Official CD Doctor (WSES alternative) Thread

[MikeTR]

Anybody know if this program is any good:

http://www.cdbest.net/soft/doctor_104.zip

Password for 2nd zipfile:grStencilFuncExt

It seems to be in Japanese. Maybe someone outhere can translate? I'd like to see how it compares to WSES. It seems to be for Sanyo and Lite-On drives only and can run under windows.

[cfitz]

Hey, thanks a lot MikeTR. I've seen test results from this program before on some Asian sites, but never knew where to get it.

It is Japanese. Here is a mini-translation:



You will see lots of question marks (???) instead of the Japanese characters if you don't have Japanese language support installed. (If you really want to install Japanese language support, here is how to do it on Windows 2000: Enable Japanese Language Support - Windows XP may be similar.)

I ran CD Doctor using my Memorex 48x24x48 (LiteOn LTR-48246S equivalent) with no problems. Here are some comparisons of CD Doctor to WSES:

Ritek made TDK disc, burned by LiteOn drive, WSES result


Ritek made TDK disc, burned by LiteOn drive, CD Doctor result


CMC made Imation disc, burned by Benq drive, WSES result


CMC made Imation disc, burned by Benq drive, CD Doctor result


CMC made Memorex disc, burned by Benq drive, WSES result


CMC made Memorex disc, burned by Benq drive, CD Doctor result


As you can see, the two programs give very comparable results. CD Doctor reports slightly higher error rates than WSES, but not by much. This may be due to differences in the "maximum" read speed selected by each program.


CD Doctor advantages:

1. Runs under Windows (I tested under Windows 2000)
2. Plots on a logarithmic scale and shows the average error rates
3. Allows results to be saved in png format directly from the program
4. No risk of ruining your drive by misusing the program (at least as far as I can tell )
5. Graphs can be annotated with notes entered by the user

CD Doctor disadvantages:

1. Japanese menus
2. Scale on graph can not be changed (perhaps it will adjust automatically if the plotted error rate is high enough??)
3. Only two choices of reading speeds

WSES advantages:

1. More flexibility (e.g. greater range of read speeds are selectable)
2. Includes other tests in addition to C1/C2 testing - if you know how to use them
3. Scales on graph can be changed

WSES disadvantages:

1. Must be run under true DOS from a floppy boot disc
2. Can permanently ruin your drive if you misuse it
3. Must use auxilliary Screen Thief program to capture graph of results

Overall, I'd say CD Doctor is a winner.

cfitz

[BillyG]

This looks like a nice program - someone needs to code a english text version ASAP.

[cfitz]

This looks like a nice program - someone needs to code a english text version ASAP.

I just emailed the author, asking if an English version is available and offering to supply the translation if there isn't but he is willing to create one. Hopefully I will get a response, and hopefully that response will be positive.

cfitz

[MikeTR]

Hey, thanks a lot MikeTR. I've seen test results from this program before on some Asian sites, but never knew where to get it.

You're more than welcome cfitz. I hope there'll be a translation soon. Or at least before I get my Lite-On back, it doesn't seem to work on a Plex (I though it might since it uses a Sanyo chip).
Good to hear it has it's uses. The fact that WSES only worked under DOS and could (if you are really stupid or illiterate, I grant) destroy your drive, kept me from using it more than once in a blue moon.

Keep us posted about the translation if you will.

[cd pirate]

does that program work with any drive or sanyo/liteon drives only?
can it be used with a liteon dvd rom?

[cfitz]

It works with Sanyo and LiteOn drives, much like WSES. Here are the drives on which it has been tested successfully:

SANYO CRD-RW2
SANYO CRD-BP2
SANYO CRD-BP4
SANYO CRD-BP5
SANYO CRD-BP900P
SANYO CRD-BP1500P
SANYO CRD-BP1700P
Lite-On LTR-16102B
Lite-On LTR-24102B
Lite-On LTR-32123S (read error reported when using Nero ASPI)
Lite-On LTR-40125S
Lite-On LTR-40125S (4KUS CDR-5W32)
Lite-On LTR-48125W (4KUS CDR-5W32)
Lite-On LTR-48246S
Lite-On LTR-52246S (CDR-6S48)
Lite-On LTR-52486S
Lite-On CDR-6S48
Memorex 48MAXX
Memorex 52MAXX

The software is a beta version, but I haven't had any significant problems with it. A couple times it suffered a memory access violation and had to be shut down and restarted, but not often.

cfitz

[cd pirate]

thanks for that. i just tested it out of curiosity and it didnt work with my ricoh mp7200A and LTD165H.

[cd pirate]

by the way, why can only sanyo and liteon drives use it? can the program be modified so it works with all drives?

[cfitz]

It must be taking advantage of some common feature of those drives and the chipsets they use. Not all drives report C2 errors, let alone C1 errors. I don't know the specifics, but I imagine the program can not be modified to support other drives, at least not easily and certainly not for those drives that don't return the required error information in any format.

cfitz

[kgatwork]

Anyone get this program to work under Win98SE?

I also tried running from WinXP Pro but alas I get an error text box in a foreign language/font most likely generated by this program. Any feedback would be appreciated. Note: I did get this to work in my work pc that runs Win Nt4.

[cfitz]

You might need to have ASPI installed. I haven't tested to determine system requirements, and the author didn't give a detailed compatibility list for OS configurations in his readme file. However, he did specifically mention that his development machine is running ASPI 4.60:

CD Doctor (beta) version 1.0.4 C1/C2 error count reading program

Summary:
CD Doctor is a program for measuring errors on a Sanyo CRD-BP1700P CD-R/RW drive.
Because CD Doctor is not dedicated measurement equipment, please use it as a gauge
of performance rather than an absolute measurement.


Development environment:
If your environment is the same as the author's, CD Doctor should work as intended.

OS Windows 2000 Professional SP3 (Japanese version)
ASPI Adaptec ASPI Version 4.60
M/B ABIT BX6-2.0
IDE1 master IBM IC35L060AVVA07-0
slave empty
IDE2 master empty
slave CRD-BP1700P 1.05


Reports of successful use have also been received for the following drives:
SANYO CRD-RW2
SANYO CRD-BP2
SANYO CRD-BP4
SANYO CRD-BP5
SANYO CRD-BP900P
SANYO CRD-BP1500P
SANYO CRD-BP1700P
Lite-On LTR-16102B
Lite-On LTR-24102B
Lite-On LTR-32123S - read error reported with Nero ASPI
Lite-On LTR-40125S (genuine)
Lite-On LTR-40125S (4KUS CDR-5W32 version)
Lite-On LTR-48125W (4KUS CDR-5W32 version)
Lite-On LTR-48246S
Lite-On LTR-52246S (CDR-6S48 version)
Lite-On LTR-52486S
Lite-On CDR-6S48
Memorex 48MAXX
Memorex 52MAXX

Unfortunately, although the SANYO CRD-BP3 is a drive made by Sanyo, a report
has been received stating that CD Doctor does not work with this drive.


Copyright/terms of use:
This program's copyright is held by the author, xK91AxII (miyuri@sky.ucatv.ne.jp).
The author accepts no responsibility for any damage caused by use of this program.
The program may be freely copied and distributed, but please contact the author
regarding this package prior to publication in books, magazines and the like.

If you understand the above terms of use, then please unzip the attached file
doctor.zip. The password is grStencilFuncExt.


Credits:
Information concerning the relationship between ATIP codes and media's origin of
manufacture gratefully received from waresen.

Icons kindly created by Y.Kanechika.

PNG format output files created with imgctl.dll Version 1.05,
Copyright (C) 2001-2002 by ruche.

I give my thanks to the above people and to the people who have kindly tested the
operation of CD Doctor up to now.


<Version history omitted from English translation>

If I get a chance later on I will let you know if I can get it to run on my Windows 98 system.

cfitz

<edit>added credits to translation and corrected an error</edit>

[cfitz]

Despite my initial failure to get it to work on Windows 98 (which turned out to be an ASPI issue), we have received several reports of people successfully running CD doctor beta 1.0.4 on Windows 98SE. And I also got it to work on my Windows 98 system by installing Adaptec ASPI 4.60.

cfitz

<edit>I initially said that it appeared that the program didn't work on 98. But, as noted above, that turned out not to be true. It does work on 98.

[kgatwork]

cfitz:

Thanks for the feedback, I was getting the same error with Win98Se that you got. Oh well, I guess I'll have to use it at work for now.

[cd pirate]

cfitz:

Thanks for the feedback, I was getting the same error with Win98Se that you got. Oh well, I guess I'll have to use it at work for now.

i have Win98se and the program booted up fine (i couldn't get it to work though because i dont have a liteon or sanyo).

[Kennyshin]

This looks like a nice program - someone needs to code a english text version ASAP.

I just emailed the author, asking if an English version is available and offering to supply the translation if there isn't but he is willing to create one. Hopefully I will get a response, and hopefully that response will be positive.

cfitz

http://www.ucatv.ne.jp/~miyuri.sky/

Is Miyuri the author? It doesn't look official to me. Thanks for the translation. Seems your Japanese is perfect.

This page also discusses CD Doctor.

[kgatwork]

cfitz:

Thanks for the feedback, I was getting the same error with Win98Se that you got. Oh well, I guess I'll have to use it at work for now.

i have Win98se and the program booted up fine (i couldn't get it to work though because i dont have a liteon or sanyo).

Thanks cd pirate, I'll guess I might try to figure out why its died on me.

[Spazmogen]

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... adid=59045

Thread above started 27 Nov 2002

he's provided an English link to it as well.

It looks to me as though he registered at CDFreaks just to promote his software, even though it's free.

[Kennyshin]

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59045

Thread above started 27 Nov 2002

he's provided an English link to it as well.

It looks to me as though he registered at CDFreaks just to promote his software, even though it's free.

The English links are just Japanese-English translation links and it was also mentioned in his own site that discusses a lot of other things as well. I am not sure whether it is really free.

[Kennyshin]

http://forum.1bits.com has some threads about CD Doctor, too.

http://forum.1bits.com/showthread.php?threadid=161908

http://forum.1bits.com/showthread.php?threadid=162491

[cfitz]

We have now received several reports of success running CD doctor (beta) under Windows 98SE. So please disregard my previous speculation that it would not run under the Windows 98 OS series. I must have something not configured properly on my test system. When I have time I will try to better pin down what is needed.

Kennyshin, although my Japanese isn't very strong, I do believe that I correctly translated the part about the program being free. Of course, we can't guarantee that the readme.txt file hasn't been altered by some nefarious actor. By the way, I thank you for your compliment about my Japanese, but if you saw my translations from English into Japanese you would know it isn't true...

cfitz

[Kennyshin]

I couldn't read the readme.txt really (most broken with Notepad). I didn't learn Japanese so I can understand only the Chinese part (I mean that are elementary and basic) of the written characters.

But looking at these links and words:

http://forum.pcdvd.com.tw/showthread.ph ... did=161908

http://www.cdbest.net/newsdown/list.asp?id=375

UM DOCTOR ???

http://www.cdbest.net/soft/doctor_104.zip

Can't paste the Chinese characters here. It goes something like: "License... UM Doctor's developer internally... ... Sanyo."

http://www.ucatv.ne.jp/~miyuri.sky/cdd/doctor_104.zip

http://forum.pcdvd.com.tw/attachment.ph ... id=1526507

Is "CD Doctor" a completely different thing from UM Doctor or is CD Doctor a freeware while UM Doctor is a similar or the same program distributed by Sanyo? There are UM Doctor, UM Doctor Pro, UM Doctor trial, and UM Doctor Pro trial.

http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof ... Pro114.exe
http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof ... Doc114.exe

Downloadable but I can't run any of them.

[cfitz]

I don't know any Chinese, and my mastery of Chinese pictographs is quite limited, so I can't make anything out of the Chinese sites you linked. However, I did download all the doctor_104.zip files that you linked, and all contained the same program that MikeTR originally linked, including the one labeled as UM Doctor on the referencing page. I think that web site made a mistake when it referred to the program as UM Doctor.

The real UM Doctor by Sanyo is much more polished than the CD doctor beta we have been looking - understandably since CD doctor is a beta being developed by a single person. It does have similarities. Both measure and display C1 and C2 errors. But my guess as to what really is going on here is that CD doctor was inspired by UM Doctor.

Here is the one reference to UM Doctor in CD doctor's readme.txt file



I translate this as:

Version History:
0.1.1 August 13, 2002
Removed bug related to deadlock in MSF<->LBA conversion worker thread.
Attempted to read at maximum speed.
Matched measurement range to UM Doctor

It sounds like the author was just trying to emulate a characteristic of UM Doctor.

Here is a screen shot of the main dialog in the genuine UM Doctor by Sanyo:



Compare this to the screen shot of CD doctor 1.0.4 that I posted earlier, and it again appears that the author of CD doctor is modeling his program after UM Doctor rather than creating a cracked copy. There are significant differences between UM Doctor and CD doctor, despite the fact that both read and display C1/C2 errors.

I have a friend who is fluent in both Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin). If I can, I will impose on her good will to see if she can shed any light on this.

For now, I believe that CD doctor (beta) 1.0.4 is an original creation inspired by UM Doctor.

cfitz

[MikeTR]

cfitz, how did you get UM Doctor to run? I tried and got a 'no burner' message and it close on itself.
I probably won't be able to use it anyway since I don't have a genuine Sanyo drive, but I was just curious. Do you know if it is also only in Japanese, or also in English?

[cfitz]

cfitz, how did you get UM Doctor to run? I tried and got a 'no burner' message and it close on itself.

I didn't get it to run either. It closed immediately for me just like it did for you. The "screen shot" I posted is the resource template from the executable.

http://forum.1bits.com has some threads about CD Doctor, too.

http://forum.1bits.com/showthread.php?threadid=161908

http://forum.1bits.com/showthread.php?threadid=162491

Kennyshin, I notice that the member called "GaMNiA" in the 1bits forum you referenced stole my translation and posted it as his own.

cfitz