I've got a Philips CDR-560 recorder, one that uses "CD-R Music" discs. That's because there was a tariff on the discs to compensate musicians, back when digital musical theft was feared. I use it for off-the-air recording so it's not digital copying, the purpose of the restriction. Now the discs are getting hard to find. The ones I buy locally have a very high failure rate (machine won't read them). It would be nice to use regular CD-R discs. I recall that there were some quick fixes to allow that. Back in the day I didn't mind paying the extra charge if it went to artists. Now that's way in the past and music is all online. Does anybody know the secret fix, the circuit board traces to cut?

Chris Campbell

Let me in on it too. Maybe CDr is gonna get worse over time, music or not. I assume it is getting to be obsolescent tech with DVDs and other media that is smaller being popular. Maybe the Mainlanders will take over the production of these before they vanish completely. And I expect them to be about as good as their capacitors. BTW I looked at TDK and other music CDs on ebay. Yes, some are pretty dang steep or just out of the question expensive. I guess all we can do is find a bulk sale and bite the bullet, if they are reliable brands. I have heard the Matsui made discs are or were best, but they sold as other brands, and who knows which anymore? Having never owned a music burner till now, I had no idea that they needed "music" discs, that was never an issue burning CD with my computer. Unhappy surprise. I will keep my eyes peeled, as I would hope some music CDs of good quality will show up for sale besides ebay at better prices. Not the mystery brands I hope.

Looks like it requires a MODCHIP. Here's a link to a youtube vid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euPqzBBRldg
That page has a link to this Italian web page
http://www.modchip.it/shop/detail.asp?lng=IT&sku=31
Maybe you can find one more locally.

Long ago I had heard or read rumors that there was an easier fix. It really was something like a couple circuit board trace cuts.

But I have found online sources for Sony CD-R Music discs and ordered a bunch. A local chain drugstore used to carry Maxell, and they worked reliably in the machine until recently, when their failure rate shot up dramatically. Then they carried Sony, which never failed to load. Then they didn't carry them. I bought some Maxells on a spindle; all but 2 failed. I tried some off-brand on a spindle from Best Buy. All failed. The online sources seem to carry Sony, a good sign for availability. That's what I just bought. It's nice to buy locally to encourage them, but when they aren't available locally I don't mind buying online.

Sweetwater carries CD recorders, I see, and it might be worth my time to buy one if they are "professional" models without the CD-R Music requirement.

Chris Campbell

All you gotta do is glue a knob on the front of the tray.

Load ONE CDR-Music in - let it read and detect it as a CDR-Music- then pull the tray out manually - remove the CDR-Music disc - place a normal blank in - push the tray back in manually and go on about your business.

Meaning all you need is one CDR-Music for it to read and however many normal blank CDRs you want to record on.

Huh. Never thought of that. I used some old Memorex CDR to test my JVC and they seem to work despite unknown vintage. I apparently bought them at a time that I was burning some discs off of a computer and had no clue about the difference between music and data versions. I purchased Philips CDR on ebay and need to try those out with the JVC machine.

One sure fire way to throw off the tray timing,then where will you be?

I bought a spindle of Sony CDR-Music discs online for pretty cheap. The failure rate on the boxfull of about 20 was zero, but on these spindle ones it's about 33% so far. Grumble.

Chris Campbell

I have one of those Philips machines and it worked well the last time that I tried it. However, many, many vendors sell discs that are supposed to be the correct ones but do not work. The vendors just seem to paint the generic term CDR with a broad brush. I would buy some if I could be assured that they were in fact the good ones.

It won't work with a CDR. It has to be "CDR Music."

Chris Campbell

Are these the same thing? My old Pioneer CD burner required "music" discs and these seem to work ok. I bought a 1/2 stack online fairly inexpensively.

Chris,

This says CD-R Music. I'm thinking it may not work possibly because of the "minus". I know that it is difficult to find the correct ones, the reason for my being reluctant of buying this particular one.

There is no such thing as a cd "minus" or "plus" disc. As long as the disc says music on it you should be good to. The biggest difference between cd-r discs is the dye used in the manufacturing of the disc. I don't remember the exact particulars but some can lose data if exposed to uv light in only a matter of days. In this case you will see the dye color has faded away thereby losing data.

Those are the ones I bought. They work--mostly. A couple were not recognized by my machine. There's an initial "OPC" process--no idea what it means--and a couple of them had "OPC Fail." That means no luck. But with the Maxell and off-brand Music discs, the failure rate was about 99%. When I bought Sonys in the thin jewel cases, the failure rate was zero. It's higher on the spindle discs for some reason.

And as to the dye/light issue, the spindle Sonys have a paper disc on top that has little symbols--the circle with the slash in it used in road signs for "no." It shows the sun and a lamp near a disc with the "no" symbol, meaning "keep it away from light exposure," I assume.

Chris Campbell

I have 2 brands of cdr music recorders, Phillips and JVC. I had the same problems with the Phillips machine but found the JVC at a local estate sale and now use it instead of the Phillips. Haven't had any problems with the JVC. Maybe just lucky?

If I recall the Phillips machines were damn picky about which discs would work and which ones wouldn't. Never could figure out why this was. Its been a couple of years since I worked on these but I think one brand that would work consistently was Maxell but don't quote me. Another thing to watch out for are "thin" discs. That is if you flip the disc over and hold it up to the light, and you can see the writing on the other side, chances are good that the player won't recognize it. There is not enough of a reflective layer for the laser.

Maxell is the brand that worked reliably for me for years--when purchased in ten-packs with jewel cases. Then the local store stopped carrying them. I bought Maxell on a spindle and they just didn't work--maybe 1 in 5. Then I found Sony 10-packs with jewel cases and they worked perfectly. Then the store stopped carrying them.... I bought the spindle bunch in the photo earlier in this thread, and a few of them have failed. There is no reason that the packaging method should affect function, unless the manufacturer has different standards for the bulk spindle packs.

Chris Campbell

i exclusively used my Philips CDR-880 in the 90's and made hundreds of cd's on it. it was a great machine.

as the "blue dye" consumer music discs dried up, i had to purchase one of Tascam's monster professional stand alone recorders. unfortunately, it cost about 3-4 times that of the philips.

i could not have been happier with the philips at the time and now with the tascam.

the Philips machines like the "dark blue" dye "for consumer" discs, not the more "light green" discs.

steve