Changing DVD±R write strategies (results thread)

A Quick F.A.Q.

Q: Introduction
A: In order to burn a disc, the drive need to know things about the disc so that it could use the right power levels, calibration, etc. The collection of various parameters that determine how a drive handles a disc is called the "write strategy." All DVD discs have write strategy information physically embedded in them. But this is not enough, and for all the drives out there, their firmware contains a list of various media codes and additional write strategy information for each media code. In this thread, we will be dealing with this additional strategy information stored in the firmware.

Q: Why?
A: Sometimes, the write strategy stored in the firmware is not very good. For example, a number of the older 8x2S firmwares had a defective RITEKG05 write strategy. In cases like this, it might be useful to have the drive use another media code's write strategy instead (in this case, for example, the RITEKG06 strategy). The other situation where this might be useful is if you are overspeeding media (e.g., trying to get MCC003 to burn at 12x) and the write strategy in the firmware does not contain the necessary strategy information for higher speeds. In the case of this example, you might want to use the MCC004 write strategy for MCC003 because MCC004's write strategy contains information needed to burn the media at 12x and MCC003's strategy does not.

Q: What do I need for this?
A: OmniPatcher, preferably version 2.2.0 or newer.

Q: How do I change write strategies?
A: There are two ways to change write strategies in LiteOn drives. The first is to use OmniPatcher's write strategy reassignment function. This will allow you to, for example, assign a MCC004 write strategy to MCC003. This method is "lossless", has no side effects, and is the recommended method. The other method is write strategy swapping. In this case, you would use OmniPatcher's media code renaming feature to, for example, rename the MCC003 media code to MCC004 and rename the MCC004 media code to MCC003. The result is that MCC003 will now use MCC004's write strategy, but you get the side effect of having MCC004 use MCC003's write strategy (whereas if you had used reassignment, both would be using the MCC004 write strategy). Thus, the greatest limitation of strategy swapping is that each write strategy can be used by at most one media code whereas in the case of strategy reassignment, each write strategy can be used by as many media codes as desired. Strategy swapping is thus not recommended and should be used only in cases where strategy reassignment is not an available option.

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The purpose of this thread

The purpose of this thread is for people to post results of their write strategy changes. The idea is that people can look at this thread and find out what write strategy replacements might be worth trying.

If you would like to discuss results, ask questions, make suggestions, etc., there is a discussion thread.

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Posting guidelines for this thread

1/ Please, results only! Questions, comments, suggestions, etc., should be posted elsewhere where appropriate, like in the general OmniPatcher thread, in the media forum, in a thread of its own, etc.

2/ Please provide detailed information! This includes the media code (the media code block is not necessary, but please do include the media code revision, as provided by DVD Identifier, general information about the media (e.g., for Verbatim media, where it was manufactured is relevant, and for Ritek media, its media grade is relevant), the drive and firmware used to burn (it would be nice to note patches like early-shift or force-shift, but patches that do not affect burn quality, like auto-bitsetting or reading speed should be omitted for clarity), the speed of the burn, and of course, the write strategy that you used (that's the whole point of this, eh? ).

3/ Although this is not absolutely necessary, it would be nice to post before-and-after scans. Many people say that RICOHJPNR01 using RICOHJPNR02's strategy produces great results on the 1S and 2S drives, but then they don't mention that RICOHJPNR01 using the original RICOHJPNR01 strategy produces the same great results and that any difference was actually negligible (at least on the 1S and 2S drives). However, try to keep as many things the same as possible if you do this. For example, comparing a 4x PRODISCR02@PRODISCR02 with a 8x PRODISCR02@PRODISCR03 isn't exactly very helpful.

4/ Feel free to post any result that you get! Even if it's a bad result, you can post it so that people will know not to try it. And please don't hesitate to post results that are similar to what other people have gotten! It's very nice to have multiple people post about a certain replacement so that the readers can get a confirmation that things really do work (or don't work).

5/ Because of the special nature of this thread, I will delete or move any posts in this thread without warning if the post is off-topic. You can always use the discussion thread for questions, comments, etc. I'm just trying to keep this thread clean so that it's easy for people to find information.

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Looking forward to seeing what people are getting!

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Last edited by code65536; 21-06-2005 at 20:40. Reason: Yea, it was about time I finally updated this VERY outdated first post

Drive/firmware: LDW-451S@851S, GS0K (early-shifting, shift-fixing)
Media type: PRODISCR02-00, inkjet printables from ACCA/Rima
Burn speed: 8x

Here is a "before" burn, at 8x, using the original PRODISCR02 strategy:


And here it is after switching to a PRODISCR03 strategy:

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Last edited by code65536; 08-07-2004 at 02:57.

Ritek G04 burned at 4x, MXL-RG02 strategy (I trust rdgrimes on this one ), the drive is a 401S@811S, Zebra modded, firmware HS0Q.

The first graph is the before-burn, the second is the one after the patched firmware was installed. Both graphs are very good IMO so it seems that I've got a good batch. The discs are labelled as RiDisc and they are supposedly Grade A.

Not many people still care about this wonderfull media, but I do. Spent a lot of time and discs tring it to burn it in the 1213S at 8x. Tried all Ricoh and Ritek and Yuden strats, and the best I came up with was Ritek R02.

Here's the default TS08 R00 strat at 8x:



And here's the Ritek R02 strat at 8x:

Drive: 1213S with TS08 FW

I think this qualifies as a success. The R01 burns great at 4x with the stock strat, but it appears that LiteOn has completely ignored burning it at 6x or 8x in the TS08 FW.
I repeated each of these tests x 2 to confirm the results.

Burned at 8x with speed modded TS08:



Burned at 8x with R02 strat:

Drive: 812s@832s VS04
Before and after pictures, amazing results.
Pic#1 is stock ProdiscR03
Pic#2 is ProdiscR03@YudenT02
Yes I know I burned the first one with the 812s, but I did the same on the 832s and results were almost identical, so I just saved the 812s scan.
It did take almost 10minutes to burn, maybe I'll try the next one with early shifting and shift fix.
These are the legacy 8x DVD+R's I bought off of newegg for 42.99, next time I'm gonna get the Samsung branded TY.
Disc#1

*EDIT: The shift-fix and early shifting gave me poor results, so I abonded that idea, anyway, great results with this strat swap. EDIT*

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Last edited by kwkard; 07-07-2004 at 02:13. Reason: Added more info

1213S burner, TS08

Virtually every 8x strat I tried was significantly better than the LiteOn strat for Prodisc R03. TY strats were just adequate, but the winner really sticks out.

Prodisc R03 burned with TS08 strat at 8x:



Burned with Ritek R03-01 at 8x:

Drive/firmware: SOHW-812S, US0N
Media type: TYG01, FujiFilm 1x-4x DVD-R Jewel Case
Burn speed: 8x

Pic #1 with TYG01 strategy.

Pic #2 with TYG02 strategy.

these were burnt with nero v 6.0.3 at 4x using cmcmag f01/00@R01/00

before: cmcmag f01/00 burnt at 4x




after writestrat change cmcmag: f01/00 changed to r01/00 burnt at 4x

Code:
- OK, so I messed up on implementing "StratSwap" the first time...
- Thanks for the "you've been deleted" PM.
- pssssst! - It was Wesociety's fault! - hehee

LITEON 812 @ 832 - Retail
Production date: March 2004
FW: VS04 (Code Omniv1.3.1-BS-ShiftFix-R01/R02 Swap)
RecordNow Max DX v4.6 - (508.061)

OmniPatcher Ver: 1.3.1
Settings:
- Ricoh R01/R02 Swapped
- Bit Set
- Shift Fix
http://premium.uploadit.org/bichi007/OmniSet-v131.png

** OmniPatched: **

DISK 1 - (4.2gig DVD) - Memorex Printable - R01-02
PI Max: 11 Average: 0.575
PO Max: 6 Average: 0.028
http://premium.uploadit.org/bichi007...F-R018-001.png

DISK 2 - (4.2gig DVD) - Fuji - R01-02
PI Max: 9 Average: 0.700
PO Max: 4 Average: 0.014
http://premium.uploadit.org/bichi007...F-R018-002.png


** PREVIOUS: **

Previous, burned with 812@832 VS04-BS R01x8 - (4.4gig DVD) - Memorex Printable
PI Max: 8 Average: 0.368
PO Max: 5 Average: 0.012
http://premium.uploadit.org/bichi007...-R01x8-001.png

Previous, burned with 812@832 VS03-RH-BS R01x8 - (4.4gig DVD) - Maxell
PI Max: 11 Average: 1.074
PO Max: 9 Average: 0.043
http://premium.uploadit.org/bichi007...-BS-002-x8.png

Comments:

Disk 1 - good burn, nominal, no surprises
Disk 2 - same as Disk 1

Conclusion:
- R01/R02 Strat Swap, no gain nor negative effect, as expected
- Shift Fix did not improve burn significantly, on this particular drive
- just as good as US0J, DRU700 VY02, VS01-CodeBurnFix-ROM-R1, VS03-RH-BS-R01x8 and VS04-BS-R01x8

Full test report with historicals:
http://forums.speedlabs.org/index.php/topic,576.0

heres the scans :*( they looked very nice compared to this in kprobe 2 which if you want i can post up as well

All files sfv ok, the checksums are all correct.

but the disc is relatively bad except it burnt at x6 which i have never had a princo do without breaking the files.

Scan 1 = princo at princo x4


PI Avg = 50
PI Max = 101
PI Total = 650035

PIF = 0.02
PIF Max = 2
PIF Total = 405

Media Quality = 84

Scan 2 = princo at fujifilm03 x6

PI Avg = 173.43
PI Max = 398
PI Total = 2633854

PIF = 0.94
PIF Max = 9
PIF Total = 10682

Media Quality = 34

So sigh its not recommended to change to fujifilm03 unless u specifically want x6 recording not to break the files. The disc will not read in dvd players i am willing to bet though.

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Last edited by XPimP2k; 07-07-2004 at 11:25.

1213S burner with TS08 FW
TY +R T01/00 media.

Here's another excellent example of how truly "half-baked" the LiteOn FW is for this drive. Like Ricoh R01, LiteOn has completely failed to apply a 6x or 8x write strategy. Since this media burns with excellent quality at 4x on the drive, and at 6x or 8x on virtually all other burners, one would expect it to do so here as well. Not so:

Burned at 8x with stock FW (4x is max "allowed" speed);


Nice, eh? Likewise, none of the TY strats were worth a hoot.

Burned at 8x using Ricoh JPNR02/03 strat:

I hope I got things right so I don't get deleted...
Bought two 25pcs/spindle of Memorex DVD+R 4X, CMC MAG F01 today. Really cheap!

Burned one of them @8X after using omnipatcher and a swap; F01 to E01. Quite acceptable result.
(Got skyhigh PI/PO´s earlier on same media...)

Edit by code65536... post corrected to read E01 instead of R01 after pinto2 corrected himself but he could not edit this post because it was too late

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Last edited by code65536; 08-07-2004 at 16:27. Reason: Correction... E01, not R01

Hello,
I have both an 812 and a 832 (sony with liteon firmware). Was having trouble with inferior write quality using Ritek G05 in combo with the Sony (832), especially at the begining of disks, though no problems with the 812 an the same disks.

Was recently playing around with firmware (something I'm very new to) and found something interesting regarding the 832. If I alter the stock VS04 fw using omnipatcher to change the write strategy of RITEKG05 to RITEKG06 the burn quality improves considerably.

The first image is pretty much an indication of scans I was getting with either stock Sony or Liteon (both latest) firmware. The latter two are with liteon firrmware with G05 altered to G06. I've done several burns and getting similar results on all

All were using Ritek G05 from the same spindle.

Just wondering if anyone else who is having trouble with the 832/G05 combination may find this useful or if I'm just lucky.

Mick

PS - sorry, haven't figured how to get the images inline with text yet

Drive/firmware: SOHW-812S, US0N
Media type: RITEK G05, PioData 8x DVD-R Jewel Case
Burn speed: 8x

There has to be a better strat for this media.

Pic #1 with RITEK G05 strategy.

Pic #2 with MXL RG03 strategy.

Update to my post above. That Kprobe scan is about F01-E01 startswap... hmm, sorry. Here comes the true thing. (Edit: your post above has now been corrected to read E01 except for the images -C64K)

Burned some more Memorex CMC MAG F01 with swapped write strategy R01 . (Se my post in media test forum.)

Gentlemen, this is unbelievable. Thanks to c0deguys I begin to like a type of media I rata´d for the last six months.

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Last edited by code65536; 08-07-2004 at 16:31. Reason: added link

Drive: 1213S TS08 FW
Media: Prodisc S03 4x -R burned with Prodisc F01 strat at 8x

Another excellent swap success.

Burned with stock strat at 8x (speed mod)


Burned with Prodisc F01 strat at 8x:

Ritek/RitekG04@G05 @8X, 812S@832S VS04, G04ToG05 swap:

[edit=code65536] I copied this post over from the discussion thread. Have you tried using the G06 strat instead of the G05 strat? It seems like from previous tests that the G05 strat has some issues that need resolving... [/edit]

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Last edited by code65536; 09-07-2004 at 00:09.

Burner Drive: LITE-ON 451@851
Firmware: GSOK
Strategy: CMC MAG/F01/00 @ CMC MAG/R01/00
1st Disc Scan: HP
2nd Disc Scan: Khypermedia
Burn Speed: 4X
Program: Nero 5.5.10.56

It's interesting to note that although both discs show the same media type (and both burn great with the CMC MAG/R01/00 substitution), the HP one is significantly better - the PI error count of the HP is only 6711 while the Khypermedia is 99,710.

Thanks to prking for the original strategy swapping test - this appears to work really well, at least for 4X burns.

Also, a big thank you to the codeguys - you guys rock!

I haven't saved the scan with the stock TYG01 strategy speedhacked to 8x; however, it was almost identical to the one posted by pchilson in this thread. We exchanged PMs about 8x burn with TYG01@TYG02. We both agreed that the outcome was very good. He also had an idea to try out TYG01@MXL RG02 just for an experiment, but ran out of TY. I still got a few, and below is the result.

SOHW-812S, US0N
Media type: TYG01, FujiFilm 1x-4x DVD-R Jewel Case
TYG01@MXL RG02 burnt at 8x



The scaled scan.

CDSpeed transfer rate


The disc reads fine on 812s, and plays in my standalone, but I don't like what I see on the Kprobe scan... I guees, Maxell strategy doesn't work for TY, or at least didn't work for me.

I've never had these spikes before. I scanned another disc, and it had no spikes.

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Last edited by VAD; 09-07-2004 at 00:32. Reason: clarification about spikes

Here is an example of why we have not made Ricoh R01 to R02 one of the recommended media tweaks.

With standard R01 strategies the Imation R01 media will burn consistently well using 51S and 2S firmwares. When switched to R02 it was a coaster.

(likewise, I got the same result with one of my R01 batches... this didn't happen for most of the R01 discs that we tried, and in most cases, R01@R02 actually gave spectacular results, but we each got a batch where this did happen, so this is why it's not in the 1S/2S recommended list... though it is in the 3S recommended list --c64k)

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Last edited by code65536; 09-07-2004 at 04:08.

Hi prking,

With GS02, the CMC burned quite well with the stock CMC MAG/F01/00, although some burns, particularly with the Khypermedia discs, tended to have error counts rise near the end of the burn. The burns weren't as good as above, but they were close.

Then I upgraded to GSOK and I noticed that the CMC error rate jumped beginning at about the 75% mark of the burn, with PI values up to 500. Rather than go back to GS02, I decided to try a few different strategies and the CMC MAG/R01/00 turned out to be the best one.

Here in Canada Tiger currently has 50 pieces of HP on for 32.98CDN, so I think I'll probably pick up another 100 or so for myself.

Here's a scan of the HP media burned at 8X:

Burner Drive: LITE-ON 451@851
Firmware: GSOK
Strategy: CMC MAG/F01/00 @ CMC MAG/R01/00
Disc Scanned: HP
Burn Speed: 8X
Program: Nero 5.5.10.56

Although the numbers still look excellent from KPROBE's 4X perspective, there are two things to take into account:

1. I also scanned this using CD Speed at the maximum 8X rate and the error rates jumped up at about the 95% mark. PI errors jumped to a max of 19 while PI failures jumped to a max of 10.

2. The disc I burned was not 100% full - only about 92% full, so it's quite likely that the error rates would have gotten worse by the end of the disc.

Because of this, it's my feeling that burning at 4X is a much safer bet than at 8X.

Drive: 1213S, TS08
Media: MCC003, 8x Verbatim

Finally, after several hours of teeth knashing and cussing, I gave up on 12x burning with this media and settled for 8x. The results are pretty good, considering this media is not so good.

MCC003 burned at 8x with stock TS08 FW:


MCC003 burned at 8x with TY-T01/00 strat:


Although the PIF climbs a bit at the end, I thinks it would be a good enough disc.

It's interesting to note that in the FW, I have TY-T01/00 swapped to burn with Ricoh R02 strat. I checked with Code65536, and he tells me that I can still use the TY-T01 strat for the MCC, and even set the speeds on TY-T01.
So I have his assurance that this did in fact burn with TY strat, and not Ricoh R02.

SOHW-812s@832s VS05
Prodisc R03's.
Before: R03 strat
After R03@YudenT02

/me likes YudenT02 strat on these really crappy discs

here are some of my OptoDisc R04 experiments:

http://dreamy.ws/images/optodisc/

conclusion: i didn't find an answer. having burned almost 20 discs, from 4 different batches, i can confirm that some of batches are <1pi'ish, some are >40'ish. they vary just too greatly. furthermore, best strats appeared to be stock one, Prodisc R02 one, and YUDEN T00/00 one - but that one had problems in 4x zone. it also appears that many optodiscs have problems at end of disc, though i'm not quite sure about that - it just happens that sometimes it burns just find.

actually, looking at all those burns i can't seem to say *anything* valuable. it just looks way too random to me