PS1/2 Do modern burners/CD's make lower quality PS1 backups?

[KeeranJolka]

Hi everyone,

I found this forum recently as I was re-re-re-digging into best ways to burn games for PS1/PS2 and I tought my recent experiments might be useful to some.

Three years ago I was like "Yeah emulators are cool but I really wish to enjoy my old childhood games as they were meant to be played". And I proceeded to get myself a CRT, a chipped PSOne (scph-103 PAL) and a chipped PS2 slim (scph-90004) because I knew my games were heavily scratched and finding games in good state might end up being more expensive and time consuming than getting into the world of burning (wich is so fun to me).

So I read a lot online on the subject and ended getting a Pioneer BDR-212EBK (tried other older DVD/CD drive from ebay but always ended up with worn out burner and I read at the time that pioneer's BD drives were just the best you could get in the world of modern burners).

As for the blank medias, I'll skip all my trials and error and try to summerize the best I can:

CD-R media for PS1:
Never got to make perfect playback of any modern Verbatim AZO I could find (the one I found seem to have a special coating that makes them hard to read ?). I never tried old stock from ebay but I suppose they would work waaaay better.

I finally found my ideal media when I tried the moderns CMC-Pro CD-R made with Taiyo Yuden technology.


DVD-R media for PS2:
I've always read Verbatim's AZO was the holy grail, and while I've always made playable disc with them, I never could make a perfect burn free of FMV skipping. I even stopped trying to do better, I just tought my ps2 laser couldn't do better. ( I tried MCC03RG20 and MKM004). Not sure but I think it's safe to say they are all from the current CMC era except maybe a pack of DVD+R DL that is made in UAE.

But I went into it again the last few weeks and decided to try some genuine Taiyo Yuden Premium Grade TYG03 from the JVC era and, surprise, I got a perfect FMV playback !


Ok so now, the real deal, the burning speeds:
(for reference, I attached a pdf from Pioneer with ALL the writing strategies in firmware, I think people here could find it interesting).

CD-R burning speed:
In the file attached, we can see CD-Rs have a 4x and 10x strategies and then, a 16x, 24x, 32x and 40x all marked as "CAV".

At first, I tried to follow the "slower the better" approach. Terrible idea, the two non-CAV 4x and 10x both resulted in horrible playback performance. They were perfectly fine to read on the computer but the PSOne would absolutely hate them.

The ideal speed I found was the slowest marked "CAV": 16x.

I got PERFECT playback with dozens of games at that speed with the CMC Pro CD-R. Going faster would simply add a bit more and more of stutter (but nothing like the horrible 4x and 10x playback)


DVD-R burning speed:
For short: Exact same story as CD-Rs

In the file attached, we cans see DVD-R 16x have a similar pattern, a slow speed (4x) and then, CAV strategies (6x, 8x, 12x, 16x)

Again, the 4x speed would give me horrible playback in my PS2.

And again the slowest CAV is the only one to give me perfect playback on JVC Premium TYG03 (Never got an AZO disc to be that perfect but 6x was also the best).


In summary:
Pioneer BDR-212EBK

16x on CMC Pro TY CD-R
6x on JVC TY TYG03 DVD-R

Never got the chance to try older Verbatim's disc (CD-R or DVD-R)
Never tried modern CMC Pro made TYG03

Both my PSOne and PS2 never got a nice regreasing of their moving parts so these results are from units in relatively good shape but certainly with suboptimal performance.


As for buying those CMC Pro discs, I'm in Belgium and got them from Nierle.com


Hope this might help some people.


EDIT: Forgot the burning software.

ImgBurn for everything without libcrypt.
Libcrypt games: Alcohol 120% Free Edition RAW DAO with .ccd made with SBITools with subchannel data from .lsd files to get a disc the closest to a 1:1 copy (except the fact I burn on 80min CD-Rs of course).

 

[alexfree]

Hello, sorry if i'm new, i just joined gbatemp so i can tell you about a problem, I've been having problems with my Lite-On HAS124B every time i try to use the generic-mmc-raw driver to burn a PS1 game with cdrdao, for some reason the normal generic-mmc driver seems to work fine, but if i use the generic-mmc-raw driver i get these errors, i supplied a screenshot and a full log
View attachment 522361

Looks like raw driver isn’t supported. It’s really only needed for a few Japanese games so it’s most likely fine to use the non-raw one. Only a few drives actually work with the raw driver.

 

[dawg_wit_da_butter]

Looks like raw driver isn’t supported. It’s really only needed for a few Japanese games so it’s most likely fine to use the non-raw one. Only a few drives actually work with the raw driver.

thanks for letting me know

Post automatically merged: Aug 20, 2025

Looks like raw driver isn’t supported. It’s really only needed for a few Japanese games so it’s most likely fine to use the non-raw one. Only a few drives actually work with the raw driver.

i have one more question, i'm trying to compile cdrdao 1.25 for windows (using a vm with cygwin) but i keep getting errors related to the SCSI related code, i'm missing something in my Cygwin install?

 

[alexfree]

thanks for letting me know

Post automatically merged: Aug 20, 2025

i have one more question, i'm trying to compile cdrdao 1.25 for windows (using a vm with cygwin) but i keep getting errors related to the SCSI related code, i'm missing something in my Cygwin install?
View attachment 523077

Your not missing anything. Someone managed to fix the code up for windows (it doesn’t work as is and never did previously afaik) and I think you can find it in the cdrdao GitHub issues a link to a fork someone did. Found it https://github.com/cdrdao/cdrdao/issues/30#issuecomment-2628079441

Absolutely no support is available from me for the above because I’ve never used it or even looked at the code, but I know it is something desperately needed on windows and hopefully I’ll get time to look into it.

 

[dawg_wit_da_butter]

Your not missing anything. Someone managed to fix the code up for windows (it doesn’t work as is and never did previously afaik) and I think you can find it in the cdrdao GitHub issues a link to a fork someone did. Found it

Absolutely no support is available from me for the above because I’ve never used it or even looked at the code, but I know it is something desperately needed on windows and hopefully I’ll get time to look into it.

just wondering, have you ever thought about hosting that version of CDRDAO for windows on your ps1 burning page

 

[alexfree]

just wondering, have you ever thought about hosting that version of CDRDAO for windows on your ps1 burning page

I could link to it sure. Needs some updating

 

[SK91]

I found the site and this thread by chance. I’ve been using some blank 700mb Verbatim Azo Data Life Plus CD-Rs I had on hand with a lite-on ES1-01 slim type drive from 2019 that was powered with mini usb on my laptop. I figured my PSOne’s laser had been dying for a while. I wiped down my only legit game and gave it a shot, no FMV skipping at all which never happened before.
So I decided to take a crapshoot and pull out the oldest burner I had around from an old PC, an LG GSA-H10 from Feb. 2006 using IDE. Luckily I had a good adapter from my Xbox modding times. And I was floored when I burned Ace Combat 3 and Gunners Heaven and they all played back flawlessly when I had games like WipEout SE or Epic Turismo 2 that wouldn’t even boot or load past the main menu anymore. I never considered that other drive was the source of all my problems, it even supported a pretty low burn speed of 3x, almost the same as that LG Drive I use at 3.5x.
I do think the CDs scratch pretty easily so some of those comparisons may have been down to that though , though my pressed copy of UJL is also a little scratched and plays flawlessly so I guess time will tell with these newer burns, in any case I burned a copy of Gunners Heaven on the lite-on drive and LG-Drive yesterday on scratch-less discs and results were very consistent.

 

[dawg_wit_da_butter]

I could link to it sure. Needs some updating

doesn't work

 

[Mo_No1]

Hey,
I plan to buy a burner with IDE, but I don't know if I can use it with a modern PC.
I found on Amazon an adaptor

Redump recommended IDE Adapters with Innostor IS611 Chipset, they are quite common and can be found for 15-25 euros

I was expected totaly the reverse order.
For the best result I got, there is no voice, and loading are very very very slow.
I got errors when verifying after burning with the PSX 80 Minute Patcher.
The 74min cd never started (stay on a black screen).

So, what I did wrong ?
Is there beter settings ?

Try different speeds some burners have better strategy with higher speed although people recommend lower speed. Higher speed might result in better results sometimes. Despite that I also do not see a consistent pattern in good backups, I have cheaper sata drives that produce a better result than high quality IDE drives and only if real "quality" is even defined as having low C1 errors in NeroDiscSpeed. Its basically trial and error thats why its good having people report their drives and results here to have any sort of ground.

Looks like raw driver isn’t supported. It’s really only needed for a few Japanese games so it’s most likely fine to use the non-raw one. Only a few drives actually work with the raw driver.

The funny thing is lots of drives support Raw Dao 16 and 96 but still the raw driver can not be used within CDrdao. So basically the burners would be able to burn the disc fine but CDrdao just doesnt work with them. Thats why Im currently using Alcohol but never tested those protected games

 

[alexfree]

Redump recommended IDE Adapters with Innostor IS611 Chipset, they are quite common and can be found for 15-25 euros

Try different speeds some burners have better strategy with higher speed although people recommend lower speed. Higher speed might result in better results sometimes. Despite that I also do not see a consistent pattern in good backups, I have cheaper sata drives that produce a better result than high quality IDE drives and only if real "quality" is even defined as having low C1 errors in NeroDiscSpeed. Its basically trial and error thats why its good having people report their drives and results here to have any sort of ground.

The funny thing is lots of drives support Raw Dao 16 and 96 but still the raw driver can not be used within CDrdao. So basically the burners would be able to burn the disc fine but CDrdao just doesnt work with them. Thats why Im currently using Alcohol but never tested those protected games

yes this is true. If not libcrypt but EDC protected cdrdao does the job, otherwise you need to use alchol. But really, I made libcrypt patcher for that reason because soo many drives can't do 96: https://github.com/alex-free/libcrypt-patcher and also who wants to use proprietary windows software in this decade

 

[Fabax01]

The funny thing is lots of drives support Raw Dao 16 and 96 but still the raw driver can not be used within CDrdao. So basically the burners would be able to burn the disc fine but CDrdao just doesnt work with them. Thats why Im currently using Alcohol but never tested those protected games

You can also use CloneCD.
From a test I did a while back:
Target drive: liteon drive, maybe it was modded with XGD3 firmware (not that it changes things for cds.)
Target media: 30 (?) verbatim azos I had laying around, max speed since I didn't really care for the result.
Programs were all at their latest versions, don't ask me which year it was...

Imaging (Ape Escape PAL):
daemon tools : FAIL
nero burning rom: FAIL
virtualcd: FAIL
poweriso/ultraiso: disqualified, creates cue/bin only
imgburn: disqualified, creates cue/bin only
alcohol 120%: SUCCESS, playstation profile used
clonecd: SUCCESS, game cd profile used
blindwrite: SUCCESS, "PS" profile downloaded from vso forum
discjuggler: SUCCESS, used these settings "scan gaps; isrc/upc; cd text; ignore read errors; r-w (cd+g); PQ; raw" many are not really necessary but I remember enabling all of them, god knows why.
tested with DT+epsxe, fail if piracy countermeasures engage.

Mounting (.b6t, .cdi, .ccd, .mds)
The only two softwares that could emulate subchannel data reads correctly were 1. Daemon tools (scummiest company on earth nowadays, what happened... yes, I do have a bias against them and their "support", banned me and lost activation keys because I asked them to invalidate a newly bought license and refund me lol.) and 2. Alcohol (which as far as I recall latest versions from Win10 onward are pretty buggy, things like there's a 10% chance that if you try to close the program it pops up an error and then it will idle, unkillable through task manager, until you reboot...)
Virtual CD / Phantom Drive doesn't support subchannel data when used as a virtual burner, requests SAO (a really cool tool nonetheless, since you can convert any image file by simply doing a copy to the emulated burner if you don't care about dao96/sao16 - you heard it right, BURNER - drive with your favorite mastering programme and then saving it as native Virtual CD format. You can do even more insane tricks, like creating custom size "virtual" DVD-r DL blanks by modifying drive firmware and copying an empty disc; please support the developers and buy a license, a buddy asked for a quote recently and it's €29.95/1client which I'm pretty sure it's a lotta cheaper than way back then.) and, even if you copy from real disc & then mount, it will trigger libcrypt inside epsxe.
Virtual Clone Drive is depressing, mounting .ccd with it, it's native format, triggers libcrypt. But mounting a .ccd with Alcohol/DT works!! And maybe, just maybe, it doesn't support mixed mode cds? or multisessions? sorry, can't remember...
The remaing ones just burn and do not mount... & all the other mounting software that you can think of are not worth even mentioning, for a pletora of issues such as shitty .bin/.cue (hello sega saturn! by the way, why are we not using .ccd like the old days with saturn archiving anymore? and resorting to cue instead - because ccd is not an open standard...???) mounting support of all things.

Burning
daemon tools: FAIL
nero burning rom: FAIL
virtualcd: FAIL
poweriso/ultraiso: coaster (tested a few times)
imgburn: FAIL
alcohol 120%: SUCCESS, using general protected cd profile (you can also use playstation one profile + checking/unchecking a specific option, don't ask me which one - I do not remember.)
clonecd: SUCCESS, using new profile with amplify sectors, always close session, do not fix subchannel data setting.
blindwrite: coaster (tested a few times)
discjuggler: FAIL
Tested on real PSx, fail if piracy countermeasures engage.
---
OT: dvds - don't know about protected pc games but dvd decryptor / imgburn always satisfied my needs.
On latest imgburn you can convert .dvd files (open it into notepad to read what layerbreak it sets...) to mds in order to mount in alcohol (same exact results as .dvd file into virtual clonedrive) & to burn in many other softwares that do support mds but not .dvd
Always burned with these settings: perform OPC, booktype dvd rom.
On my ATAPI drives I swear (...sweared? didn't burn stuff recently) by the "patin couffin" driver as i/o method, no need to buy blindwrite just install VSO inspector while right clicking -> execute with admin rights.
A buddy had issues with recent drives + vso's i/o solution, so I suggested trying elbycdio (prerequisite: buy clonedvd or install free virtual clone drive utility) in imgburn settings and he got working xgd3 in no time.
Technically you can just use clonecd if you have a license to burn .dvd instead of using imgburn, but clonecd doesn't work with xgd3 - it's always going to truncate.
Sorry for my bad english or if my ramblings are incorrect, nowadays with ODEs around i'm no longer in the "burning image" game, I simply spam BD-R backups (since I do not really trust magnetic media by experience or cloud by ideology) with nero or cyberlink... which one depends on the free license that came with the burner

 

[alexfree]

You can also use CloneCD.
From a test I did a while back:
Target drive: liteon drive, maybe it was modded with XGD3 firmware (not that it changes things for cds.)
Target media: 30 (?) verbatim azos I had laying around, max speed since I didn't really care for the result.
Programs were all at their latest versions, don't ask me which year it was...

Imaging (Ape Escape PAL):
daemon tools : FAIL
nero burning rom: FAIL
virtualcd: FAIL
poweriso/ultraiso: disqualified, creates cue/bin only
imgburn: disqualified, creates cue/bin only
alcohol 120%: SUCCESS, playstation profile used
clonecd: SUCCESS, game cd profile used
blindwrite: SUCCESS, "PS" profile downloaded from vso forum
discjuggler: SUCCESS, used these settings "scan gaps; isrc/upc; cd text; ignore read errors; r-w (cd+g); PQ; raw" many are not really necessary but I remember enabling all of them, god knows why.
tested with DT+epsxe, fail if piracy countermeasures engage.

Mounting (.b6t, .cdi, .ccd, .mds)
The only two softwares that could emulate subchannel data reads correctly were 1. Daemon tools (scummiest company on earth nowadays, what happened... yes, I do have a bias against them and their "support", banned me and lost activation keys because I asked them to invalidate a newly bought license and refund me lol.) and 2. Alcohol (which as far as I recall latest versions from Win10 onward are pretty buggy, things like there's a 10% chance that if you try to close the program it pops up an error and then it will idle, unkillable through task manager, until you reboot...)
Virtual CD / Phantom Drive doesn't support subchannel data when used as a virtual burner, requests SAO (a really cool tool nonetheless, since you can convert any image file by simply doing a copy to the emulated burner if you don't care about dao96/sao16 - you heard it right, BURNER - drive with your favorite mastering programme and then saving it as native Virtual CD format. You can do even more insane tricks, like creating custom size "virtual" DVD-r DL blanks by modifying drive firmware and copying an empty disc; please support the developers and buy a license, a buddy asked for a quote recently and it's €29.95/1client which I'm pretty sure it's a lotta cheaper than way back then.) and, even if you copy from real disc & then mount, it will trigger libcrypt inside epsxe.
Virtual Clone Drive is depressing, mounting .ccd with it, it's native format, triggers libcrypt. But mounting a .ccd with Alcohol/DT works!! And maybe, just maybe, it doesn't support mixed mode cds? or multisessions? sorry, can't remember...
The remaing ones just burn and do not mount... & all the other mounting software that you can think of are not worth even mentioning, for a pletora of issues such as shitty .bin/.cue (hello sega saturn! by the way, why are we not using .ccd like the old days with saturn archiving anymore? and resorting to cue instead - because ccd is not an open standard...???) mounting support of all things.

Burning
daemon tools: FAIL
nero burning rom: FAIL
virtualcd: FAIL
poweriso/ultraiso: coaster (tested a few times)
imgburn: FAIL
alcohol 120%: SUCCESS, using general protected cd profile (you can also use playstation one profile + checking/unchecking a specific option, don't ask me which one - I do not remember.)
clonecd: SUCCESS, using new profile with amplify sectors, always close session, do not fix subchannel data setting.
blindwrite: coaster (tested a few times)
discjuggler: FAIL
Tested on real PSx, fail if piracy countermeasures engage.
---
OT: dvds - don't know about protected pc games but dvd decryptor / imgburn always satisfied my needs.
On latest imgburn you can convert .dvd files (open it into notepad to read what layerbreak it sets...) to mds in order to mount in alcohol (same exact results as .dvd file into virtual clonedrive) & to burn in many other softwares that do support mds but not .dvd
Always burned with these settings: perform OPC, booktype dvd rom.
On my ATAPI drives I swear (...sweared? didn't burn stuff recently) by the "patin couffin" driver as i/o method, no need to buy blindwrite just install VSO inspector while right clicking -> execute with admin rights.
A buddy had issues with recent drives + vso's i/o solution, so I suggested trying elbycdio (prerequisite: buy clonedvd or install free virtual clone drive utility) in imgburn settings and he got working xgd3 in no time.
Technically you can just use clonecd if you have a license to burn .dvd instead of using imgburn, but clonecd doesn't work with xgd3 - it's always going to truncate.
Sorry for my bad english or if my ramblings are incorrect, nowadays with ODEs around i'm no longer in the "burning image" game, I simply spam BD-R backups (since I do not really trust magnetic media by experience or cloud by ideology) with nero or cyberlink... which one depends on the free license that came with the burner

Yup, but again using these program in 2026 is just kinda insane. We basically have patches for every single game to where every single cd burner since 1995 can burn a “patched” version correctly. I’ll always stay with my opinion that we should just have an ultimate open source patcher that works with everyone’s burners, vs having to buy specific maybe now expensive rare ones now if they even still work and use windows software that not only isn’t open source but you have to pay/aquire by other means.. at least 72 people agree, this patcher always revivals Dreamcast cd burner in popularity and I knew when I figured out this would be possible it would be a game changer

 

[Fabax01]

Yup, but again using these program in 2026 is just kinda insane. We basically have patches for every single game to where every single cd burner since 1995 can burn a “patched” version correctly. I’ll always stay with my opinion that we should just have an ultimate open source patcher that works with everyone’s burners, vs having to buy specific maybe now expensive rare ones now if they even still work and use windows software that not only isn’t open source but you have to pay/aquire by other means.. at least 72 people agree, this patcher always revivals Dreamcast cd burner in popularity and I knew when I figured out this would be possible it would be a game changer

Well, libcrypt patcher is a boon and a great software - vs having to download ppf from consolecopyworld with intros.
I even donated, as I use it with ODE
But I know of people that don't like to "touch" their dumps with patches.
As in, they image their real backup (or use the "copy" function if they have two burners) and burn it through alcohol/clonecd. That's it. And sadly it seems only windows software can write without repairing subchannels.
cdrecord can't do it... (last time I used it was with Beos "burn it"!)

 

[janobi]

Man some memories here of old software and devices. Back in the PS1 days, we used to buy pioneer burners, and use the cheapest discs we could find. For the dreamcast you used to have to use discjuggler to write the discs, but then you were able to use other software much later on.

CloneCD was great, it just took forever if there was errors on the disc, and it didn't always work. For media, then verbatim discs were the best around, although they were expensive.

 

[Vapor064]

Hello, I am interested in getting involved and would like to know what information would be useful, when it comes to CD/DVD burners being acknowledged as reliable.

In regards to my setup, I own 3 PS1's all of which have been serviced. They have had an entire recap, aswell as drive lubrication.
1. SCPH-101
2. SCPH-7501
3.SCPH-5501

I also own 3 PS2's which have had significant service. These 3 consoles have had entire recaps, New lasers installed, and have been calibrated using PMAP. I'll also detail the lasers I used.
1. SCPH-79001 (KHM-430)
2. SCPH-39001 (KHS-400C)
3. SCPH-30001 (KHS-400B)

As for discs, I use CMC Pro Taiyo-Yuden CD-R's. The burner of choice is a Hitachi-GH40L related in February of 2009. It can be bought for relatively cheap $20-40 here in the US last I checked, and seems to have reliable results across the board when using various burn speeds. I have been using the latest version of CDRDAO which at the time of writing is 1.2.6, also I am using Windows11. My burn speed of choice is 4x. 4x-32x has worked on all consoles tested. 40x works on every console except for Slims, it seems the slim lasers do not like the 40x burns, however my PS1's have no issues with them. I didn't notice any significant changes between burn speeds, so I ended up sticking with the lowest.

If anyone is interested, here's how long it takes for the PS2 to detect a disc from initial lid closing, to the disc popping up in the browser in my serviced units. SCPH-79001 will be the example
CD: 4.3s
CD-R: 9.2s (Taiyo-Yuden)
DVD-SL: 5.5s
DVD-DL 8.4s

 

[alexfree]

Off topic (sort of??) I’m pretty sure there is some already probably listed in my own guide at this point, but just curious. What is the recommended DVD-R DL burner? I’ve been interested for years in making an alternative to the (nearly 20 years of closed source windows only wine unfriendly) toxic patcher. I have everything I need to do it except a half decent burner capable of DVD-R DL burning, and please no DVD+R DL only. Those are just harder to read for every PS2. My go to Plextor PX-708A will always reign supreme on reading DVDs and reading/writing CD-Rs, but for writing dvd DL I have zero experience. To be honest from what I’ve read about it doesn’t nearly matter as much as CD-R on say a 1994 console with a $$$ conscious cdrom drive from a company unfamiliar with the industry, but who knows, I sure don’t

 

[KleinesSinchen]

[...]half decent burner capable of DVD-R DL burning, and please no DVD+R DL only[...]

Regarding DVD recording in general I got my best results with a Lite-On iHAS324. Very low Pi error count compared to other writers across various types of blanks.

I've not done tests with DVD-R DL since they are virtually extinct. There was something with the layer break that causes more issues on -R compared to +R. Might be the reason why they disappeared. Even searching for this stuff is hard since search engines (including directly on eBay) happily mix them up.
The only DVD-R DL I have are 8cm (2.6GB).

My Lite-On burner makes very good backups for GameCube and Wii (including dual layer, albeit only the +R due to availability). FreeDVDBoot patched PS2 games also seem fine (only single layer tested).

 

[ssjkakaroto]

Off topic (sort of??) I’m pretty sure there is some already probably listed in my own guide at this point, but just curious. What is the recommended DVD-R DL burner? I’ve been interested for years in making an alternative to the (nearly 20 years of closed source windows only wine unfriendly) toxic patcher. I have everything I need to do it except a half decent burner capable of DVD-R DL burning, and please no DVD+R DL only. Those are just harder to read for every PS2. My go to Plextor PX-708A will always reign supreme on reading DVDs and reading/writing CD-Rs, but for writing dvd DL I have zero experience. To be honest from what I’ve read about it doesn’t nearly matter as much as CD-R on say a 1994 console with a $$$ conscious cdrom drive from a company unfamiliar with the industry, but who knows, I sure don’t

You might want to take a look here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160203084233/http://club.myce.com/
Myce (formerly CDFreaks) was THE reference for optical media burning.

 

[janobi]

Off topic (sort of??) I’m pretty sure there is some already probably listed in my own guide at this point, but just curious. What is the recommended DVD-R DL burner? I’ve been interested for years in making an alternative to the (nearly 20 years of closed source windows only wine unfriendly) toxic patcher. I have everything I need to do it except a half decent burner capable of DVD-R DL burning, and please no DVD+R DL only. Those are just harder to read for every PS2. My go to Plextor PX-708A will always reign supreme on reading DVDs and reading/writing CD-Rs, but for writing dvd DL I have zero experience. To be honest from what I’ve read about it doesn’t nearly matter as much as CD-R on say a 1994 console with a $$$ conscious cdrom drive from a company unfamiliar with the industry, but who knows, I sure don’t

Plextor was a brilliant drive when it originally came out, although it was very expensive. The liteon drive subsequently came out much later, and proved to be on par if not better. I can't speak of modern day burners as I haven't dabbled in that since the 360 days, but it was originally Pioneer/Plextor drives, then liteon drives much later. The media was always Verbatim discs as the purple dye used was just far superior to any other discs available, so paying a premium often resulted in a better quality disc, and longevity of that that disc/burn.

 

[tmihai20]

Hello. I am a long time fan of most old consoles like PS1 and PS2, I might have had an account here from the old days. I recently came across alex-free's guide about burning PS1 games on CD-R media after finding a PS1 SCPH-1002 console in very good condition. I already followed the PSX refurbishment guide (very good guide). I have some older optical drives for desktop and an older laptop from 2015-ish that I can use for testing. I tried burning a PSX game with a Verbatim CD-R using cdrdao from alex-free, but that CD-R is the exact version that is not recommended in the guide. Console does not recognize the game and it can do that, I bought it with a few burned games and they are working well enough. I am mostly interested in burning PS1 games, I was able to find a lot of original PS2 games at very good prices. I am still hunting for some original PS1 games anyway.

I would like to know if these products are worth buying: CD-R and DVD-R. I cannot find any decently priced CD-R or DVD-R media in Europe or in my home country. I can get the 2 and I think they may be worth the price if you think they are good enough. Unfortunately I don't yet have data on the optical drives I am using, I didn't save any info on them.

Later edit: I ended up buying one pack of CD-R and one pack of DVD-R from the links I posted. I plan to use a Hitachi LG GUD1N model (KCC-REM-HLD-GU90N) that is not in the list posted by alex-free. I am trying to find older DVD writer drives locally.