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I have a friend that wants to use CD-RW media in what I believe is his BenQ 1620 DVD burner. Looks like this can rewrite at 24X speeds and he's going to be burning MP3s on it. I know there's been some discussions in other forums about this drive not liking some CD-RW media, so I just wanted to get some opinions. I'm guessing something Made in Japan would be the best. What's the best CD-RW media to use in this drive? Thank you.

I use nothing but Verbatim 24X.

I have yet to try CD-RW media in a DVD burner, but I second Slim's recommendation. Verbatim rewritable media has always performed admirably for me.

It's practically impossible to get any Made in Japan media nowadays
So I third CowboySlim. Get Verbatim CD-RW (made in Taiwan or made in Singapore).

Are these the ones you're talking about?
"25-pack spindle of Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-RW rated 16-24X speed, from CompUSA"

If not, where can we get the 24X ones only? I can't find them at rima or newegg.

Those will work. The key to watch for Verbatim discs is DataLifePlus. I'm not sure if they make regular DataLife CD-RW discs, but if they do, stick with the DataLifePlus.

TheWizard wrote:I'm not sure if they make regular DataLife CD-RW discs, but if they do, stick with the DataLifePlus.

All of their RWs were DataLifePlus.

The local CompUSA doesn't even carry any Verbatims discs anymore. Is this just online to get these CD-RWs and where else can these be found?

Online only would not surprise me.
I have never looked for them in stores.
I always buy them online.

Google is your friend.

Glad I checked Reseller Ratings and Googled. Looks like CompUSA has a six-month rating of 0.8/10 and lifetime 2/10. Based on my google search and checking ratings, it seems the best place to order these things from is Mwave and possibly Amazon as a second choice! I posted this just in case anyone else wants to know. Thanks for the help.

Nowadays, High speed CD-RW's are a complete waste of money and completely unnecessary for most situations.

Due to low demand, the costs are high. You also have a higher risk of data corruption and of course they will always have lower compatibility (compared to CD-Rs). It's better off to buy twice or three times as many CD-R's for the same price rather than use CD-RW.

I have a bunch of old slow CD-RW that I have absolutely no use for it. I guess I'll try to throw it on ebay, but my expectations are really low...

Wesociety wrote:Nowadays, High speed CD-RW's are a complete waste of money and completely unnecessary for most situations.

Last week I was in agreement with this when I realized that I hadn't used any CD-RWs in several months.
However, I've just might have a new use for them, which is an exception as Wes noted.

The player in my Jeep will play *.MP3s and *.WMAs on CD-Rs and CD-RWs.
So I burned out some CD-Rs with a whole bunch of songs on hand.
Then I bought several new as singles and was about to reburn new CD-Rs.
Then I thought, well maybe I'll wait to see if I want some more songs.
Now I realize that if I reburn with packet writing on CD-RWs that I can just stick new ones on one at a time as I aquire them.

And if data corruption is an issue, can I hear the difference between B# and Cb?

CowboySlim wrote:can I hear the difference between B# and Cb?

Only if you don't have well-tempered ears...

G

CowboySlim wrote:

Wesociety wrote:Nowadays, High speed CD-RW's are a complete waste of money and completely unnecessary for most situations.

Last week I was in agreement with this when I realized that I hadn't used any CD-RWs in several months.
However, I've just might have a new use for them, which is an exception as Wes noted.

The player in my Jeep will play *.MP3s and *.WMAs on CD-Rs and CD-RWs.
So I burned out some CD-Rs with a whole bunch of songs on hand.
Then I bought several new as singles and was about to reburn new CD-Rs.
Then I thought, well maybe I'll wait to see if I want some more songs.
Now I realize that if I reburn with packet writing on CD-RWs that I can just stick new ones on one at a time as I aquire them.

And if data corruption is an issue, can I hear the difference between B# and Cb?

Will your Jeep play packet-written discs? I've had a lot of portable players that claim to but end up not correctly reading the disc after you've done a few file deletes/re-writes. (I had the issue that most wouldn't see any new files, and would freeze up when I think they went looking for deleted files-- like they couldn't see the structure of the directory properly after a first write..)

Haven't really tried that yet, but it sounds like something to keep in mind in order tp recognize it quickly if it happens.

OTH, I'm more likely to add songs than delete.

I do know that I can only use a particular CD-RWs a limited number of times in my Cyberhome DVD recorder (premastering, I think).
But that can usually be resolved by doing a full erase with Nero.