different lasers for cdr's?

[joe113]

Hi, just a quick question. Does a dvd rw drive use the same laser it uses for burning dvd's as it would to burn cdr's. Is there a different one for cdr's? The reason I ask is I have a dvdrw drive and a cdrw drive. I've been using the cdrw to burn all my cdr's in the hope it will lessen wear and tear on my dvdrw drive. But if my dvdrw drive uses a different laser than the one used to burn dvd's, is there much point to this. Also, what's usually the first to go, the laser or the mechanics used to spin the disc? I know sometimes it will be one and other times the other, but usually? Thanks in advance for any input.

Joe.

[jm1647]

LiteOn combo burners are said to have 2 lasers 1-for DVD and 1-for CD

[Taelon]

LiteOn combo burners are said to have 2 lasers 1-for DVD and 1-for CD

I believe that all burners and readers supporting dual formats (CD and DVD) uses a dual laser design, 780nm for CD and 650nm for DVD. Here's a fascinating article that describes the difficulties in trying to read both formats and some of the optical pickup design solutions created by the major OEMs at the time, note this article was published back in 1998.

Also, what's usually the first to go, the laser or the mechanics used to spin the disc?

Generally speaking, mechanical components (belts, gears, motor, etc.) will wear out, break or underperform long before the electronic components degrade (including the laser).

[joe113]

thanks guy's. So, it doesn't really matter then if it uses a different laser or not, if the mechanical parts are gonna fail first. So me thinks I'll stick to burning cd's in my cdrw drive, lessen the load on my dvdrw.

Cheers.

[LT. Columbo]

joe113

"So me thinks I'll stick to burning cd's in my cdrw drive, lessen the load on my dvdrw."


can't go wrong there, i do the same

[joe113]

On another note, I've burned about 1,000 discs now on my liteon LDW 851S burner. What's the average amount of discs a burner can do in it's lifetime. It's just I keep expecting something to go soon, I'm a bit of a pesimist(not sure of the spelling).

Cheers.

[LT. Columbo]

nobody can give a valid answer to that joe, it's like asking how many miles can you get on a peugot, i have over 150,000 miles already and still strong

i've burned hundreds of discs on my writers and still mint! that's what you get with lite-on quality. all depends.

[joe113]

Are lite-on good burners then? It was the only external usb2 burner I could find in my local stores, not too expensive either at 100 euro.

[LT. Columbo]

lite-ons are excellent, any external burner is a great compromise IMO

[joe113]

guess i got lucky then, it being my first burner and all. Maybe you can answer something thats being happening to me recently. Every time I go to burn a disc with nero burning rom, it starts fine, then eats up all available ram, sometimes over 400mb, and it kinda slows the burning process. The burns turn out ok, just takes about 5 minutes longer to burn. Any ideas? Ta.