MSI/Optorite & CD DOCTOR ?

[RJW]

Seeing support in UM docter II makes me think are there latest dvd burners and cd-buners also supporting CD Doctor. After all the use SANYO chipsets. So doe anybody know if they are supporting it ?

[dolphinius_rex]

Well the LiteON 401s "supported" CD testing.... but it wasn't any good at it! So even if they do support CD Doctor, it may not mean the results will be accurate. (of course I'm SURE I don't need to tell you that!)

[Ian]

Good question. Rereading Sanyo's website, it says that it works only with the DD0203 and DD0202. Who know. Might be worth a try.

[Halc]

The 'Fucntion' page of UM Doctor Pro II has some interesting information:

http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof ... f-dvd.html

Take this quote for example:

PI Error：PI Error means Inner-code-Parity（PI）error. Normally, if the number of error is over 280/8ECC, data error correction is difficult. However, since UM Doctor Pro.Ⅱmeasures error status with a constant speed without changing the readout condition, please refer the written quality of disc as a guideline

That's all very understandable and nothing new. However the fact that they already use 250 PI / 8 ECC as the upper limit for errors implies that they've done testing with their own drives using UM Doctor Pro II to find a practical useful maximum PI error count (for 8 consecutive EC blocks):

PI：250 and over = There is a problem for data error detective amount. Although data error doesn’t occur when UncorrectablePI is not detected, data error may occur when UncorrectablePI is detected.

UM Doctor Pro II measures error status of the disc with a constant speed continuously. Therefore, if UM Doctor Pro II detects UncorrectablePI, data may be read out normally in some cases. For DVD player, if UM Doctor Pro II detects UncorrectablePI, the players may read the data normally and playback with no problem in some cases.

Although they are giving disclaimers, the upper limit of sum of 250 PI / 8 ECC seems to be their measurment guideline.

Now, this is IMHO more useful than what we can deduce currently with KProbe and LiteOn drives, where we are nowhere near understanding which levels start to be 'bad' under normal conditions for many DVD reading situations.

Maybe we should start making a test were DVD-/+R discs of varying PI sum counts are tested in DVD-drives to see if the data can still be read error free from the discs.

Even with the statistical nature of the read and variance from model to model, we could probably find some practical upper limit scale.

regards,
Halcyon

PS Looks like I have to buy an Optorite too :)

[Halc]

Anybody have OptoRite and UM DOctor Pro II to give us a taste of results?

Optorite is not available locally in Finland, so I'm yet to buy that drive.

I'm very tempted to pick up one if I can find one on my trip to NYC next month.

So, any experiences / results with UM Doctor Pro II at this stage would be very welcome :)

[dolphinius_rex]

I'm tempted to pick up both myself (for obvious reasons) but after rjw's report on the testing accuracy, I'm starting to reconsider. Still, the optorite is a good burner to begin with, so it's not like I will regret that purchase.

[Halc]

Yes, I know how you must feel :)

Even though limitations apply to these simple consumer tools, I think they can be useful.

My personal choice is now between an Optorite (+ UM Doctor Pro II) or LiteOn (and Kprobe).

Being that Kprobe count methodology behind PI/PO error counts is somewhat unclear and future development work looks very bleak, I'm seriously also considering the UM Doctor Pro II as an option.

Not that KProbe isn't great and not that there's any guarantee UM Doctor Pro II will see any great future work either.

best regards,
Halcyon