Pioneer DVD Burners to support PI/PO scanning

[Ian]

Interesting. Hopefully we'll see support in CD Speed as well.

Why?

I just don't like it when one software package has a monopoly over a certain feature. I'd like to see CD Speed get the feature since I use it more and it's a free program.

[BMR]

What happened in the NICW vs CDFREAKS war ????

Isn't this the very program that they were fighting and arguing about.
( Spyware , dirty tactics , etc )


BMR

[uknown1234]

erik deppe at cdfreaks mentioned something about the pio scanning but did not say if he would be having this feature for cd speed or not.

[Ian]

What happened in the NICW vs CDFREAKS war ????

It's a Mexican stand off right now.

[rdgrimes]

erik deppe at cdfreaks mentioned something about the pio scanning but did not say if he would be having this feature for cd speed or not.

This is what he said.

[Ian]

Interesting.. I wonder if it came from the chipset manufacturer (NEC).

[dodecahedron]

well, i still hope that if such scanning capacities exist, they'll be supported on more than just DVDInfoPro.

[rdgrimes]

Interesting.. I wonder if it came from the chipset manufacturer (NEC).

THIS is also interesting.

[dolphinius_rex]

interesting....

[Ian]

Here's a quick scan I did of Optodisc's 8x DVD-R media:



If I have time later, I'll run the test with the DW1620 and see how the results compare.

I do have one complaint right off the bat. You can choose from only two speeds.. 8x and Max. Having 4x and 2x would be nice.

[nicw]

Interesting. Hopefully we'll see support in CD Speed as well.

Why?

Well, for one... every time there is a new version of DVDInfoPro, my then "outdated" version crashes every time I try to load it. Something about the update checking feature seems to go very much against my system whenever a new update is found to be available. I find this most frustrating, and tend to use CDSpeed more often because of it.

I was unware of this, I will have a look and see what I can find. In the meantime I expect a workaround would be to visit settings and turn off the update check feature.

I am just making the archives now. as soon as Zeb comes on line we will start pushing this version for users to look at and test.

cheers
NicW

[alexnoe]

Why does it support Asus, but not Pioneer? Do I really have to modify my ASPI spy dll to report the drive as an Asus drive??

[zebraxor]

Hi guys,

As Nic just mentioned...

I have just uploaded the new 3.47 builds. The most notable change being, this version supports PI/PO error reporting for all Pioneer drives inclusive of:

* all A03/4/5/6/7/8
* all DVR-103/4/5/6/7/8

-with the potential of some OEM's also.

Follow the links as usual...

http://www.dvdinfopro.com

We will update the text-descriptions in the morning, to fall into line with the current version number.

Grab it, play with it. Try to break it. Love to hear some feedback from you when/if you all have the chance!

[RJW]

Interesting opinions there RJW!

However, would empiracle evidence suggest that this:

Pioneer knows to well that there drive are tuned of excellent readers for bad dvd-recordables.

...is a somewhat false statement? It is an interesting point you make, in that Pioneer would not want end users to "see" the quality of a write from their hardware - but I don't think there is a strong case for Pioneer drives having poor write quality as a generalised statement.

My statement is not false. At least in the way it was how my intentions were but maybe things got a little lost in translation from what I said or you just can't read like a lot of folks can not seem to do.

What I tried to say is the followeing

Pioneer drives are probally one of the best readers out there for bad dvd-/+r's. And for this reason they can read back stuff that's outside the standards and will be problematic on quite some other players.

About tuneing.
Most known better compannies(Plextor/ Pioneer/Philips/ Lite On) try to optimise the read performance of a drive to be it as good as they can get it. Come On that's very well known. If you don't know then check some firmware log files. Okay I know Lite On might not list it. they probally only say match more media. But try to read some stuff back with a new firmware that was very problematic with a much older firmware. 9/10 that the performance has improved unless the media has gone even worse in time.
However the small brands and no name stuff just try to get a performance that supposed to be in the standards.
Now Pioneer has optimised there drives very good or else they couldn't get 100% scores on mannipulated test media.
I should say check arround for some test media which was mannipulated on purpose. Or try to get results of disc's with very high jitter as one of the main problematic parameters while the other stuff is allmost inside the standards and the effect that disc has on Pioneer drives as a reader and on other players. (mostly video players ). You will see that all Pioneer drives are able to read such a disc allmost perfect back. While drive that are build to handle inside the standards can not do this.

Also I know there write quality is very good.
And I never made a negative statement about the write quality. If you look arround (which is something most folks can't do then I would recommend Pioneer a lot of times because of the writeing quality being that good.)

Still a good burner + Bad Hongkong media = Problematic disc.
Which a Pioneer drive might be able to read back withouth problems why quite some stuff of the competition will have problems (dureing the burning or the reading !)

[rdgrimes]

Interesting.. I wonder if it came from the chipset manufacturer (NEC).

HERE's some more relevant info from Erik Deppe:

Since august there have been some lengthy discussions with Pioneer about PI/PO scanning.
Pioneer has some concerns about this test and basically Pioneer Japan has to give their permission to add support for their drives.
Therefore the PI/PO test is disabled for Pioneer drives but hopefully this will change soon.

[alexnoe]

If it is disabled, how can nicw release a version that can do it on pioneer a03-a08 ?? There is sth wrong here...

[rdgrimes]

If it is disabled, how can nicw release a version that can do it on pioneer a03-a08 ?? There is sth wrong here...

I took that to mean it's disabled in CDSpeed.

[alexnoe]

ah. Then faking an Asus drive should do the trick. I'll try that

[mc12]

ah. Then faking an Asus drive should do the trick. I'll try that

Upgrading the Pioneer with an Asus firmware also works (tried that )

But there's a much easier way. Just check the CDSpeed registry entries

[alexnoe]

I've already made it work (CD Speed now detects the drive as "asus"), but atm CD Speed is hanging when pressing "start".

EDIT now there seems to be another problem

[KenW]

How to read the DVDinfopro pioneer scans.

A little hint to everyone using this pi/po is read not pi/pif so to read the level you have to read it like this.

pi = < 280
po = < 280

I know this bit confusing as we have been told with other scans if its 8/8ecc to read it
280 and 16 or 8/1ecc 280 and 4. but po is not pif so you have to read it as 280 and 280. I hope this helps.

[alexnoe]

I can't remember any limit defined for PO... also, i'm still getting the old version when downloading from the normal dvdinfopro link O

[KenW]

try this link.

http://www.dvd-recordable.org/wwwimgs/media/dvdinfo.htm

ps

Im tring your pxtools replacement for pi/pif scan looks interesting im doing with 716 so like you said not sure what will happen im trying speed=8 test

[alexnoe]

i've tried that link. Maybe the adware version hasn't been replaced? Or my ISP sucks?

[KenW]

I dont know I own the thing, so i used the top one on list of 3.