CD burning madness - and simple solution!

[Lute]

Sorry for asking but you do have a CD Text capable burner? I only ask cos I had a problem with this last year (using both Wavelab and CD Architect) and turns out the CD burner wasn't capable of writing CD text. Maybe check your results on another machine. Better safe than sorry. I wound up getting an external burner capable of writing properly to CD/DVD.

Best of luck

[Bob Olhsson]

I get the impression that many developers never test for this.

This is part of why I am far more skeptical of software developers' skills than of what people say they can hear or not hear.

[Nonlinear]

Originally Posted by Lute

Sorry for asking but you do have a CD Text capable burner?

Best of luck

Yes - and it works with ImgBurn and a cue sheet. It does NOT work with Wavelab 7, CD Architect or other basic CD/DVD burners that I tried. I don't know why one works and the others do not.

What's even worse is that I had NO CLUE it wasn't working until I checked my CDs with a CD Text reader. I have sent out a lot of CDs lately and they were probably all missing important data.

Not anymore!

[acorneau]

Never had this problem with the SADiE...

[Nonlinear]

Originally Posted by acorneau

Never had this problem with the SADiE...

Maybe that's because SadiE uses the Broadcast Wave (BWF) vs. standard "wav" file format?

Is that the key here? Are all of you folks building commercial releases using BWF files?

On the other hand, I'm not sure many CD writing programs recognize BWF files...


EDIT: Ooops, nevermind. I just saw the SadiE pricetag. That explains a lot.

[Bob Olhsson]

They all recognize BWFs. The problem is lazy or ignorant developers who don't test their software.

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by Lute

Sorry for asking but you do have a CD Text capable burner?

I must admit that I wonder if this is a burner firmware issue - it is almost as if it kinda supports CD Text but is buggy and most software doesn't talk to it in the right way. When we were working on Plextools this kind of problem was the sort of problem we would find with early versions of a drive's firmware.

I've also recently had problems with CD Text disappearing if I use illegal characters - is there anything that isn't a letter or a number in your text?

James.

[RickZ]

FWIW, there is a check box on the panel before you start the burning, whether you want CD-Text written. At one time I was writing CD-Text, and CDA did write it correctly. Well, the titles of CD and songs, I didn't use the other fields.

Rick Z

[Nonlinear]

Originally Posted by jamesp

... it is almost as if it kinda supports CD Text but is buggy and most software doesn't talk to it in the right way.

I've also recently had problems with CD Text disappearing if I use illegal characters - is there anything that isn't a letter or a number in your text?

James.

Two things here - yes, it seems the burners are fickle when it comes to "talking to" the various burning softwares. As I mentioned above, when I use a dedicated text file CUE sheet burned by ImgBurn it works. I have read the disc with Wavelab and CDText Reader and ALL the data is there (Titles, ISRCs, etc.).

Burning that same data with Wavelab, CDA and generic writers was hit and miss. It may not be a fault with the software but rather a communication issue with my burners. HOWEVER, since it DOES work with a cue sheet the burner firmware obviously works, so... maybe Bob Olhsson is right about sloppy software.

Now, as far as illegal characters, I did find that my UPC code would not write to disc - even from the cue sheet - when it only had 12 digits. According to Wavelab this field requires 13 digits and a leading zero must be added. (I think that technically makes it a "EAN" code, not "UPC", but I won't argue - it works.)

[Winey]

My cd text comes through great with cd architect. Weird issue. I think trying another drive might be worth a shot. Make sure "write cd text" is checked.

[Nonlinear]

Originally Posted by Winey

My cd text comes through great with cd architect. Weird issue. I think trying another drive might be worth a shot. Make sure "write cd text" is checked.

I had the box checked!

What are you using to verify that your data has been written to disc?

One thing I've learned from all of this is not to ASSUME that what you think is happening actually is. Verify it with something else.

[TRJanuary]

In CD Architect, even if the "cd text" box is checked, it still will not write CD Text UNLESS all fields are filled out. This must incude not only the "artist" and "title" next to each song BUT ALSO, under the file "properties" tab you must fill out the "artist" and "album title".

Then, of course, you must also verify that the burner can WRITE CD text AND that the drives you are checking it on can READ cd text.

Been doing it here for years with no problems.