CD burn speed

[Ginger]

What is the best burn speed to use to burn a trips photos (abt. 600) to CD using an iMac G 5. They are now entered on iPhoto. Thanks.

[Rhys]

What is the best burn speed to use to burn a trips photos (abt. 600) to CD using an iMac G 5. They are now entered on iPhoto. Thanks.

The maximum... You want to get it on as fast as possible.

[Fred]

Curiosity question - I am a complete novice when it comes to knowing about burning CD's. To learn, I asked many questions of different people. The consensus seemed to be to use the slowest speed for archiving image files, as this was less prone to errors than the fastest speed. After reading Rhy's response I am "cornfoozed" again. :confused: :o

Can someone enlighten me? Thanks. :)

[kmyusuf]

In Win XP writing wizard, I have discovered that writing 50 image files (3-4MB each) or so will result in 3-4 files with errors (cannot be opened). Since writing speed cannot be set in XP, I have stoped uisng it and revert back to Nero, using 24X even though my drive is capable of writing up to 52x on capable CDs.

[emalvick]

Curiosity question - I am a complete novice when it comes to knowing about burning CD's. To learn, I asked many questions of different people. The consensus seemed to be to use the slowest speed for archiving image files, as this was less prone to errors than the fastest speed. After reading Rhy's response I am "cornfoozed" again. :confused: :o

Can someone enlighten me? Thanks. :)

I think writing fast is useful, but I don't write too fast. I found through backing up music cd's and writing compilation cd's for driving, that anything faster than 16X doesn't work very well in audio cd players.

Thus, when I write anything (data, music, video, etc), I limit myself to 16X. If if I am filling up a 700 MB disc, it only takes 5 min, which is worth it. I've never had a bad file using this speed. I have on rare occasions gone faster with data CD's, and have had mixed results. I think it the media more than the drive that really determines quality.

I wonder if anyone has looked at the longetivity of discs burned at different speeds. Will a CD burned slower last longer or vice-a-versa? When archiving, that is what concerns me.

Erik

[Fred]

Thanks for the replies. They kind of reinforce what I was taught about slower versus faster speed burning. Appreciate it.

[Rhys]

Speed makes no difference though. I can burn CDs at 2x - 52x. They all play in DVD players. They all play in CD players.

The only thing I can say is that the XP CD writing package is junk. Even Microsoft will admit to that. The guilty party that wrote it is Roxio, I understand.

[emalvick]

Speed makes no difference though. I can burn CDs at 2x - 52x. They all play in DVD players. They all play in CD players.

The only thing I can say is that the XP CD writing package is junk. Even Microsoft will admit to that. The guilty party that wrote it is Roxio, I understand.

I do find that speed makes a difference. And it isn't software related, at least in my experience. I agree that Roxio is crap, but generally speaking, the faster I write a CD the more errors tend to turn up. That is how choose 16X because I haven't had any errors in any software with any blank.

In fact, besides software, the media itself often dictates how good a certain speed of writing will perform, and even the players themselves often only perform so well. The writers can also cause issues.

Realistically, each person should test their system and determine what is best for backup or archival. I have had decent success in the past with making data CD's at 32X or faster, but I've had enough errors (1/20) that I don't use it for archival pruposes. Music CD's I find to do similar. It could be my burner (Lite-On), it could be my software (Nero), media (Fuji), and even the players.

However, I found all that by testing at faster speeds first, and slowing things down until I found a consisting working speed. That may be worth a series of blanks to test.

Good luck,
Erik