Pioneer MJ-L77 - Manual (Page 9)

9
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Symptom
The recorder shows the message
TOC FULL even though there are fewer
than 255 tracks on the disc (the maximum
possible).
The recorder shows the message DISC
FULL before you’ve reached the maximum
recording time of the disc.
The amount of recording time available
doesn’t increase after erasing some short
tracks.
The total recorded time, plus the recording
time remaining, appears to be less than the
length of the disc.
The recorder won’t allow you to combine
two tracks into one during editing.
The sound is interrupted during fast
forward or reverse.
MD System Limitation
Although when you listen to a disc it appears that each track sits end to end in an
unbroken sequence, the actual audio information may be scattered all over the disc in
different places. The more times you record and edit things on a disc, the more scattered
the information becomes. Usually, this doesn’t affect the user; the recorder keeps track of
everything using the UTOC. However, because the recorder needs to know where every
little gap is on the disc (and counts each one as a track, although you don’t see it), the
UTOC eventually fills up, and the recorder won’t let you record anything else on that
disc. Erasing a complete track, or the entire disc cures the problem.
If a disc is scratched or damaged in some way, that part of the disc becomes automati-
cally unavailable for recording. In this case, the recorder shows the reduced recording
time available.
If you erase a track which is less than 12 seconds long, the recorder can’t add that time
to the available recording time.
Recording time on a disc is divided into two second blocks—the smallest ‘unit’ of a
minidisc. Although a piece of audio data may be shorter than this, it still takes up two
seconds on the disc, and the remainder is ‘lost’ (until the whole block is erased). As the
number of these partially used blocks builds up, you might notice that the total disc
length appears to shorten. (See also the note about damaged discs above.)
There are two situations where you can’t use the combine edit feature:
❖ When one of the tracks was recorded using the digital input, and the other using the
analog input.
❖ When one track was recorded in long-play mono mode, and the other in normal
stereo mode.
As we mentioned above, the more re-recording and editing you do on a disc, the more
scattered the audio information on the disc becomes. During fast forward or reverse this
may show up as interrupted sound.
About the Table of Contents
When you load any kind of minidisc into the recorder, the first
thing it does is read a section of the disc called the Table of
Contents, or TOC. Just as the contents page of a book tells the
reader what each chapter is about and where to find it in the book,
the TOC tells the recorder where the tracks are on the disc, the
name and length of each track, the name of the disc, and so on. In
the couple of seconds it takes to read all this, the recorder’s display
shows the message
MD TOC READ.
Since you can change what’s on a recordable MD, the Table of
Contents is rewritable, and so is called the User Table of Contents,
or UTOC for short. If you have a recordable disc loaded in the
recorder and hit eject, the recorder automatically updates the
UTOC before giving you the disc back. In both cases, the message
MD TOC WRITE appears in the display during the UTOC
updating process.
The UTOC is vital for the recorder to be able to play a disc
correctly. Until you hit eject, the recorder stores all the current
session’s recording and editing information in its memory. If
there’s a power failure or you accidently unplug the recorder
before it’s had a chance to write the UTOC there’s a danger that all
that disc information will be lost. To prevent this, plug the recorder
back in as soon as possible and eject the disc. If you leave the unit
unplugged for more that a day, you’ll lose the UTOC information
stored in memory and with it, that session’s recordings/edits.
About MD System Limitations
The sophisticated playback, editing and recording features available to you with MD are possible because of the way in which the sound
data is stored on the disc together with the system of TOCs and UTOCs described above. There are times however when you might
encounter odd side-effects of the way the system works. These are not malfunctions, but limitations of the system. Below is a list of
symptoms you may run across depending on the way you record or edit discs.
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