[NTLUG:Discuss] beginner

[Mark Bickel]

> From: "LYNCH_2 at msn.com" <LYNCH_2 at email.msn.com>
> To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 15:00:49 -0800

> Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] beginner
  
> I would like to be able to download music from the net for home and auto.
> Currently I own a compzq presario 5304 and no cd-burner. I want to get off
> to a good start. Can you tell a beginner what would be a good purchase and
> any downloading do and do nots?
> Thanks John Lynch

Downloading the files should not be a problem, as long as networking, browser
and ftp clients are working properly. I would add not to download copyrighted
music you do not own (unless you have permission from the copyright owner). 

Since I have no experience w/ burning CDs w/ tracks converted from MP3 files,
I can only sugest that you look around freshmeat.net or linuxberg.com for
progs that convert MP3 to raw CD-Audio PCM stream, or the reverse (ripping).

You may want to check out krabber.automatix.de, as krabber front-ends cdrecord, 
cdparanoia, mp123, bladenc and several other CLI progs, allowing one to 
drag-n-drop mp3 or wav files on to a que for burning a CD.

Regarding Burning Audio CDs: cdrecord is a command line program for burning CDs.
There are several GUI front-ends to cdrecord available. I use X-CD-Roast with
no problems. YMMV. cdrecord supports most burners. Goto freshmeat and search
on cdrecord for the homepage, which lists supported and unsupported CD writers.

Some general tips/sugestions:

1) If one can afford it, I recommend SCSI burners over ATAPI (IDE). 
   Combining a good PCI-bus SCSI host adapter with a fast SCSI HD, SCSI CD-ROM(s)
   and SCSI CD writer is an unbeatable combination. I set up multiple partitions,
   each one just large enough to hold the maximum (~650 Mb) data that a CD holds. 
   I can "stage" my CD images there, and then transfer them to the blank CDs; 
   This works great for doing verified duplication of mult-CD sets.

2) Try not do too much else on the box while burning a single-session/audio CD.
   This is especially true when using ATA disks for source and an ATAPI burner.
   If the system becomes i/o bound or the cpu load is too high, the data stream
   to the burner may be interupted to the point that once its input buffer is 
   empty, the write bombs. If it's a write-once CD, you've just made a coaster.

3) If you must use ATA disk for source and ATAPI burner for target, configure
   the system so that they are NOT on the same IDE controller. By the same token,
   if one is trying to do direct copying from a CD-ROM to a CD-writer ( an iffy
   proposition) one will be much more likely to have problems if both the reader
   (source) and writer (target) are on the same IDE controller (master & slave).

4) Generally speaking, with CD burners bigger buffers are better.

5) Media is important. There are at least 3 different chemical formulations for
   blank CDs. Price should not be your only consideration. Some types don't work
   as well with high-speed burning (4X, 6X, 8X). Some may types may have trouble
   being read by older drives or cheap/portable/audio CD players). Some media are
   good for ~ 100 years, while others degrade to the point of being unreadable
   after only 10 years. 

Best,
Mark.Bickel at ericsson.com