I’m serious (aren’t I?) DVD is one of the new "sensually transmitted" diseases striking
the technologically savvy. I have been exposed to some of the earlier strains such as CD
(chronic digitalis) and DAT (digital audio trauma) for years. I actually think I have a
case of carpal tunnel vision, caused by excessive Pro Tools editing.

DVD seems like it is going to be one of the worst because of its rapid spread. DVD
players have been out for almost two years and sales are increasing rapidly now that
there is a growing selection of titles currently numbering about 3,000. World wide unit
sales of 7,000,000 with 40,000,000 expected by the end of the year 2000. Second
generation players have overcome some of the shortcomings (no Presidential innuendo
intended) of the earlier models and provide plenty of bang for the buck.

Now there is a new system entering the market called Divx. It is basically DVD
technology with copy protected pay-per-view access to titles that you purchase at about
$5 each. These discs will not play on a current DVD player. Circuit City and some
lawyers from Los Angeles came up with this bright idea. Have the consumer buy the
movie cheap, and make him pay more each time he wants to watch it. So much for
compatibility.

Irreconcilable Differences

Since I meandered off on to this compatibility tangent, I am reminded of the many
times I wanted to smash equipment because of compatibility issues. I won’t even talk
about the equipment I have shot arrows or .308 NATO rounds into.

Let’s talk about CDs. Sony and Philips set up standards for the manufacturing of CDs
so that all CD media would playback on any CD player. There were some minor
problems at first, like some players refusing to play past 60 minutes (probably
something to do with Dan Rather) because of the tracking ability of the player versus
the manufacturing tolerances for disc flatness at the outer edges. Then came CD-ROM
for computers. Another specification was drafted so that any computer could extract
software or data on a CD-ROM.

Then someone got the wild idea to put computer information on the audio CDs and put
audio tracks on the CD-ROM discs. A short time later CD-V, or Video CDs appeared
adding one more standard to the pile.

Recordable CDs, or CD-R became available in 1989. The recorder was $50,000 and the
master tape had to come from a Sony 1630 system which added up to another $50,000.
The blank CD-Rs cost $85 each and clients paid $350 for a CD copy of their mixes.

Currently, in 1998, you can buy a CD-R drive for your computer for as low as $250 and
blanks for one or two dollars each. Manufacturers of CD-R discs have sold over 400
million units this year alone.

Compatibility Problems

With all of these different formats, and new DVD audio formats around the corner, it is
a wonder that anything works properly. Here are some of the compatibility problems I
have run across, and maybe bringing them to your attention will help you to avoid
them.

1) CD-R will not play back on 100% of CD players. It is more like 80-90%. Some car
players will not play them. Old CD players are less likely to work than newer
incarnations. Some portable CD players have problems. If one player won’t play the
CD, then try another player. I had one client who owned six CD players, and his
CD-R wouldn’t play on any of them. Sometimes if you burn another CD-R using a
different manufacturers disc you might get a combination that works.
2) All CD-Rs are not created equally. Remember that you get what you pay for.
Different manufacturers have different quality control standards. Stick with major
brands. I bought some CD-Rs for less than $1 each to use for ref copies and ended
up with more errors in a month than I had in the previous ten years.
3) CD-R discs will not play back in the first generation of DVD players. DVD players
will play back normal CDs, but not CD-R discs. Most second-generation players will
play CD-Rs.
4) CD-ROMs made from CD-Rs have the same set of problems. Every so often I run
across a combination where a certain manufacturers disc will not play on certain
CD-ROM drives. I have to try various computers before I find one that will read the
disc.
5) First generation DVD-ROM drives will not play back CD-Rs. Second generation
players are ok.
6) CD-RW will not read on a CD-ROM drive or and audio CD player. Because the
reflectivity of a CD-RW disc is close to that of DVD, you can play a CD-RW disc on
a DVD player and a DVD-ROM drive. Two wrongs can make a right.
7) A Divx disc will not play on a DVD player, because of copy protection, but a DVD
disc will play on a Divx player. If you purchase a play for your Divx disc on your
player, you can’t take it over to your buddy’s house and play it on his Divx player.
He will be charged also.

There some things to remember when you are creating a CD-R that will be replicated at
a CD manufacturing plant. CD-R masters must be within certain error limits to be
acceptable. All of the CD plants, most major record labels, and some mastering
facilities have CD error rate checkers that will verify the low-level errors on a CD or CD-
R. This is the only way to tell how good or bad the disc is. Here are a few things to keep
in mind when burning your master CD-R.

8) Burn the CD-R master at 2X. Extensive tests have shown that 2X has a much lower
block error rate than 4X, 6X, or even 1X. Some record companies specify to their
mastering facilities (Warner Bros. Is one of them) that CD-R masters must be cut at
2X and that the disc will be unfit for duplication if BLERs (Block Error Rates)
exceed 300 per second.
9) Use the CD recorder manufacturers suggested media for master discs. Most
recorders do not perform a true power calibration when starting a burn cycle, and
are thus factory adjusted for a particular dye formulation. If your recorder is set for
cyanine and you use pthalocyanine, the BLER will be higher. It doesn’t seem to
matter whether the reflective layer is silver or gold.
10) Always use Disk At Once mode for producing master discs. That means cut the
whole disc in one pass, do not add tracks one at a time. Track At Once discs have a
gazillion errors at the spot where the new track is added after the old track. Record
companies will reject these discs in a heartbeat and the CD plant will call and make
you sign a waiver that you want to go ahead with this master. In the early days of
CD-R the CD plant glass mastering machines would refuse to take data from such a
CD-R, but software updates have allowed them to go ahead if they have to.
11) Always use brand name blank media or media that you know is manufactured
properly. The dye layer and reflective coating must be uniform across the disc to
produce an error free finished disc. The power calibration done by the recorder is
only performed at the innermost portion of the CD-R. I have tested CD-Rs that were
excellent for the first 20 minutes, then got progressively worse as the recording
approached the outer portion of the disc. Sometimes I buy inexpensive no name
CD-Rs, but first I get samples, record them, and then run them through an error
checker to make sure they perform to my satisfaction. I then spot check every 20th
CD-R. I use these no name discs for reference discs, or when a client wants 50 or
100 copies to send to radio stations. I always use proven name brand CD-Rs for
masters and I verify each one with an error checker.
12) Always clean your blank discs with clean air to blow off any dust particles that may
have been attracted to the statically charged disc. The recording Laser has now idea
whether it is burning a pit in a CD-R or the legs off of a dust mite. It only takes one
good size dust particle to render a CD-R master useless. Remember, "Cleanliness is
next to high fidelity."

Concluding

That should about sum things up for this month. To tie up any loose ends as far as the
VD topic I started with, I must relate a tragic story of a friend. She plays harp for a
major symphony orchestra. She was diagnosed with "harpes" which was probably
contracted by indiscriminate plucking around.