Corel CD Creator README Information 
=================================== 
This document includes last minute product information about 
Corel CD Creator and its related modules.  This document also 
provides information about specific manufacturers' hardware. The 
information provided in this document isn't available in the 
printed or online documentation. 
 
 
Table of Contents 
================= 
A.  Setup and configuration 
    1.  Compact disc recorders supported 
    2.  Digital audio extraction 
    3.  Read and write buffer sizes 
    4.  The Windows MCI sound driver 
    5.  Corel CD Creator and PCD Creator 
 
B.  Disc preparation and recording 
    1.  Known problems 
    2.  Using the File Manager for drag-and-drop 
    3.  Testing without compact disc recorders 
    4.  Decreasing the track buffer threshold 
    5.  Determining temporary disk space requirements 
    6.  Importing sessions 
    7.  Adding items from multiple removable media sources 
    8.  Problem writing multiple sessions 
    9.  CD Creator doesn't start 
 
C.  Supplemental CD-ROM software 
    1.  Switching tasks 
    2.  Creating multi-volume discs with PCD Creator 
 
D.  Supplemental CD-ROM software 
    1.  Host adapters and ASPI managers 
    2.  Corel's CD-ROM device driver 
    3.  CorelCDX 
    4.  Session Changer and CDSESN 
    5.  DOS commands 
 
 
=================================== 
A. Setup and configuration 
=================================== 
 
A-1. Compact disc recorders supported 
------------------------------------- 
The version of CD Creator you are using is an OEM build for
Pinnacle Micro which supports the Pinnacle RCD1000 and RCD5020
compact disc recorders. 

The following recorders have been tested by Corel and are 
supported by the complete retail version Corel CD Creator.
Please contact Corel Corporation for further information: 
 
*  HP 4020i
*  JVC XR-S201
*  Kodak PCD225, PCD200, PCD200 Plus, and PCD600
*  Microboards Playwrite 1000 
*  Optima CD-R650
*  Pioneer DWS114X
*  Philips CDD521, CDD522, and CDD2000 
*  Plasmon RF4000 and RF4100 
*  Ricoh RS9200CD and RO-1060C
*  Smart and Friendly CD-R1002, CD-R2000, and CD-R4000 
*  Sony CDU920S and CSP9211S
*  Yamaha CDR100, CDE100, and CDE102
 
 
A-2. Digital audio extraction 
----------------------------------- 
If you plan to record audio information from existing compact 
discs, you require a CD-ROM drive that supports digital audio 
extraction. The device driver controlling the drive must also 
support digital audio extraction. For information about digital 
audio extraction and how to test your CD-ROM drives, see Chapter 
4, "Configuring Corel CD Creator", in the Users' Manual. 
 
Corel has tested the following CD-ROM drives with Corel's CD-ROM 
device driver, named CUNI_ASP.SYS, to verify that the drives 
support digital audio extraction: 
 
*  Apple CD300 
*  HP 4020i
*  IBM CD-ROM II 
*  JVC XR-S201
*  Nakamichi MBR-7 
*  NEC 2xc CDR-C301
*  Optima CD-R650
*  Panasonic CR503 
*  Pinnacle RCD5020
*  Pioneer DRM-602X and DWS114X 
*  Philips CDD2000 
*  Plextor PX43CH and PX45CH 
*  Smart and Friendly CD-R1002
*  Sony CDU561, CDU920S, and CSP9211S 
*  Toshiba XM3401, XM4101, XM4100a 
*  Yamaha CDR100, CDE100, and CDE102 
 
 
A-3. Read and write buffer sizes 
-------------------------------- 
The User's Manual indicates that this README file provides 
information about the read and write buffer sizes available with 
each compact disc recorder supported by Corel CD Creator. 
However, because the system tests set default values based on the 
test results, this information isn't required in this README 
file. 
 
 
A-4. The Windows MCI sound driver 
--------------------------------- 
Corel CD Creator makes use of the services provided by the 
Windows MCI sound driver to work with WAV files and to create 
audio discs. Therefore, if this driver isn't loaded, Corel CD 
Creator can't work with WAV files, create audio discs, or create 
mixed mode discs. 
 
You can load the MCI sound driver via the Drivers icon in your 
Windows Control Panel. For information about the MCI drivers, see 
your Windows documentation. 
 
 
A-5. Corel CD Creator and PCD Creator 
-------------------------------------- 
After installing or reinstalling Corel CD Creator, you must start 
Corel CD Creator and run its system tests before running PCD 
Creator. 
 
 
================================= 
B. Disc preparation and recording 
================================= 
 
B-1. Known problems 
------------------- 
1. Problems occur when jewel case layouts are copied to 
   CorelDRAW! 4 and 5. The rotated text for the "foldover" 
   portions of the back cover don't import properly. 
 
2. If your system is low on memory and you try to add a WAV file, 
   Corel CD Creator may display an error that indicates the file 
   is invalid. Make more memory available and then try to add 
   the WAV file again. 
 
3. The Print Setup doesn't show jewel case inserts in landscape 
   mode. 
 
4. When recording a disc layout, Corel CD Creator may access 
   files in its installation directory, temporary files 
   directory, music database directory, and music cache 
   directory. Therefore, problems may occur during the recording 
   if you include files from these directories in the disc 
   layout. 
 
5. The results of the system tests set the size of the read and 
   write buffers. In rare cases, you may need to adjust these 
   default sizes if problems occur while recording disc layouts. 
 
6. If a CD Audio disc layout includes very short tracks of a few 
   seconds, the Disc Info bar may not show accurate status 
   information. 
 
 
B-2. Using the File Manager for drag-and-drop 
--------------------------------------------- 
Corel CD Creator supports drag-and-drop from desktop management 
applications such as the File Manager. The File Manager prevents 
you from dragging directories and files from its left panel. You 
can only drag from the right panel. 
 
 
B-3. Testing without compact disc recorders 
------------------------------------------- 
You can test a recording without connecting a recorder to your 
system. Corel CD Creator supports a "NULL" device that disregards 
all write commands. After you've configured the NULL device, it's 
listed as a recorder that you can select, just as you select any 
other recorder. 
 
To configure the NULL device, remove the semi-colon (;) from the 
beginning of the following entry in the [Devices] section 
of CDCREATR.INI file: 
   nullDevice=NULL 
 
 
B-4. Decreasing the track buffer threshold 
------------------------------------------ 
When creating data or mixed mode discs, Corel CD Creator copies 
all files smaller than or equal to a specific size to a temporary 
file on your hard disk. The use of this "track buffer" reduces 
the risk of buffer under run errors while recording disc layouts 
that include many small files. Although the use of the track 
buffer significantly improves the reliability of Corel CD 
Creator, the buffer also lengthens the setup and preparation time 
required to create a disc. 
 
The point at which files are no longer copied to the track buffer 
is known as the track buffer threshold. By default, Corel CD 
Creator uses a track buffer threshold of 100 KB. 
 
Note: The Users' Manual incorrectly indicates that the default 
track buffer threshold is 0.5 MB. 
 
The value of 100 KB was chosen to increase reliability on lower- 
end systems, but may be fairly conservative for higher-end 
systems. Corel has found that many 486-33 (or faster) systems are 
capable of working with a track buffer threshold of 50 KB or 
less. 
 
Therefore, you may want to experiment with varying the track 
buffer threshold. You must restart Corel CD Creator for the new 
value to take effect. You should always perform at least one 
simulated recording with a typical layout after changing the 
track buffer threshold. If the threshold is set too low, you may 
experience buffer under run errors while data is being written to 
the disc. 
 
To change the threshold value 
1.  From the Notepad, open the CDCREATR.INI file, which is 
    located in your Windows directory. 
2.  Change the value assigned to the 'TrackBufferThresholdInKB=' 
    entry in the [Advanced] section. The value is specified in 
    kilobytes and may be any value from 0 to 65535. 
 
 
B-5.  Determining temporary disk space requirements 
--------------------------------------------------- 
If your hard drive doesn't provide enough space to build the 
temporary file, the action that Corel CD Creator takes depends on 
the type of disc you're creating and whether you set the "Force 
Single Track" option before starting the recording process. 
 
If you're creating a CD-ROM disc and you haven't enabled the 
"Force Single Data Track" option, Corel CD Creator splits the 
data into multiple tracks. Tracks are written each time that the 
temporary buffer becomes full. 
 
If you're creating a CD-ROM disc and you have enabled the "Force 
Single Data Track" option, Corel CD Creator quits the disc 
creation and displays an error message, which indicates that more 
temporary disk space is required to record the layout. 
 
Corel CD Creator also terminates the disc creation if you're 
recording a mixed mode disc and all the data can't be written in 
the first track. 
 
 
B-6.  Importing sessions 
------------------------ 
If you import a session that has hidden directories into a 
layout, the directories won't appear as hidden items in the 
layout. These directories also won't be written to the 
CD-R disc as hidden items. You must manually set the Hidden 
option of the directories' item properties before Corel CD 
Creator will write the directories as hidden. 
 
This applies only to imported directories. Imported files retain 
hidden attributes. 
 
 
B-7.  Adding items from multiple removable media sources 
-------------------------------------------------------- 
When Corel CD Creator creates a disc, the order in 
which files are read is partially based on the file size. 
Therefore, if files of a similar size are located in different 
directories across different removable media, you will be 
required to change the media each time Corel CD Creator must 
process a file on different media. This may result in an 
unnecessarily high number of media changes. 
 
Therefore, to reduce the number of times that you must change the 
removable media while Corel CD Creator is building the temporary 
file, you can use file priorities. To each group of files that 
were added from the same removable media, assign different file 
priorities. This forces Corel CD Creator to process the files on 
one disk before prompting you to insert the next disk. 
 

B-8.  Problem writing multiple sessions 
---------------------------------------- 
Corel recommends that you write all sessions on a CD-R disc using  
only one manufacturer's compact disc recorder. If you attempt to  
write multiple sessions on a disc using recorders from different  
manufacturers, the recorders may be unable to perform the write. 
 
 
B-9.  CD Creator doesn't start 
------------------------------- 
If the date on your computer is set to a year that's greater than  
or equal to 2000, Corel CD Creator is unable to start. Reset your  
computer's date to a year less than 2000 and the date won't cause  
any further problems. For information on setting your computer's  
date, see the documentation provided with DOS. 
 
If your computer's date was set to the year 2000 or greater, you  
may experience an "Internal Database Error" after you've reset the  
date and attempted to start Corel CD Creator. This error indicates  
that one or more of the database files wasn't created properly. You  
must delete all of the database files to correct this problem. Use  
the Windows File Manager to delete the following files from the  
CDCREATR directory on your hard disk: CAUDIODB.CDB, CDAUDIOD.CDX,  
CDAUDIOD.DBF, CDAUDIOP.CDX, CDAUDIOP.DBF, CDAUDIOT.CDX, and  
CDAUDIOT.DBF. These database files are recreated the next time you  
start Corel CD Creator. 
 

 
=================================== 
C. PCD Creator 
=================================== 
 
C-1.  Switching tasks 
---------------------------- 
If you switch to another task from any of PCD Creator's dialog 
boxes, the only way to return to PCD Creator is using Alt+Tab. 
 
C-2.  Creating multi-volume discs with PCD Creator 
-------------------------------------------------- 
When using PCD Creator to create custom photo discs, 
writing multiple times to a single disc creates a multi-volume 
disc, not an incremental multisession disc. Each time a new set 
of images is written to the disc, a new volume is created on 
the disc. This is unlike Kodak Photo CDs, where all images appear 
in the last session. 
 
 
 
=================================== 
D. Supplemental CD-ROM software 
=================================== 
 
D-1.  Host adapters and ASPI managers 
------------------------------------------------ 
Every SCSI host adapter requires an ASPI manager. The ASPI 
manager for your host adapter should have been provided with the 
host adapter. The ASPI manager must be installed and loaded 
before you can access the compact disc recorder. 
 
For your convenience, several ASPI managers have been included 
with Corel CD Creator. If necessary, you can install the ASPI 
manager for your host adapter during the Corel CD Creator 
installation. 
 
Information about some host adapters and ASPI managers has been 
included in the README_2 file. If you have problems with any ASPI 
manager, contact the manufacturer of your host adapter. 
 
 
D-2.  Corel's CD-ROM device driver 
---------------------------------- 
If you're using a memory manager, you may need to uninstall it 
before installing Corel's CD-ROM driver and then reinstall the 
memory manager. In rare cases, systems may hang if Corel's CD-ROM 
device driver is installed while a memory manager is loaded. 
 
 
D-3.  CorelCDX 
-------------- 
If you're using DOS 5.0, Norton Shell 6.0, and CDXCACHE, 
Windows may not run. Remove or upgrade any one of the three 
programs to resolve this problem. 
 
 
D-4.  Session Changer and CDSESN 
-------------------------------- 
If you run Session Changer or CDSESN, CD-ROM caching software 
(CorelCDX/CDXCACHE) flushes any cached data for the specified 
drive, even if the current session isn't changed. 
 
 
D-5.  DOS commands 
------------------ 
Corel CD Creator includes two DOS commands that may provide 
useful information if you have difficulty accessing your CD-ROM 
devices. 
 
SS.EXE scans all host adapters, which have ASPI managers loaded, 
and lists the SCSI devices detected. 
 
CDXINFO.EXE provides summary information about CorelCDX. 

