Best way to burn CDs for CD32
 

Hi,

I know (I guess) that CD-RW are not compatible with the CD32. Someone confirms?

And is burn speed an issue for the CD? I can burn a CD at 2x if needed, don't need to put 10x, save 5 minutes, and put the CD in the trash. Any advice?

CD-RW's don't work (CD-RW was introduced years after CD32 was introduced)

In my experience quality of blanks and drive is much more important. I have always used high burning speeds because I don't want to wait too long and it has never made any obvious difference and because I am 100% sure slow speed = better quality is a myth. (IMHO is only true if burner or blanks are crappy :))

I had HP laptop with internal DVD-R and it made not-very-CD32 compatible CD-Rs with or without slow speed.

I guess quality of CD32 drive can also make a big difference. (btw, if you open the CD32, make sure metal shield is not removed, without it drive will become extremely unreliable)

I burn at 10 or 16x with IMGBURN, on Sony CDR 700MB media.
My drive is a slim USB unit identified as "HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA T11N", whatever the hell brand that is :P I bought it cheap from China.

Works fine with everything I have burned in all these years I had it (Dreamcast, Gamecube, CD32, Sega CD, etc).

I agree with TOny regarding quality of drive and media. I had problems in the past with mixed media. From experience, I have decided Sony CD-R media is the one that works best for me.

Hmmm, I never had any problems with ANY brand of CDs burnt for my CD32 or CDTV ...

Allways burning fastest speed possible ;)

I use verbatim cd-r. These work fine on my cd32. I have 2 cd32's and on one I have some issues with cdxl-intro's but they work.

I use imgburn 10x speed.

The quality/wear of the CD drive makes much more difference than the brand of CD-R does.
I’ve only used one burner so can’t comment on that (all burned at 10x which is the burner’s slowest speed).

I’ve had three CD32 units at the same time this year, and currently have two.
It’s only as the drives wear that they get picky as to CD-R brand.

xArtx can you confirm that sometimes CD won't boot? My CD32 is really tired, and I think Akira's one too (failed booting my games menu sometimes). Is it easy to buy a working CD32 machine? IS there a way to change the drive? (maybe wrong topic !!)

Yes, you can get the laser easy. Mech can be serviced quite easy also.
I have noticed differences with different machines, its not down to the disc's used. More the way it is setup in the factory. It was a case of, it reads pressed disc's perfect ship it out. Typical pattern with Commodore.

I have 2 machines here, one wont read disc I made, other takes 20 mins to load menu. On my own CD32 at home, it takes 10 secs to load menu. Now theres nothing wrong with any of these machines. As they all do what they were intended, shop bought disc's load and play perfect.

Not even sure CD-R existed when CD32 was built.

For mine I don’t recall ever having CDs that “boot sometimes”,
more that a given brand of CD-R will work with one unit and not another.

It’s a shame with the replacement laser assembly you don’t get the sled or other mechanical.

The process to align the drives at the factory was to aim for the least CD read errors per duration.
The Commodore CD error rate counters are definitely pulse extenders and counters in hardware,
and I believe the gate duration timer was implemented in the Amiga test software.

Again, sorry, but you assume wrong.
My drive is fine, I haven't had issues with game menues, commercial discs or anything except with the RUGCD.

In a way that's reassuring for my console, even if sometimes the drive won't spin (fiddling with the contacts help)

The different thing is that the RUGCD has been built with mkisofs+SysX & Patrik's patches

I'll fix the various functional problems with the compilations and I'll burn it using WinUAE+ISOCD. Maybe it will make a difference, but I doubt it, although I hope so.
I'll keep my mkisofs toolchain for tests on WinUAE (which is very good since it's fully windows).
The problem possibly lies in RNCD/Psygore CD routines. But the fact that both have the problem is strange. I doubt that Psygore has ripped the RNCD code.

Yes your CD32 might be fine. To be honest, I am suspecting the ISO making more than CD32Load.

You may be right, specially because menu uses Amiga ROM and it does not work sometimes. I'll make a new ISO, thanks for your reports. I hope to turn NO into YES
(Archon: not working but not like you: I got the kickstart 1.3 boot up screen !!)

I'll see if I can do more tests this weekend, if i can take my CD32 to the inlaws. Kinda annoying because of power transformer.

My old CD32 was broken, so I buy a new one. It works perfectly with original CDs. Then I tested a few burned CD of unofficial releases, wich works fine with my old CD32. Nothing happen. Some times it boots up, after a long waiting time, but 90% of the time it just don't work. As I said, on my old CD32 it was no problem and burned CD (I use Verbatim CD-R where you can print on the white side) works perfectly.
Any idea what could be the Problem?

I dunno, but the long loading times rings a bell. I think lens needs cleaning. Don't ask me how to do it :) But if someone can tell how to clean the lens, that would be good to know.

Also, I mentionned in the CD32Load post that my console had this tendency after a few games successfully tried. Like it was "heating" or something. Let it rest a few hours and retry: it works!!!

I would agree, but original CDs are working finde. So CD32 needs better lens?

I have an old CD player which did not like burned CDs, it read pressed CDs fine. Pressed CD quality is better than burned CDs.