Remember when...

[Steve]

CD burners didn't have buffer under-run halting?

Ah, those were the days. Days when you knew that if data stopped going to the burner, you had but a couple of seconds before the laser ruined your disc.

I had a SCSI burner from Yahama, 8x and a stonking 4MiB buffer - that's a whole 3.4 seconds of buffer at 8x! But I still sat and watched Nero nervously as the buffers fluctuated.

But I needn't have worried - I was using SCSI. On several occasions my system locked up, but the burn would still complete.

Fond memories indeed.

[sleepyhead]

I remember trying to burn a CD and avidly watching the buffer...making sure the PC wasn't doing anything else so the burn came out good. I think my first CD burner was 4x...as I remember it was 8x read.

To be fair, most of the time the burns worked ok Not may coasters. We did collect enough to make a funky house decal thing although it may have only been funky when we were drunk...

[Golden Dragoon]

My first burner was very very slow, and had a whole 1mb buffer
I made a lot of coasters, or cd's that would play to track 6 or something

[staffsMike]

I've still got a very early one lying around somewhere.. Just thinking of the misery it could cause makes me want to cry lol

[shaithis]

I remember having a 1x burner and only a command-line utility to burn with....and a blank CD cost over £30!!

And all early CD burners were SCSI, took a while for ATA ones to kick in and the first generation of them were terrible.

Those were the days that Plextor ruled, what the hell happened to them?

[Madafwo]

I remember getting my first burner for £120, no Buffer Under Run Protection... Not happy days, many expensive (in those days) disc's wasted due to my ineptitude...

We are spoilt these days, some people just don't know they're born

[stevie lee]

still using my 16x plextor CD R/W the PX-W1610A, paid a whopping £117 for it and i want my moneys worth, so thats why i'm using it until it breaks. Its noisier than a squeeling piggy being run over by a tractor but it still burns a good disk. 6 minutes for a 650mb cd. dont see the point upgrading, although DVD would be nice to use again, mine broke a while back..

[schmunk]

still using my 16x plextor CD R/W the PX-W1610A, paid a whopping £117 for it and i want my moneys worth, so thats why i'm using it until it breaks. Its noisier than a squeeling piggy being run over by a tractor but it still burns a good disk. 6 minutes for a 650mb cd. dont see the point upgrading, although DVD would be nice to use again, mine broke a while back..

£15, Stevie, you know you want to...

[jackvdbuk]

yeah i remember plextor, not only were they expensive there were the best

my first drive was a sony one costing nearly £70, who actually uses cd's anymore

[stevie lee]

£15, Stevie, you know you want to...

i would if i had the money, just don't see the point getting an IDE drive because when i upgrade everything will be SATA, so I wont use it anymore = waste of £15. (i know i have mentioned having a £1500 surround amp on my shopping list, but £15 is a huge amount in my current circumnstances)

who actually uses cd's anymore

me i do (insert hands up smilie)
_____

had a quick look around for current Plextor drives, £40 at lambdatek, other dvds are around £18. so its no wonder people might not be buying them, they are still too expensive. they do a nice dual slot 2xslimline in 1 5.25 drive - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=838530 - add one of these http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=784614 and it looks perfect for a HTPC.

[Steve]

who actually uses cd's anymore

Erm, I just burned Ubuntu 8.10 alpha 4 to a disc, so me!

[Funkstar]

yeah i remember plextor, not only were they expensive there were the best

my first drive was a sony one costing nearly £70, who actually uses cd's anymore

I'm still a huge Plextor fan. I bought a used PX-W1210TA off Amazon because of its audio CD ripping abilities. Still have a full SCSI setup with the classic 8x20, UltraPlex 40 and a Pioneer DVD-ROM all on an Adaptec 2940 controller.

My first CD-R was a Sony too. It was a terrible 2x8 thing with a caddy for the disks. It was really pants. I ended up frying it by pluging a molex power connector in upside down (not sure how I actually managed it). It went fzzzzzzle.

[s3ds]

2x scsi plexter for me cost an arm and a leg lol
i rember the wow facter when i paid £74 for an 8x ide coaster maker lol

now i do feel old

[Agent]

I had a Artic (I think) 2*2*6 drive - it caused many fun nights

Windows would often BSOD as it would time out...it was the motherboard drivers in fairness, but it was hell when it happened.
It had 2 bright LED's on the front that would burn your eyes out if you so much as glanced at them.

Credit where due though, it was reliable. Rarely had a failed disk on it unless I did something stupid like load IE

Good times...

[broadinscope]

I remember it being a lottery whether the disk completed or not with my first cd writer. Aaah those were the days

[llololloy]

First CD burner was a philips SCSI jobbie, only binned it recently.
Cost me in excess of £200 !!