What is difference between audio and regular cdr

geepondy

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I just use regular cdr's to make audio cds but I always see blank cdrs labeled "audio cdrs" which usually cost more then regular cdrs. What is the difference between the two?
 

idleprocess

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Home CD copiers (another component in your stereo/home theater stack along with receiver, DVD player, turntable :D etc) will only use "audio" CD-Rs. "Audio" CD-Rs cost more because they are tarriffed, with the proceeds distributed to the members of the RIAA through some scheme based on overall sales. The assumption is that you're cheating the record industry when you make copies, so rather than sue the makers of console CD copiers, the recording industry just forced them to agree on a slightly different CD-R format. Nevermind that nearly all home copying is protected under the Fair Use provisions of copyright law so long as you don't distribute copies outside your household.

You'll probably find it easier to copy CDs using a computer and CD-R drive instead of a console - nevermind declining to pay an additiional "tax" to the RIAA's members for engaging in perfectly legal activity.

The record/movie industry makes all sorts of amusing arguments as to why home copying shouldn't be allowed, but until they manage to destroy the Fair Use provisions, their arguments don't hold water. I remember hearing a spokesman from the MPAA make an analogy that making backup copies of DVDs was like demanding that your flatware maker replace any dishes you happen to break - a false analogy since it's the abstract "content" of the DVD that matters, and there's no cost to members of the MPAA if you absorb the cost of copying a DVD; of course, it does mean in the event of damaging/losing a DVD you resort to a backup copy rather than buying a new DVD at retail again - less revenue for the MPAA's greedy members.

That's one thing that gets me about the whole copyright debate. The media companies like to talk about "theft" when it comes to bootlegs on the internet. No no no - nothing is being phsyically stolen. Physical inventory is being five-fingered, which is an actual loss. The media companies are looking at a real number of potential sales that don't occur, but saying it's "theft" is quite inaccurate.
 
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paulr

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Audio cdrs are the same as data cdrs except the audio ones have some special digital labelling (the recorder can tell) that identify them as audio cd's. If you buy a consumer audio cd recorder from a stereo store (not a computer cd recorder), it will only record on audio cd's and will refuse to record on data cd's. The audio cd's cost extra because of a special tax on them (and on DAT tape) passed in 1990 (Audio Home Recording Act) pushed through by record industry lobbyists. The money goes to the recording industry to compensate them for revenues supposedly lost to home taping. The other side of that law is not so widely publicized: using a home audio recorder to record someone else's cd's became LEGAL as long as it's for personal use and not for profit (note that only applies to home audio recorders, not computers, as the Napster company found out). While you don't directly pay the record company for the copy you make, the industry still gets compensated through the media tax.

The 2352/2048 byte thing is just about the recording format and is determined by the recorder and software, not the disc type. Audio cd's (no matter what disc type) have 2352 bytes/sector and if there's an occasional error, the player interpolates and there might be a slight imperfection in the sound, usually not noticible. If that happens once in a while nobody cares--occasional errors are acceptable. With computer data (say a spreadsheet), a single bit error anywhere can be catastrophic, so they use only 2048 of the bytes for user data and the rest for error correction (redundancy).
 

James S

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so, to sum up, the audio cdr format has a fee to the record companies built in because they just assume that you're using it to illegally copy music.

If you're legally making music CD's with music you have purchased or otherwise own the rights to then by using an audio CD they are basically getting paid again and again for you not breaking any rules at all.

Hardware audio cd recorders, non computer based, are often locked into this format. But it's not for any reason other than the above, there is no technical reason why they are different. It just looks for the "I paid my extortion money" flag on the disk or it wont use it.

Dont support these people by purchasing those disks or the machines that require them.
 
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