Faster CD burners? Maybe not.

[DrMDJ]

Just thought some may find this article interesting. It's been discussed for some time that burners may be reaching their maximum viable speeds. The article I linked discusses some of the reasons.

The potential problem of shattering discs has been known, though not widely publicized, since drives broke the 40x or so barrier. I knew Plextor had reinforced their tray doors a while back (how comforting ). I just hope all those in to super fast burning remember to start their burns, and then duck.

[SuperSparks]

The whole thing is getting silly now. I've never felt the need to go beyond 12 speed burning, though I have a 16 or 20x (I forget which) - I mean is life so short that we really need to shave a couple of minutes off burning a CD.

Thanks for the article, it's very interesting.

[MiseryQ]

My 24X TDK is only seconds slower than the 40x burners...
But If I were buying one now...

I'm not really sure if were getting close to the max burners can do... I do'nt remeber the specifics but DVD burners burn at an astronomical rate...

[Train]

Talk about grenading cds. One of those 52's would lead one into hardening the computer for pesonal protection.

[Dr.Gibbs]

CD's are basically enjoying their last breath of fame. DVD's are taking over, and with DVD burners getting cheaper, people are going to stop using CD's altogether, except for music. DVD's still present a serious flaw, however... they move. Anything that moves like that is severely limited simply because of the costs involved in making such high speed equipment that's safe.

My prediction is that some sort of flash ROM is going to become the standard within a decade. You already see it in digital cameras and MP3 players. I'd even venture to guess that flash ROM will replace hard drives sooner or later as well, once it becomes much cheaper. You'll just plug a 100GB flash drive into your IDE channel, and there ya go... instant access, no noise, and no mechanical failure.

[DrMDJ]

Maximum DVD burner speeds lag a fair amount right now compared to CD burners. The fastest ones out there now have just reached the equivalent of roughly 36x in cd-r terms (4x dvd). Sure there's more upside potential. But dvd writing speed is subject to some of the same issues/problems as cd-r. There capacity though is a real plus in their favor.

Supersparks has a point. With a, say, 24x cd burner you're talking about 4 minutes or so to burn a whole 80min/700mb cd. With a 40x (still not the fastest available) burner the time is like 3 minutes. Now to begin with you can see the diminishing returns that set in. But beyond that, even 4 (maybe 5) minutes is not very long. Unless you're in the cd duplication business, is the time really that important, precious? Oh well, to each their own.

[slipe]

The advantage of CDR is that they are cheaper than floppies and will read in almost any computer on the planet. When DVD drives become universal and DVD-R media becomes price competitive it will replace CDR.

I’m not as sure as some people that DVD is the next standard. Programs on DVD are rare and there aren’t that many folks who want to watch movies on their computer. I have a DVD drive and it is currently useful only as a CD-ROM. It entirely possible that a new technology could bypass DVD. Computers will likely have the ability to read a CD for decades to come.

The biggest problem I see with faster CD writers is media cost. If the technology to make them work at 56X requires a more expensive disc I won’t go there. With buffer underrun technology the only time you spend writing a CD is setting up the burn and labeling it. That is the same regardless of burn time since you can go about your business on the computer (within reason) while you burn. The only time I wish for a faster burn is when I am waiting on them so I can take them somewhere, and better planning would obviate even that.

They have probably passed the point of diminishing returns. An increase to 56X would probably knock only 15 seconds or so from a burn at the cost of noise and increased media price. But as long as the average consumer assumes 56X is better than 48X and will vote with his credit card the things will get faster.

[K G G]

Having upgraded from a 24x to a 40x burner myself, I can truly say the psychological effect has probably had the biggest impact. And the added bragging rights of course

Users who have a 2x or 4x burner (like our backpack at work), would have a significant time benefit from an upgrade to a 40x+ burner, everyone else's benefits would be rather limited. As DrMDJ said - diminishing returns.
Professionals would probably use multi-burner units, thus adressing the time-per-CD issue on a different level.

Where will it go? IMO - DVD's will NOT anytime soon replace CDR's. For one, a worldwide single standard has not been established in the market. Secondly, the costs will, for quite a while, be higher than CDR's, thus keeping the mass-consumer attracted to the CDR market.
Don't forget CD's are in cosumers hands since some 15-20 years. DVD's are just spreading and are still very confusing (standards) to the average user.

Most people tend to stick with what they know and are used to.

K G G

[Dr.Gibbs]

I just see DVD's replacing CD-ROM's for data usage simply because they are the same type of media, just more efficient with space. A DVD-ROM drive can read CD-ROM's as well as DVD-ROM's, and some of the best burners out there can burn and read both... so, there's not too much complication. It's not like going from floppy drives to CD-ROM drives, where the media are completely different and not interchangable. I imagine it won't be too long until you start seeing stereos that can read DVD's... some already function as DVD players and can play MP3's from a DVD-ROM. Most alblums continue being only 50 minutes or so in length, but a DVD would hold that much music, plus as much other media as a publisher wants to put on the disc.

I don't know how many of you own PlayStation 2's, but they use DVD-ROM's for their games, not CD-ROM's. So, basically, it's already happening.