Setting the general options
These are the
important settings affecting every aspect of the software?s functionality. You
can select the directories used for the program?s cache buffer and log-file
saving. Keeping track of the changes made on the log files seems to be a good
idea for expert users when troubleshooting recording problems. For most of us,
however, it might be a good idea to leave these setting to their default
positions.
If a particular user
owing more than 2 hard disks or able to select among different disk partitions
might try setting the cache on the fastest disk, provided there is amble free
space.
In the Preference pane
you can protect your media during the recording process and experience fewer
?coasters? by incrementing the percent of the source disk ?tested for reading
speed? before recording. We found the notation: ?amount of source data to
measure? being used in the programs dialog somewhat complicated, however.
By enabling the
relevant check-box, the program will measure read speed versus write speed
before actually writing to a disc. The amount of source data to be measured is
adjustable from 25% to a full 100%, in 4 steps.
Unfortunately, this
option does not apply to BurnProof or JustLink enabled CD recorders when the
relevant option is checked on. In our opinion, the user should be able to judge
by himself whether a chosen recording speed is too high for a particular
recording job and be able to resort to a lower speed, even if his recorder is
able to gracefully recover from a buffer underrun situation by using anyone of
the above technologies.
We like programs
offering this option, as it is known (at least to some experts) that linking
adjacent sectors on a CD by using either one of the available buffer underrun
protection technologies introduces increased locally C1/C2 errors. (Avoiding
this type of errors has always been the ?holy grail? of CD recording (and
optical, and magnetic) technology research and development.)
In the same pane you
can also select whether the recording speed will be lowered just after a Buffer
Under Run error occurs during testing.
What seems to be a particularly
interesting feature of NTI Maker 2000 pro is the option offered for verifying the
recorded disk files versus the original source data. Right after the writing
process, the program is able to check the quality of the resultant disk,
comparing sector-by-sector the files recorded on the CD against the original
source data. The comparison takes of course several minutes for a 650MB-long
compilation, but our belief is that it?s well worthy.
This was a
long-awaited feature by many users and it is being now offered by some
commercial packages.
It is also possible to
compare complete folders recorded onto a disk with respect to the folders on
the hard disk or other medium.
It would be desirable
next versions of this (or other applications) to offer the following features
as well.
- Comparison of ISO track-images with
respect to recorded tracks both on a sector-by-sector and file-by-file
basis. What we would like to see is essentially the incorporation of the
WinImage shareware right into a recording application.
- Full file-by-file comparison of the
recorded files against the original, but this time performed from a
different CD-ROM. This would apply during a period of time less stressing
on the rotor/head of the recorder and allow an extended period of problem-free
recording. In this case, the exact location of the original files should be
determined by using the .CDM file consisting of the particular compilation
information, as saved from the program itself.
In the ?CD Copy?
option pane you can force the program to ignore medium errors from a source CD.
The software will ignore any damaged files during CD reading and will continue
recording skipping to the next readable files or sectors. This is useful for
copying from scratched and other non-repairable media, but should be used with
caution. Some files might not be copied during recording when this options is
checked on, but might be otherwise possible to copy them by cleaning the
originals or trying a more capable reader. In such a case the user might be
left with the impression that he has a perfect CD copy when this is absolutely
not the case. The only remedy is to read carefully the displayed messages or
always perform a full disk comparison against the original.
Finally, in the ?Advanced?
option pane, you can select the size of the small files to be cached before
recording. When making a data CD, any file that its size is less than this
adjustable value (0KB to ?All files?, in increments of about 64KB); will be
cached in the directory specified above for the program cache buffer before
recording to the CD.
