Could someone please explain this to me

Hikodoro 2006-05-08 00:58:54 UTC #1

Hello, I'm recently joined the forum in hopes that I can shed some light on my problem. I have felt the need to back up some of my dvds now that have a dvd burner so I went roaming the internet to find out how I could do so. I found this site and I learned a lot by lurking and reading but I'm now puzzled at the result of my what I have implmented.

I read that lite on dvd burners are superior for burning DVD to other drives. I was dismayed but I found out in a topic here that my Sony DVD RW DW D22A is actually SOHW-1633S. So following the suggestions in the topic I used Omnipatcher to crossflash the SOHW-1653S CS0T firmware(got everything from codeguys and followed their instructions for crossflashing so I don't think that's the problem).

It also seem that a majority of people on these forums think that Taiyo Yuden DVD are the best for burning. So I ordered a 100 stack from RIMA and confirmed they are real by reading the FAQ on the discs.

So I started on copying some of my collection, using DVD shrink and Nero at 4x with deep analysis set to smooth. After burned the first 4 discs I decided I should use the K-Probe to test the quality of my burns. To my dismay they look nothing like the example burns.(see attached)

I haven't tried watching a discs all the way through but the 30 mins or so of the first one I watched seemed fine. My question is are these results(which seem to be average for the 4 burns) good or are these DVD actually really messed up. I'm only posting this because my results look so unusual compared to the others in the topic regarding good PI/PIF.

Forgive me if a answer to this question is posted elsewhere, I just don't want to waste so much time and money and end up with a stack of costers.

I have attached a copy of the K-Probe report and the graph. As you can see the max jumps up to 200-300 in dozens of places in both graphs. Could my drive, media or burning software be the problem?

TimC 2006-05-08 01:31:26 UTC #2

There's an option in Kprobe to remove the spike. I don't know if that would show the scans differently.

The actual totals for PIE & PIF are nothing particularly serious at all.

I would suggest a burn at 8x - the rated media speed - as many find that the "burn slow for better quality" is a myth. This maybe helpful with poor quality media but as TY are the best 8x should give good results.

pinto2 2006-05-08 05:09:34 UTC #3

I have to agree with TimC. Those single spikes shouldn't effect disc or read back quality.
They can be affected by system setup, temperature and like.
Run a tranfer rate test to check smooth read back without slow-downs.

In addition you can try to reset learnt media with EEPROM Utility.

Wizzu 2006-05-08 06:09:14 UTC #4

:iagree: - this will definitly tell if these spikes are "real" or mere glitches during scanning.
If I'm not mistaken, you'll need CDSpeed to perform a transfer rate test, I don't think Kprobe has this feature? (sorry if this is incorrect).

Not sure this thread belongs here. Don't be upset if I move it later (I'll let you know by PM).

MediumRare 2006-05-08 10:50:26 UTC #5

I sometimes see similar spikes when scanning @6x on my SOHW-1213S@1653S (CS0T). 4x scans are normally smooth. You might want to try a 6x scan which is CAV as opposed to CLV (4x). I think the "remove spike" option only applies to samples with identical PIE/PIF counts. You'd have to ask Karr to make sure.

KProbe can do a transfer rate test- this is on the "Performance" tab. But personally, although I'm a prolific KProbe user, I prefer CD-Speed for this kind of test.

MOD.IT 2006-05-09 10:15:33 UTC #6

@Hikodoro

As its a collection of dvds you are archiving its is going to be very difficult or near impossible to watch every single backup :iagree:

When making backups from a newly purchased batch of dvdr +/- its important to scan and view a percentage of them (some forum members scan every disk), with regards to the variation you are experiencing in your scans this is extremely common lots of forum members have similar experiences.

Whats really important for you is the variation from your current scans to your next purchase of media, by the same manufacturer and mid code.

Studying the scan results and physically watching a percentage of backups helps you determine whether or not the newly purchased media of the same manufacturer and mid code is better or worse than what you previously purchased. This gives you your own base or reference point from where you can determine if a disk/batch has improved or indeed could be defective.