Hi folks,

I have Hewlett Packard CD-RW writer 8100i series and I tried to install VideoPack + WinOnCd + PacketCD on my system in order to create VideoCD. Unfortunately after installation my system was very slow (PII 400+128RAM+Win98+DVD) especially when I used PacketCD to read/write CD-RW disc. WinOnCd worked very well and I could burn some discs. PacketCD generated many problems with Windows explorer crashes my system. After a week my system failed and I had to stop using this software because of a/m problems.

Can anybody use CeQuadrat software together with such type of writer?

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Best regards.

jurek.bik@centrozap.com.pl

-- Jurek Bik (jurek.bik@centrozap.com.pl), September 22, 1999

Answers

First you have to find out if VideoPack supports HP 8100i. If it does not then that may be the root of your problems. VideoPack is a professional VCD authoring s/w designed mostly for SCSI CD-R drives; in one of the windows in this app when you open it you find that it refers to IDE devices (HDD, CD-R, etc.) as ESDI devices that have LUNs of 0, which is typical of programs designed to detect and work with SCSI. Is the HP8100i SCSI? Whether it is or not, here's a tip: if you want to really be serious with CD-R and all that it involves, one of the first things you should do is NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER get an IDE or parallel-port (!) CD-R drive. Despite what HP, Acer, etc. say about the virtues of their buggy and faulty and cheap (in every sense of the word) CD-R drives, don't get carried by their siren call and if you had a choice here get any of the SCSI drives offered by Teac, Yamaha, or Plextor. They are a bit more expensive and you will have to contend with installing a SCSI host adapter card but are infinitely faster, more reliable, and works painlessly with the vast majority of standard CD-R mastering s/w available, including VideoPack.

-- EMartinez (epmartinez@hotmail.com), September 22, 1999.