Slot-loading vs. Tray-loading Optical Drives

[chucknorris]

Is it my imagination, a result of limited experience, or do slot-loaded drives (i.e. the one in my iBook) act a lot more picky about flaws on media than tray-loaded ones?

When I first ripped all of my cds onto a computer, I used my mom's crappy Dell with a cheap CDRW tray drive, and none of them gave me any trouble (other than the occasional slow-down). Now, I'm in the process of doing it again with my iBook, and it seems like every cd with even minimal wear has tracks that won't import.

On top of that, iTunes freezes on every "bad" cd, so I have force quit and restart it.

So is this annoyance standard to slot drives, the models that iBooks use, my specific drive, or is it my imagination?

 

[PlaceofDis]

do you have error correction turned on in iTunes to helped with the bad discs?

i have noticed no difference at all between the two, i actually prefer the slot loaded much much much more.

 

[Xeem]

I think it varies from drive to drive. My cube is terrible when it comes to scratched discs (in OS 9 it would freeze), but my Powerbook was quite good with the same CDs.

 

[Heb1228]

The drive-loading mechanism has little to do with the quality of the drive. You can find good and bad drives of both types. I've never had any problems with the slot-loading drive on my PB.

 

[chucknorris]

The drive-loading mechanism has little to do with the quality of the drive. You can find good and bad drives of both types. I've never had any problems with the slot-loading drive on my PB.

I guess that's the consensus. I'll have to chock it up to lack of experience.

As to the error correction...I thought I had it on, but I didn't. I guess I'll go back and try some of the problem cds again.

Thanks a lot guys.