STATUS: Multisession CD access?

From: Gyula Szokoly <szgyula_at_skysrv.Pha.Jhu.EDU>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 11:46:17 -0500 (EST)

Hi,

  Original question:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
  May be I'm doing something stupid, but here it goes anyway:
I think I successfully created a multisession (ISO+RockRidge)
CD (on a Yamaha CDR wit Gear). When I try to access it,
I see only the first session. I think this typically
means that the CD-ROM or the software is not multisession
capable. I have two CD drives: an old (well, nearly 2 years)
Dec drive (come with the CPU) and a Pioneer 1804 jukebox
(with the Tracer software). I also tried the disc on
many other machines (Sun-s, PC-s, etc.). None of them
wanted to read it. Checked FAQ-s, no info about it.
  Any idea?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, first the hard facts:
1. I could indeed write a multisession CD with Gear, but first I
   did it wrong (no wonder I could not read it).
2. I can not read it:
        -- on my 3000/600, OSF 3.0b with a 2 years old Dec drive and
           an unknown 3rd party drive
        -- on a Sun running Solaris 2.4 with a 2 years old Sun drive
        -- on a Sun running SunOS 4.x with a Sun drive
3. I could read it on:
        -- my 3000/600 OSF 3.0b with a Pioneer 1804X jukebox and the
           Tracer jukebox software
        -- on two Mac machines (don't know what they were)
        -- on many PC-s running MS-DOS 6.22+WFWG, or Win95
        -- on my 3000/600 with the CD-R (Yamaha): I could not figure
           out how to use the drive as a CD reader, so it's probably
           my fault (I tried to create rz device files as I would for
           an ordinary CD-ROM, and also tried the Gear [well, this is
           Tracer, too] gd device files used by the mastering software)

  And now the rumours, ideas, etc. My feeling is that reading multisession
is more a software issue (I think that some of the CD-ROM drives were
not explicit multisession drives -- whatever that means). I heard rumours that
the next release of OSF (ooops, Digital Unix) and Solaris *will* support
multisession (which again may indicate that it can be done in software).
I also have a feeling that it *might* be possible to do it in hardware,
but this is too fusy for me. Dec told me that there are 3 SCSI drives
out, which are multisession drives: Sony, Magnavox and Apple. I called
Sony and Apple, but they couldn't say anything about the support for
workstations. I could not find Magnavox yet (I found a Magnavox, but it
looked like a company working for the DOD, and I found no phone number
for them -- the web page was concentrating on military applications).
  This is the status right now. If anyone (especially Dec) has something
to add, please, please contact me.

  Thanks to:
warren_at_atmos.washington.edu
sherman_at_pet.wustl.edu

Gyula Szokoly
(szgyula_at_skysrv.pha.jhu.edu)
Received on Wed Nov 29 1995 - 18:16:54 NZDT

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