What CDRW drive, gets past most of the latest copy protection?

i was wondering which CDRW drive i should buy? I was thinking of getting a Liteon Internal 52/32/52 CDRW. Does this drive allow you to get past most copy protections? I am going to use Alcohol 120% as well.

Hello and welcome.

The Liteon 52x32x52 drive would be a good all round choice.

I use one myself, and have had reasonable success at backing up many copy protected games.

Alcohol 120% is also quite a reasonable choice for software too.

There are excellent tutorials on this forum that can show you how to detect the method of copy protection, and how to make a copy.

It may be a little daunting at first, just stick at it, ask questions when needed, and most of all good luck.

I saw the first post some hours ago and the lost sight of it while I wrote this reply. Jackass kindly replied and I'll leave his post intact, of course (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie).

The old “what burner should I buy?” thread is here

There are four major and some less popular copy protections for CDs and one of them is now found on DVD (Tron is protected by SecuROM) and can’t yet be backed up. Possessing the right combination of hardware and software is the most fundamental step. Knowing the copy protection and its version is another fundamental step. You have to get used to version numbers, application names and hardware brands and model numbers. Before you buy a burner you need to ask yourself what you want to do with it. Since you’re reading this you may want to backupup copy protected CDs. You can skip the rest if you like and go buy an ASUS or LITEON or LG 52x burner and a LITEON DVD-ROM.. Download trial versions of software from here. The copy protections of interest are:

• LaserLock – now uncommon it seems, Desperados was the last I know of and is easily defeated.
• Ring PROTECH – common enough. Iron Storm is one example.
• Tagès – becoming more common and impossible to defeat with consumer hardware
• StarForce – like Tagès, it is becoming more common and is widely employed on Asian and Russian releases. It can be run from an image with emulation of sorts
• SafeDisc – very popular, now up to v-3. Incarnations are known as SafeDisc Lite, SafeDisc, SafeDisc 2 (SD2) and SafeDisc 3 (SD3). There are several noteworthy milestone versions

1. v-2.4+ with ATIP recognition
2. v-2.51.021 knocked over burners like Plextors and other almost correct EFM encoders of regular bit patterns
3. v-2.9x which CloneCD seems to have 'missed'
4. v-3 is noteworthy because of its verification at each or most game levels and the almost exacting requirements needed to defeat it. CloneCD is also not doing well at version three

Each version of SafeDisc raises the bar in terms of hardware and software combinations. If you don’t have a very good RAW reader then image making will take all day – the same goes for Ring PROTECH and LaserLock. An ASUS burner can do it in about 3 minutes compared to an ASUS CD-ROM which can't finish it. A LITEON burner will take about 10 minutes depending on the Firmware revision. Generally, burners and Toshiba DVD-ROMs excell at image making in terms of quality and speed. An indication of a good SD killer is a DiscJuggler read & write that works without emulation as your burner either works or it doesn’t – full stop – with DJ. Alcohol 120% is also an excellent companion software application for SD killer burners and almost correct EFM encoders of regular bit patterns (the “one-sheep” models). For absolute hassle-free SafeDisc burning, try Blindwrite which basically has a “GO” button.

• SecuROM is referred to around the forums as

1. SecuROM
2. SecuROM *new*
3. SecuROM 4.8x (actually starts at v- 4.77.00.0050)
4. SecuROM 5

Each version requires a different approach to defeat it. For v-4.8x you need a reliable reader (burner or other ‘ROM). The topology of the original disc must be extracted to create a working backup. Alcohol and Blindwrite will do this; with CloneCD you need to use twinpeak. A Plextor Premium is the ultimate writer when using Blindwrite v-5 (and known good v-4s). For early versions of SecuROM, you needed only a subchannel capable reader.

After reading this brief overview, you may choose a well known name brand like Yamaha, TDK, Pioneer or Panasonic but you will be placing yourself on the backfoot for copy protections. These popular brands are very good at data and audio burning in a pre mastering app like Nero, DiscJuggler, RecordNow and so on but the electronics engineers don’t have RAW reading in mind nor do they care whether they can defeat copy protection in terms of a working backup.

And the only thing a DVD burner is really good for is burning DVDs. Do your research before you buy a DVD burner to backup CDs – it may or may not work for copy protected CDs.

Guides are here
Game Copy Protections are listed here if not here
Software discussion is listed here
Copy protection discussion is here
To discover what some of the terms in this post mean please enter the term in a search here

Please feel free to post generally below

---

Last edited by FutureProof; 25-01-2004 at 13:43.

Thanks FutureProof and Jackass for your replys, the information was very helpful. I have a much better understanding.

but i have a few more questions,

what is the best way to find out what type of copy protection a cd has? ClonyXXL?


I am going to buy some software, i am trying to choose between Alcohol 120% and BlindWrite 5 what would you recommend?


The drive i am proberly going to get to start off is a liteon 52/32/52.

is there any other software or things i need?

thanks

>LaserLock – now uncommon it seems, Desperados was the last I know of and is easily defeated.

Very uncommon indeed though last release I know of was Warrior Kings which had two releases, the second of which had an upgraded laserlock version and which can be a bit of a pig to copy successfully (it can be done but isn't an absolute sitter like the first release).

>Ring PROTECH – common enough. Iron Storm is one example.

Protection is also known as ProRing. Used on most, if not all, Wannadoo releases.

>StarForce – like Tagès, it is becoming more common and is widely employed on Asian and Russian releases. It can be run from an image with emulation of sorts

Versions 1 & 2 (both now obsolete) can be successfully "copied" and run with alcohol's RMPS emulation. Back-up images of version 3, at present, can only be run (sometimes) when mounted on an alcohol or daemon tools virtual drive and then only if all ide roms are unplugged first (definitely not recommended).

>what is the best way to find out what type of copy protection a cd has? ClonyXXL?

Check out the various protection scanners that FP has identified for you in this thread.

>I am going to buy some software, i am trying to choose between Alcohol 120% and BlindWrite 5 what would you recommend?

There are trial versions of both available. Try both and see which suits you best.

>The drive i am proberly going to get to start off is a liteon 52/32/52.

A good choice for your first drive but do yourself a favour and partner it with a Lite-on dvd rom. They're very cheap and you won't regret the small extra cost.

FutureProof,

I just tried clicking on those links you posted and they appear dead mate.

SG

Seems to have an extra 'http//' in those links. Remove that and you're good to go.

Well spotted,

Cheers!

Futureproof,

A very nice summary.

You mentioned that DJ copies without emulaton needed.

Are you saying that Alcohol and Blindwrite need emulation for the copies to work?



So, what is the best CDRW to get if you plan to copy using DJ (ie not use emulation)?

Yes it can

Not necessarily

ASUS or Liteon 52x

Futureproof,

Can you please explain what you mean by Alcohol and Blindwrite, "Not necessarily" need emulation for back ups?

Do they or do they need not emulation and in what circumstances?

When he says 'Not necessarily' he means that a good backup can be made with these porgrams under certain settings.

The settings would differ from burner to burner, media to media and so on.

I recently purchased an Aopen CRW-5232 writer, and am having good success with it, especially on the latest Safedisc Protection (3.15)

You say that a LiteOn 52x burner is a wise choice, but which one? There is the 52246S and the 52327S. I have the 52246S, so is this drive still considered an SD killer? Also I am getting ready to buy Call Of Duty so I can test my burner against SD3. Should I be using my LiteOn burner or my LiteOn Dvdrom to read the image?

Edit: I want to use the DiscDump/FireBurner method, so hopefully that will work with my setup. Although I own Alcohol 120%, and you said that it was good with SD, but only as burner? or reader too? I have read that I should use the first SD profile, because LiteOn's are not weak at sector amplification.

this was the main thread-theme...
and for me i can only say that my plextor premium was the best thing i bought in the last 6 months...
'till now it copies all securom's and (in combination with my toshiba 1802 as a reader <- only for safedisc 3.15+) all safedisc's ...
so, i would say: well done plextor, great thing...
everyone who can spend a little more money than for a liteon: buy a plex premium....
greetz,
Raz

---

Last edited by Razor1982; 12-02-2004 at 08:25.

pioneer dvr range seems very good even for copy protection

however theres really no such thing as a perfect drive for everything.

pioneer dvr =
fine for raw+96 read and write
good for ripping securom, image only not so hot for the topology
playsback twinpeak fine
burns twinpeak fine
burns and playsback all sd v upto 3.15 (dont recomend ripping any sd game with it tho
excellent DAE @ reasonable speed
also good at recovering badly scratched original data dvds inc PS2
burns all regular dvds inc console

wouldnt live without my antique litey 48x rw tho but its not good for making securom images, no liteon is afaik, well not with BW

Also i would not recomend using hacked f/w in a dvr drive to help with ripping speeds of movies etc

go spend some xtra on a udma mode 4 dvd-rom drive

How do combos drives, such as the Lite-On SOHC-5232K (that has 52x-R and 32x-RW burning and 16x DVD reading) compare to non combo drives and in gneral?

Would getting this give one the advantage of both a Lite-On 52x drive and a Lite-On DVD drive?

I also have the Liteon combo dvd/cdrw drive. Does any one the answer to UltDiablo question?

Ta

tel

Just wondering, have you had any real problems with this combo drive at copying CDs?

I haven't used it yet for copying, the only cdrw drive that I used is the liteon 40125s, and that has copied everything I've thrown at it.

I have a Sony CD-RW CRX220E1 52x24x52 and have heard from many sources that it is actually a Liteon. Can anybody confirm this and how is the rating or experience for this burner as far as backing up software?

Thanks

Yes, I can.

48x12x48 CRX210E1 - LiteOn LTR-48126S
48x24x48 CRX215E1 - LiteOn LTR-48246S
52x24x52 CRX220E1 - LiteOn LTR-52246S
52x32x52 CRX225E - LiteOn LTR-52327S

Since the Sony burners 48x12x48 + burners are LiteONs, then the Sonys are 2 sheep(EFM) burners. Able to backup SafeDisc 2 and 3.

The Sony CRX225E is 52x24x52x => Liteonit 7S series

So which is best now for SafeDisc 5 like the one on UT2k4.
Basically which is the best CD-Writer for making 1:1 copies.
I ask this because I noticed that this thread was starting to age.

Btw not counting price as a factor which would you consider the best MODEL?

You mean Securom 5?
Plextor Premium in combination with Blindwrite.