Testing CD-R compatibility with other drives

brncao 2013-10-31 16:30:49 UTC #1

I'm wondering if all these CD test tools (i.e. Kprobe, Nero, Opti Drive Control) can tell me if a CD-R can be read on other CD players. I bought some CD-Rs from Verbatim months ago, and even though they were flawless on my PC's optical drive, it could not be read on many other CD players. What would I look for in a test? I'm using Opti Drive Control.

Stereodude 2013-10-31 17:16:04 UTC #2

Are they old CD players?

In my experience low reflectivity is usually why old CD players won't play CD-Rs. Generally this affects CD-RWs much more. Scanning can't measure reflectivity.

brncao 2013-10-31 17:56:51 UTC #3

That sucks. Media Supply kindly provided me samples of their Media Pro CD-Rs. I can definitely see through them when I hold them against my monitor. I'll burn some test audio on them, but I'm doubting they'll work on older CD players.

Stereodude 2013-10-31 19:07:52 UTC #4

Other things can affect compatibility like jitter as well.

brncao 2013-10-31 23:25:35 UTC #5

I just tested them in Nero DiscSpeed and a really old CD player (early 90s). No errors!