[feralicious]

Originally Posted by tgc225

Maybe EAC tries to guess a value in some cases? Also, there were a number of boots whose value did match the AccurateRip database, I guess those are the most accurate.

No, EAC will do what you tell it to do as far as the offsets. You have 3 choices, no offset, combined read/write offset which I believe should be used only when reading and writing with the same drive, and then a separate read and write offset which is what should be used when sharing, I believe.

What confuses me to this day is how to burn audio CDs with someone else's offset? I've looked for an answer a while ago and never found one. I believe you still use your drive's write offset since the read offsets are to correct whatever "inaccuracy" your drive does on audio cds due to not being able to easily locate sectors on audio cds.

Originally Posted by tgc225

Also, a number had "Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes", while most had "No". What's the difference between that?

The Lead-In and Lead-Out are the parts of the disc before and after the written data. Some drives are able to read into these areas so that if your offset "pushes" some bits of data into one of them those drives can still read it and retrieve it, but those drives that cannot read into them will not be able to. It's been a long time since I configured my drive, but I believe EAC can determine whether or not your drive is able to read into them. If it cannot, I believe you should be sure to have it set to not do so as I think I read that it can harm your drive to set it to try to do it when it can't. Not sure about that part though.
More info: http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eacoffsets00.htm#-a



Another tip for anyone just configuring your drive. After you've spent 3-4 hours hunting through your CD collection to find CDs that match their database as the correct pressings for testing your drive's offsets, make a note on which CDs they were. I can't remember which ones worked for me and I have a feeling that the drive I have all configured is on its last legs. Which means I have to go throught the whole process all over again when I buy a new drive. Wish I knew which CDs those were....

Oh, and also write down your read, write and combined offset numbers with the CD names in case you have a bad computer day and you lose your C drive.