# best (most reliable) cd media to use with the sega mega cd?



## oodhfshdfbs (Feb 13, 2014)

does anyone know what cd's give the most reliable copies? I don't think cd-rw discs work? saw a thread on the web where someone mentioned how cd-rw discs are incompatible with mega cd. before finding that out I tried a couple of games with philips cw7d2nj10/00 and got nothing. i've tried using sony cdq80n5, but its really temperamental. I tried an iso image file with one of these discs and can get to the game menu (just about) when used with the imgburn software, takes a long time to load. before this I tried an nrg file with nero and it boots the game logos but gets no further. i'm trying to burn at a low speed although my drive won't allow to burn at low speeds. may need to try replacing the drive with another one that I have around.... think the lowest I can burn at is 8x currently using laptop and destop optical drives.
also when burning an iso of a mega cd game I notice the file has the audio as separate files which accompany it, am I supposed to burn these to disc too?


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## Plstic (Feb 13, 2014)

I personally use Verbatim CD-Rs and I always burn at 2x for Mega CD. You should try to get rips of games that are bin and cue I have never been able to get the ones with MP3s to work correctly.


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## DinohScene (Feb 13, 2014)

Go with Verbatim.
I used it on me PS2/Xbox/Wii/GCN and 360.
I also recommend it to everyone cause of it's quality.
Not only that but the Burner Max firmware for burning 360 games only works with Verbatim ones by default.


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## FAST6191 (Feb 13, 2014)

The appropriate response to this is "you have a working megacd?". I would not be surprised to see RWs fail (they are subtly different) and normal CDRs are harder to read than pressed discs so you may be seeing the results of the laser slowly shuffling off this mortal coil (I refer back to the first sentence). I am not sure about a pot tweak for the megacd and how you might set about that, even if I did not know how to do it for this system I am not sure how advisable it is.
If you are not familiar with the concept of a pot tweak then most optical media drives will have a small variable resistor/potentiometer in with the circuit for the laser. Owing to basic electrical equations a lower resistance allows more current to flow and thus you get a brighter laser, or returning your laser to factory settings. Fractions of a kiloOhm, usually no more than an 1/8 of a turn (probably more like a 16th and that is still possibly a bit much) and merely breathing on the thing (or approaching it with a metal screwdriver) is enough to radically alter things.
In every console I have ever seen have this happen for then this tweak is usually considered a "limp home"/"get me through until payday"/"can I try to get some time to save up for a replacement" type fix rather than anything long term, equally if it was not already clear this is not great for the laser's general health either.

Write speed is pretty much a myth these days. Back when the PS1 was doing the rounds then we had no buffer underrun (and small buffers to boot) protection, less than high grade drives and less than great chemicals for the discs (or high prices for good chemicals) it meant a lot. Somewhat ironically the newer drives and chemicals might have to make an effort to burn that slow and can actually come off with worse burns for trying to go really slow. Do not necessarily take this as a suggestion max the speed (the full 50X burn or something) but a safe 16x or 24x should be a better bet.

If it came with audio tracks then it should have also come with a cue file or something along those lines to allow the program to sort all that. I have no idea for the megacd if you can manually force these tracks back in (theoretically it should just say load audio track * but who knows with this sort of stuff a sector level load is not outside the realms of possibility). Some rips I have seen out there for other systems, and apparently this does include the megacd, do compress the audio tracks to MP3 or something and leave you to convert them back to burn with.

Also when you say a long time is this relative to how it should be because a lot of megacd stuff did not have the fastest load times, and even otherwise accurate megacd emulators tend to resist the urge to emulate load times.

On actual media I am afraid it has been a few too many years since I needed quality writable CDs (other than the occasional audio CD and linux liveCD I have not had need to do a CD either).


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## ILuvGames (Feb 13, 2014)

Good rips of mega cd games are normally in bin/cue format. 8x speed with good quality media like Verbatim should be fine. Convert the rips to the region that matches your mega cd. Try IMGBurn for burning software (providing you have the correct cue sheet) and you should be fine.


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## oodhfshdfbs (Feb 13, 2014)

Plstic said:


> I personally use Verbatim CD-Rs and I always burn at 2x for Mega CD. You should try to get rips of games that are bin and cue I have never been able to get the ones with MP3s to work correctly.


 


DinohScene said:


> Go with Verbatim.
> I used it on me PS2/Xbox/Wii/GCN and 360.
> I also recommend it to everyone cause of it's quality.
> Not only that but the Burner Max firmware for burning 360 games only works with Verbatim ones by default.


 
cool, I did have like a whole pile of verbatim ones but I appear to have lost them. if I can find them i'll try with those. if not, may have to head into town and try the local store. online says they stock verbatim...

just trying to figure out whether the pioneer drive I have around here will burn at 2x? http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives/DVR-106+&+DVR-A06U
that says _16X, 12X, 8X, 4X, CLV (2.4MB/s) _​for cd-r burning which isn't too encouraging. I have the dvr-106*D* but i'm not sure there is much difference? it does burn dvd-r at _4X (*2), 2X (*3), 1X CLV (5.54MB/s) _​but thats not much help since mega cd can't read dvds. hmm may have to check the other optical drives I have....



FAST6191 said:


> The appropriate response to this is "you have a working megacd?". I would not be surprised to see RWs fail (they are subtly different) and normal CDRs are harder to read than pressed discs so you may be seeing the results of the laser slowly shuffling off this mortal coil (I refer back to the first sentence). I am not sure about a pot tweak for the megacd and how you might set about that, even if I did not know how to do it for this system I am not sure how advisable it is.
> If you are not familiar with the concept of a pot tweak then most optical media drives will have a small variable resistor/potentiometer in with the circuit for the laser. Owing to basic electrical equations a lower resistance allows more current to flow and thus you get a brighter laser, or returning your laser to factory settings. Fractions of a kiloOhm, usually no more than an 1/8 of a turn (probably more like a 16th and that is still possibly a bit much) and merely breathing on the thing (or approaching it with a metal screwdriver) is enough to radically alter things.
> In every console I have ever seen have this happen for then this tweak is usually considered a "limp home"/"get me through until payday"/"can I try to get some time to save up for a replacement" type fix rather than anything long term, equally if it was not already clear this is not great for the laser's general health either.
> 
> ...


 
you know, the thought did cross my mind that the hardware is playing up... I have some original discs around and although it has trouble reading them (due to scuffs and scratches) I always assumed this was why it took so long to read the game discs and boot properly. now i'm wondering if the hardware inside the mega cd is the problem? I have heard though that since they are quite old they have a hard time reading cds and so its best to minimise the work it has to do by making sure its a good burned disc or clean.

in terms of load times, the first burn of the nrg file loaded the sega logo quite quick within about 20 seconds, the konami logo along with some data about the game popped up within a minute. the iso file disc took about twice as long to load it all. the furthest i've got with either is the start menu and it took a couple of minutes to get there. after that, no response, black screen, no sound from the cd drive. it attempts _something_, can hear it whir, but stops after a while. I left it in that state for a good 5 minutes to see if anything came up while doing other bits and bobs.

thanks for the info about write speeds and audio.



ILuvGames said:


> Good rips of mega cd games are normally in bin/cue format. 8x speed with good quality media like Verbatim should be fine. Convert the rips to the region that matches your mega cd. Try IMGBurn for burning software (providing you have the correct cue sheet) and you should be fine.


 
ok this is reassuring about the write speed ,might mean I don't have to change drives after all. but that does leave me wondering about the health of the mega cd?... or if those sony discs aren't really that great? anyhow, i'll try and find some verbatim and let you all know.
cheers.


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## ILuvGames (Feb 13, 2014)

I can't paste the link using my tablet but there is an excellent guide on racketboy. If you cannot find it, I will post up the link when I am back at my computer tomorrow. IMGBurn was/is the recommended software to use as it should convert mp3 rips automatically with the correct cue sheet.


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## cracker (Feb 13, 2014)

I was given some spindles of HP 52x cd-rs. I have tried them on PS1, Xbox, PS2, and DC and they have worked very well overall. But TDK and Verbatim usually have the best feedback of budget media. Taiyo Yuden and Ritek/Ridata are two top premium choices. No matter what media you choose to get make sure you read recent reviews from people who bought them from the same store. The integrity of the same media can vary between different batches -- sometimes greatly. This can help you avoid problematic media.

And as Fast said: Don't burn slow even if it seems to be counter-intuitive. This practice was only useful back before burners could pause burning until the buffer refilled after it ran out completely.


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## Nah3DS (Feb 13, 2014)

Back in the 90s I used to buy copied games burned on some old TDK CDs (TDK CD-R63 to be exact). Those still work to this day on my Sega CD.
I also have a few games burned on some shitty IPC CD-R discs. Those works too.

Like FAST said, maybe it's your Mega CD


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## Sicklyboy (Feb 13, 2014)

Also, a quick tip on the Verbatim disks - As far as the DVD-Rs go (MKM-001 and MKM-003), the disks *specifically* produced in Singapore tend to be the best quality ones - there ought to be a sticker on the package that says so - if you are using them to burn XGD3 Xbox 360 games.  I'm not sure if the same holds true for the CDs, but I'd imagine yes.  Granted, I don't think you'd run into nearly as big an issue on the Mega CD as you would on the 360 (which is -extremely- picky)


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## oodhfshdfbs (Feb 13, 2014)

looks like I have a faulty mega cd, just tried two verbatim cds burned at 8x one with nero and one with imgburn. the resulting discs are performing worse than the sony ones, it doesn't even load up the game logos. its stuck on the default sega cd animation with the sound of the cd trying to be read;
[youtube]GR2wnBhzI0E[/youtube]

*sigh
so what do I have to do to sort this? buy a new laser? that would be simpler for a novice to do than trying to fix a faulty one? am I gonna need a soldering kit?

the nero burn was using the nrg file which didn't include any music files or a cue file. the other one I burned was an iso file, I tried to add both the iso and cue file to the list of tasks when burning a cd but it wouldn't burn a cue file as well as an iso onto one disc.
edit;
just tried burning the cue file, its basically just made me an audio cd. so i'm guessing the reason that music files are bundled with an iso is incase someone wants to make a separate audio cd of the soundtrack? its actually quite a decent soundtrack, so I think i'll keep that.

as a last ditch attempt to try and get things working, I just swapped over the optical drives and tried burning the iso at x4. the copy it produced managed to get some response inside the mega cd.... the mega cd logo paused and it _seemed_ like it was going to go into booting the game logo up or that loading progress was about to start? 3 minutes later nothing is happening apart from the cd making noises as its trying to be read and the screen is still stuck paused on the start up with the music suspended.

so this is weird because from all my tests it seems as though the sony cds are better than the verbatim ones. I am not getting anything from the verbatim discs. they appear (in my case) to be worse quality for being read inside the mega cd. regardless of whether or not I have a faulty mega cd from tests the sony cds are performing better.


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## ILuvGames (Feb 13, 2014)

If you wanna try again, here is the link I was gonna post yesterday :-

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/hacks/how-to-burn-retro-game-images-with-all-free-software

It includes a section on mega cd game burning and includes a tutorial to remake bad cue files.

Here is a link to the discussion forum which may help further :-

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=23524&st=0&sk=t&sd=a


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## oodhfshdfbs (Feb 13, 2014)

cheers, I think I may give up with making mega cd backups as it appears to be quite finicky with my console. probably best for me to stick with the retail versions for now anyway, as they do load, even if it does take a while.


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## ILuvGames (Feb 14, 2014)

If you want to diagnose the fault and/or repair it yourself, there is an excellent tutorial thread in the sega-16.com forum. It's in the tech aid forum in general discussion. It also contains current links for buying spare parts like replacement lasers.

Have you tried cleaning the lens with a little rubbing alcohol ?


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## oodhfshdfbs (Feb 14, 2014)

that link to the racketboy site was good,lots of info on there, tried out some different things from reading that, unfortunately can't get it working still. i'm gonna try and get hold of a mega cd game where the disc is in pretty good condition that way I can assess the condition of the laser, after that i'll look into replacement parts. will look up that site cheers.
I gotta get some of that rubbing alcohol, was a bit unsure where to find it? pharmacies stock it apparently?


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## ILuvGames (Feb 14, 2014)

Check your local pound/99p store as you will sometimes get a little bottle of lens cleaning fluid/isopropyl 'rubbing' alcohol with a cd/dvd lens cleaning kit. If you can't find it there, try to look for a 90+% solution but IMO it's certainly not worth paying more than £2 for it just in case it doesn't work. Apply a small amount to some cotton wool rolled into a small ball/pad. Very gently wipe 'over' the lens a few times (ensuring that you don't use so much pressure as to move the lens while wiping) then use a clean cotton wall ball to dry off the lens.


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## oodhfshdfbs (Feb 14, 2014)

cheers, will have a look next time I pop to the shops.


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