The Big KProbe2 Thread

Bug is fixed and file is updated in the post above.

Or click here

Thanks rdgrimes.

There Also Must Of Been A Bug Not Showing The Correct Channel The Drive Was Connected To And Didn't Show Also What Drive Letter It Was Using.

This Too Has Been Fixed.

I read from the first post the KProbe2 is compatible with LITE-ON drives only, but I was wondering if you could help me with a technical question about getting the PI and/or PO data from the media in any other DVD drives using ATAPI commands.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=173168

Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm having problem with Kpobe 2.5.2 and my sony 700 with cy58 f/w trought a usb box any suggestion ?

Should I try any previous kprobe version?

Where can I download them??

You have to give us a bit more information on your difficulties for concrete help.

Although I don't think it will help you much, Ian keeps older versions of KProbe available at CDRLabs- see this page: http://www.cdrlabs.com/kprobe/index.php

G

With external drives, you must use the SPTI driver in Kprobe.

I think this has been mentioned here before but hasn't been addressed. When I try installing v 2.5.2, the install hangs on "registering fonts". Any solution?

---

Last edited by WiltonParmenter; 06-07-2006 at 16:09.

I don't know if this has been discussed before (I searched and didn't find anything), but I think that there must be something wrong with the PIF average calculation. I just tested a disc, and it gives a PIF average of 6.99, but there are only a few peaks around 7. The same disc in nero cd-dvd speed gives a more reasonable average of 2.85, wich agrees more with the displayed graphics (both nero and kprobe).
So, is this a bug?

I saw some results like this as well when I was doing a life test on some +RW media. The average would be really high at the start of the scan--higher than the 'max' value reported at the end of the scan. You can find the screenshot I took of the start of the scan in the blank media forum.

---

Last edited by willmore; 23-07-2006 at 18:58. Reason: spelling....

Several versions of KProbe use the same number of samples to calculate both PIE and PIF averages even when SUM 8 and SUM 1, respectively, are selected. Use version 2.4.0 for correct values. Strictly speaking, the averages reported by CD-DVD Speed are also incorrect.

KProbe 2 and the new firmwares for DW-G121A/SHM-165H6S (Sony's HYS3, Liteon's HS07, HS0D) : it seems that testing CD for C1/C2 errors does not work. It stops with "Done" immediately after "Starting up drive...". I've tested KProbe 2.5.2, 2.5.1 and 2.3.2 with the same result : DVDs were tested well and CDs were not, stopping instead of scanning. Under the older firmwares (HYS1 and HS06) CDs are tested well even after reflashing the drive back from those newer versions.
At the same time KProbe 1.1.29 works well testing CD for C1/C2 under all these firmwares (old and new) and (Nero) CDSpeed does it too.
Comments ? What have I missed ?

Orry, you may be right in your observations, but you are missing something important:

LiteOn DVD burners are not reliable for scanning CD media, because they report ridiculously low C1/C2 compared to other reliable drives!

See the following thread where the problem is shown with CDSpeed instead of KProbe, but the principle is the same:

Lite-On dvd writers, unreliable cd scanners, but how unreliable

I explore at home nec nd4550a and benq dw1640 as well as few liteon dvd-rws (811, 1213, 165h6s) and combos. Probably, it's offtopic at this thread, but I must notice that a 1-2 year old liteon dvd-rw drive gave me the scanning (c1/c2) results much more close to the results produced by nec under cdspeed . And more is that cd reading quality (scratched or slightly damaged data & audio cd) became more close to nec too.
Imho the scanning for c1/c2 errors give us neither a quality grade of the tested cd nor any permanent estimation of the drive reading quality. It only evaluates how this cd was just read at this drive. It's not a secret that the older and more used cds and/or drives show higher error levels than the selfsame but some time earlier. And I found that the obvious reading quality (while grabbing audiocd for ex.) correlates well with the scanning cds results.

Anyway i see the real lack is that KProbe2.* doesn't scan cds on the 6th gen. Liteon dvd-rw under the latest firmwares while KProbe1 does well.

Karr had probably very good reasons to do so.
It is better to disable a function that does not give proper results.

Michael

To do what in particular ? I saw :
1) KProbe2.* scans cds well on the 6th gen.Liteon with HS06 firmware.
2) KProbe2.* doesn't scans cds on the 6th gen.Liteon with HS07 & HS0D firmware.
3) KProbe 1.1.29 scans cds under the HS0D firmware producing the same results as under HS06 firmware. It shows that firmware version doesn't affect scanning quality that is very close to shown by liteon ltc48161h (combo) & ldw811s when they were new

I'm diffuculty to believe that he disabled this function for Spring 2006 firmware at the KProbe version 2.3.2 (dated by August 2005) but kept this function for the same drive with Winter 2006 firmware. As programmer I rather guess there is an short unforeseen fault inside KProbe 2.* that occures with HS07 & HD0D firmware, perhaps under any additional circumstances of my PC.

I'll have no any complaints if Karr confirms the right manner of KProbe 2.* is to ignore the requested cd scans under these new firmwares for 6th gen. But still I didn't listen about it. Can you give me a link to his announcement ?

A bit more. I've found the few old versions of KProbe and tried them. The result is that KProbe 2.1.0 scans CDs as well as 1.1.29 but KProbe 2.2.2 and all the newer versions stop immediately after "Starting up drive..." with "Done." message.
It occurs at least under the Sony HYS3, Liteon HS07, HS0D firmwares. It doesn't occurs under the Sony HYS1, Liteon HS06 firmwares.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier- I could have saved you some experimenting (I'm still on vacation with only sporadic internet access/interest).

I don't think this is something Karr did on purpose- it's a bug. It was discussed a couple of months ago in this thread: 165P6S@MV7U & K-Probe 2.5.1, bug?.

G

sorry but what should be the scanning speed on KProbe v2.5.2 for Lite-On SHW-1635S, still 4x or 8x?? scanning at 4x takes so much.

There are different opinions on this.

If you want to post your scans in the LiteOn forum you should use 8x scanning speed, because that is the agreed upon standard.

Some threads in e.g. the NEC forum ask for scans at 4x.

In my experience there is little difference between 4x and 8x scans on the 1635S.

Why does this only work for lite-on writers?

The KProbe tool can only report what the drive firmware is capable of reporting, and it is written specifically for MediaTek chipsets.

KProbe will also work with (some) other drives that use MediaTek chipsets, and that includes some Samsung drives IIRC.

Nero CD-DVD Speed will work with a wider range of drives, DVDInfoPro will also work with a wide range of drives, PlexTools will work with "real" Plextor drives.

No C1/C2/PI/PO scanning tool will work with a drive that doesn't have firmware capable of reporting such errors, however.

The KProbe 2.5.2 install says I must reboot to complete the installation. That makes me nervous. Most programs don't require this. Does KProbe install things that I should be aware of?

Hi,Kprobe installs ASPI drivers that's the reason for a reboot.
On W2k/XP systems ASPI is not necessary, so I do not understand, why Kprobe (supports SPTI nicely) must install such a crap

Michael

IIRC waaaaay back when, the ASPI drivers were actually being used on some peoples system instead of SPTI to provide better burns or compatability on some burners. There was a reason for ASPI but I'm not quiet sure I remember it correctly at the moment :-\