CD Audio disk won't play in DVD/CD player

[Tom S]

ImgBurn 2.4.1

OS: XP Home SP2

Computer: HP Pavilion dv1000 (laptop), 1.5Gb RAM

DVD burner: Sony DVD RW DRV-840A USB (external drive, fresh out of the box)

 

I created a CD audio disk image using the laptop's internal drive, and burned a few CD's from this image on the internal drive successfully, and they play on all the CD players I've tried them on. I was also successful in burning the same image using an older external drive, but unfortunately it seems to have a mechanical problem and starts scoring the disks after it does a couple of burns. So I went out and bought 2 new, highly rated Sony drives as above.

 

The burns are successful, verification is successful, and they play fine on the computer and on at least one CD player, but they don't play on one particular CD player, ironically a Sony home theatre. The disk starts to spin up and the player is able to see the number of tracks, etc., but can't seem to find the start point. The disks I burned on the internal drive work fine on that player. Disks burned on either Sony drives are unreadable on the Sony home theatre system (also a DVD player, Super Audio CD player etc.).

 

So: same computer, same image, same OS, same ImgBurn software, same media, different burner.

 

What is your best guess as to what the problem is here? Is there anything I can tweak to achieve a better result?

 

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I was burning to both Sony drives simultaneously, which turned out to be a faster way of creating a bunch of coasters. But at least one was burned by itself and it too had this problem.

 

I did not install any of the crappy Nero software that came with the drives, and afaict there was no Sony software that could be installed independently. XP seemed to detect the new hardware and recognize them. And of course the disks are good, on most players.

 

Thank you,

Tom

[Tom S]

The model given above is from the OS. On the box, the model number is "DRX840U".

 

I checked the Sony site, and indeed, no drivers are required, but they have a lot of scary language about having this be the only USB device connected, and to connect it directly and not through a dock (which I happen to have done). Okay, I can try that, but I'm skeptical that that would be a cause since it seems to be an issue of degree (sometimes unreadable), not of kind (like not being able to detect the drive or flat-out write errors). I'll also try a burn from a different computer.

 

TS

[Tom S]

Ok, I think it is (mostly) the CD/DVD player that is at fault. It has 5 'slots' (shuttling disk to the read head) and the only problem is with slot 1. Also I tried different media using the same burner on OS X and that disk worked on slot 1. So while it is annoying that it doesn't work every which way (especially as I plan to send these disks out to other people) it is probably workable. Haven't tried burning with the same drive, media and software on a different system yet.

 

But if you know of any tweaks as concerns ImgBurn (maybe it is not waiting long enough for the laser to fire up before starting burn of track one, resulting in marginal laser pitting there? if I skip to track two everything is ok), I will like to hear of them.

 

Great product!

 

Tom

[mmalves]

Which speed(s) are you burning those CDs at? Usually with CDs, especially Audio CDs, slower is better. Also make sure your Sony burners are using the latest firmware available.

[Tom S]

Yeah, I just left it at 'MAX' - I'll back off the speed a little with the next batch I do.

 

Thanks,

Tom