#1 Burning Software

Good morning

I'm playing with StarBurnX... trying to figure out why my burns are so slow and take so much CPU.

I'm trying to create Redbook Audio CDs.

I've found, using the samples, that the Audio Burner has two DAO modes - PQ and Raw PW. Using PQ is quick and doesn't take that much CPU. Raw PW is slow and eats up 100% CPU. In both cases I was burning a 35 minute MP3 encoded at 128kbps.

That gives me a few questions:

1. What is the difference between the two modes?
2. Which mode is better for producing a Redbook audio CD that is playable in all CD players (not just PCs)?
3. Which mode is more supported on CD Writers?

Many thanks!
- Shaun

1) Burning 96 bytes of the RAW P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W subchannel Vs. burning of the 16 bytes of the cooked P and Q subchannel (drive's hardware generates rest of the bits).

2) and 3) DAO96 is better and more supported. DAO16 is nearly obsolete.

However... BOTH these modes should take the same amount of the CPU power as encoding is pretty much the same. So there's something else. Can you double check this before we'll do?

I did some more testing and there is a distinct difference in the pattern of CPU usage jumpting between 100% and 0% but it's not as drastic as I first seemed to observe.

Also, I seem to have been wrong about the speed difference. I setup a more controlled test and ended up with 6 seconds difference in a 12 minute burn. That's a 0.8% difference, accounted for by various background services.

Here's what I found: (Start time, observation, duration before change of state)

StarBurnX Disc at Once Raw
9:55:45 Immediate Buffer Status c. 50% 0:00:30
9:56:15 CPU Maxed 0:04:00
10:00:15 Memory Use Climbs 0:00:35
10:00:50 CPU Low 0:00:25
10:01:15 Burn Starts, CPU Maxed 0:03:05
10:04:20 Progress jumps to max 0:03:15
10:07:35 CPU Low 0:00:20
10:07:55 Burn Complete Messagebox

StarBurnX Disc at Once PQ
9:36:39 Start (CPU Maxed) 0:04:21
9:41:00 Memorary Started to Climb (CPU Low) 0:01:10
9:42:10 Buffer Increased, Burn Started 0:02:50
9:45:00 CPU Maxed, Progress Bar at Max 0:03:55
9:48:55 Burn Complete Messagebox

My PC is an Athlon 64 3500+ w/1GB of RAM.
Start to Finish time on a lesser machine (PIII 800mhz 256MB) can reach close to half-an-hour.

Takes time b/c of the compressed audio handling. WAV burning should be more or less the same on all of the machines.