Optical Disc Drive Compatibility: CD

From Redump Wiki

Latest revision as of 13:47, 11 February 2025

A list of Optical disc drives compatible with the Compact Disc format (CD-ROM, CD-Audio, etc) which includes many retro console discs.

See also: Optical Disc Drive Compatibility and Optical Disc Drives: CD Incompatible

Plextor brand Drives

Proper CD dumping requires optical disc drives to support a range of features. Certain models of Plextor brand drives in particular are most compatible and reliable.

Best Plextor Models: Easiest & Recommended

Your drive should have the final firmware installed. The final firmware is linked below on archive.org for most models.

Plextor Drives with Known Limitations

Exercise caution, read notes before buying.

Plextor Drives with Severe Limitations

DO NOT BUY! Some of these may be technically supported and capable of dumping certain types of CDs, but have various limitations or potential issues so are not recommended.

¹ Multisession support is regarded as compatible and accepted through the Redumper dumping tool.

Notes regarding specific drives and capabilities

• IDE models can be used on laptops or desktops using a USB Adapter. UGREEN / Kingwin brands are often recommended but anything using the Innostor IS611 chipset
• Additionally, IDE models can be used on a Desktop tower with a cheap card, or with a 5.25" IDE USB enclosure (can be found on eBay or similar, but supply might be scarce).
• SATA drives can be hard to find or expensive, it may be easier to buy an IDE model + IDE->USB adapter. Note that most IDE adapters also support SATA drives also.
• SCSI models can only be used with a Desktop tower with a cheap card (no laptops).

Suggested eBay search terms

To search ebay quickly, you can use the following searches. Only use one at a time, as otherwise the search text will be too long and it'll give an error.

• (PX-760AUF, PX-755UF, PX-716UF, PX-716UFL, PX-712UF, PX-708UF, PX-708UF2, Plextor Premium2U, Plextor Premium-U, PX-W5224TU, PX-W4012TU, PX-760SA, PX-716SA, PX-712SA, PX-760A, PX-755A, PX-716A)
• (DVM-DM16FBS, PX-716AL, PX-712A, PX-708A, PX-704A, DVM-H44FB, Plextor Premium2, Plextor Premium, PX-W5224A, PX-W5224TA, PX-W4012A, PX-W4012TA, PX-W4012U, PX-W4012S, PX-W4012TS)

LG & ASUS Drives

Plextors are preferable, as more testing is needed for these
Dumps from LG/ASUS drives have caveats and may not be acceptable in some circumstances.
If you want a drive that is acceptable for all CDs, get a Plextor above

• Dumps from the following drives (with compatible firmware) will be accepted under the following circumstances:
  • They are new discs or verifications of CDs consisting only of a single data track
  • They are verifications of Data CDs that also have audio tracks
• For pure Audio CDs, we are presently only accepting dumps made with Redumper and drives from the list of Recommended Plextors above.

Background

LG and ASUS branded blu-ray drives manufactured by HLDS using the MT1959 chipset have most of the features required for redump-standard CD dumps. To determine if your LG/ASUS drive is redump compatible, it is not sufficient to know the model name, you must also read the sticker's manufacturing date and the PCB date code to know what your drive is internally. There are at least four "platforms" made by HLDS that use the MT1959 chipset: JB9, JB8, JB7, JBC5. The drives based on the newer JB8 platform are what redump recommends if you are looking to make a purchase.

Compatible Models

CD-ROMs with some write offsets are not acceptable for new disc redump submission (i.e. if Redumper has "LG/ASUS: searching lead-out in cache" in the log). Redump verifications are acceptable for all CD-ROMs when using JB9, JB8 (only firmware versions listed below), JB7, and JBC5 drives, regardless of write-offset. Only drives with the JB8 platform can be cross-flashed to the custom JB8 firmware that makes all CD-ROM dumps acceptable for new discs. The below table outlines only retail model numbers that are known to have at least some drives released on the JB8 platform. The 'Compatible Firmware' column lists the firmware version for JB8 drives that are acceptable for verifications no matter the write offset. If you are not using the custom JB8 firmware, only certain firmware versions will work out-of-the-box with Redumper (use custom flags).

✱ Older (approx 2015 and earlier) productions of these drives (PCB code JB7 2011.11.17 or JBC5 2012.05.02) are not cross-flashable to the recommended custom JB8 firmware and may brick your drive if you attempt to flash it.

Other MT1959-based drives may be acceptable in the future given further testing, however they should be purchased only by those willing to invest their time and money in testing and on the understanding that they may eventually prove to be incompatible for use by Redump.

Technical Details (Optional Reading)

In theory, the MT1959-based drives can produce good dumps for mixed-mode CDs when there is a negative combined offset (disc write offset of less than -6, as MT1959 has a read offset of +6). DIC and Redumper are able to dump CDs with greater than -6 write offset by reading the drive's cache, however it is not always reliable and as such is not acceptable for new disc submissions in redump. The recommended custom JB8 firmware avoids having to read from the cache to dump CDs with any write offset (as well as enables unlimited lead-out reading), therefore a JB8 drive with the custom firmware should in theory produce good dumps for any mixed-mode CD. The only technical limitation for audio CDs is the inability to read the first 15 of the 150 sectors in the pregap. This is not a problematic limitation however as the majority of audio CDs do not have audio data that far into the pregap, and Redumper can alert the user for CDs where this occurs. Despite all this, all discs should always be dumped twice to ensure matching hashes, and Redump is not currently accepting new submissions for mixed-mode or audio CDs using JB8 drives until further testing is done to obtain the same level of confidence as Plextor dumps. For more info, see the detailed research notes at Compatible LG/ASUS Optical Drives