An "error correction" concerning terminology :-)
By definition, "error correction" CORRECTS errors in the data that is read from the cd, producing a bit-perfect result. That occurs routinely and frequently, with both computer data cd's and music cd's, and is performed by the cd drive electronics, invisibly to the rest of the computer or transport which the drive may be part of, and invisibly to the user, and with no adverse effects.
What can cause adverse effects are errors that are severe enough to be uncorrectable. If the software or hardware that is controlling the drive does not make possible the multiple retries that have been mentioned above, or if those retries are not successful, the result may be (depending on that software or hardware) an indication of an error, a refusal to continue any further, a gap in the music, or "error interpolation," which is essentially a guess as to what the data should be, based on the values of nearby samples. If the cd and the drive are in good condition, those things will happen rarely, and certainly FAR less frequently than error correction.
See this Wikipedia writeup, and note particularly this sentence:
-- Al
By definition, "error correction" CORRECTS errors in the data that is read from the cd, producing a bit-perfect result. That occurs routinely and frequently, with both computer data cd's and music cd's, and is performed by the cd drive electronics, invisibly to the rest of the computer or transport which the drive may be part of, and invisibly to the user, and with no adverse effects.
What can cause adverse effects are errors that are severe enough to be uncorrectable. If the software or hardware that is controlling the drive does not make possible the multiple retries that have been mentioned above, or if those retries are not successful, the result may be (depending on that software or hardware) an indication of an error, a refusal to continue any further, a gap in the music, or "error interpolation," which is essentially a guess as to what the data should be, based on the values of nearby samples. If the cd and the drive are in good condition, those things will happen rarely, and certainly FAR less frequently than error correction.
See this Wikipedia writeup, and note particularly this sentence:
The result is a CIRC (Cross-Interleaved Reed Solomon Code) that can completely correct error bursts up to 4000 bits, or about 2.5 mm on the disc surface. This code is so strong that most CD playback errors are almost certainly caused by tracking errors that cause the laser to jump track, not by uncorrectable error bursts.Best regards,
-- Al