Re: [AV Media Matters] CDRW Compatibility

[Graeme Jaye <gjaye@retemail.es>]

At 12:58 27/04/00 -0700, you wrote:

>As a recent purchaser of a Sony Spressa CD-Rewritable Recorder, I am
>hoping
>members of this list can assist me with this query.

I'm not familiar with this particular model, but I am assuming we are
talking about a 'domestic' CD recorder.

>I have some MIDI files which I converted through Freeware software to
>wavefiles and am trying to burn a CD with these wav files using the
>above
>recorder.  In doing so, after I've placed a CD-RW in the recorder drive
>and
>begin the process of recording the CD, I received the message "the audio
>CD
>you have prepared is less than 10 minutes in length.  You may not add
>tracks later to this audio disc.  Do you want to continue?"  If I
>answered
>"yes," I receive a second message, "you need a blank disk in the
>recorder
>to proceed on this job."
>
>I receive the first message EVEN IF I know the disc is blank.  I don't
>understand this.  With a CD-RW (or CD-R), you're normally supposed to
>have
>about 74 minutes of playing time.  Does this mean that I must record ALL
>
>the tracks I want on that CD at one time, with no option to record a
>track
>at a time?  I've heard this is an issue with such drives.

I think the machine is trying to warn you that you are about to use a disc
- capable of holding 74 minutes of audio - for a single, short, recording.
This type of equipment will not allow you to add to the original
recording.

Generally speaking, it is best to write audio in one continuous session,
rather than adding a file at a time.  The main reason for this is
that most
*audio* players will only recognise the first session and totally ignore
the following ones (this isn't an issue with the sort of players installed
in computers, they are nearly all capable of writing and reading discs
burned in multi-session mode).

>Also, is it true that after you've recorded an audio track on a CD-RW
>that
>you may only be able to play that track on a CD-ROM drive installed in a
>
>computer, rather than through a portable CD player (for example, in your
>car)?

This is a bit of a 'yes and no' type of answer.

Since most of what I do for a living relies on people being able to play
CD-R's in their domestic CD players, it would, indeed, be a real
problem if
this was actually true.

Firstly, and this is essential, you *must* 'close' the session before the
disc can be read on any sort of ordinary audio CD player -
although I guess
that all domestic recorders do this as a matter of course (computer types
have the option to leave a session open for further additions at a later
date - see above).

Secondly - and this is maybe what you are thinking about - the
reflectivity
of both recordable and re-recordable discs is somewhat lower than that of
commercially pressed discs.  The net result of this is that *some* audio
players just can't read these discs.  This has nothing to do with the
player being in a computer (other than the fact that computer CD drives
are, by default, capable of reading these lower reflectivity discs).

To be fair, this is a problem which has long been recognised and I should
think that any reasonably recent player would be able to read CD-R, if not
CD-RW.  I have a 10 year old (at least) Yamaha player which has no problem
reading CD-R discs and my one year old Philips will also read CD-RW's.

Graeme Jaye
gjaye@retemail.es

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