Re: burncd(8) usability: why `-s max' isn't default?

* Maxim Sobolev <sobomax_at_portaone.com> [August 31 2004, 14:29]:
> >>I wonder if there are any compelling reasons why `-s max' is not
> >>default behaviour of burncd(8). IMHO, there is no point to have
> >>default of 4. Usually, today's drives are smart enough to select the
> >>maximum speed supported both by drive and by the medium.
> >Plenty of drives aren't, especially with cheap media.
> 
> Do you have any evidence?

  Most of the Audio CDs, e.g., written in -s max mode on relatively
high-speed burners fail to read in most customer cd players.  I always
burn audio on 4x and data on 8x regardless of burner hardware and
media just because too many old readers refuse to read discs written
on higher speeds.

  My own good old 12x cd-drive in dell lattitude c600 laptop does not
(reliably) read anything written on >8x. I tried modern Mitsumi 52x
and Teac 48x burners with the most expensive Verbatim and TDK CD-R
blanks.

> Granted, some very old burners may not be able to correctly read and 
> understand this data, but for the same age reason those drives are not 
> likely to be able to write at more than 8x anyway (most likely even 4x). 
> You will have big problems finding any CD-R media (even very cheap one) 
> with rating < 32 on the market today, so that chances to "overspeed" the 
> media with those ancient burners are quite theoretical.

  I think the problem is not in old burners and bad CD-Rs but in old
readers which will just fail to read those discs.

  Anyway, I always use the '-s' option and new default value won't bite
me :)

-- 
Alex Kapranoff.