Thanks for the tips Volker, Greg and Bill. ;)
Volker Kuhlmann wrote:
DVDs are much more precise in finding the spot again from which to
continue burning, especially DVD+ which I understand is similar to
DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM effectively goes on nothing but underruns. You
needn't be concerned about engaging underruns with DVDs.
You are right, but I just want to elaborate some more on this as I
found some more sources of information on the subject.
My question directly plays out in the conversation here:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/lite/t-91137.html
The point I want to emphasize is the second post which was
by "Wesociety":
: AFAIK losslinking and buffer underrun protection are 2 separate
: features and are both used when burning a DVD+RW.
To which "Henjie" replied:
:: I'm kinda under the impression that buffer underrun protection is
:: an inherent part of the DVD+R/RW format though.
The key point is that the lossless linking feature of DVD+ allows data
to be recorded at the packet level without having any data degradation
as a result of buffer underruns. According to Andy's docs, the DVD+
"splice point" lies within sync patterns, not user data. In effect,
from a practical standpoint, buffer underruns are of no consequence
with DVD+ formats because the DVD+ system does not require the buffer
to be continuously filled during the write process. This is why DVD+RW
can be thought of, and used much like (with the few caveats Andy
mentioned in his docs) a slow hard drive - no special writing
software is even required. It is the same with DVD+R, except that
each sector/packet can only be written once. IMHO, DVD+ is obviously
superior to DVD- for this reason.
A good source for technical papers on the subject can be found
here: http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=0&sid=4&aid=6
However, it is important to point out that this is NOT true
with DVD- formats. Interrupting the data stream during a write
will have consequences as it will result in several K bytes of linking
data added and that several bytes of user data will be corrupted
(and this will be true even on the best "burnfree" DVD- drives,
without burnfree this event = coaster). The ECC system is capable of
correcting these minor errors and so the data should appear error free
when read back. However, the errors do reduce what I call "ECC margin"
in that any existing (pre-corrected) errors on the media do reduce the
capacity of the ECC system to correct for *future* errors (due to dust,
scratches, etc.) Thus, a DVD- media that was subjected to underruns
will be less (how much so I don't know) reliable than if the buffer
had been kept full during the recording.