CD-RW, what's "Enable Compression" during Formatting

[George]

I'm using a WinXP-pro PC and the Dell provided Roxio "DirectCD" format
utility.

Before clicking "Format" for a CD-RW disk, this utility gives option to
check...

[ ] Enable compression.

-Am I right that this should probably NOT be checked to ensure it will work
on widest possible audience of PC's without them having to install some type
of UDF reader or other stuff?

-What do most people do for this?

-Also, do "out of the box" CD's like this come pre-formatted (and would they
have compression 'on' or 'off'), or do I need to format each CD-RW before
first use?

Thanks,
George

 

[JTW]

Enable Compression on a CD-RW using DirectCD will cause the data to be
compressed when written, giving you more space than if not compressed.
This is not the same compression that Windows uses on NTFS volumes
(which a CD is not). If you enable compression, you must either have
DirectCD or the UDF Reader installed to read it. In short, if you want
others to read it, don't use compression. You should take a look at
the product documentation to understand all their options.

Along with the vendor's installed documentation, you can look at:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/documen
t?DN=1048989

Other documents on that product:

http://support.uchicago.edu/docs/misc/windows/cdrw/cdrw.html
http://support.gateway.com/support/faq/c-drives/adaptec/CDCreator5/direc
tcd.htm