AfterDawn: News

I contacted BlindWrite authors about problems burning a multi-session CD image file with data and audio tracks. BlindWrite seems to have a bug in burning such images in SAO mode, but the bug is documented and will be fixed in the next release.

But the author had very interesting comments about the differences in SAO (Session-At-Once) and DAO (Disc-At-Once) burn modes.



This information was news for me and perhaps needs further discussion.

Well, the real fact is that DAO shall not be used if it is not required.

for short, in SAO modes, all syncing for the write is done by hardware in
the writer, and in DAO, this syncing is turned off as the sync data (the PQ
subcodes) is provided programmatically. Also, it's harder to issue a power
calibration in DAO, many cd writers just doesn't support this, and turn
laser power to an average value, without a preliminary test - as in SAO.

So, that's why in 99% of the case, DAO written CD are LESS readable than
SAO. Cd writers are more sensible to different kind/brand of media when
using DAO mode. so that's why, when it's possible (i mean, when the CD does
not requires DAO only tricks), one should prefer SAO.--Jaques

BlindWrite Suite

Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 29 Mar 2002 1:49