In order to maintain the compatibility of discs with some of our equipment, my company needs a CD (or DVD) writer that is capable of writing UPC onto discs. We have been using some old 4x Plextor drives that could do this, but one of them has died.

Does anyone know of any currently available drives that can do this? Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Aren't all modern drives supposed to be able to write UPC codes, too? AFAIK, both my LITE-ON SOHR-5238S and my Plextor PX-712A support writing of ISRC and UPC.

You would think, right? But the other writers we have do not. Or, rather, when we burn the discs with Roxio (which displays that drive does support UPC writing) they will not play in our equipment. (By the way, the equipment I speak of requires there to be a UPC code burned onto the disc.) The drive in the PC at my desk is a Lite-On, as an example.

From what I've read searching through forums, many (if not most or all) modern drives are capable of writing ISRC but not UPC. I'm just hoping someone can help me out by proving that wrong.

It is important to know that some CD burning programs do not support writing of whole set of allowable cuesheet commands. For example, Nero Burning ROM 6 just ignores media catalog number command (CATALOG) and therefore it is not being written on CD-R. I do not have informaton about the ability of Roxio's software to write catalog number, but I remember that Easy CD creator 5 even doesn't support cuesheets. As an alternative option I would recommend to try Golden Hawk CDRWIN, which respects every command in cuesheet including CATALOG and rare FLAGS 4CH.
So far I can say that
TOSHIBA SD-R5112 supports writing CATALOG number
SAMSUNG SM-332B doesn't.

Good luck!

I did another test burn using the Lite-On LTR-40125S in the PC at my desk, and the disc would not play in our equipment. Roxio says the drive supports UPC writing. Now we're really stumped. Maybe we're SOL.

I may try using CDRWIN. But I don't think that will make a difference, because we have been using Roxio to burn to the old Plextors with no problem.

Try to burn CD-Rs at the lowest possible speed (e.g., 2x or 4x). Some older CD players won't be able to read or recognise CD-Rs burned at 52x.

I burned the last test CD at 16x. It did play in the equipment. However, on this equipment the disc will only play for 10 minutes, then stop, if the UPC code is not recognized. (I know it sounds weird.) Anyway, this is what happened with my test, leading me to believe that the UPC code was not written.

What kind of equipment is this? What brand? What model?

My best suggestions would be
1. Look for the same Plextor drives as the ones that you have tested to work perfectly. Maybe on ebay, or some other place that sells used/old hardware.
2. Contact Plextor (Or whoever), and ask which of their drives support the feature you require.
3. Burn your CD's at 4x (Which is the speed that your old Plextor drives used), and - if curious - increase writing speed untill you reach the maximum speed at which your CD's get burned so that they can be played in your equipment flawlessly.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The equipment I speak of is a proprietary CD playlist repeater designed and sold exclusively by my company. Any further information would be pointless in this case.

I suppose we will have to try contacting manufacturers directly. Drive specs listed on manufacturer sites do not seem to indicate whether current drives burn UPC or not. I would guess that the chance of finding the same 4x Plextor for sale is slim, but it wouldn't hurt to look.

We have tried burning at slower speeds. The CDs will play fine, but only for 10 minutes, which is what the player is designed to do if it does not detect a UPC code on the disc. I know it sounds silly.