Glossary

ADPCM

Adaptive Differential (Delta) Pulse Code Manipulation based on PCM. Loss-impaired compression for audio-data (e.g. CD-ROM/XA, CD-i) possible on 3 different levels. Only differences between the signals are saved.

Barcode

The barcode which is also printed on the packaging can be deposited in the subcode of an audio CD. Popular types of bar code are EAN (European Article Number) or UPC (Universal Product Code).

Block

Often, instead of Block the description Sector is also used. However the description Block, has become established, which is what is used here as well.

A Block is the smallest addressable unit on a CD. It is identified by a time given in minutes and seconds and in the case of data through an additional identification character, whereby a Block corresponds to one seventyfifth of a second.

On a CD there is a fixed number of blocks. A Block consists of 98 Frames and consists of 3234 Bytes. As a frame contains two times 4 EDC/ECC Bytes respectively and 1 control byte respectively, there are a maximum of 2352 Bytes of further useable data available. For audio CDs (CD-DA) these are fully utilized, for data a further large number of Bytes are lost:

Data format

Useable data per Block

CD-DA (Audio CD)

2352

CD-ROM Mode 1

2048

CD-ROM Mode 2

2336

CD-ROM Mode 2, XA Form 1/CD-I

2048

CD-ROM Mode 2, XA Form 2/CD-I

2324

A Block can take up 1/75 sec. of audio data, i.e. on a 74 minute CD there are 74*60*75=333000 blocks.

On a 74 minute CD can thus save 333000*2352=783216000 Bytes, that is 747MB (see MB = Megabyte).

As a data block can only take up 2048 Bytes, on a 74 minute CD it is possible to store 333000*2048=681984000 Bytes = 650MB

Blue Book

Is a defined standard and better known as the term CD-Extra .

Bridge CD

Bridge CDs are CDs that can be read not only in CD-I-players but also in CD-ROM drives of PCs. Typical bridge CDs are Photo-CDs or Video-CDs.

Color Books

For the various formats of a CD, a respective format has been defined in one of the Colored Books: Red Book, Yellow Book, Blue Book, Orange Book, Green Book, White Book.

busmaster operation

If IDE devices in the busmaster operation are accesssed, then the data transfer takes place without using the CPU. But: Initializing and ending a data transfer itself puts a heavier burden on the CPU than if normal data transfer mode is used. It is not really worthwhile operating the busmaster until several data blocks can be transported at once (Multi-).

Unfortunately busmaster drivers often cause problems in connection with CD-burners and if in doubt should be deinstalled. On this, see: How do you deinstall a busmaster driver? As of Windows 98, the busmaster operation itself can be deactivated by removing the tick at DMA by clicking on it.

CAV

CAV = Constant Angle Velocity

constant angle velocity when reading off a CD. Due to the constant rpm you get a brief access period (in contrast to CLV). This means that the data on the outside of the CD is read in significantly faster than the data near the middle of the CD. This method is used by practically all new CD-drives which can read faster than 16x. Thus the read speed detected in Nero is often not the maximum speed as the information on the test CD is near the middle of the CD.

CD-Text

Apart from the audio data there is plenty of room on the CD for additional information, for example for text, which provides information on titles and artists of the pieces of music. Currently only very few Audio-CD players can handle this function. If an Audio-CD player can not handle CD-Text, then CDs of this kind are fully compatible with "normal" Audio-CDs without CD text. This is possible because the additional CD text information is saved before the beginning of the audio data in the so-called Lead-In area of the CD.

So that the CD-Text additional information can be written on a CD, this ability has to be supported by the CD burner . In particular CD-Text can only be written in the so-called DAO burning mode (disc-at-once). However only the newest models support CD-Text. You can find out if your burner belongs to this exclusive club in the recorder selection dialog of Nero .

CD+G

CD+G and CD+MIDI both are based on CD-DA.CD-DA As well as audio, CDs can also contain graphics and MIDI music (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). In this case, '+G' or '+MIDI' mean that on the corresponding CD there is also graphics or MIDI data. The information is in the R-W sub-channels .

CD+MIDI

On this, see CD+G.

CD burner

This is the device which you then burn on.

CD-DA

The CD-DA was developed in co-operation between Philips and Sony. CD-DA describes a recording format of audio data on a CD. The standard is known today as Red Book specification.

CD-Enhanced

On this, see CD-Extra.

CD-Extra

CD-Extra is a recording format according to the Blue-Book-Standard. This procedure used to have the names CD-Plus and also CD-Enhanced (or Enhanced CD). The format gets rid of the disadvantages of the classic Mixed-Mode CD. On a Mixed-Mode CD the first track always contains an ISO file system. Therefore an Audio-CD player can not play the first track on a CD of this kind. CD-Extra two sessions; the first session contains up to 98 audio tracks in accordance with Red-Book Standard, the second the ISO-track with a ISO9660 file system and the directories CDPLUS and PICTURES. Due to this format, a CD-Extra can be played in CD-ROM drives and also in Audio-CD players as the second session remains hidden to the Audio CD player.

CD-i

The CD-I-format (Compact-Disc-Interactive) was defined by Philips and Sony and is written in Green Book . This format is especially suitable for creating interactive Multimedia applications. These applications consist of parts of programs which can return to animations, video and audio sequences. To be able to play CD-Is usually special play devices with a television screen are used.

CD-Plus

CD-Plus is the old name for CD-Extra.

CD-ROM/XA

Is a specification published by Philips, Microsoft and Sony 1989 to extend the CD-ROM standard. This is based on the one hand on the Yellow Book standard and on the other hand includes some elements of the CD-I specification (Green Book). Thus the specification is often called Extended Yellow Book . XA stands for eXtended Architecture and was originally supposed to become the Multimedia standard by combining two different Sector-types, provides special ADPCM-audio codes and also permits sectors to be interlaced with different contents, for example audio and pictures.

CIRC

CIRC=Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code

is an error correction procedure used with the CD.

CIRC is implemented in the hardware of all CD-Audio players and CD-ROM drives and returns to the 784 Bytes (EDC/ECC) which are recorded for every Block . With this error correction it is possible to achieve an error rate of 10^(-8), this means that for every 100 million Bits one error is accepted. On a CD in theory there could be 7000 consecutive missing bits that are reconstructed.

CLV

CLV Constant Linear Velocity

Constant linear velocity when reading a CD.

So the speed is dependent on the position of the track and has to be adjusted correspondingly so that relatively long access times are the result.

DAE

DAE is the abbreviation of Digital Audio Extraction. This means that the pieces of music on an audio CD are read digitally. This is also called audio grabbing. Not every CD-ROM drive can handle reading the pieces of music digitally. Note that as a general rule, CD-ROMs can handle reading the peices of music from the CD in analog (via the soundcard).

DMA

DMA stands for Direct Memory Access and corresponds to the busmaster operation.

As of Windows 98 the busmaster operation can explicitly be activated or deactivated:

In:

Start->Settings->Control Panel->Device Manager->CD-ROM-> < drive name > -> Settings -> DMA.

VIA also sells a tool called VIADMATOOL to deactivate DMA for devices.

DVD

DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. The original name was Digital Video Disc.

When developing DVDs, the original aim was to develop a medium with much higher capacity than a CD-ROM. A DVD can record 2 levels of information per side. The first layer can record 4.7GB, the second 3.8GB so that a one-sided DVD can record 8.5GB of information. DVDs can only be read by DVD-drives. These drives can also read the CD-ROMs. Unfortunately many of these DVD-drives are not capable of reading from CD-Rs and even fewer can read from CD-RWs.

Currently there are the following types of DVDs:

Further information:

EDC/ECC

EDC/ECC stands for Error Detection Code / Error Correction Code.

Procedure to recognize and remove reading errors. Data should not be read again but reconstruction of the right data should happen.

In the case of a CD-ROM solved e.g. by CIRC .

El Torito

El Torito is a specification presented by Phoenix and IBM 1995 which describes how to put together a bootable CD-ROM for PCs. It can be used to start the operating system of a PC with the corresponding BIOS from a CD-ROM, thus it doesn't need a disk or a harddisk.

Energy calibration area

Every CD-R and CD-RW at the beginning of the track has a so-called Energy calibration area, in which the CD burner can determine the laser power necessary to burn. Unfortunately this does not mean that every CD burner can write on every blank. For most CD burner there are makes of blanks which cause problems. Often an update of the firmware can help. But then again a firmware update can make it impossible to write on some makes of blank.

A CD-R or CD-RW can be tested up to 99 times. This means a CD-R can not be written on more than 99 times.

must be fixed

To fix is similar to To finalize, however doesn't affect the whole CD but only an individual session.

To fix means that the session currently being written will be closed to be able to be read. To do so Lead-In and Lead-Out data is written. A session is always automatically fixed with the current Nero version.

finalize

To finalize is similar to must be fixed, however it has an effect on the whole CD. A finalized CD can continue to be written on with more. A CD is automatically finalized if it is burned in DAO mode. In contrast however a finalized CD-RW can still be deleted (under menu entry CD-recorder -> delete CD-ReWritable)

Firmware

The Firmware inside CD burners (CD-ROM/DVD drives) there is a kind of operating system of the drive which contains the instructions how to react to commands from the computer. In today's CD burners, as a general rule, the firmware can be updated. On the ahead WebSite, for example, there is a page with several links to the most up-to-date Firmware-versions.

The Firmware of a device can be determined as follows:

Frame

A Block consists of 98 frames. A Frame has the following structure:

24 Bytes of usable data and one Byte of control information as well as eight Bytes for error recognition and correction. The latter are determined by the code set in the Red called the EDC/ECC(Error Detection Code, Error Correction Code), which is used for all CD standards.

GD-ROM

GD-ROM (Giga-Byte Disk) is a CD format developed by Yamaha. The GD-ROMs can save up to 1GB of data (in contrast to the normal CD-ROMs which, depending on the data format used, can theoretically hold 90 minutes of information). This method presumably works on the principle that the individual pits are packed more closely than is usual with CD-ROMs. GD-ROMs are used by the games consoles developed by SEGA called DreamCast. The game console uses a 12x GD-ROM drive by Yamaha.

The back of a GD-ROM consists of 3 separate areas:

Green Book

is a standard and is also in CD-i .

Hybrid CD

A hybrid CD contains files for various operating systems. In general speaking terms the term Hybrid-CD refers to a CD which can be used in Windows as well as Mac.

index positions

Within an audio track index positions can be set. These index positions have the effect that certain points within a track can be jumped to with an audio CD player. Unfortunately only very few Audio CD players can jumpt to such index positions .

Note that the index position is not the same thing as the track limit. Every audio CD palyer can change between the various tracks on a CD but only very few can read the index positions within a track and jump to it.

index positions as a general rule can only be burned in DAO mode.

Exceptions:

ISO9660

The ISO9660 format is the most frequently used format to save files and directories on CD-ROM

In the Norm ISO9660 the construction of an ISO track has been defined, i.e. the methods to recording and naming the files on CD. With this, among other things, it has been defined how a file can be named within this file system. The ISO-track can be read in all popular operating systems. In the ISO, three different levels have been defined which each respectively effect additional limitations.

Main definition:

Thus the file name has the following format:

<file name>.<file extension>;<Version number>

A directory name has got the following format:

<file name>;<Version number>

(Version number: 1-32767)

ISRC

ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code and was defined by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). It is part of the subchannel information and clearly identifies each audio track.

Joliet

Joliet is a file system standardized by Microsoft which is based on ISO9660 and was developed for Windows 95. The Joliet-file system permits the use of file names up to 63 characters long and uses the international Unicode character set. The directory path incl. file name may not be more than 120 characters long. The file system is only supported by Windows 95/NT systems at the moment. As Joliet also records the corresponding DOS file names, the files can also be read in DOS and Windows 3.x.

LVDS

LVDS is nothing other than a combination of Ultra SCSI with 80MB/s as well and the advantages of differential SCSI. With the old technology it would be necessary to reduce the length of the cable to maintain the performance which doesn't make any sense due to the seven devices which have to be at least 15 cm apart respectively. With this connection the cable length can be increased to 12m and at the same time increasing the data transfer.

A disadvantage which should be mentioned here is that on a LVDS controller hardly any passive drives (CDROM etc...) can provide their service without any problems. Usually you already have a termination problem at this point. So here it is sensible to LVDS the bus and the 'normal' SCSI bus with 2 controllers separate.

MB = Megabyte

Many people assume that 1MB corresponds exactly with 1,000,000 Bytes. This is not true. MB is the abbreviation of Megabyte and does not stand for million bytes as many people assume: a Megabyte has got exactly 1024*1024=1048576 Bytes. 1024 Bytes are exactly 1KB (kilobyte).

For this reason there is often a misunderstanding because on a supposed 680 MB CR-R you can usually only save 650 MB:

650MB = 650 * 1024 * 1024 Bytes = 681.574.400 Bytes = 680 Million Bytes.

Unfortunately it is a popular marketing trick to write the following on a blank:

74min/680MB instead of 74min/650MB which would be more correct

Mixed-Mode CD

On a Mixed Mode CD the data information comes as the first track followed by the audio tracks. This is why as a general rule the audio CD players can't do anything with the first track . The format CD-Extra, is more suitable because on CDs of this kind the data information comes after the audio tracks.

MP3

MP3 is the abbreviation (file extension!) for "MPEG Audio Layer 3". It is compressed audio data which by using a MP3-players on the computer. (MPEG = Motion Pictures Expert Group; American committee which determines standards für "digital full-motion pictures"). Layer 3 was developed by the Fraunhofer Institut IIS and is limited to audio data.

The attainable quality of the signal depends on the compression rate selected. 128kbps at 16bit, stereo is normal. When coded, the original WAV files is usually reduced to approx. one tenth to one twelfth of its original size. The coding means there is a certain loss of quality but the psycho-acoustic model developed by the Fraunhofer Institute only removes the sections of the audio file which are defined as being inaudible. It is only possible for audible parts of the audio file to be lost with a high degree of compression.

Multimounter

The Multimounter is a program which is supplied with Nero . This program makes it possible to access sessions on a CD which were written earlier and all Windows programs only see the programs within the selected session.

You can select a session as follows:

  1. In Windows Explorer use the right mouse button to click on the CD-ROM drive with the inserted CD.
  2. In the menu which appears now, the entry properties .
  3. In the dialog which appears now, the index card data medium .
  4. In this dialog you can now determine the session which is to be visible for all programs.

Thus you have access to files you thought had been lost.

Multiread

Multiread is a standard defined by OSTA. A drive which is Multiread-capable can read Audio CDs, CD-ROM, CD-R und CD-RWs per definition. A drive whichis not multiread-capable can therefore not read from rewritable CDs(CD-RWs).

Nero

Nero Claudius Caesar

born in the year 37 A.D., died 68 A.D. Roman Emperor from 54 - 68, son Aggripinas, adopted by Emperor Claudius, intitally ran a constructive government with Seneca, in agreement with the Senate, had his mother murder Agrippina, he freed himself of sensible advisors, appearances as artiste and chariot driver; carried out sovereign court cases; put the blame for the Great Fire of Rome on the Christians; first persecution of Christians. Pisonic conspiracy in the Senate against Nero failed - even greater repression. Uprisings in Gaulle, Spain and Africa provoked the decline of the Pretorian guard and its ostracism in the Senate: comitted suicide (68) - serious empirical crisis in Rome.

Nero Cache

Nero can be made to cache certain files or audio tracks.

These are:

Caching files can however also go wrong.

If it does, it is because of one of the following:

  1. The path to the cache is set wrongly. If the path really is set wrongly, then the Windows-Temp directory is used as the cache directory. If however the Windows-Temp directory does not exist, then for the cache directory the path to the Nero-directory is taken.
  2. Please check in File->Settings->cache if the path is pointing to a directory which exists and if necessary, correct.

  3. On the harddisk there is not enough memory. Please check that there is enough memory space on the drive with the cache directory. The problem can occur in particular if the image recorder is being written on.
  4. Please free up the harddisk memory space.

  5. Some unerase programs like the program Norton Unerase make some information on the amount of free space on the harddisk incorrect because programs like this do not actually erase deleted files.
  6. Please deactivate unerase programs of this kind.

OPC

OPC stands for Optimum Power Calibration, which determines the optimum laser power. See Energy calibration area.

If a CD burner is running OPC , then this means that it can correct the laser power during a writing process (due to dust or a fingerprint)

Orange Book

Orange Book is a standard defined by Sony and Philips (1990) re writing techniques on magnetic optical drives (Part I) CD-WORM, CD-WO or CD-R (Part II). In Part II the construction of a Multisession CD was defined. Part III was included in 1995 and defines the rewritable CD, the CD-RW.

PCM

PCM is the primary standard for digitalization of audio/speech. PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation and is a digital coding of analog signals.

Photo CD

Photo CD is a format developed by Kodak based on the CD-ROM XA and the Orange Book is based on Hybrid disk specification to save picture files (graphics / photos). Playing them is only possible with special devices or special software. A Photo CD is a Bridge Disc at the same time so that it can be read on a Photo CD player, a CD-i-player and a CD-ROM/XA drive. Photo CDs can be recognized by the directories CDI and PHOTO_CD they contain. The pictures are saved in different resolutions in the YCC color model. The picture files have the ending .PCD.

There are different types of Photo CDs:

Nero does not support writing this format as Kodak demands licensing fees to be able to use this format.

PMA

PMA is the abbreviation for Program Memory Area.

On a writable CD, this is the area which temporarily contains the contents of the TOC (Table Of Contents) until a session has been completely written but not yet closed. If the session is closed, the same information can be found in the Lead-In.

pre-Emphasis Flag

For audio tracks there is a Pre-Emphasis Flag. This corresponds to an emphasis of the highs in the digital recording, because irritating noises can be heard particularly well with higher tones. The Pre-Emphasis has the effect of raising the higher frequencies as of 3.5 kHz by 6 dB per octave when recording CDs. These highs must then be decreased by the same amount with De-Emphasis when being replayed as it otherwise sounds too clear. Hardly any Audio CD players read this Pre-Emphasis Flag, which is in the subcode of the CD.

The current Nero Version does not support setting the pre-Emphasis Flag but when copying audio CDS, this flag is also copied.

The Emphasis Info is lost on audio grabbing as it is only in the subcode of the CD and therefore can not be found in the saved WAV file.

pre-gap

Also called a pause. This is the area on a CD which separates two tracks from each other. In Nero the pause is set at 2s as standard (red-book standard).

red

Red-Book is the first defined standard for a CD and defines the format of an audio CD. CDs of this kind are called CD-DA (Digital Audio). This format makes it possible to save up to 74 minutes of uncompressed digital audio data at a fixed frequency of 44.1 kHz Sampling at 16 Bit and stereo channel. An audio CD consists of several audio tracks, whereby, as a general rule, a track corresponds to a song. Every track is divided into sectors/blocks which have a fixed length of 2352 Bytes. A Sector is addressed with minute:second:Sector. To be able to read scratched or dirty CDs as well, in the Red-Book a procedure on error correction has also been defined. This error correction uses CIRC (Cross-Interleaved-Reed-Solomon-Code). In this the data is collected into blocks and a check sum is made up of each line and column. If an error occurs, then based on the incorrect horizontal and vertical checksum the error can be located and corrected.

RockRidge

The term Rock Ridge is also known as "Rock Ridge CD Extension". This is a special extension of ISO 9660 which administers additional long file names up to 256 Bytes in length, symbolic links and access rights on the CD. The Rock Ridge Extension has been especially defined for operating systems such as e.g.:UNIX.

The current Nero version does not support this format.

Scrambled

This field exists when burning images which exist in an unknown format.

For old CD burner by Philips the sata bytes have to be handled explicitly or must be adapted so that the CD burner writes the data correctly. If it is an image which has been created particularly for the old CD burner by Philips, then this option has to be set. However this is practically never the case.

SCSI

SCSI = Small Computer System Interface, describes a standard interface for end devices such as harddisks, tape drives or CD-ROM with regards to electrical and logical design. On an electrical level a difference is made between different SCSI-interface specifications:

SCSI cabling

Here possible errors in the SCSI cabling are shown:

First of all the special case of the TEAC CDR55S. In the case of this device, the termination is turned on when the jumper is pulled. Presumably there are further devices which demonstrate this type of termination .

An SCSI cabling with errors often has a variety of effects: Unexplained computer crashes, devices are not recognized, EDC/ECC/CRC errors when copying, after connecting external devices, internal devices are no longer recongnized, etc...

In the majority of cases, one of the following reasons explains it:

  1. the first plug of the internal cable is attached to the connector of the controller.
  2. the last plug of the SCSI cable, the last device is plugged inm independently of whether plugs between the beginning and the end are free and what the ID of this last device is.
  3. the termination of the SCSI controller is deactivated when external devices are connected; if no external devices are connected, then the termination of the SCSI of the controller has to activated. In numerous SCSI hostadapters this happens automatically.
  4. The SCSI-committee recommends not bending cables which are too long. The distance between the folded layers of cable should be three times the distance mass-signal-mass in the cable. For the same reason, flat ribbon cable should not be pressed against metallic surfaces, i.e. keep a distance.(Layers of ribbon should not be pressed together and not press against the wall of the housing.)
  5. The distance between 2 devices must be at least 10cm.
  6. The distance between the hostadapter and the first internal SCSI-device must not be more than 40cm, between all further internal SCSI-devices must not be more than 30 cm.
  7. A T-branch (also called Y-branch or star topology) is not permitted. The SCSI-bus consists of a cord with exactly two ends. This is also the reason why on Wide SCSI controllers not all connections can be used at the same time.
  8. i.e.: In the case of an Ultra-Wide hostadapter with 3 outputs (2x internal, 1x external), devices can only be attached to 2 outputs, one output must always remain unoccupied. The following connection variants are allowed:

    - the internal 50 pin and the internal 68 pin are occupied, the external 68 pi must remain unoccupied.

    - the internal 50 pin and the external 68 pin are occupied, the internal 68 pin must remain unoccupied.

    - the internal 68 pin and the external 68 pin are occupied, the internal 50 pin must remain free

    For all SCSI-cabling it must be noted that the SCSI-devices must be connected directly to the SCSI-cable. An extension on one of the plug-points in the middle of the cable using an additional cable is not allowed.

  9. Numerous SCSI Devices provide an automatic termination . These often don't work correctly and therefore the termination should explicitly be set (particularly affected by this: JAZ drives)
  10. Cable length: Maximum overall length. The internal and external cables together must not exceed the maximum overall length given:
  11. SCSI Standard

    max. length

    SCSI 1

    6m

    FAST SCSI

    3m

    WIDE SCSI

    3

    ULTRA SCSI

    1.5m (with a max. of 3 devices: 3m)

    ULTRA WIDE SCSI

    1.5m (with a max. of 3 devices: 3m)

    U2W SCSI

    12m

  12. The termination becomes problematic during mixed operation of Wide SCSI and 8 Bit SCSI (Narrow SCSIon a bus. In this case at the transition from 16 Bit to 8 bit, the wide part of the bus has to be finished with a special terminator (difficult to get hold of), while the other part is not terminated until the end of the then 8 Bit bus. Example:
  13. (===: Wide SCSI, ---: Narrow SCSI, != resp. terminator)

    !Wide Hostadapter ==== Wide HDD ==== Wide HDD! ---- CDROM!

    ^Wide Terminator spec. Terminator^ ^ Narrow Term.

  14. At least one device on the SCSI-bus must have for the correct termination the necessary power supply (Termination Power, abbr. TERMPWR) of 5V. As a general rule, the hostadapter provides this, for long lengths of cable the device connected furthest awayfromthe hostadapter should also provide TERMPWR as losses in the cable are possible in this case. TERMPWR can ususally be activated via a jumper on the device so that preferably the SCSI device should be connected at the end of the SCSI-bus which has an active termination available and can provide TERMPWR, a harddisk is most suitable for this (taken from: http://www.dawicontrol.com/german/html/frameg.htm)

More detailed information on how 8-Bit or 16-Bit devices can be connected to Adaptec Wide SCSI hostadapters can be found in the following: http://www.adaptec.com/support/configuration/connect.html

SCSI1HLP.VXD

The file SCSI1HLP.VXD can be found in the Windows\System\IOSUBSYS directory and causes problems on many systems.

The driver inspects I/O enquiries which concern the CD-ROM drives and compares these with the enquiries which the CD-ROM addressed can understand and if necessary modifies the command (on this, there is a list of drive models or drive vendors in the SCSI1HLP.VXD file). In some cases SCSI1HLP.VXD enforces the SCSI 1 protocol.

SCSI1HLP.VXD is an additional help to the ATAPI drives. This file is needed in particular to be able the play Video CDs from IDE devices. We do not know whether this applies to all IDE devices.

The file SCSI1HLP.VXD often causes problems if the EasyCD / DirectCD driver CDR4VSD.VXD is in the Windows\System\IOSUBSYS directory. The problems appear as of EasyCD Version 3.01b. CDR4VSD.VXD Versions of this version do not cause these problems.

On most systems it is possible to remove the SCSI1HLP.VXD file or to deactivate it by renaming the file extension to .VX_.

In some cases Windows 95/98 reinstalls this driver if it assumes that the driver is necessary. Often it is assumes that Nero installs this driver. This is incorrect.

Sector

Sector is another word for the more familiar term Block. Please look under Block .

simulation

The simulation corresponds to the burning process but the difference is that nothing is written. That means it can be used to check if the data to be burned is being sent to the CD burner quickly enough without a buffer underrun occurring. Apart from that, it can be used to check if the burner can write the CD at all. A simulation should be carried out if you are not sure if the system supplies the data fast enough. Once you have burned a few CDs successfully, then you can turn off the simulation without any problems.

Sub-channel

The eight bits of a Frame-control byte are called P, Q, R, S, T, U, V and W. The data flow of all P or Q bits of a sector is called the P or Q subchannel. The so-called R-Thru-W-Channel unites all the other subchannels.

The subchannels each transport control signals or additional information at nearly a kilobyte per second.

The P subchannel shows which sections of a track (referring to frames) music and other data can be found in, i.e. marks among other things the start of the track on a audio CD. The Q subchannel serves in the Lead-In area of a CD to save its table of contents (TOC) and for CD-DA disc to give the relative time within a track, the absolute time on the CD, information on Copyright protection, Pre-Emphasis, Barcode and ISRC burned CD.

The subchannels R to W can be used to store additional data apart from the actual useable data of the frames. These subchannels can only be addressed in audio tracks and on audio CDs contain e.g. graphics or MIDI information (CD+G, CD+MID).

Swapped

This option appears when burning images which are present in an unknown format. If this option is set, then the Lo and High-Byte are interchanged.

Sync data transfer

The option Sync data transfer can be found in the respective devices in Start->Settings->Control Panel->Device Manager. This option should always be deactivated!

TEMP Variable

When installing Nero and at times also while working in Nero files, they are sometimes saved in the Windows-Temp directory. It can lead to problems if the variable points to a non-existent directory or if the drive which the temporaray directory is in does not have enough free memory space.

The value of the TEMP variable can be determined as follows:

If the directory given in the TEMP Variable does not exist, then please create it. If the TEMP Variable has to be reset as the value is wrong:

termination

The termination is there to pull the signal down to ground at the beginning and end of the cable. Without this precaution signal reflections develop which make the system become instable. Faulty terminations are sometimes not apparent until you are burning.

A difference is still made between passive and active termination . As of FAST SCSI 2 the active termination is to be recommended. Through a higher bus speed, higher data rates can be achieved.

Regarding the termination the following has to be taken into consideration (This information has been taken from the HDDFAQ.TXT file, Rights: PC POWER GmbH, Holger Ehlers@2:241/1050.1)

  1. In contrast to (E)IDE or ATA-2, in SCSI there is compulsory termination. This means that the SCSI bus must be terminated at its physical ends. As most scanners do not have terminators, these devices must not be attached to the bus ends.
  2. Whereas with SCSI 1 and SCSI 2 you usually work with a passive termination , in the case of the new SCSI standards Ultra SCSI 3 or Fast 20 / Fast 40 active termination is compulsory.
  3. The termination becomes problematic during mixed operation of Wide SCSI and 'Narrow' SCSI to a bus. In this case at the transition from 16 Bit to 8 bit, the wide part of the bus has to be finished with a special terminator (difficult to get hold of)while the other part is not terminated until the end of the then 8 Bit bus. Example:
  4. (===: Wide SCSI, ---: Narrow SCSI, != resp. terminator)

    !Wide Hostadapter === Wide HDD === Wide HDD! --- CDROM!

    ^Wide Terminator spez. Terminator^ ^ Narrow Term.

TOC

TOC = Table Of Contents

Contains lists of files and addresses of a CD or session. Comparable with the FAT for HDs. It is at the beginning of a CD and contains all the information on the way the CD is put together. Included in this are the start addresses and lengths of all tracks, the total length of the data area as well as information on the individual sessions.

track

A track is made up of at least 300 sectors and represents a piece of music on a CD-DA . A maximum of 99 tracks can be put on a CD, whereby a complete CD can also be taken up by a single track .

Disconnect

Disconnect means that a connected device releases the SCSI bus if the device itself can carry out time-consuming tasks, e.g. a Seek so that other devices can use the bus in the meantime. i.e. this prevents the SCSI blocking the bus in the meantime. This option should be set in the BIOS of the SCSI controller and for all devices. As a general rule all SCSI devices support this option.

This option can be set in Start->Settings->Control Panel->Device Manager for the respective connected devices.

Overburning

Please read the Nero Help on this (in information) and in Nero says that my burner can not overburn.

Video CD

A video CD contains MPEG full-motion video sequences. The standard for the creation of video CDs was set out in 1993 By Philips and JVC in the White Book. In this, the first track contains the CD-i-playback program for the Video CD and the directories CDI, MPEGAV and VCD are based on the ISO 9660 file system. The following tracks in the format CD-ROM/XA-Mode 2/Form 2-sectors contain the audio-/video sequences listed in MPEGAV and coded in MPEG.

Video CDs can be played by CD-i players, special video CD players or on the computer on CD-ROM drives with CD-Rom/XA-support and an MPEG decoder (Standard with Windows 98) or their own VideoCD software.

VolumeDescriptor

The VolumeDescriptor is written for every CD-ROM-track . It contains information on the date of creation, the author, the title and some other information. The VolumeDescriptor is of particular importance for special applications such as VideoCD, PhotoCD and CD-I . The application which has to be started to read the enclosed data is defined on these CDs.

VQF

VQF or TwinVQ is a process developed by NTT Human Interface Laboratories (http://www.hil.ntt.co.jp/top/index_e.html) to compress audio information and is a competitive development to MP3. Yamaha calls this process SoundVG and distributes a player free of charge. If you compare VQF and MP3 then the VQF-files are smaller with comparable quality. Decoding requires a higher CPU load than that of MP3.

The current Nero version does not yet support decoding audio data which exists in VQF-format.

WAVE

The WAVE Data format was developed by Microsoft and IBM and part of the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) for Windows 3.1. Due to the wide distribution of Windows the WAVE format is just as widely distributed. A WAVE file consists of a format chunk and a data chunk.

In addition, cue chunks and playlist chunks can be integrated into a WAVE file.

The additional use of cue chunks and playlist chunks makes it possible to define areas which can be skipped or can be played more often. In the WAVE format, coded audio data PCM is usually stored, however µ-law, A-law and ADPCM coded data can also be stored. The current Nero version, however only understands the PCM coded audiodata.

White-Book

White-Book is a standard and is more likely to be Video CD .

Yellow Book

Is the CD-Standard to save computer data on a CD-ROM. As data for computers should not contain any errors, additional error correction data is saved as well. In Mode 1 additional error recognition and error correction information is saved as well. In Mode 2 information of this kind is not saved and thus only suitable for less error susceptible information, such as, e.g. the video files on video CDs: