Burning CDRs for classic systems: is it really bad for your console

Verbatim Aizo blues were the heat, best burns ever.

Jibbajaba said:

I have like 6 or 7 Saturns out in my garage that all have busted lasers. That's how I got them though, so I don't know what their life history was like. I took them off of a friend's hands because I incorrectly assumed that I could just buy new laser assemblies for them.

Edit: I've had the best luck with Maxell CD-r's. Never tried Taiyo Yudens or anything, though. But I've never had a problem playing burned games, and have never had a laser die on me.

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Install rhea in them, resell saturns...

I'd love to buy a Rhea, but I've had no luck and have just given up on the whole affair. If you make it a pain in the dick to buy your product I just no longer care.

Simple Troll said:

Install rhea in them, resell saturns...

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From my experience of Sega Saturns (I've had a few which I've owned and sold over the years)

Europe Model 1's - Built like a tank

Europe Model 2's - needs recapped every 10 years or so else picture has inference or wiggles. I also had one that KILLED mod chips.

Jap V Saturn mk1- reliable but had a noticably darker contrast output I didn't like

White Hong Kong Saturn Mk2 - My current Saturn. Only had it for 3 years, but good so far...

Seems to be whatever shit Sega had in the factor at the time went into each Saturn. The early ones IMO seem the best built, but when Sega knew they had lost the war quality control seems to have nose dived.

Still my favorite console eva though

Simple Troll said:

Install rhea in them, resell saturns...

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I would, but...

ChopstickSamurai said:

I'd love to buy a Rhea, but I've had no luck and have just given up on the whole affair. If you make it a pain in the dick to buy your product I just no longer care.

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Exactly.

Yeah its a bitch to buy the things.

I finally managed to buy a GDEMU last week after trying to get a open window for months.

He actually stated when he was going to open the orders this time so I was sat on his page at the exact time hitting refresh lol

Luckily I got one, The window was only open for 20 mins though so you gota be in it to win it lol

RAZO said:

I also love how quiet it reads discs unlike the dreamcast.

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Or the PCE CD, which snarls like a dog. That drive is full of character .

Jibbajaba said:

I have like 6 or 7 Saturns out in my garage that all have busted lasers. That's how I got them though, so I don't know what their life history was like. I took them off of a friend's hands because I incorrectly assumed that I could just buy new laser assemblies for them.

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My buddy gave me my Saturn that was just sitting in his garage one day, laser was dead so I jumped on eBay found one, bought it, slapped it in, now it works great!

That was about 4 years ago now. I assumed you could still find them out in the wild...

I've never had any problems with burnt media, hell I've played more burnt games than legit ones.

The problem really is 1. overuse and 2. poor quality CD-R and/or the rip. I'm going to bet on the former though... all of these consoles have operational limits and getting 10 years out of a unit with heavy use is what I'd expect, maybe even less.

With certain systems I'd say bad rips are a huge culprit. With PC Engine in particular, a good chunk of the ISOs out there are bad, so when you burn them to CD they might load but the laser is going crazy trying to seek the data. Meanwhile a perfect copy of the game on the same disc and it operates just as it should.

Yea, for those who own original game cd's, I would recommend you rip your own stuff and save it as a backup. At least your favorites. I used TurboRip for my original PCE cd games and they work flawlessly on my SuperSd.

Just like Gohan said, a good amount of Isos out there are probably not good.

I know there are tons of shitty Dreamcast rips out there because my buddy went through like five Dreamcasts playing burned discs while I still have my first one, which was bought in 1999 by a different friend and then gifted to us when he got a PS2. And I've put some serious hours onto that thing.

I acquired a big ass stack of silver lacquer Taiyo Yuden/JVC CDRs. They really are more reflective to the naked eye!

I got way too familiar with the PSX CD drive, and I can't see any way that CD-Rs would wear the optical block faster than other discs. Certainly, if you're having severe read errors that cause the sled to re-zero, you'll be putting more wear on the sled. But, even if you're using a crappy CD-R that the PSX has trouble with, you won't get those errors often. Small read errors are re-tried with a tracking coil movement, not a sled movement, and that doesn't really wear out (it's always energized anyway as part of the tracking feedback). The laser power itself is controlled independent of the disc's characteristics, using a separate "mirror" sensor that just measures optical power at the laser diode (before reflecting off the disc).

If the disc is being read successfully, there's no possible way that a CD-R would put "more stress" on the drive than a normal disc. The laser maintains the same power and the same control loops are running regardless. The physical differences in the disc don't change the behavior of the drive - they just make the signal weaker coming back to the photosensors.

I obtained Sega CD, PCE Duo-R, and a modded Saturn for the ability to play burns, but caution over this topic has kept me from making much use of them for fear of harming the system from either poor CD-Rs or rips.

here's my two cents. my dad bought my original PSX in like 1996, and I played it pretty heavily since it was plugged in. that includes leaving the console on for LITERALLY DAYS (Final Fantasy VII and no save point when my mom would make me turn the game off, mainly) and i would leave the console on for days at a time into my adult years (teenage laziness , being on drugs, etc.). I also CONSTANTLY played burned games, on any fucking CD i could burn them to. My PlayStation ran completely fine and I sold it in working condition maybe 3 years ago. Thing is a fucking champ.