Don't know how to interpret

[garfunk]

I'm new to DVD testing, and I just bought a spindle of TYs. I burnt a DVD movie and tried to see if it is any better than my older media. I tested it twice. Do these graphs look good? I pasted the general info from my testing it twice. I burnt at 8x. Should I try 6x or 4x?

General Information
Drive: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D
Firmware: 1.22
Disc: DVD+R (YUDEN000 T02)
Selected speed: 8 X
PI errors
Maximum: 336
Average: 82.12
Total: 1220362
PI failures
Maximum: 33
Average: 1.52
Total: 16061
PO failures: n/a
Jitter: n/a
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 20:46
Number of samples: 17607
Average scanning interval: 8.00 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

General Information
Drive: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D
Firmware: 1.22
Disc: DVD+R (YUDEN000 T02)
Selected speed: 8 X
PI errors
Maximum: 350
Average: 79.99
Total: 1189129
PI failures
Maximum: 28
Average: 1.50
Total: 15810
PO failures: n/a
Jitter: n/a
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 20:58
Number of samples: 17607
Average scanning interval: 8.00 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

[scoobiedoobie]

The scans look like crap past 3.5GB, but then Pioneers aren't very good drives for PI/PIF testing so I wouldn't take the results with certainty. Do you have access to a Benq or Liteon drive for a better testing drive? Otherwise you can also run a transfer rate test, although there's a fair chance that the TRT will appear perfect, but that still doesn't disprove the error levels being reported above.

Regarding burn speeds, in most situations media will burn best at or near its rated speed. If the burner is poor, firmware support is poor, poor media, etc., you may get better results at slower speeds but T02 should burn fine at 8x. If there is newer firmware for your drive, it would probably be best to update it.

What brand are these discs, BTW?

[garfunk]

There is no newer firmware for Pioneer 107D unfortunately... it's an old model that I bought early in the DVD burning game. I'm kind of disappointed at the inclining graph myself.

I bought these from rima.com, so unbranded. I'll try my brother's reader tonight and see how it goes.

[garfunk]

Well, my brother's DVD drive is not a burner, so I don't think this is accurate at all. I'll try burning at 4x to see if it fares any better...

General Information
Drive: ATAPI DVDROM 16X
Firmware: 14HJ
Disc: DVD+R (YUDEN000 T02)
Selected speed: 6 X
PI errors
Maximum: 8
Average: 0.05
Total: 161
PI failures
Maximum: 0
Average: 0.00
Total: 0
PO failures: 0
Jitter: n/a
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 12:37
Number of samples: 3321
Average scanning interval: 42.41 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

[JayC30]

There is no newer firmware for Pioneer 107D unfortunately... it's an old model that I bought early in the DVD burning game. I'm kind of disappointed at the inclining graph myself.

I bought these from rima.com, so unbranded. I'll try my brother's reader tonight and see how it goes.

There may be no official firmware for your drive, but it is an idea to check out the pioneer forum and see if there are any more up-to-date modded firmware. For example here fw 1.22 was updated in 2005 as opposed to the 2004 of Pioneer: http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=1754

Unfortunately support even in the modded fw world for older drives is dying up. It may be time to consider a new one. Lite-Ons are avaiable at rima, and arachne will vouch for them being good little burners, as I am sure others will. I can't I have only had NECs or BenQs as my burners.

Try scanning in another writer, preferable BenQ or Lite-On. Do a TRT and post the results.

Burn a couple more at the slower speeds and see if that solves the problem.

[garfunk]

What is a transfer rate test and how do I run one?

[JayC30]

It's done in the bench mark part of CD/DVD speed, just click start like in disc quality and let it run through the entire process.

[garfunk]

Okay, here is my TRT test. I don't really know what it means, but it looks okay to me.

[JayC30]

There's no drop in speed at the areas where those massive PIF problems are. If there any chance you can scan it in another drive? (Not a DVD-ROM)

[garfunk]

I don't think I have access to another DVD burner. Wish I did all of this before break.

I went ahead and burnt another movie at 6x and the results looked a lot better. What do the top and bottom graphs mean?

[DrageMester]

What do the top and bottom graphs mean?

You can read about how to interpret PIE/PIF scans here: Interpreting PI/PO error scans