12x drive * 150Kb/s (1x speed) = 900Kb/s).

CD-R, CD-R/W, DVD-, DVD+, and DVD-RAM:

CD-R:	These drives only allow for data to be written to a specific part of a CD once. After the data is writen to a given CD-R disk, you CANNOT erase it and put something in it's place. One thing many people don't realize with CD-Rs is you can ADD addition data to a semi-filled CD-R as long as the disk hasn't been closed. Another thing to note about CD-Rs.. the media is now typically ~$0.16 US per disk (in 100 packs) and the price keeps falling!.
CD-R/W:	R/W drives can have data re-written to the same data area several times thus making a CD-R/W disk look like a massive 493MB floppy disk (via packet writting). Issues that users need to consider here is that you can only re-write to CD-R/W disk about ~50 times. After that, the media begins to fail. Another thing to consider here is that blank CD-R/W media costs about $0.40 US per disk (in 100 packs) and the price keeps falling!
DVD-:	DVD- is the Read-Only and Read/Write format promoted by Pioneer. DVD-'s primary purpose is more for video DVDs more so than Data DVDs and Pioneer's claim to fame is universal compatibilty with legacy home DVD players. So when you create a home movie on DVD-, you can be very sure that it will play on anyone's legacy home DVD player. The media holds 4.7GB and ReadOnly media costs roughly $1 U.S each while the ReadWrite media costs about $2 US each at the time of this writing (11/27/02).
DVD+:	DVD+ is the Read-Only and Read/Write format promoted by Sony, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Ricoh, Yamaha, and Microsoft. DVD+'s primary purpose is more for data DVDs than Video DVDs. Though some legacy DVD cannot read DVD+ media, most brand new units shouldn't have any issues with them. It should also be noted that most DVD+ drives write slightly faster than their DVD- counterparts. The media holds 4.7GB and ReadOnly media costs roughly $1 U.S each while the ReadWrite media costs about $2 US each at the time of this writing (11/27/02).
DVD-RAM:	DVD-RAM is the Read-Only and Read/Write format promoted by Toshiba, Hitachi, and Panasonic. Basically, this format is dead and I don't recommend anyone to consider this. Get a DVD- or DVD+ drive.

Writing Style: Standard or Packet Writing (UDF or Mount Rainier):

Standard:

When most people think about writing CDs, they would use a tool like Roxio's Easy CD Creator, Nero, Gear, etc that would move all of the various files into a large special file called an "ISO" (short for the ISO9660 format) before the CD writer could begin to write to the CD. This is the most traditional and efficent way to write CDs but it takes that extra time to create that ISO image. The major benefit of this method of writing CDs is that it creates the most compatible CDs that most readers will be able to read.

Packet / UDF / Mount Rainier

Newer CD writers offer a new way of writing to CDs. This new method of writing CDs makes writing CDs as easy as just coping files to a big floppy drive. An example of a packet writer is Roxio's DirectCD program where it lets you use the "File Explorer" interface in Windows to simply drag and drop files to your CD writer drive. The problem with packet written CDs (UDF format) is that many old data and audio CD readers cannot properly read these CDs. Only newer drives that support "Multi-Read" can read UDF formatted CDs. It should also be noted that a disk written with UDF can only hold about 490MB of DATA compared to a Standard burn holding 650MB! On new drives, there is a new packet writing standard called "Mount Rainier". This new format gives you all the benefits of UDF packet writing but reduces the CD-RW formating time from 10 minutes to roughly 2 minutes. In addition to this, the Mount Rainier format also allows for bad sector management where as the UDF format could not deal with imperfect CD-RW blanks.

Speed: 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 40, 44, 48x, and 52x (for now):

Speed is the the main difference for most drive manufacturers. The faster the drive is, the more expensive the drive will be. In therory, a 1x writer drive can burn a 700MB CDR blank in ~77 minutes (80 minutes) where as a 52x speed writer can burn the same CD in 1.5 minutes! In reality, most drives NEVER reach their rated speed. The more reputable manufacturers like Yamaha, Plextor, Toshiba, etc. usually meet their marketing speed numbers in comparison to other cheaper manufacturers. If speed isn't a primary concern for you, you can save quite a bit of money by buying a somewhat slower drive.

CD-R, CD-R/W, and DVD-/+ drives can read CDs and DVDs faster than they can write to them. Currently, CD-Rs drives can write to a CD-R blank at 52x speed (52x * 150Kb/s = 7.8Mb/s). A CD-R/W drive can currenly write to a CD-RW blank at 24x (24x + 150Kb/s = 3.6Mb/s). DVD- drives can write DVD-R at 4.0x (4.0x + 1.38Mb/s = 5.52Mb/s), re-write DVDs at 2.0x, CD-R blanks at 16x, and CD-R/W blanks at 8x. DVD+ drives can write and re-write DVDs at 2.4x (2.4x * 1.38Mb/s = 3.31Mb/s), CD-R blanks at 12x, and CD-R/W blanks at 10x. (As technology progresses, these speeds will increase.)

Buffer UnderRun solutions:

When CD writers were still new, if the computer couldn't supply enough throughput to the CD drive, the CD would be corrupted and thus be worthless (a "coaster"). The manufacturer's solution to this was to add more and more buffer memory to the drive (mentioned below) to help avoid this situation. Later, Samsung came out with "BurnProof", Yamaha has their "SafeBurn", and there are others like "OverBurn", etc. This technology actually SLOWs the speed at which the burner runs until it finds a data rate that the computer can handle. This is an important feature as it will greatly reduce the number of bad CDs you will create. DON'T buy a drive that doesn't offer this.

Buffer Size:

When CD-Rs first came out on the market, many units didn't have any sort of on-board buffer whatsoever. When a user then attempted to burn a CD, some machines would not be able to supply the CD-R with the nessisary data in a timely fashion. Because of this lapse of data I/O, the burn would fail and the CD would be defective (coaster). Later, CD-R manufactures started to design in 512K, 1MB, 2MB, 4MB, and now 8MB buffers. Smaller buffers used to sometimes experience "buffer under-run" problems that, like above issue, would create defective CDs. Now with drives having large 8MB buffers, buffer underruns have mostly disappeared for properly configured machines. In addition to increasing CD-R burning reliability, the large buffers now allow users to do other things on their PCs while burning CDs.

This is mostly a moot issue with the advent of SafeBurn, BurnProof, etc. technologies mentioned above.

CopyProtection and Bit Copying:

Recently, many AUDIO CDs are being made with copy protection from vendors like Cactus. The intent was to keep the music from being encoded into MP3s and put on file swapping networks. The problem is, these CDs usually CANNOT be inserted into a normal PC or even some home audio players and be played. In the best case, the CD just can't be read and in the worse case, the computer could CRASH. Yes, that's right.. crash.

On the DATA CD side of things, manufactuers have started to make CDs with "weak" sectors. This is where the original CD can be "barely" read to install the software but if the CD is copied, the weak sector is ignored and thus the copied CD is corrupt and useless.

For both the audio and data CDs, some of the lesser known hardware vendors like LiteON and software vendors like BlindRead differentiate their products from vendor like Yamaha and Plextor with ways to GET-AROUND these protected CDs. They offer mechanisms like BitSector and weak sector copying.

If getting around copy protection is important to you, you should specifically look for features like this.

For more information, check out FatChuck's Corrupt CD and CD MediaWorld WWW pages.

HDBurn and other HD CD formats:

Samsung has come out with another interesting technology called HDBurn. Basically, HDBurn has taken the DVD format and used it on CDR blanks. With this technology, a normal 700MB blank would now hold 1.4GB. Cool eh? They are also promising a future version of this that will store 2.1GB on a 700MB CD blank too. Samsung says that any DVD-ROM drive should be able to read these 1.4GB HDBurn CDs but CD-ROM drives would require a new firmware image. Realistically, this won't happen for legacy drives. For the 2.1GB HDBurn CDs, DVD-ROM drives would need a new firmware image and there is no chance for a CD-ROM drive to read them.

It's really unknown if this format will take off since DVD-/+ drives are getting so cheap but it's something that might appeal to some of you.

Myths and Truths:

Told to me by people in the industry:
• The Ricoh-based drives have the best mechanical disk loading/unloading designs and have superior firmware for writing DATA CDs.
  • Interestingly enough, it seems that Richoh has been raising the prices on their mechanisms so be aware of this.

• The Philips-based drives have have been known to have inferior loading/unloading mechanisms in the past and their firmware for *ALL* drives has something to be desired! For example: Why is their OmniWriter drives using OEM'ed Ricoh drives?!?!
  • The newest generation Philips drives seem to be a lot better. I haven't heard much about any firmware improvements but many people seem to be happy with their new drives.

• The Yamaha-based drives are known to have the *BEST* firmware for writing and recoring AUDIO cds. Thier DATA firmware support is also very good though the recent tray version drive (400t) is somewhat flimsy!

• The Panasonic-based drives are rumored to be very good as well!

CD-R and CD-R/W written disks are definately more susceptible to damage from high heat and extreme light compared to normal silver CDs.

CD-R and CD-R drives CANNOT read DVD video disks. And even if they could, you would need an MPEG-2 decoder board or software to be able to view the movies.

Most CD-R drives CAN read CD-R/W disks but standard CD-ROM drives will not be able to read the disks. Yet, almost ALL new generation CD-ROM drives (in the last 8-12 months) now support "Multi-Read". With this feature, CD-ROM drives can now read CD-R/W disks without any issue.

Though you might own a CD-R/W drive, you can still burn inexpensive CD-R blanks in your CD-R/W drive just like plain CD-R drives do!

Users CAN'T write 740MB of data to 74min (650MB) DATA CDs. In therory, all RedBook-compliant DATA CD is written with about 90MB of redundant data on them. This redundant space data is used when a given CD track cannot be properly read due to a scratch, dirt, etc. Though custom software could be written to NOT write the redundant data to the CD, this disk would not be compatible with most CD-ROM drives and (1) read error from the CD would corrupt the read data.

Media:

Today, media comes in (3) types and prices vary widely. I personally went nuts on a TDK sale at Costco that was selling the 6x CD-Rs for $1/ea!

It should also be noted that the darker CD blank surfaces found on the BLUE and GREEN CDs might --NOT-- work on older audio and data CD readers. Why? Those old readers are expecting a silver CD with very good reflectivity. This darker CDs are hard for older drives to read, thus the problem. Once way around this is to use the newer GOLD and YELLOW'ish CD blanks.

Media Type:	Comments:	Common Cost:
Gold or Yellow	Gold or Yellow media is considered, by some, to be the better blank CD-R media but it is somewhat rare due to only one vendor manufactures them (patent).	~$5/ea
Green	This type of media is the most common CD-R media available today and thus is the cheapest. Green media DOES come in various qualitities though. Darker the green dye the better. Recommended green media includes TDK and Imation (3M). Costco is a great source for $1/ea TDK CD-R blanks
Blue:	Blue media is very new and only available from Verbatim. I have heard of good results from various people but the media is more expensive.

Software:

CD-R, CD-R/W, and writing software now comes in many flavors. There are GOOD packages that support both DATA and AUDIO burning like Roxio's Easy CD Creator and Elektroson's GEAR and a new breed of software that supports UDF (Universal Data Format) or Packet writing. With this new software, a writer now looks just like a floppy or hard drive where you can drag and drop files from Windows Explorer, etc. The down side of this feature is high overhead. For a CD that can hold ~650MB of data via the classic CD-R software, you will now only get about 493MB of space via Packet writing software. Note: Read the Roxio Direct CD entry for compatibilty and maximum storage issues!

Here is a few notes I've compiled together. I also plan on adding a section on CD-R labeling software so if you have any comments, I'd appreciate email on what software packages and labels you did or didn't like!

For ALL the details and reviews of CD-R and CD-R/W, check out Andy McFadden's CD-R Software FAQ.

For ALL the details and reviews of DVD- and DVD+, check out Direct CD UDF This is Adaptec's packet writing software which makes a CD-R or CD-R/W drive emulate a floppy or hard drive. Now users can simply copy or Drag&Drop files to the CD drive and have the files get written! Pretty cool but users need to understand that not all CD-ROM drives can read a UDF-written CD-R. So, compatibility may be an issue here. Also, a disk written with UDF can only hold about 490MB of DATA compared to a normal burn holding 650MB! Adaptec Easy CD Creator and the Deluxe version ISO9660
MultiSession
JOLIET (MS)
El Torito (bootable)
32-Character This is a very easy to use software package that supports DATA & AUDIO writing and also automatically creates good jewel case inserts. The interface is intuitive and offers a wizard for 1st time users.

The Deluxe version comes with CD SpinDoctor that is an AUDIO recorder that with an automatic active and tunable noise/hiss/pop filter for those old tapes and records! Very cool! Adaptec Easy CD 95 ISO9660
JOLIET (MS)
32-Character This is Adaptec's older product software package that supports DATA & AUDIO writing. It has since been replaced by Easy CD Creator. If you recently bought it, goto Adaptec's WWW site since some users are entitled to FREE upgrades!!! Elektroson GEAR ISO9660
UDF This package has a strong CD duplicator module and has a noise, hiss, and pop filter like Adaptec SpinDoctor and Sonic Foundry NR. GNU MKISOFS & CDRECORD or CDWRITE ISO9660
MultiSession
JOLIET (MS)
El Torito (bootable)
Rock Ridge This set of programs ported to Linux and most other *NIXes is one of the strongest CD-R applications available. It is the ONLY package I'm aware of that supports Rock Ridge extentions for file/user/group permissions for multi-user operating systems. Though these programs are command line only, there is a new X-windows interface for them called X-CD-Roast. Seagate Software Backup Exec for Windows NT UDF This interesting product is backup software for CD-R and CD-R/W drives! So you maybe asking yourself.. Why? BackupExec for CD drives, currently only available for Microsoft Windows NT Workstastion, gives users:

• Data compression
• Running Windows registry backup
• CD data verification
• Spanning of multiple CDs to backup large amounts of data

  Like other UDF-written disks, users need to understand that not all CD-ROM drives can read a UDF-written CD-R so compatibility may be an issue. Also, a UDF disk will only hold about 490MB of DATA and can ONLY be read by another copy of BackupExec running on MS NT.

  BackupExec Desktop v4.0 for Windows95/98 is now out! Sonic Foundry Noise Reduction DirectX plugin WAV
  This program, similar to Adaptec's CD SpinDoctor, is a noise/hiss/pop filter but more on the lines of a professional version. This package is VERY powerful and comes HIGHLY recommended!

So what are you looking for in a CD-R or CD-R/W drive?

After careful review, I bought an external SCSI-base Yamaha 400t CD-R for $485 from http://www.idt-microsynergy.com. Yes, this drive is more expensive than most CD-Rs available today but here is my reasoning:

The 400t currently has the best DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) support in the industry. It also extracts DAE at 6x where as most other CD drives only support DAE at 1x.

It is a 4xW/6xR (4x writer / 8x reader) CD-R drive

It has a large 2MB buffer

The unit is external and is fully SCSI based.

The drive came with OEM copies of Adaptec's Ease CD Creator, Direct CD, and Toast.

But my CD-R selection critera and budget might not match yours. Here is a break down of the CD-Rs I researched. I've broken them down by Vendor, model, type, interface, speed, buffer, their particular pros & cons, and a recent price quote. When you decide on buying a CD-R drive, do some price searching since prices vary widely!

PS. One vendor to look for in particular is "Smart and Friendly". They don't make CD-R or CD-R/W drives but they OEM drives in bulk, put their own names on them, and sell them at a absolute dirt cheap price! I recently saw their internal 4xR/2xW/2xW CD-R/W drive with an included SCSI controller, full software suite from Adaptec, and blank a CD-R disk for $330 at Costco! NICE DEAL!!

Anyway.. here are a few sites I recommend for pricing:

Pricewatch
StreetPrices
Uvision
NecX

Click here for a short list of excellent Internet Price Search Engines

Click here for an extensive list of Internet vendors from Yahoo

By no means is this list comprehensive or answer a bunch of questions you might still have. Check out these excellent URLs for more info on CD-Rs:

Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ: An Absolute *MUST* read!

The Linux (multiplatform too) CD-Writing-HOWTO: Great info how to press CDs on Linux and other UNIXes. This is one of the ONLY ways to make Rock Ridge encoded CDs.

Adaptec's Master CD-R URl list:A *great* list of other authoritative CD-R sites on topics:

• CD Audio burning
• Vinyl-2-CD transfers
• How CD-Recordable and CD-Rewritable Dyes Work

OLD CD-R & CD-R/W Research:

If you have any updated details, found any mistakes, etc in this list, I would appreciate an e-mail!

If a specific CD-R you are interested isn't listed or there isn't enough info here, check out Andy McFadden's CD-R Listing for possibly more details and a larger listing of drives!

Vendor:	Model:	CD-R, CD-R/W, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW	Interface:	Speed:	Buffer:	Price:	Details:
Hp	SureStore 7100e	CD-R/W	Parallel (SCSI)	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	1MB	mechanism built by Ricoh tray mechanism Actually a external SCSI drive with an external SCSI-2-Parallel port adapter DAE audio support 150,000hrs MTBF http://www.hp.com/storage/cdwriter/index.html	PriceWatch: $451
Hp	SureStore 7100i	CD-R/W	IDE	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	1MB	mechanism built by Philips tray mechanism Internal drive DAE audio support Packet (UDF) support 150,000hrs MTBF http://www.hp.com/storage/cdwriter/index.html	PriceWatch: $451
Hp	SureStore 7110e	CD-R/W	Parallel (SCSI)	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	1MB	mechanism built by Ricoh tray mechanism Actually a SCSI drive with an external SCSI-2-Parallel port adapter DAE audio support 150,000hrs MTBF http://www.hp.com/storage/cdwriter/index.html	PriceWatch: $451
Hp	SureStore 7110i	CD-R/W	IDE	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	1MB	mechanism built by Philips tray mechanism Internal drive DAE audio support Packet (UDF) support 150,000hrs MTBF http://www.hp.com/storage/cdwriter/index.html	PriceWatch: $451
JVC						Not researched yet http://www.jvcinfo.com/jvc200.html
Mitsubishi	???	CD-R/W	SCSI	6xR / 2xW (CD-R) / 2xW (CD-R/W)	??	Not researched yet	Trinity: $465
Mitsumi	???	CD-R	IDE	6xR / 2xW (CD-R)	??	Not researched yet	Trinity: $300
Panasonic	7502B	CD-R	SCSI	8xR / 4xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Panasonic tray mechanism	PriceWatch: $435 (external)
Philips	PCA255CR	CD-R	SCSI	6xR / 2xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Philips tray mechanism Comes with SCSI controller Usually comes with Gear CD-R software http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $375
Philips	PCA361RW	CD-R/W	IDE	6xR / 2xW(CD-R)/ 2xW(CD-R/W)	1MB	mechanism built by Philips tray mechanism Usually comes with Adaptec EZ-CD Pro R/W Older drive known to have problems http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $???
Philips	2600	CD-R	SCSI	6xR / 2xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Philips tray mechanism 290ms access time Older drive known to have problems 120,000hrs MTBF http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $345
Philips	CDD-3600	CD-R/W	SCSI	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)?	1MB	mechanism built by Philips 290ms access time Supports UDF (packet writing) Recommended as a good drive 120,000 MTBF hours http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $???
Philips	CDD-3610	CD-R/W	IDE	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)?	1MB	mechanism built by Philips 290ms access time Supports UDF (packet writing) Recommended as a good drive 120,000 MTBF hours http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $???
Philips	Omni-Writer/20	CD-R/W	Parallel (SCSI)	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)?	1MB	mechanism built by Ricoh Actually a SCSI drive with an external SCSI-2-Parallel port adapter For IBM PC Only Supports UDF (packet writing) Recommended as a good drive 120,000 MTBF hours http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $???
Philips	Omni-Writer/40	CD-R/W	SCSI	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)?	1MB	mechanism built by Ricoh For Apple Macintosh only Supports UDF (packet writing) Recommended as a good drive 120,000 MTBF hours http://www.km.philips.com/osc/index.html	PriceWatch: $???
Pinnacle	???	CD-R	SCSI	?	?	Not researched yet though I have heard bad things about some of their drives.	PriceWatch: $???
Plextor	PX-R24CS	CD-R	SCSI	4xR / 2xW(CD-R)	512KB	mechanism built by Plextor Considered as an excellent drive 390ms access 60,000hrs MTBF Supports native high speed DAE http://www.plextor.com/cdr.htm	PriceWatch: $???
Plextor	PX-???	CD-R	SCSI	12xR / 4xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Plextor 190ms access Caddy mechanism Considered as an excellent drive Supports native high speed DAE http://www.plextor.com/cdr.htm	PriceWatch: $???
Ricoh	MP6200S	CD-R/W	SCSI	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	1MB	mechanism built by Ricoh Tray mechanism Considered as an excellent drive for DATA Comes with a SCSI controller Usually comes with 1) CD-R and 1) CD-R/W blank http://www.ricohcpg.com/cddrive.html	PriceWatch: $435
Ricoh	MP6201S	CD-R/W	SCSI	6xR / 2xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	2MB	mechanism built by Ricoh Tray mechanism Considered as an excellent drive for DATA Comes with a SCSI controller http://www.ricohcpg.com/cddrive.html	PriceWatch: $???
Smart and Friendly	1002	CD-R	SCSI	2xR / 2xW (CD-R)	1MB	mechanism is the Sony CDU920S http://www.smartandfriendly.com/cdr.html	PriceWatch: $???
Smart and Friendly	1004	CD-R	SCSI	2xR / 4xW (CD-R)	512KB	mechanism is the Yamaha CDR-102 http://www.smartandfriendly.com/cdr.html	PriceWatch: $???
Smart and Friendly	2004	CD-R	SCSI	2xR / 4xW (CD-R)	1MB	mechanism is the Sony 940S http://www.smartandfriendly.com/cdr.html	PriceWatch: $???
Smart and Friendly	2006 Plus/Pro	CD-R	SCSI	2xR / 6xW (CD-R)	1MB	Plus mechanism is the JVC XR-W2020 Pro mechanism is the Sony 926S http://www.smartandfriendly.com/cdr.html	PriceWatch: $???
Smart and Friendly	4000	CD-R	SCSI	4xR / 4xW (CD-R)	512KB	mechanism is the Yamaha CDR-100 http://www.smartandfriendly.com/cdr.html	PriceWatch: $???
Smart and Friendly	4006 Plus/Pro	CD-R	SCSI	4xR / 6xW (CD-R)	2MB	mechanism is the Yamaha CDR-400 http://www.smartandfriendly.com/cdr.html	PriceWatch: $???
Sony	CDR-926S	CD-R	SCSI ?	6xR / 2xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Sony Tray mechanism Not good with UDF support Good for audio http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/products/storage/cddrives/cdr/	PriceWatch: $385 (bare drive)
Sony	CDR-960S					Not researched http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/products/storage/cddrives/cdr/	PriceWatch: $??
Teac	CDR-50S	CD-R	SCSI	4xR / 4xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Teac Tray mechanism 220ms access 50,000hrs MTBF http://www.teac.com/dsp/cdrec/cdrec_4x.html	PriceWatch: $???
Teac	CDR-55S	CD-R	SCSI	12xR / 4xW(CD-R)	1MB	mechanism built by Teac Tray mechanism 165ms access 50,000hrs MTBF http://www.teac.com/dsp/cdrec/cdrec_12.html	PriceWatch: $535 (external)
Toshiba						Not Researched	PriceWatch: $???
Yamaha	CDE102II	CD-R	SCSI	4xR / 2xW(CD-R)	512KB	mechanism built by Yamaha Tray mechanism 500ms access Old drive that was known to have problems http://www.yamahayst.com/cdr.htm	PriceWatch: $???
Yamaha	CDR400T/C/CX	CD-R	SCSI	6xR / 4xW(CD-R)	2MB	mechanism built by Yamaha Tray mechanism is known to be kinda flimsy (CDR-400t) Caddy version is better (CDR400c) Known to support the most CD-ROM formats of ALL the CD-Rs One of the best drives available for DAE and audio CD burning 250ms access NOTE:Yamaha's newest CD-R and CD-R/W firmware has known problems with having multiple Yamaha drives on the same SCSI bus! Supports UDF (packet writing) Usually comes with Adaptec Easy CD Creator or DirectCD software http://www.yamahayst.com/cdr.htm	PriceWatch: $524 (external)
Yamaha	CDR4260E	CD-R/W	SCSI	6xR / 4xW(CD-R) / 2xW(CD-R/W)	2MB	mechanism built by Yamaha Known to support the most CD-ROM formats of ALL the CD-Rs One of the best drives available for DAE and audio CD burning 250ms access Supports UDF (packet writing) Usually comes with Adaptec Easy CD Creator or DirectCD software http://www.yamahayst.com/cdr.htm	PriceWatch: $495(internal)

11/28/02:Vastly updated this page to reflect USB, Firewire, DVD-, DVD+, DVD-RAM, etc. I also updated some of the content, change formatting, etc.

01/09/00: Added a table section on the different types of CD writing formats (standard/packet), their issues, and added a blurb on the difficulties of reading some types of blank media in old CD drives.

11/19/98: C|Net releases a review of (9) CD-R/W drives. Though this review is fairly light on techincal information, it does give you some good updates on the technology. It's unfortunate that they don't cover other direct manufactures like Teac, Yamaha, etc and discuss issues about cache sizes, audio quality, etc.

02/14/98 How CD-R, CD-R/W, DVD-ROM, and DVD Re-writables work: Check out this HTML'ized Microsoft PowerPoint presention from SeagateSoftware on how these technologies work and learn how DVD re-writable is coming!

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Last Updated: 11/28/02

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