Plextor has a special mode called gigarec. i have encountered some info about gigarec 1.2x mode written cd-rs can be read on dreamcast. anyone has more info on the subject? if that is true a 870 mb/99 min cd can be written for 1044 mb.
It'd be interesting if someone with a plextor drive could try. However afaik (read years ago) gigarec doesn't support multisession, so it'd be non-selfboot discs. The dreamcast is a good candidate at being able to read those, as the gd-rom design is somewhat similar to this gigarec technology.
yup, i read that too, gigarec doesn't support multisession, only dao (disc at once). utopia or dreamcast import enabler etc. can be used for booting these disc if there isn't any compatibility problem.
It works at 1.3x not anything above. Must be non-selfboot and when using 99min disc and fit the full game unaltered. Problem is Utopia doesn't boot disc over 112min so it is not possible till a new boot disc that accepts a higher TOC and till then it can not be used to play all games unaltered.
thanks for the detailed answer atreyu. btw i am a big fan of RDC, thanks for what you have been doing for dreamcast scene. i read that the first area of dreamcast is 4 min (35 mb) which is accessible by normal cd-roms and the second area is 112 min (1gb) and is very dense so that it can't be accessed by normal cd-roms. if what i've read is true, 112 min should be enough for most gd-roms, of course not all. i found a source for cheap 99 min. dvd-rs (about 13$ for 50 including shipping) so i might try to find a plextor dvd drive and write 112 min non-self boot discs. i assume 1.2x will be enough for that, no need for 1.3x. do you recommend a guide to prepare those 112 min non-self boot discs from gdi sources? even if i cannot find a plextor dvd, i might try making some 99 min ones.
Only plextor drives that support gigarec and 99min disc are the premium 1 and 2 models and they run $150+ still.
I have a Plextor drive which supports gigarec, but if the bootdisc does not support tocs over 112min, this is kinda pointless, isn't it?
You only need 112min for ANY game to fit untouched. There's 549150 sectors on a gd-rom, which is 122min2sec. But the first 45000 sectors, 10min00sec, are useless for the game (extras, afaik no game even look there). So you've got an effective 112min02sec of data on the disc. This is for Physical Block Address (PBA) for logical ones (LBA) you eeffectively loose 150 sectors, aka 2sec. -> 112min00sec Bottomline: There's no more than 112 min of data on a retail gd-rom with no audio tracks and no dummying, I don't know wether the utopia limit is related to the software itself, of the number of sector the drive (firmware level) can allow for a single session. Audio/selfboot wouldn't work with gigarec though. FG
Ok just went back and tested gigarec rips. Utopia will not load anything more then 99:99 otherwise it fails. The 112min is the most I have fit on a selfboot audio/data copy of Looney Tunes Space Race using Media Range 900mb 100min CDR disc. Most I got on 99min 870mb disc was 106min using overburn. So gigarec is useless and larger media is a better option unless one can hack Utopia to accept a larger TOC.
thanks for the detailed answer. 112 min overburn for a 100 min cd is great. with what cd drive did you achieve this? isn't overburn about max 1 or 2 mins over the normal capacity of cd-r? i have read about 3 min is needed for self-boot, if that is true you can get actively 109 min data, right? that must be enough for most gdis. i will stock some 99 min cds and hopefully 100 min ones if i can find. time to test the overburn capabilities of cd drivers i own. so if everything is right, 109 min data can be fit on a dreamcast backup cd-r. that is really great.
