When to use CDROM-XA mode?

[milkydoo]

I've read through faqs, searched these forums as well as google and also looked at my NTI manual, which happens to be worthless. I just love it when you go to the help section in the manual and the help says, "Choose choice A or choose choice B". Wow. Very informative.....(sigh).

I understand that S/VCD mpegs are burned in XA mode, but I have two basic questions.

1a) First, the error correction sectors that are missing in XA mode: Is this info intended for read mode or write mode? Iow, if I burn in XA mode, am I running a higher risk of burning bad data, or is it just to help players correct read errors?

1b) 2nd, assuming that the ECC is utilised when reading rather than writing, why not just burn _all_ stand alone audio and video data in XA mode, since it will yield more disc space. (When I say stand alone, I'm talking about a disc full of 50Mb .mpg's, avi's, ect, for example).

2) How do 90% of the veterans here, burn? Are these two modes more of a preference thing for you guys, or is everyone cooking in mode 1 for better error correction?

Thanks for any help in clarifying this!

[Faceman101]

I only burn XA when it's needed (i.e. VCD, SVCD, PSX, PS2) otherwise I do not bother. No real reason too. Just recently on the Doom9.net forums someone has an idea to make DIVX, XVID, or so burned onto a CD-ROM-XA to give them that extra space. By accident at times I have burned in that mode (normal data cds) and never noticed any difference in reading or so.

IMO, use it when need be, otherwise it would make no difference. I'm sure others have different opinions.