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BA88

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
16
0
Hey,

I'm having problems with CD's burning very slowly whilst using Max on my Macbook. Any ideas to why this is happening? Sometimes the drive seems to run at full speed and rip's CD's in under a minute but other times it dones't and one CD can take around 8-9 minutes.

Thnks.
 

NewMacbookPlz

macrumors 68040
Sep 28, 2008
3,266
0
You're talking about burning and then ripping...so I'll try and field both sides just in case.

For the burning, the drives auto detect the highest acceptable speed the disc can be burnt. Some cheap discs, despite being labeled 24x or whatever won't be detected as such and will be burnt at a slower speed because that's how the SuperDrive sees them. Also, as I mention below, weight distribution and quality of manufacture play in here as well, as imbalance=bad.

For ripping:

If these are music/data CD's (not DVDs, whole other issue-->RipLock), the drive seems to automatically adjust for disc quality and weight balance of the disc.

I've noticed that discs from the public library rip slower than my own, even when they're not scratched up. I attribute this to the sticker+magnetic bit they place on spot of the disc and throwing off the weight balance. Since the drive "feels" this imbalance, it won't spin the disc any faster due to risk of damage.
 

BA88

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
16
0
Thanks for the reply

My apologies on confusion, I was referring to ripping rather than burning. I glad you mentioned renting CD's from library as that is exactly what i am doing, and yes they have the magnetic strip, thus weighing it down and causing the drive to run slower. I tested with a CD from home and it is far quicker.

Thanks.
 

NewMacbookPlz

macrumors 68040
Sep 28, 2008
3,266
0
I'm glad that was your issue as well. Some of the newer CD's and DVD's are now labelled and tagged on the center ring of the disc instead of closer to the outer edge at my local library...so that makes them play a little nicer with the laptop's drive, but still unbalanced and not quite at full speed like un-tagged discs.
 
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