Feurio Questions & Answers - Feurio! CD-Writer
problem-solving:
Using 90/99 minute CD-Rs?
Question: Recently, CD-Rs have appeared on the market with a playtime of up
to 99 minutes - can I use these with Feurio! ?
Question: If I insert a "90/99 minute CD-R" in my writer, Feurio! only shows
80 minutes - is this an error in Feurio?
Answer: The first thing which should be said on this matter:
90/99 minute CD-Rs are ILLEGAL (according to the standards
for Audio-CDs)!
There are standards (e.g. the "Red Book") which describe exactly how an audio
CD is constructed. An audio CD which conforms with the "Red Book" has got a maximum
playtime of 74 minutes.
By "stretching" the specification (using all possible tolerances) you can get
80 minutes - thus 80 minute CDs are the "borderline" of the specifications.
In contrast however, anything which goes beyond 80 minutes contravenes the specifications
for audio CDs - so there are no guarantees that such CD-Rs can be burned and
played in all CD players.
Apart from the track which is inevitably too narrow on 99 minute CD-Rs (And thus
the problem that many CD players can't even find the track and thus when playing
the CD back may "jump") there are several much more serious problems: - Problem
addressing the 99 minute CDs:
A particular problem is addressing the sectors on the CD:
On a CD the position is burned in so-called "MSF-Code" (Minutes:Seconds:Fraction;
fraction = 1/75 of a second). Thus up to 99minutes can be shown - but:: the times
90:00:00 to 99:59:74 are reserved for the LEADIN-AREA and when being translated
into consecutive sector numbers give NEGATIVE VALUES! (The value 99:59:74 is
e.g. the sector number -151, 99:00:00 the sector number -4650, 90:00:00 the sector
number -45150).
So if a 99 minute CD-R is burned with more than 90 minutes, certain sectors appear
twice on the CD. The fact that this can cause problems is fairly obvious.
For this reason, many writers also "refuse" to write on these media - which is
really quite correct because, as already mentioned, incorrect sector numbers
are used!
- Problem displaying the playtime:
The maximum playtime is shown on each CD-R. Feurio! reads this information and
presents it in the Feurio! CD writer. Based on this information, Feurio! also
calculates whether the music will fit on the CD-R.
As explained above, a playtime given of "99:00:00" however would be illegal -
CD-Rs of this kind would probably be rejected outright by many CD writers for
being "illegal".
So all 99 minute CD-Rs we have seen so far "disguise" themselves as 80 minute
CD-Rs, i.e. they only show a playtime of 80 minutes.
So the fact that Feurio! shows the wrong playtime is not an error in Feurio!
- but information provided by the CD-R (which is in principle wrong)!
This of course means that the capacity calculation carried out by Feurio! doesn't
work any more -Feurio! logically thinks that the CD-R can only hold 80 minutes
and thus issues an overburn warning.
When playing the 90/99 minute CD-Rs the following problems can occur - CD-Player
does not recognize the CD:
As mentioned above, in principle 90/99 minute CD-RS are "illegal". Some CD-Players
completely "refuse" to play these CDs!
- Jumping, playback errors:
Due to the track being too narrow (see above) playback errors often occur (e.g.
jumping)
- Problems selecting tracks directly:
With many CD players there are also problems selecting the tracks; tracks which
start beyond 90:00 can often not be accessed directly. If you try to access such
a track directly, the player can often not find the track. (Playing the CD through
however usually works).
- Problems reading/copying:
Reading such CDs again or copying them also often does not work.
Summary:
There is a distinct possibility that the CD burner will "refuse" to burn these
CD-Rs. You may also find that a CD player will not play these "illegal" CDs!
You may also find that the CD can no longer be read later in the CD-ROM. Some
CD-ROMs utterly reject such CDs (quite rightly)!
THEREFORE WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THE USE OF 90/99 MINUTE CD-Rs!
90/99 Minute CD-Rs and Feurio!
So you want to use 90/99 minute CD-RS despite the above information?
OK, don't say we didn't warn you!
In answer to the question: Can Feurio! handle 90/99 minute CD-Rs?
Answer: In principle YES.
Feurio! can burn CD-Rs with almost any capacity - as Feurio! works internally
with 32-Bit sector numbers, Feurio! can process up to 2^32 (=429496729 sectors.
As negative numbers are needed for the Leadin, in the "usual" number format 2^31
(=214748364 "positive" sector numbers remain - thus Feurio! can theoretically
burn CD-RS with up to 477218 minutes - so 99 minutes really isn't a problem for
Feurio!
2 factors may possibly limit burning:
- The burner must support burning 90/99 minute CD-Rs.
- As described above,
in principle 90/99 minute CD-Rs are illegal - so many burners (rightly) refuse
to burn such CDs. Only the manufacturers of the burners can change this - in
this case contact the manufacturer of your CD burner!
Most burners can only burn CDs up to 89:59 maximum.
- The capacity display doesn't work / Overburn warning
- As described above
also, at least the 99 minute CD-Rs known to us do not show 99 minutes but 80
minutes as the useable capacity - so Feurio! also only display 80 minutes. So
if you burn more than 80 minutes, the "overburn warning" from Feurio! will appear
correspondingly. If you try to ignore this warning, Feurio! will try to burn
the CD-R - in this case it just depends on what the writer makes of the data.
As already said, we can not change this - this is incorrect information on the
CD-R which is merely reprocessed by Feurio!
Feurio! has got a table integrated with "known" 90/99 minute CD-RS. If a 90/99
minute CD-R is inserted, then Feurio! thus shows the "correct" capacity of the
CD-R. With "new" 90/99 minute CD-RS however, unfortunately the "incorrect" capacity
is shown (as described above)!
Even if burning is successful - as mentioned above - there is no guarantee that
the CDs will play correctly on all CD players and that all CD-ROMs will be able
to read them.
See also:
Questions and Answers - Feurio! CD-Writer problem-solving
Questions and Answers - Feurio! CD-Writer general questions
Questions and Answers - Main Page
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