CD-Rw "burning" questions

[josie]

I have a few questions about copying to CD-R or RW:
- where in my system do I go to figure out what speed my drive writes to CD?
Reads?
- How do I determine what speed I ought to buy based on that info?
- When I copy photos downloaded from my camera, do I lose any resolution
when I burn to CD?Please comment on these issues and offer any tips or
suggestions you ca. Thanks a million. Josie

 

[purplehaz]

see below............

I have a few questions about copying to CD-R or RW:
- where in my system do I go to figure out what speed my drive writes to CD?
Reads?

Check the computer or cd drive manual.

- How do I determine what speed I ought to buy based on that info?

Buy cd's that do not exceed the speed of the drive.

- When I copy photos downloaded from my camera, do I lose any resolution
when I burn to CD?Please comment on these issues and offer any tips or
suggestions you ca. Thanks a million. Josie

Some resolution will be lost, but nothing noticable.

 

[help]

To copy files and folders to a CD
Insert a blank, writable CD into the CD recorder.
Open My Computer.
Click the files or folders you want to copy to the CD. To
select more than one file, hold down the CTRL key while
you click the files you want. Then, under File and Folder
Tasks, click Copy this file, Copy this folder, or Copy
the selected items.
If the files are located in My Pictures, under Picture
Tasks, click Copy to CD or Copy all items to CD, and then
skip to step 5.

In the Copy Items dialog box, click the CD recording
drive, and then click Copy.
In My Computer, double-click the CD recording drive.
Windows displays a temporary area where the files are
held before they are copied to the CD. Verify that the
files and folders that you intend to copy to the CD
appear under Files Ready to be Written to the CD.
Under CD Writing Tasks, click Write these files to CD.
Windows displays the CD Writing Wizard. Follow the
instructions in the wizard.
Notes

To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My
Computer.
Do not copy more files to the CD than it will hold.
Standard CDs hold up to 650 megabytes (MB). High-capacity
CDs hold up to 850 MB.
Be sure that you have enough disk space on your hard disk
to store the temporary files that are created during the
CD writing process. For a standard CD, Windows reserves
up to 700 MB of the available free space. For a high-
capacity CD, Windows reserves up to 1 gigabyte (GB) of
the available free space.
After you copy files or folders to the CD, it is useful
to view the CD to confirm that the files are copied. For
more information, click Related Topics.

 

[My Name]

You can get a lot of support on this subject from this newsgroup
alt.comp.periphs.cdr

 

[Courtney]

Close. The CD-ROM will not change the resolution of anything just by copying
something to it.

If the pics are in your camera, and you download them to your drive, when
you copy them to your CD, they will still be the exact same file. No change
whatsoever.

courtney...

P.S. Your CD-ROM and the CD itself determine the maximum speed of writes
(CD-R or CD-RW). The write will go as fast as the slowest one. Therefore, if
you have a 40X drive, and a 16X CD-R, your write speed will be 16X.

 

[purplehaz]

Actually there is quality lose. Can't be avoided. In the conversion from the
camera to the drive. I didn't say the resolution would change, I said there
would be some lose of resolution, as in lose of quality. Same as when you
rip a music cd into mp3. There is quality lose. When you transfer the pics
from the camera to the computer then save those files into a picture format
like .gif or jpg, the files get compressed. These are compressed graphics
format as almost all graphics format have some type of compression. Anytime
you compress it, you lose quality. But, like I said, nothing an amateur
would notice. I didn't ever say the pic or file would change. There are
non-compressed graphics formats, but usually file sizes are usually to big.
You trade file sizes for small quality loses.

 

[NobodyMan]

Actually there is quality lose. Can't be avoided. In the conversion from the
camera to the drive. I didn't say the resolution would change, I said there
would be some lose of resolution, as in lose of quality. Same as when you
rip a music cd into mp3. There is quality lose. When you transfer the pics
from the camera to the computer then save those files into a picture format
like .gif or jpg, the files get compressed. These are compressed graphics
format as almost all graphics format have some type of compression. Anytime
you compress it, you lose quality. But, like I said, nothing an amateur
would notice. I didn't ever say the pic or file would change. There are
non-compressed graphics formats, but usually file sizes are usually to big.
You trade file sizes for small quality loses.

I'll have to disagree here. My camera stores pics in jpg format.
When I transfer them from the memory of the camera to my computer HD,
they copy the file without changing the compression ratio. The image
format and file size stay exactly the same.

Why should the compression ratio change, causing a possible loss of
quality, unless you specify it during the transfer?

 

[purplehaz]

I'll have to disagree here. My camera stores pics in jpg format.
When I transfer them from the memory of the camera to my computer HD,
they copy the file without changing the compression ratio. The image
format and file size stay exactly the same.

Why should the compression ratio change, causing a possible loss of
quality, unless you specify it during the transfer?

You're right. If your camera stores them in jpg form, then they would not
change cause they are already compressed.