Just some disc testing I was doing last night.

[Faustus]

Got a sample pack from Meritline because the Riteks I got in replacement didn't match up price wise with the cheap Maxell 2x they were replacing. So I decide to do some fairly serious testing. A Real life friend said it would be good info to put online.

I hope I don't get shutdown for overusage on my webspace.

http://www.crystalmidnight.com/dvdtest

[Faustus]

Now updated for Ritek G03 with VERY surprising results. I plan to slowly add to this with each new media I test from here on out.

[edplayer]

Nice. Maybe you can add how many samples you tested of each (noticed that you have used a lot of Ritek)

[falberni]

flaystus,

Thanks for initiating this work and sharing your results with us. Keep it coming please. I have burned a lot of Accus and OptoDisks. I had a strong feeling that Optodisks are much better than Accus and your test results prove it. I don't have much experience with Riteks except for one sample disk that I used.

[falberni]

Just one question. The OptoDisks that you tested, were they Blue, gold, or silver?

[Faustus]

Silver, my understanding is that they are the same disc with a different top, am I wrong?

[falberni]

I've only used the blue tops. They work great. Lately, I tried to order some gold or silvers, but in all the stores they were sold out.

[SLK001]

Where did you get the KPROBE utility? Did it come with your Liteon drive? This utility looks like it could be the "cat's meow" for examining disks.

Can you set the vertical scale constant, or does it only auto-scale?

[SLK001]

One more thing...

Can you post results from a certified DVD-R, like an Apple, Pioneer or Verbatim disk? This would give us some idea of the standards that a disk must meet to receive a blessing from Pioneer.

[Faustus]

I would love to post the results of some of the better media... I just need to wait until I can afford some better media.

As far as the kprobe if you look at the top of my page where it explains about the testing there is a link to over at Doom9 where I found the kprobe utility.

In the future I plan to test, Khypermedia (Doesn't work for me but I have some left so I'm gonna test it, BeAll (Because I have 2), DVDPro, Apple 2x, Apple 4x (eventually), and good old Verbatim 2x.

For actual 2x disk I don't plan on doing 1x testing, but on 4x I'll test at 2x and 4x.

[rvl123]

Nice Job man...

Keep it coming. Should help me out as I think a billion times before buying any media so your website should be a "safe-haven" for me.

Thanks again

[Metaluna]

Where did you get the KPROBE utility? Did it come with your Liteon drive? This utility looks like it could be the "cat's meow" for examining disks.

Can you set the vertical scale constant, or does it only auto-scale?

I posted a download link in this thread:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=550463#550463

It only works with Liteon drives, BTW.

Note that http://club.cdfreaks.com is pretty much the place to go for Kprobe info. The author of the program hangs out there (I think he works for Liteon), and there are several media testing threads in the Media forum where people are posting their results for CD-R's and DVD-R's. I contributed a couple of results myself. I think it's a good tool for keeping the disc manufacturers honest! There's too much cheap junk floating around out there. Unfortunately the tool doesn't seem to be all that well documented. I don't think anyone really knows what Parity Inner and Parity Outer are (I think there is some proprietary stuff in the code so the author hasn't been too forthcoming on this issue). Some people speculate that it's similar to C1/C2 error correction in CD-R technology.


I'm not sure about setting the scale constant. It would be a nice though.

[w00tski]

what burner did you use for your testing?
sorry if i missed it, couldnt see the info anywhere.
Also you might want to update the liteon firmware for that dvdrom drive, i have the same drive and im running it on GHR8, I think it gives better readback on dvd media that previously.

[Faustus]

The burner is Pioneer DVR-105, and I'll have to check into the firmware, never had any problems with it before though.

[neosatus]

nice you think you'll do a test on a Ritek 4x sometime?

i'll be getting an A05 soon, trying to figure out what media i should use.

[Faustus]

Once again its money that keeps me from testing alot more disc, I can say the one ritek 4x that came with my burner worked great, but I can't for the life of me remember which movie it was to test it. However if I get the time and cash I will do Ritek 4x.

The testing I was planning for my weekend (weekend being a bad word as its on Sun, Mon, Tues) got cancels as I forgot to bring my BeALL and DVDPro disc with me to my friends house where I stayed. Maybe early next week I'll have some time to do it.

Mean while that same friend has a order of Optodisc comeing, I'm interested to see if all my testing pays off and the disc indeed are worth the cash.

[falberni]

flaystus,

Please let us know if you find out anything more about OptoDisks. Ive been testing everyone I burn with CD Speed and they're all looking great all the way to the very end of the disk.

BTW, which brand has the coating that makes them more scratch resistant? Is it the Ritek brand?

[Faustus]

The ones with the top coating are the Ridatas over at meritline, but I myself have serious doubts that a little paint/silkscreening really adds that much protection. I have a pack but only because the regular riteks were out of stock at the time.