GCE 8481B - Seems to only have problems burning audio

[inrage]

I've been doing more testing with the LG GCE8481B (48,24,48) burner and whenever I burn an audio CD I get the rings along the bottom. I went to the store to have them test it out, they burned a data CD and a CD copy and things worked fine. However there was no time to check for audio. When I got home I tested mine, 24x for data and CD copy, which both worked, but when I burnt an audio CD I got the lines across the bottom.

What I'm asking, is anyone who has this burner, could you burn an audio CD at 24x (or more) and look at the bottom of the disk and let me know if you see any irregularities, like certain parts of the disk are darker/lighter than the rest. Thanks.

[cfitz]

Any chance you could post a photograph that shows these rings?

Z-CLV burners typically produce a visible set of concentric rings when they burned a disc, one for each burning speed zone. This is perfectly normal for a Z-CLV burner and doesn't affect the quality of the burned disk in any material way.

Now, your drive isn't a Z-CLV drive, but the same effect might be produced if your drive is adjusting its writing speed or other burning parameters while it is in the middle of burning in order to accomodate problems with the media.

Are you using high quality media? What type are you using? Do you notice the drive changing speeds as it burns (you should be able to hear the RPM's changing)? Are the burned discs with the rings readable, or are they coasters that can not be read? If they are readable, have you checked their quality with CD Speed's ScanDisc and CD Quality tests?

cfitz

[inrage]

First off I can't post any pictures (I'm not sure how to post here) but I could always e-mail them if you're interested.

The CDs are readable but sometimes out of the blue in the car I get "disk error" and I can't play any other tracks. The same thing happens in my stereo where the disk starts skipping to the point I have to shut it off. I know this is a real problem because all my other burnt audio CDs work fine and I know the stereo in my car and stereo are reliable.

The type of Media I've been testing on are Mitsumi 1x - 48x, cursor 1x - 24x and Cicero 1x - 40x.

I don't really notice a speed change but I haven't really paid attention to that and I haven't tested anything with any of those programs you've mentioned.

I just did a test where I burnt an audio CD at 16x and things were much better, only one very faint ring near the center of the disk. I took the burner out and put in my old LG (not sure of the model # but it's a 24/10/40) and burnt the same audio CD at 24x and it worked perfectly (not a single sign of any rings).

When I went to the store today (where they tested out the burner) they were able to burn at 32x (using the same CDs I have and same program) but at home it only allows me to burn at 24x, any idea why that is?

Based on this I've decided to return the burner once and for all and just stick with my old one, I guess they're not building them like they used to. It's very dissapointing though, especially since I've wasted about 20 CDs.

[Burn2death]

inrage: I did ask you in your last thread on the same topic about how exactly you burnt you cds but you choose not to answear me back, instead you post a new thread on the exact same topic, so now do I ask you again and have you not answear me back again?

[cfitz]

Based on this I've decided to return the burner once and for all and just stick with my old one, I guess they're not building them like they used to. It's very dissapointing though, especially since I've wasted about 20 CDs.

It certainly is possible that the drive you got is defective. The rings could be caused by varying laser power output, and out-of-spec laser power would certainly make for a hard-to-read (or impossible to read) disc.

Testing the discs with CD Speed would highlight any bad areas of the discs.

cfitz

[cfitz]

By the way, it isn't germane to this discussion anymore since you have made your decision, but here is how you post pictures:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 7599#47599

cfitz

[nox]

I have the same problem with a LG 32x burning at ... 16x CLV !! (Of course, the burner never stops)

Well, I think that the "rings" or "zones" are not much visible in CDRs with light colours.
But with Metal Azo deep blue are very clear.

I don't know what to think. A friend has the same burner bought a couple of months before and he hasn't this issue or it's much less visible. Mine is the retail model with 2MB buffer and made in China. His is OEM with 8MB...

I don't really know if this is a problem or not. I don't find C2 errors in the disks.

[mdkathon]

Yuo guys are going to think I'm crazy, but I had the same problem, and found a solution.

I have an 8320 OC'd to 8400. It works just fine for data, but I've had issues with audio discs, usually what will happen is I will burn a MP3 to CDA cd, OR copy an audio CD either on the fly from my dvd drive, or just using hte burner to cache the CD to my hd then to burn the copy. Now what happens is when the cd is finished I test it and... it skips like a mother, my cd player wont play it, my computer wont play it, my car wont.. they all just skip, like the CD is scratched all to hell. Now I never checked for 'rings'.. but in stead I just tried other things. Now all these issues I had were using the Roxio Easy CD Creator bundeled with the drive.. I have not changed anything with the program, and it does see the burner as an 8400... I went out and got Nero and patched to 5.5.9.9 ... and everything I burn via Nero works just fine.. Data, Audio, Copies... etc..

Try it. It just might work.

[inrage]

Ok I can't post pictures because I don't have any webspace to host it at.

mdkathon: I've tried using both the old and new version of Nero and easy cd creator, same results with both.

The things I'm really looking for is someone with this exact drive to try burning an audio disk (mp3s from the hard drive) at 24x or more (with disc-at-once) and letting me know if they get any rings.

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Burn2death]

I will do some test tonight I'll tell you the results when I'm done.

[casey]

Ok, I did a test:
Burner: LG 8481b firmware 1.00, Made in China
Prog: ECDC ver 5.1.0.104j
Media: Acer Gold 40x
Burned at: 24x in Disc at once mode
Music CD used: Queen Greatest hits disk 2
Method: First extract to hard drive
Buffer: never falls below 100%
Quality test: Nero CD Speed, read with LG8160b 100% error free.
Sound test: Playing as I type here, sounds perfect
Lines & rings: I don't see anything unusual.
Player in Car: will test later this morning and report back.

[inrage]

Prog: ECDC ver 5.1.0.104j

What program is that?

Ok I think the problem *might* be solved. I was playing around today and set my burner as the master (instead of slave) and burned an audio CD (no lines at all). I made 3 copies of the disc (all the same from mp3s on my hard drive). Three - one on each type of CD.

I just downloaded the Nero CD Speed and although I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, I did a scan disk and tested for surface and file errors, it came out 100% fine.

I tested one of the CDs with rings and it got halfway, a lot of yellow (some darker yellow which means it cant read C2 errors or something) and it froze halfway :-p

However, on another disc that had a few rings it got 100% no errors, so I'm not really seeing a correlation. So the big test will be when I try these new CDs I burned in the car tomorrow - if everything works with no skips than the problem seems to be solved.

Please keep me updated on the tests you guys are doing just incase I run into problems. Should it make a difference whether the drive is set as master or slave?

Now I have a stack of about 20 CDs that burned with rings and whatnot through my testing, my question is do you think I should go back to the store and ask them to re-imburse me for all these CDs I've wasted or just cut my losses? They refused to test the burner for me so I was forced to do all this with my own CDs.

[casey]

Easy Cd Creator by Roxio

[Burn2death]

I just finish me test:
-Nero 5.5.10
-Wave files, dise at oce
-master on secondary IDE
-Fuji rated 24x, burnt@48x (Long stratedgy, cyanine) light blue
-79.33 min Audio

100% with scandisk
100% with Cd Quality test
-works perfect in car stereo/home DVD player

I can see no visible rings around the CD except if I hold it against the light in certin way so that there is a reflection, then I can see some slight rings towards the edge of the CD other wise there are no visible rings on the CD, so does this sound like the kind of rings you see on your discs inrage?

[casey]

Works perfectly in car stereo.

[inrage]

Some of the rings I get are darker (like the difference between the burnt and unburnt part of the CD) and some others are lighter (where you have to get a reflection to see it). I don't have much time right now, but tonight I'll try burning some more CDs and I'll update you all later.