I'm surprised at you, Suzanne, and very disappointed! Your advice
is usually dead on and accurate: That's entirely wrong about
having to use them on the same machine they were burned on, and
certainly not the norm with any reasonable packet writing
application. What you say is true ONLY IF the user should decide
to not close the CD or to make it readable in other computers, so
they may continue to add data to them without losing previously
written data.
But that's the whole point of these packet systems - so that they can be
used like a big floppy. If the aim was to produce a closed and finished disc
Windows could manage that all by itself.
I can appreciate your supporting a fellow mvp, but what you say
just isn't true. I create CDs and DVDs with Roxio and/or Movie
Factory and those disks are readable in ANY computer to date to
which I;ve delivered them, which is approximately 200 or a little
less, that they've been played on, and are also, with Movie
Factory, playable in any reasonably recent desktop CD/DVD player,
that supports the CD/DVD formats. In fact, some will even play
JPGs and a couple other formats.
DVD is a different issue and not relevant to this forum - but the
compatibility of many domestic players, both CD and DVD of user writeable
disc media is marginal at best and the age (or price for that matter) of the
player has little to do with it. The *same* formats written with different
software products on the same types of media can produce discs that have a
different readability from the same writer - but this is digressing.
All the software has to do is meet the specs of the relevantly
colored book; it's not really rocket science.
If only
This is one field of activity where only token adherence is made
to standards.
Even Ahead (Nero/InCD) acknowledges that its own product is not entirely
compatible between different versions. Roxio seems to be entirely staffed by
marketing people who will tell you anything. While some people claim to be
able to interchange discs between Roxio and InCD (and still have them behave
as large floppies - which I repeat is the only point of such software) there
are far more who lose data as a result.
I respectfully submit that you, and at least one other MVP here,
must have some very outdated experience with them. I've been
doing this for going on two years and a few months now, with zero
problems from the burning process.
There is nothing whatsoever respectful in your submission. At least we have
the courtesy to say who we are, so that we can be researched. The fortunate
experiences of one anonymous user is no reflection on the wider experiences
of the computer community as a whole.
Data packet formats as used in these 'big floppy' software systems are
unstable, and when corrupted almost impossible to recover from. You trade
reliability for convenience. Multisession ISO discs whether created on
re-writables (or better still write once discs) are much more stable and
offer wider compatibility between hardware platforms. Data can also usually
be recovered should the disc become corrupted. The small amount of extra
effort required to produce such a disc is a good trade.
It CAN be a problem if one isn't willing to RTFM, or at least
the onscreen instructions and menu notices and dialogs. Oh, and
I did have a batch of 50 once that were a problem; but that was
media problem, not software.
The manual isn't going to make the packet format any more stable.
I have mentioned media compatibility. I'll bet that there was nothing wrong
with those discs that would stop them from working as intended with a
different writer and/or player combination..
Oh, and Graham apparently isn't very "up" on CD background
either, because he's wrong and gave the same misinformation you
just parroted.
Researching your postings in other forums I came across your description of
yourself as this gem:
"a more-than-a-newbie, knows-enough-to-be-dangerous"
A little knowledge as you acknowledge is a dangerous thing. You should keep
it to yourself until you know more about the topic and more about the depth
of knowledge of the people you are criticising.
--
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site
www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site
http://word.mvps.org