Ask Your Writing Quality Test Questions Here

[Ian]

I've already gotten a number of questions about media testing. If you're not sure what information to provide or how to test your media, please post your questions here. I and the other moderators will try our best to help you.

[VideoRoy]

A few questions to kick this off:

1. There are probably many, many opinions on this, but using CDSpeed what is the preferred speed and read strategy(CLV, CAV, P-CAV) for testing in this forum?

I seem to be one of the few that still scans @ 4x in my DRU710A and DW1655. I have been using CLV since my Liteon based drive did this normally and with CDS 4.50 I can do this on the DW1655 now.

2. What is the minimum amount of data (MB) that should be on a disc to consider the scan worth posting? I scan a lot of discs but most are not completely full.

3. With all the tools available what is the preferred tool to scan or does it not really matter? Any we should stay away from?

[MediumRare]

I also have question (of a different nature). I don't normally log on except to post, so I noticed that the attachments here aren't visible unless you're logged on. This is the only forum where this is the case.

Is this on purpose or an unplanned side-effect?

BTW, I'll post some scans for the LiteOn 165P6S tomorrow when I've sorted them a bit. I also have a new data presentation in the works, but that needs a bit of tuning still.

Good night.

G

[VideoRoy]

I actually was going to ask that question as well but forgot.

One other question though. Some scans show write speed in the graph but I have never been able to do this. I have searched around but did not find the answer.

Is this a function of the drive / firmware or does this show up only if you burned the disc in Nero?

[Guest]

One other question though. Some scans show write speed in the graph but I have never been able to do this. I have searched around but did not find the answer.

Is this a function of the drive / firmware or does this show up only if you burned the disc in Nero?

Nero CD-Speed adds this information if you create a data disc or burn an image (ISO or .NRG). The information is missing for image burns in the latest version (4.50). It's not clear if this is on purpose or by accident.

G

[MediumRare]

I just managed to post as a "guest" here because I had 2 windows open before logging out. The one I didn't log out of was still connected, but without user information.

Just to keep you sleeping well without thinking that your posting regulations were breached.

G

[dolphinius_rex]

A few questions to kick this off:

1. There are probably many, many opinions on this, but using CDSpeed what is the preferred speed and read strategy(CLV, CAV, P-CAV) for testing in this forum?

I seem to be one of the few that still scans @ 4x in my DRU710A and DW1655. I have been using CLV since my Liteon based drive did this normally and with CDS 4.50 I can do this on the DW1655 now.

Different drives have different settings available, and recommended:
LiteON's: 4x CLV is recommended, 8x CAV would be "ok" but discouraged
BenQ's: 8x CAV is recommended, 4x CAV is "ok", CLV and P-CAV testing is discouraged
NEC and Pioneer drives: These drives are discouraged from being used as testing units.
Plextor: 2x is encouraged, 5x is "ok", 8x and 12x is discouraged

2. What is the minimum amount of data (MB) that should be on a disc to consider the scan worth posting? I scan a lot of discs but most are not completely full.

Please keep it to at least 4GB on the disc, otherwise it won't be a very good test of the media's quality. Scans of full discs are of course preferred, but not required.

3. With all the tools available what is the preferred tool to scan or does it not really matter? Any we should stay away from?

I can't think of any software that should be avoided.

For LiteON's, K-Probe, DVDInfoPro, and Nero CD/DVD Speed are good
For BenQ's DVDInfoPro, and Nero CD/DVD Speed are good
For Plextor's PXScan is good, and DVDInfoPro also works, but it doesn't report Beta scores yet.

[VideoRoy]

Nero CD-Speed adds this information if you create a data disc or burn an image (ISO or .NRG). The information is missing for image burns in the latest version (4.50). It's not clear if this is on purpose or by accident.

G

Thanks Guest that clears it up. I burn .NRGs with Nero Burning ROM but have not used CDSpeed for this before.

dolphinius_rex,
Great information. I will stop my bad habit of using CLV on the BenQ. I just like seeing that nice straight line (with a few spin downs).

I usually do not scan in my Plextor since it is my production rig but I may spend some time with it this weekend.

I also have a stack of scans that I will be uploading in the next day or so as soon as I can get back to my video work.

Thanks.

[dodecahedron]

LiteON's: 4x CLV is recommended, 8x CAV would be "ok" but discouraged
BenQ's: 8x CAV is recommended, 4x CAV is "ok", CLV and P-CAV testing is discouraged
...
Plextor: 2x is encouraged, 5x is "ok", 8x and 12x is discouraged

can you explain why?
how did you come up with these specs

[Ian]

I also have question (of a different nature). I don't normally log on except to post, so I noticed that the attachments here aren't visible unless you're logged on. This is the only forum where this is the case.

Is this on purpose or an unplanned side-effect?

No, I screwed up the config. I'll fix it.

[dolphinius_rex]

LiteON's: 4x CLV is recommended, 8x CAV would be "ok" but discouraged
BenQ's: 8x CAV is recommended, 4x CAV is "ok", CLV and P-CAV testing is discouraged
...
Plextor: 2x is encouraged, 5x is "ok", 8x and 12x is discouraged

can you explain why?
how did you come up with these specs

Sure!

LiteON's: 4x CLV is recommended, 8x CAV would be "ok" but discouraged
4x is pretty much the standard most of the time, so I recommend 4x to keep it more uniform. 8x is pretty much the other option.

BenQ's: 8x CAV is recommended, 4x CAV is "ok", CLV and P-CAV testing is discouraged
8x CAV is pretty much the most common speed used, and could be argued as the BenQ standard. Again, I'd like to keep it as uniform as possible. I tend to be against the use of P-CAV and CLV because BenQ drives were designed to be CAV testing units. Only CD/DVD Speed offers these odd testing options, and I don't think we want to see everything get confused by having to see which of 6 or 7 different speeds/testing methods has been used. Also, I've seen some odd results on CDFreaks that concern me.

Plextor: 2x is encouraged, 5x is "ok", 8x and 12x is discouraged
2x and 5x tend to give fairly similar results, but once you move to 8x and 12x the results tend to get a little wild. Also, most people who bother to use Plextors for scanning, usually use 2x or 5x anyways.

[burninfool]

Thanks for the info Dolph,if everybody tested with the same settings then it would give more reliable results.

[dolphinius_rex]

Thanks for the info Dolph,if everybody tested with the same settings then it would give more reliable results.

That's the plan!

But we aren't going to be so restrictive as to keep people out with their own way of testing... as long as it isn't TOO radical. Please no 16x or 0.8x scans

[dodecahedron]

I tend to be against the use of P-CAV and CLV because BenQ drives were designed to be CAV testing units.

can you clarify?

[Gabe]

I make all tests with 2 different scanners, the Benq 1640 and LiteOn 1653S. Should I post scans from both drives?

[[buck]]

I make all tests with 2 different scanners, the Benq 1640 and LiteOn 1653S. Should I post scans from both drives?

I don't see a problem with that... it's always good to have the perspective of another drive!

[dolphinius_rex]

I tend to be against the use of P-CAV and CLV because BenQ drives were designed to be CAV testing units.

can you clarify?

Not easily.... My BenQ contact quit, and I lost my e-mail from them in my PC crash recently. I believe Zebra might have an explanation for BenQ's design since he deals with them regarding media testing parameters specifically. I'll see what I can dig up though.

[dolphinius_rex]

I make all tests with 2 different scanners, the Benq 1640 and LiteOn 1653S. Should I post scans from both drives?

I agree with [buck]. Although let's keep it to no more then 1 posts worth of pictures for the same disc, unless you're wanting to show off a disc's degridation rate.

[Gabe]

Ian, do you still remember to make a topic for the LG H20L?

[Ian]

No, but I made it for the GSA-H10L by accident. Here it is:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 488#154488

[dodecahedron]

No, but I made it for the GSA-H10L by accident. Here it is:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... 488#154488

and i got spanked!

[MediumRare]

Ian- does that Samsung drive use a MediaTek chipset like the previous models? If so, does KProbe work?

G

[Ian]

Yeah, its a MediaTek chipset. I haven't taken it apart so I can't tell you which one exactly.

It doesn't work correctly with KProbe. It scans but the speed isn't right. For example, if I have it set at 4x, it reads at only 2x.

[Ian]

I take that back. The drive uses CAV when testing at 4x. Here's a screenshot.

[MediumRare]

Thanks for looking into this Ian. The results are qualitatively similar to what the BenQ showed (at least with the PIF clusters). Looks like LiteOn manages to get better results from that chipset though. That's unfortunate, because Samsung is the only company other than Plextor (at this moment) that is offering SATA DVD burners.

G