Data reliability at the output of the error-correction code decoderin a compact-disc system is influenced by the decoding strategyemployed by the decoder, as well as by the statistical distribution oferrors that contaminate the recorded data. Recovered-datareliability estimates have been computed by use of error statisticsobtained from the measurement of errors that contaminate the actualdata stored on clean write-once and read-only-memory compactdiscs. These estimates consist of probabilities that specify theoccurrence of residual errors in the data that appear at the output ofa compact-disc player's cross-interleaved Reed-Solomon code(CIRC) decoder. Data reliability estimates that apply to fivespecific CIRC decoding strategies are reported.