Poor Quality DVD Burns?

[Jake_Bullit]

Hello,

Have recently started testing the Quality of my DVD burns using Nero - have attached a few of the results. If im interpreting this right though the quality is not very good. Am curious to know why and hopefully fix any problems ,the drive - (Sony NEC Optiarc AD5170A) is only around 7 - 8 months old with the latest official firmware 1.13 ,I have been using mostly Verbatim discs and burning with Nero 7 , 1Click DVD Copy Pro and ConvertXtoDVD on Windows XP Home SP2. Thank you in advance for any help and advice.

[Jake_Bullit]

Scan results…

[Arachne]

I personally would find a BenQ or LiteOn drive to do quality scans with.

I never scan on my Optiarc, but I do use it for Transfer Rate Tests (from the Run Test menu in CD-DVD Speed).

Can you run TRTs on those discs? How do they play back?

Moved your thread to the main Blank Media forum BTW, as you’ll get more input there.

[Jake_Bullit]

They all play back fine, was just worried I was wasting my time backing up films and files that might be un readable in a year. Just finished a TRT scan on one of the discs, although I don’t really know what im looking at.

[Arachne]

Ideally, you want a nice perfectly smooth upward curve. Those small fluctuations could be due to background activity, but there are no steep drops in the curve, which is good.

Were you doing anything on the PC while you were doing that TRT?

And if playback is good also, with no freezing etc, I’d say your discs are probably OK.

[Jake_Bullit]

I had MS Word and internet explorer open. So why would you not use your NEC Optiarc drive to do quality scans, are they just un reliable for that, also are the scans I uploaded typical of that drive?

[Arachne]

That TRT looks slightly worrying. Run it again and see if you get the same result.

Most NEC/Optiarcs are a bit loopy as far as DVD scanning is concerned, I think…they’re not bad for scanning CDRs at about 32x though. Since I have a LiteOn anyway, I tend to use that for DVD scanning, and the Optiarc for TRT, since it’s a pickier reader than the LiteOn.

[Jake_Bullit]

Here’s the same disc again, looking better:)

[Jake_Bullit]

What makes me think my Optiarc drive is not burning so well is, if I record a film on the standalone DVD Recorder in the living room, the quality of the disc is consistently better than the PC when I check it, see attachment.

[larc919]

[quote=Jake Bullit;2017181]What makes me think my Optiarc drive is not burning so well is, if I record a film on the standalone DVD Recorder in the living room, the quality of the disc is consistently better than the PC when I check it, see attachment.[/quote]Just to be sure, you might want to upgrade to the latest version of CD-DVD Speed. You can find it here.

[Jake_Bullit]

Ok, thanks for the advice.

[troy512]

must confirm the liking for lite on drives.

as the world turns, so do the drives of our lives. (firmware/mid/crossflash…)

with the high pif spikes id think the disc would not playback good. you report good playback. [B]must have faulty scans[/B].

303 maximum pif form post 2, wow. and this disc plays??? i dont know the highest playable pifs but remember reading somewhere detailed numbers. personally i think 4 is high. i think dvd specs recommend 8. [I]BUT DONT QUOTE ME[/I].