More CDR issues.

"In most systems, the CD-R's I burn playback without any problems. However, I have noticed that on some single CD players, my CD-R's, as well as those created on other systems at other studios, have problems with reliable playback. The audio will skip or it takes a long time for the player to start playback. My CD player is a Harmon-Kardon HD-710. However, the same CD-R will playback flawlessly on a $60 boombox. Commercial CD's play back in this deck without trouble. What's the problem?"

As we've written in numerous past issues of inSync (don't forget to check those TTOTD archives boys and girls) the whole CDR game is very confusing and there are several variables that effect the overall reliability of burned discs. If you have a burned CDR that is not working in more than one playback device you can be fairly certain that the CD itself is faulty. Obviously in 99% of these cases it is a faulty CD recording that causes the problem, but what makes it faulty? The potential answers are numerous and can get complex. As I said, we've touched on this quite a bit in the past, but as a general rule it boils down to the quality of the media, the burner, and (more importantly) the compatibility between the two. Our advice is still to talk to the manufacturer of the CD burner and get recommendations for media from them. Try each of those and experiment. You should be able to find one or two that will work on most machines most of the time. Ideally, unless you bought the cheapest burner you could find, you should be able to achieve nearly 100% good results, but there will always be a player somewhere just enough out of spec that your CDR will not work.