Collecting: Original vs Burned cd's

[Boonz]

Burned games damage the Dreamcast's disc laser.

I think that's mainly with ones burned at carelessly high speeds, isn't it?

I think thats not true at all,but anyway -

I think burned games are okay to try out a game or just to play it.
I know some people that using burned games so that they can let the originals in the case.
I have a few big cd wallets for my burned games,lying deep down in my shelfs.
I must say since I got a Everdrive for all my Cartridge-based games i buy a lot less games for these.
But for the Dreamcast and Saturn i need to have the originals maybe its silly but I need the real deal

[TacT]

Not true.
Burned games Don't damage the dreamcast any more than an original GD disc.
Even some of the original GD discs I have are less than perfect, and my quake3 disc specifically was off balance and wore out the spindle in one of my dreamcasts broke.
Depending on where the GD Rom was made it could even be defective I've heard of certain dreamcast discs that are prone to rotting over time.
The quality and CD-r and the burner and image can effect things but don't really wear things out more or less than gd discs. I use taiyo yuden azo discs are great quality.
The GD Drive in the dreamcast is actually a cd rom drive just modified to read GD discs. I've taken apart pc cd rom drives that have the exact same parts as the dreamcast.

Just sick of people saying this without any real proof, its very chaotic.

Now original Pressed discs are longer lasting than cd-r's. Even if the reflective layer of a pressed disc is damaged it can be repaired. the pits are actually pressed into the plastic of the disc vs a cd-r which is etched into a chemical die layer by the laser. Cheap CD-r's have cheaper chemicals that are not as sensitive and also can degrade faster over time. AZO discs for example are much higher quality and longer lasting, are better for audio tracks because its more accurately sensitive to the laser. cheap cd'rs can't even do cdda audio.

Moving parts and diode lasers wear out from normal use over time no matter what.
I'm so glad people are making replacements like gdemu, gdusb, and gdide and even saw a sata board somewhere.

[OGDCFAN99]

I couldn't have said it better myself I'd also like to add that if you have to use burned games, get newer releases from ReviveDC, DCres, or Xiaopang. Compared to back in the day they have done wonders to optimizing the file orders so the laser jumps around less than the original gd rom, wearing it out a whole lot less.

Back in the early days of Dreamcast piracy they used to completely remove soundtracks or FMV's, etc. just to make the image fit on a CDR but now they have techniques to downsample or mono-ise the audio so the finished product is as close the the original as possible.

So my point is always use good clean rips (not Echelon) and it will help prolong the life of your unit. Check the NFO's or release notes before you download.

Not true.
Burned games Don't damage the dreamcast any more than an original GD disc.
Even some of the original GD discs I have are less than perfect, and my quake3 disc specifically was off balance and wore out the spindle in one of my dreamcasts broke.
Depending on where the GD Rom was made it could even be defective I've heard of certain dreamcast discs that are prone to rotting over time.
The quality and CD-r and the burner and image can effect things but don't really wear things out more or less than gd discs. I use taiyo yuden azo discs are great quality.
The GD Drive in the dreamcast is actually a cd rom drive just modified to read GD discs. I've taken apart pc cd rom drives that have the exact same parts as the dreamcast.

Just sick of people saying this without any real proof, its very chaotic.

Now original Pressed discs are longer lasting than cd-r's. Even if the reflective layer of a pressed disc is damaged it can be repaired. the pits are actually pressed into the plastic of the disc vs a cd-r which is etched into a chemical die layer by the laser. Cheap CD-r's have cheaper chemicals that are not as sensitive and also can degrade faster over time. AZO discs for example are much higher quality and longer lasting, are better for audio tracks because its more accurately sensitive to the laser. cheap cd'rs can't even do cdda audio.

Moving parts and diode lasers wear out from normal use over time no matter what.
I'm so glad people are making replacements like gdemu, gdusb, and gdide and even saw a sata board somewhere.

[OGDCFAN99]

Oh and regarding the original question of this thread: Just get a $10 cd case from Wal Mart that holds 100 discs or use the spindle that the cdrs came in. Also no one gives a shit about custom printed labels and cases for burned games-a sharpie will do!

[BaffleBlend]

Ahh man, I forgot all about those multi-CD cases. Those things were inseparable from my games back in the day... mostly because we kept accidentally breaking the original cases and because we had a lot of extra PlayStation Magazine demo disks, but still.

I'm gonna see if I can find one of my old ones to put my burned games in... I know for a fact there's one currently just filled with cheap, crappy DVD-R's that became completely unplayable after about a week somewhere around here.

[BlueCrab]

Actually, it is true that low-quality CD-Rs do put additional strain on the laser. No CD-R has the exact reflective properties of a pressed disc, and the lower quality the disc, the worse off they are (generally).

So saying that burned games do have an impact on the laser is not a complete lie -- there is truth to it, especially when you use crappy discs and with pieces of of software that do a lot of reading from said discs. There are ways to mitigate some of the problems (sorting the order of the files on the disc properly, for instance -- which some official games did a really poor job of (PSOv2)), but it will cause additional strain on the laser to use CD-Rs, regardless of how they're set up.

Is it as bad as some people make it out to be? No, especially if mitigating steps are taken. But does the problem exist still? Yes, it does. Are you likely to notice a difference? Maybe, but that's subjective anyway.

[DCGX]

I have no burnt games, apart from unreleased ones, and for those I have boxes & hi res scans for cover/ inlay/booklets

Same with me.

I'm a collector (see topic title, topic creator). Kind of defeats the purpose, in my opinion, if you don't have the original release.

[HCRAYERT504]

Burned games do damage the Dreamcast's disc laser regardless of what speed you burned the game at. The speed with which you burn the game only determines how smooth the game runs but it will still damage the Dreamcast's disc laser.

[BaffleBlend]

God, this is just like reading a debate on whether or not coffee causes heart attacks.

PC CD-ROM drive parts work if all else fails, don't they? I mean... Part of the fun of a retro console is popping in the disc and hearing it whirr. If I were to get something like DCEmu or USB-GDROM, I might as well just stick with an emulator!