DISCLAIMER
This FAQ is presented "as is" and the views expressed in it are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by The CD-Info Company, Inc. Please direct any comments, corrections or suggestions to Andy McFadden, the FAQ's author.
Last-modified: 1997/09/14
Version: 1.11
Send corrections and updates to Andy McFadden (fadden@netcom.com). If you have a question you'd like to see answered in here, either post it to one of the comp.publish.cdrom newsgroups (if you don't have the answer), or send it to fadden@netcom.com (if you do).
If you're reading this on a web page and want to check out the newsgroups (which have maintained a moderate signal-to-noise ratio), see:
Text versions of this FAQ are available from: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/comp.publish.cdrom.hardware/
A single-file concatenation of all the parts of this FAQ, suitable for printing, is available at ftp://ftp.cd-info.com/pub/faq/printfaq.zip. (Download as binary for best results.) Most of the links don't work, so only grab this zip archive if you want a copy to print.
Free distribution of the plain ASCII text form of this FAQ is encouraged, as are conversions to HTML or other formats and translation to foreign languages, so long as no content is removed, and additions are clearly marked. Redistribution of the HTML form of this FAQ or other format conversions may be restricted (the content is free, the presentation might not be). Check with the publisher.
Please DO NOT post copies of the HTML version on your web site. I keep getting e-mail from people reading versions that are several months old. You should include a link to the www.cd-info.com site instead.
If you're maintaining a version of this FAQ in a different language or format, the "diff -c" context diffs on the text version are available at ftp://ftp.cd-info.com/pub/faq/txtdiffs.zip.
Publisher's note: This HTML is the Intellectual Property of The CD-Info Company, Inc. Please see our policy statement about reusing the HTML with permission (which is primarily for translations). If you decide to "mirror" this page without permission you should be aware that you are not only violating our (compilation) copyright, but you'll wind up with a lot of broken links since many of them in this document are relational, not absolute. If you want to put an HTML version in your website, please obtain the current text and build your own so the links work in your site. For permission to use this HTML version on CD-ROMs or in any other form, please contact Katherine Cochrane by email or phone +1 205-650-0406.Caveat lector: the information here is derived from Usenet postings, e-mail, and information on WWW sites. As such, it may well be DEAD WRONG, and you are encouraged to verify it for yourself.
I take no responsibility for damaged hardware, CD-Rs turned into coasters or frisbees, time lost, or any other damages you incur as a result of reading this FAQ. Information on specific models of hardware and software is based on *opinions* of other users, not scientific studies. I am not an expert in this (or any other) field. Everything here could be a total malicious lie, and should be treated as such. You have been warned.
I don't get paid to plug anybody's software or equipment. The sections on "what XXX should I buy" are not here because I want to sway purchases one way or another, they're here because the questions are asked *a lot*, and the answers are pretty consistent. You are invited and encouraged to investigate the capabilities and reputations of all products.
The various product and company names are trademarks of their respective companies.
The FAQ is heavily biased toward PCs and computer CD-Rs, because that's what I'm most familiar with, but I have made an effort to include useful information for owners of other equipment. I don't anticipate the section on audio CD-Rs expanding greatly, because they're far simpler to operate than computer CD-Rs, and most of the "must know" information about them is more appropriate in an FAQ on stereo systems or studio recording.
I don't usually address questions that can be phrased, "how do I make my software do this?" The answers to those should be in the manual that came with your software. I also don't try to track recorder firmware versions or software versions unless a specific release is especially interesting. Ditto for which recorders work with which packet-writing solutions.
Major changes:
Added (2-16), (3-26), (5-14), (6-1-31), (6-1-32), (6-3-2), and (6-3-3).
This FAQ covers the three newsgroups in the comp.publish.cdrom hierarchy, one for software, one for hardware, and one for multimedia. The names of the newsgroups imply that the intended topics are related to publishing material on CDROMs, but the current discussions cover most everything related to CD-Recordable devices.
Here are a few guidelines. These aren't hard and fast rules -- nobody died and put me in charge of making the rules -- but if you're not sure what the appropriate subject matter is then this may be helpful.
comp.publish.cdrom.hardware is the most popular of the groups. Appropriate material includes questions about past, current, and future CD-R devices. Asking for installation help or advice on what to buy is appropriate, as are questions about related hardware like SCSI adapters and CDROM drives. Some related newgroups are:
comp.publish.cdrom.software is for discussions about software used to prepare material for and create CDs and CDROMs. Questions about how to do things with a specific piece of software belong here, as do "the CD-R software from XXX won't recognize my drive", and "does a program exist that does YYY". Some related newsgroups are:
comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia is for discussions about creating multimedia products on CDROMs. Questions about multimedia authoring software belong here, as do most production-type questions, e.g. "where can I go to get my CD pressed with jewel cases and glossy inserts?" Related newsgroups are:
Please try to keep cross-posting to a minimum. Broadcasting questions to 3 or 4 related newsgroups will increase the noise level and probably won't get you more answers.
Some general rules apply to all of the comp.publish.cdrom.* groups:
(1) Piracy of CD-R software or CDs: CD-Rs can be used to make copies of copyrighted material, and while backups of data are legal, making or accepting copies from others most likely isn't. Whatever your opinion of the matter, software piracy and other copyright violations are illegal in most countries in the world, so requests and/or advertisements for pirated material should be kept off the newsgroup. Also, please don't start or participate in a debate about whether or not software piracy is bad. There have been hundreds of such debates over the past several years, and the only thing that either side has managed to prove is that piracy debates are a tremendous waste of time.
(2) Personal CD-R hardware and software sales: strictly speaking, these groups aren't appropriate for selling off your old hardware or software. Such things are best left in misc.forsale.computers.*, ba.market.computers, and related groups. Since many readers are in the market for new hardware, a limited number of clearly marked articles are tolerated. The common Usenet convention is to use "FS: HP4020i $400 obo" for "For Sale" messages and "WTB: HP4020i" for "Want To Buy" messages.
(3) CD-R product advertising: these groups by their nature are somewhat commercial. Many readers are in the market for new hardware or CD-R media, and for this reason a *limited* amount of retail/wholesale advertising is tolerated but discouraged. If you *clearly* mark your postings as advertisements, you will get relatively few complaints. Posting frequent and useless followups just to broadcast your 20-line signature will get you flamed and subsequently ignored. Feel free to send mail to people who post questions about product pricing and availability, but please don't create mailing lists and broadcast to everyone who posts.
(4) Other advertising: while it's certainly the case that most or all of the readers have a CDROM drive on a computer, the same could be said of almost every person reading news from a home computer today. Please keep ads in newsgroups that are more appropriate. Advertising the latest educational, game, or adult CD is inappropriate for these groups, as are "hot new Cyrix 686 PC" posts. Subtle attempts to advertise web sites ("golly, this looked really neat, so I thought I'd tell everyone") are more obvious than you might think.
(5) Spam: you cannot make money fast. That's life, get used to it. If the message involves putting your name at the top of a list of 5 or 10 people, don't post it. If it has an 800 or 888 number that a reader would call to hear more about your unique business opportunity, don't post it. If you have an account at interramp.com, your posts may get ignored.
(6) Job postings: looking for job candidates on these newsgroups is a tolerated but generally futile exercise. Most of the readers are looking for or offering help on CD-Rs, not searching for a job. Try one of the other groups, like misc.jobs.offered.
One final note: bear in mind that these groups are read by people all over the world. If you're looking for local retailers, be sure to specify what "local" is for you. Posting in English is the best way to ensure that you will get a response, but the readership is diverse enough that you will likely get a reply no matter what language you use. If you want to quote prices, specify the currency to avoid confusion (e.g. US$300 or CAN$300 or Y30000 or ...).
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