Recordable & Rewritable CD Compatibility

CD-R Compatibility

It's more complicated than it should be.

Hewlett-Packard says it is working on a future CD-RW software revision that will include a "built-in driver" on every disc to help alleviate problems such as the infamous situation where data on a CD-RW disc is invisible if third-party UDF reader software has not been installed. However, the compatibility issue is more complicated than that.

1. If you are writing "disc at once" discs with a CD-R or CDRW drive capable of such as feat, virtually (there's that word again!) all standard CD players -- including audio players if the disc is an audio recording -- can read the disc. For maximum compatibility, discs containing PC data should be written in ISO9660 format. This format can be read by almost any version of Windows, DOS, Mac OS, Unix, Linux, BeOS, OS/2, etc., etc.
2. If, however, the disc is written using "packet writing" technology, such as that provided by Adaptec's Direct CD, Windows 95, 98, NT and Mac OS currently require a third-party "UDF" driver to be installed, in order to successfully read the data written to the disc. Such a UDF Reader is available for free download from Adaptec's website, in the CD-R area.
3. Moreover, if the data is written to a CDRW disc, some older drives cannot read the data -- and cannot be made to, via any software-based means. In these cases, a hardware upgrade to a "multiread compatible" drive is required. Fortunately, such drives are now quite inexpensive, costing as little as $50.
4. There also the issues of varying type of dye on the discs that the data is written to, and of the differing types and strengths of lasers beams used to write and read the data. See http://www.ping.be/vcd/formtxt.html or the famous CD-R FAQ at http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/ for details. My advice is to use high-quality phthalocyanine-based discs such as those manufacturered by HP for best results.
   There are a number of other issues, which I have detailed at length in the FAQ, or in the other articles listed below.

For Further Reading

• PC Buyer's Guide's CDR report.
• PC Buyer's Guide's report on CD-Rewritable Drives
• Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ (http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/) lists the top models of CD-R and CD-RW.
• For more info on CD-R technology, see http://www.cd-info.com.
• See our review of the HP 7110e
• DVD Status Report
• Deal-Mac tracks the best prices on CD-R drives and shows how you can get blank CD-R media for free.
• See CD-R FAQ for more info on CD-R, DVD and related technologies, plus buying tips and other info.
• A technical description from Sony of how CD-R, CD-RW and other writable media work: http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/rmeg/mediatech/overview.html