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Topic: EAC and Plextor burner (Read 2236 times) previous topic - next topic
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EAC and Plextor burner

Hi,
I have a laptop and a desktop computer, both running EAC. I also have an external USB burner. With the USB burner plugged into the laptop, the "Drive Options" test in EAC says the burner is capable of ISRC AND text. When the same burner is plugged into the desktop, the EAC Drive Options test puts a check mark in the "ISRC" box and the text box is not checked.

There is also a Plextor PX-L890SA burner in the desktop. The EAC Drive Options test reports the same as the USB drive test: the "ISRC" box is checked, and the text box is unchecked.

Is there a setting in EAC somewhere that I haven't found? Is it possible that somewhere outside of EAC there's a setting that could be overriding the ability of these drives to write text? I'm really stumped and would appreciate any assistance.  :)
TIA

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #1
I have to ask, how important is CD-Text to you? Personally I have not found much use for it.

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #2
It's very important in that it's identification data embedded into the original songs of artists I record. They release CDs and want the information to scroll across the screens in cars and set-top boxes that are equipped with players capable of reading that data.

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #3
Have you tried checking what other burning programs report about the CD-TEXT capability of your drive? If other drives consistently report that your USB drive does indeed handle CD-TEXT, then you know the issue lies with EAC and not some issue within Windows itself. I use an old version of Nero Micro for this purpose, and it is also helpful to verify that the CD-TEXT was burned correctly without using a car's CD player or a set-top unit with CD-TEXT capability.

I'd be very surprised if your Plextor drive didn't support CD-TEXT....

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #4
Have you tried checking what other burning programs report about the CD-TEXT capability of your drive? If other drives consistently report that your USB drive does indeed handle CD-TEXT, then you know the issue lies with EAC and not some issue within Windows itself. I use an old version of Nero Micro for this purpose, and it is also helpful to verify that the CD-TEXT was burned correctly without using a car's CD player or a set-top unit with CD-TEXT capability.

I'd be very surprised if your Plextor drive didn't support CD-TEXT....

Thank you for your reply, Mike. The only other burning program I have installed on the desktop machine is Burrrn, and I see no "test drive for TEXT writing capability" option. I do have a copy of Nero 2014 Burning ROM that I could install... do you know if that program will do a test for the TEXT writing capability of a drive?
Also, you allude to the potential of Windows itself causing issues with TEXT writing.  Do you have any suggestions as to where I should look for problems in that area?... this machine has Windows 7 installed. Honestly, I would suspect that to be where the problem lies, as I agree that I think the Plextor drive should definitely be capable of writing TEXT, if I only knew where to check in Windows. Thanks again, and I'll await your reply.

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #5

UPDATE:
I have another burner from an HP desktop. I put it in a rig I built which allows me to use SATA drives through USB on my laptop. 
I opened EAC, it found the drive, and I checked it for ISRC and TEXT write capability. It came back "Yes" for both.
I closed EAC.

I then switched that drive for the Plextor drive and re-opened EAC and ran the test. It came back that the drive was not capable of writing ISRC OR TEXT. This is crazy, because the Plextor burner when in the original desktop, is reported to be ISRC capable with the Drive Options test in EAC, but not TEXT.

So I installed the HP burner in the desktop and ran the test. On THAT machine, the EAC test reports that the burner is ISRC capable but not TEXT capable. Yet it was TEXT and ISRC capable through USB on the laptop. This is infuriating!!!

 

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #6

Another update... I installed a burner from an HP desktop machine, and ran the EAC Drive Option. It checks both the ISRC and TEXT boxes. So apparently EAC doesn't play nice with the Plextor...

Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #7
That is super weird! I'm afraid I don't know how to check if Windows is the problem. However, to answer your question regarding Nero, there is tab in the main menu called "Recorder" in my version. If you click on this and hit "Choose Recorder", you'll see a screen that lists specs of the drive, one of which is the ability to write CD-TEXT. I've attached a screenshot of what that looks like for me.

Is there perhaps a firmware update you can find for the Plextor? Maybe updating the firmware might resolve this issue? At this point, I'm just thinking of things you can try to see if it addresses the problem...



Re: EAC and Plextor burner

Reply #9
I written a large number of audio CD-R with Burrn, using various drives. Under Settings, on the General tab, there is a drop down to select the Writer. Below that are three check boxes, one of those being CD-Text. I have no memory of whether or not it was checked by the program or I did it but the check box is accessible for the user to turn on or off. Since all the half dozen or so drives I've used successfully wrote CD-text for my albums, I don't remember giving it any attention.