Always check CD-Info Before Burning - You Never Know

[hitechjunkie]

here's something interesting that recently happened to me...

i was going to burn a DVDrip-to-XVCD to some 74min/650mb STI CD-RW media (CircuitCity) and decided to run CD-Info on the disk (Nero). What it came back with totally surprised me! Nero obviously showed the disc as blank, but with a 79.Xmin/700mb total capacity. So, i bring up a standalone CD-R Info utility, and sure enough, 79.Xmin/700mb capacity! So I eject the disc and read what's printed on the top just to make sure and as i suspected (and originally purchased) it reads, "74min 650mb".

anyway, having encoded some Star Trek OS episodes with a CBR of 1050 and an audio of 64kbps, i wound up with mpeg sizes of 380-390mb, which when paired, is just a bit too much for one 74min disc. so, i went ahead and burned them to this mis-formatted (mis-tip'd?) disc and was able to burn the two episodes/mpegs and play them with no problems.

turns out the other four 74min CD-RWs from the same pack showed a capacity of 79.Xmin/700mb as well. convenient, to say the least, since i was out of 80min CD-R media at the time and i prefer burning my XVCDs to CD-RW anyway....

[AntnyMD]

Sounds like those CDs got put in the wrong box. I love those STI CDs (they're Princo discs, according to VCDImager) ... they're so clear and shiny and ... hold one up to your television. They're pretty much transparent!

[hitechjunkie]

tranparent? not these - these are silver/silver CD-RW's of the branded variety (something like "Digital Media 650mb" printed on the tops)...

[AntnyMD]

That interesting -- the ones I'm thinking of are silver/silver without branding. I have purchased though some branded STI blanks, for "consumer" audio use. Those were not aesthetically pleasing.