Ripping and verifying with a faulty burner

[ha13may]

Hi!

I have 2 old burners, both Pioneer. One is an A05 (105) and the other is a 110. I'm quite sure the laser has gone on both of these. I'm not sure if burners have 2 lasers or one, however, both these writers have stopped writing but seem to read discs fine. My question is that can I use these 'faulty burners' to rip DVDs? Here is what I intend to do:

Assemble a P4 2.4GHZ, 256MB RAM PC using components lying around.
Rip DVDs/CDS with these faulty burners.
Use a working DVD writer to burn the ripped data.
Verify the data using one of these faulty burners or a working DVD-ROM.

I normally rip with DVD Decryptor, burn with IMGBurn, Decryptor itself or Nero and verify with Nero CD-DVD Speed.

Can the data read while ripping and verifying be trusted?

My reason for wanting to do this is that between 4 brothers, over the years we have amassed over a thousand cds and hundreds of DVDs which I would like to backup. As I'm the only one to do this, I'd rather not stress/wear out my lone Pioneer 215.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[budz]

First of all PIONEER drives are not used for verifying with NERO CD/DVD SPEED. You would need to use a any LITEON or older drives like the BENQ 1620, 1640, 1650, 1655 or the later model SAMSUNG drives for disc testing.

It would seem pointless for verifying your discs unless you have playback issues with them. Check out the old CDFREAKS.COM media forum if you want more information. They'll tell you PIONEER drives are not used for disc testing.

Just buy a new dvd burner since those PIONEER's you have are probably on it's last legs. The laser is dead as a door nail since it can only read discs.

[ha13may]

Hi!

Apologies for the late reply.

Thank you very much Budz for the information. I did'nt know that Pioneer was not used with Nero Speed. Seems like I have to research this quite a bit.

The reason I like to verify discs is that I feel comfortable knowing that the data I just deleted from my hard drive has transferred to the disc 100 percent. Even though I only use Taiwanese Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden etc, I occasionally find that data doesn't burn correctly on the disc. Playback problems on one of my TV series backups prompted me to start verifying both PC data and my backups.

A bit off topic, you mentioned some drives in your post. A quick search on the internet revealed that BenQ was swallowed up LiteOn, NEC by Optiarc and then Sony. Sony drives are re-badges now, Pioneers to my shock are re-badges aswell (for burning only), Plextors also re-badges. Are there any companies that still make drives themselves, LG or Samsung? Is there a list of 'original' and 're-badges' anywhere?

[hech54]

Seems like I have to research this quite a bit.

No you don't.....just stop wasting your time...IE scanning your discs.

[budz]

Hi!

Apologies for the late reply.

Thank you very much Budz for the information. I did'nt know that Pioneer was not used with Nero Speed. Seems like I have to research this quite a bit.

The reason I like to verify discs is that I feel comfortable knowing that the data I just deleted from my hard drive has transferred to the disc 100 percent. Even though I only use Taiwanese Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden etc, I occasionally find that data doesn't burn correctly on the disc. Playback problems on one of my TV series backups prompted me to start verifying both PC data and my backups.

A bit off topic, you mentioned some drives in your post. A quick search on the internet revealed that BenQ was swallowed up LiteOn, NEC by Optiarc and then Sony. Sony drives are re-badges now, Pioneers to my shock are re-badges aswell (for burning only), Plextors also re-badges. Are there any companies that still make drives themselves, LG or Samsung? Is there a list of 'original' and 're-badges' anywhere?

If you're burning at fast speeds that could be problems in playback. I still burn at 8x speed even though I'm using 16x speed media. Also the PIONEER dvd burners you have are quite ancient. Technology has come very far with dvd burning. There's no listing of rebadged drives. Check out the old CDFREAKS.COM website, now called, myce.com, there you'll find the LG, SAMSUNG, PIONEER, PLEXTOR, BENQ, LITEON forums. If you ask here about rebadged drives I'm sure you'll get answers from other members as well.

LG, SAMSUNG & the model SONY AD-7240S-0B would be the one's to buy at this present time. I have so many dvd burners right now so lately I haven't bought any new ones. The SONY model is supposedly good for DVD+R DUAL LAYER burning.
I'd only buy a LITEON to do my ripping for me.

[lordsmurf]

We had a nice long discussion on media testing here https://forum.videohelp.com/topic376174.html not long ago. Go read that.

Go read this next: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/media/dvd-tests.htm

If the drive reads, then it reads.

[ricoman]

Seems like I have to research this quite a bit.

No you don't.....just stop wasting your time...IE scanning your discs.

Don't be rediculous, I've burned thousands of discs and scan everyone and for the same reason as he does. I don't want to delete the material from my HD without verifying that the burn is good. I don't find it a waste of time, I start the scan and walk away for five minutes or work on something else, or surf a little. Granted, if you use good media you won't get many coasters, but you do get one occasionally and it is aggravating as hell if you're watching a movie in the living room and it screws up halfway thru. Or worse, you lend one out and it screws up on you friend. That's embarrassing, so I scan all burns. Let him decide if it wastes his time. I use my old BenQ 1640 exclusively for scanning.
Lordsmurf's links give a good case for scanning, so those who care... Scan On! :P

[VegasBud]

The reason I like to verify discs is that I feel comfortable knowing that the data I just deleted from my hard drive has transferred to the disc 100 percent.

I've burned thousands of discs and scan everyone and for the same reason as he does. I don't want to delete the material from my HD without verifying that the burn is good.

There is one, and only one, way to ensure the contents of a burned disk are identical to the source material...do a byte for byte comparison of the two. That's what "Verify" in ImgBurn does...that's what many (but not all) "directory compare" programs do...that is not what the cd-dvd speed program does.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...if someone wants to integrate the cd-dvd speed program into their burning process, that's entirely up to them. All I ask is that advocates of the program don't lead newbies to believe that it does something that it does not...and cannot...do. It's just not right to mislead those who don't know any better.

[MOVIEGEEK]

VegasBud is correct, verify is not the same as disc quality.

I don't bother verifying anymore, IMO it's a waste of time and discs. The search for a perfect byte for byte copy is a myth, the same thing for a perfect burn. I do however use Nero CD-DVD Speed and KProbe occasionally to check the quality of the burn, it helps me know what not to use and how my old discs are doing.

As for modern DVD writers Lite-On suck for Dual Layer(I have two of them), LG and Samsung are supposed to be good. Nothing beats my BenQ 1640 though, the best $40 I ever spent . Lite-On DVD writers are great rippers and can be made region-free.

[ricoman]

Hey VBud, let's not get so uppity like you're right and everyone else is wrong. First of all I'm not trying to "verify" copied files or look for a "perfect byte for byte copy" as MovieGeek suggests. I scan to check the burn quality and media quality. Most errors are due to defective media and that's what I'm checking for. You can't tell by looking at a disc and you can't always go by reputation of the manufacturer. We have all seen media quality go downhill over the years. At one time Ritek was considered good media, now it sucks. Even Verbs have gone down hill and I don't use them anymore except for DL discs. I use TY exclusively and still get an occasional coaster, though very, very few. So if you don't want to check the quality of your burns or media, fine, but don't insinuate that people that put a premium on quality control are dumb or wasting their time. It's their time. Again, I'm not verifying files, I'm checking burn and media quality, there is a direct correlation with media quality and longevity. But I don't suppose you read the links that LordSmurf was good enough provide.

[VegasBud]

But I don't suppose you read the links that LordSmurf was good enough (to) provide.

Actually, I not only read the thread linked to, I was one of the posters in that thread. I'm surprised you missed my posts. Did you read the reference material I provided links to in that thread? If you didn't...you might consider doing so.

Hey VBud, let's not get so uppity like you're right and everyone else is wrong.

Strangely enough, what you perceive as "uppity", I perceive as merely clarifying misperceptions.

The inescapable reality is original source material can be safely deleted (as in "permanently destroyed") only after the contents of the archival copy are confirmed to be identical to the original...which is why it was important to clarify that:

There is one, and only one, way to ensure the contents of a burned disk are identical to the source material...do a byte for byte comparison of the two. That's what "Verify" in ImgBurn does...that's what many (but not all) "directory compare" programs do...that is not what the cd-dvd speed program does.

Do I really need to add, yet again, that what anyone does in the privacy of their own burning environment is their own business? Scan...don't scan...I don't care. All I'm asking is to not make claims that any given tool does what it cannot. A tool is only an asset when it's used correctly. The exact same tool becomes a liability when used incorrectly.