Newer CD-R problem (Denon DCM-270)

[Wray & Ting]

The ATIP (Absolute Time In PreGroove) of a CD-R contains all sorts of information a CD-R drive needs to write to the disc; among these are supported speeds. Most drives won't go below 16x as that is the slowest speed listed in the ATIP.

I'm not sure the exact science behind why a disc rated at a minimum speed of 16x won't burn properly at 4x...or rather I never actually bothered to look. I'm sure there is some technical reason behind it.

That being said...the oldest disc player I have is a 90's era JVC 200-disc player and It's never had issues reading my 16x discs.

I have some old blank CD-R around this house somewhere (not sure just how old). I think it would be really interesting to see if using those would give different results from newer discs. They might by default allow for slower burning, or they might also burn unusable discs in the Denon. After I moved on from suspecting the player's laser, I felt more likely that modern burners were to blame than modern discs, and trying old media in a new burner might help to lay blame one way or the other (for my case anyway).

Side question: does anyone know why older discs showed the extent of burned data very clearly and why with newer burned discs it's much more difficult to visually detect that threshold?

 

[dewdude]

Side question: does anyone know why older discs showed the extent of burned data very clearly and why with newer burned discs it's much more difficult to visually detect that threshold?

That's a factor of burn speed. Most of the high speed drives burn using "Zone CLV", they step the speed of the disc up while burning. So it'd start out as 16x or so on the inside and step it in zones to a full-speed on the outside. These discs always had visible rings, with faster burns being lighter in color.