DVDInfo

[xobituaryx]

Hey, I downloaded DVDInfo and basically all I know how to do so far on it is a surface scan....but I've seen these P.I and pif charts and I was wondering what I need to look for........meaning what should everything be at number wise.....Thanks.

[steve2713]

A) Nero CD-DVD Speed does a better job with PI/PO scans vs. DVDInfoPro.

B) You can only do those tests with some drives, update your profile with your burner model so we know what you're using(it gets old telling people this).

C)Interpreting PI/PO error scans:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=80545

[xobituaryx]

I updated my profile.....should I do these tests in my dvd rom or my burner???

[steve2713]

You CAN'T do them with a NEC drive. You can do it with Liteon drives, but burners are recommended for PI/PO tests, -ROM drives are not as accurate and are not very useful for comparing with tests from burners - the numbers will vary quite a bit.

Given that, I've done tests with my -ROM drive, they do a good enough job if you are doing comparisons between your own burns or take comparisons with burner tests with a grain of salt. On a Liteon, you should try to keep PIF errors below about 15, much higher and you'll usually encounter read errors on the disc. PI errors are usually pretty accurate with -ROM drives in my experience (the peaks), but they do not give as accurate of results with PIF errors, they will typically read peaks right, but the overall number of errors are inaccurate.

[xobituaryx]

When doing a surface scan, can u do those in a rom drive? which is more accurate.

[steve2713]

Either will be fine for a surface scan. Surface scans don't tell much though, other than the obvious point of unreadable portions of discs. You can easily get a perfect surface scan and still have high PI/PO errors, which are an indicator of problems with skipping, etc.

PI/PO tests give you a much better idea of the overall quality of the burn, but you might want to try transfer rate tests until you have a better grasp of what these PI/PO tests mean. A transfer rate is a good way of telling whether or not you're likely to encounter skipping, etc. on the disc. If there are no dips or only slight ones in the transfer rate test, you'll likely have no issues with skipping. If there's severe dips (like below 2x read speed) or if the test doesn't complete, you'll have issues.