Disc quality check (C1, C2, etc.) unavailable on most drives?

[TechLord]

Hello.
In Nero DiscSpeed, the disc quality measurement tab (C1, C2, Jitter, PIE, PIF errors, but not displaying CU errors) is not always available.
If I see the disc specifications of a HL, LiteON and TSST drive in Nero InfoTool: All support C2error.
Why is the disc quality measurement feature only available on the LiteOn disc drive?

Did the other drive manufacturers deliberately disable it, or is it a software flaw in Nero DiscSpeed?

[usually_quiet]

Nobody wants to pay much for a DVD drive anymore, and many computers don't even include an optical drive now. Most of the remaining ODD manufacturers see no need to raise costs in order implement a feature that few will use.

[TechLord]

Nobody wants to pay much for a DVD drive anymore, and many computers don't even include an optical drive now. Most of the remaining ODD manufacturers see no need to raise costs in order implement a feature that few will use.

A LiteOn portable DVD Drive from 2010, eTAU108, has this feature.

However, optical discs are not obsolete.

• Archival
• Reliability
• Compatibility
• Real WORM (only R)
• no accidental data losses
• cheapest unit price
• good for distribution
• no internal electricity
• disc rot predictable via error test
• Longevity
• (only for movie companies) copy protection possible (but not reliable)
• DVD rotation sound causes exciting movie ambience.
• same physical shape globally
• (Only DVD R discs) beautiful red/pink/violet dye colour
• printable for private distribution
• interesting technical science
• true write protection
• no USB killer can be hidden inside of it
• water resistance
• environmentally friendly
• good for physical experiments (also floppy disks, despite being FULLY obsolete, are suitable for experimental purposes).
• packet writing + recovery
• used and remaining storage optically visible
• not accidentally removable
• not sticking out of device
• ..and a few other things that do not jump into my mind at the moment.

USB and SD have also great advantages, especially for portable consumer devices (flash cards are more for professionals with expensive equipment), but I am just saying, that the digital revolution from the previous century is still irreplaceable in many areas.
Unfortunately, some universal projects such as the HVD have been aborted.
There are only proprietary alternatives such as Sony ArchiveDisc.

[TechLord]

PS: disc drives that are manually ejected can be accidentally ejected. (e.g. eTAU108)
But this can also be done to prevent the PC to write, e.g. permanently finalize a nearly empty DVD+R DL.

However, on write-protected discs, or when using DVD-ReadOnly ROM disc drives, malware can never spread itself, because it can physically not copy itself to the media.

Optical discs are safe: they can not try to install rogue keyboard drivers to simulate keyboard input for malicous purposes.

[johnmeyer]

I live in Carmel, CA which has some people who can afford things. I have shot the local Nutcracker ballet for 35+ years and have been shooting in HD since 2005. In the last 12 years you know how many orders I've had for Blu-Ray or HD on a thumb drive? Zero. All the orders are for DVD.

It is not obsolete, and as others have said, it is the only near-archival digital format I know of. Except for tape, I don't think anything else is likely to outlast it (I have transferred audio tape from 1948 and played perfectly, just the same as seventy years ago when it was made). The problem with videotape is that the playback equipment is so complicated and fussy (compared to reel-to-reel audio tape), that while the tapes will be good for a long time, operational equipment will be tough to find.

[hello_hello]

Hello.
In Nero DiscSpeed, the disc quality measurement tab (C1, C2, Jitter, PIE, PIF errors, but not displaying CU errors) is not always available.
If I see the disc specifications of a HL, LiteON and TSST drive in Nero InfoTool: All support C2error.
Why is the disc quality measurement feature only available on the LiteOn disc drive?

Did the other drive manufacturers deliberately disable it, or is it a software flaw in Nero DiscSpeed?

Nero actively block certain drives if they don't report errors accurately, or maybe also if they're not compatible with Disc Speed. I imagine all drives support correcting C2 errors when reading a disc (isn't it part of the DVD spec?) but reporting those errors accurately to an external program might be a different story.
And I kind of remember Nero and Plextor had some sort of tiff years ago, hence Plextor drives being blocked, but I could just as easily be making that up.

You can find the list of blocked drives in the following location in the registry. I don't think the location has changed even though CD/DVD Speed is called Disc Speed now.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero Toolkit\CD Speed\CD Quality\Blocked

I have a very old version of Nero, but in my case the "Blocked" registry entry contains the following.
SAMSUNG,TSST,HL-DT-ST,PLEXTOR

If you delete the appropriate entry it should unblock the drive, but they're probably blocked for a reason.
I'm sure newer versions of Nero have added Pioneer to the list, apparently at Pioneer's request. I own a couple of old Pioneer drives that report errors accurately, although the newer one I own doesn't. The quality test invariably fails even when the burn quality is quite high.

If you unblock a drive and you currently have one that works correctly with Disc Speed, I'd compare the results of the quality scan to make sure the ublocked drive isn't giving misleading results.

[TechLord]

Hello.
I just came across the following document: http://medicineman9.byethost8.com/CD_DVD_QUALITAET.pdf (German)

It mentions, that a registery key, which deliberately blocks several manufacturers for unknown reasons, needs to be altered. It is called "Blocked".

Because I am typing from a mobile phone, I don't feel like searching the text file for it. (will be completed by edit via desktop browser).

I am glad, that this PDF article shared the solution.


Sent from mobile phone.

[TechLord]

Hello.
In Nero DiscSpeed, the disc quality measurement tab (C1, C2, Jitter, PIE, PIF errors, but not displaying CU errors) is not always available.
If I see the disc specifications of a HL, LiteON and TSST drive in Nero InfoTool: All support C2error.
Why is the disc quality measurement feature only available on the LiteOn disc drive?

Did the other drive manufacturers deliberately disable it, or is it a software flaw in Nero DiscSpeed?

Nero actively block certain drives if they don't report errors accurately, or maybe also if they're not compatible with Disc Speed. I imagine all drives support correcting C2 errors when reading a disc (isn't it part of the DVD spec?) but reporting those errors accurately to an external program might be a different story.
And I kind of remember Nero and Plextor had some sort of tiff years ago, hence Plextor drives being blocked, but I could just as easily be making that up.

You can find the list of blocked drives in the following location in the registry. I don't think the location has changed even though CD/DVD Speed is called Disc Speed now.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero Toolkit\CD Speed\CD Quality\Blocked

I have a very old version of Nero, but in my case the "Blocked" registry entry contains the following.
SAMSUNG,TSST,HL-DT-ST,PLEXTOR

If you delete the appropriate entry it should unblock the drive, but they're probably blocked for a reason.
I'm sure newer versions of Nero have added Pioneer to the list, apparently at Pioneer's request. I own a couple of old Pioneer drives that report errors accurately, although the newer one I own doesn't. The quality test invariably fails even when the burn quality is quite high.

If you unblock a drive and you currently have one that works correctly with Disc Speed, I'd compare the results of the quality scan to make sure the ublocked drive isn't giving misleading results.

Sorry, your post already mentioned the solution.
I have not seen it first.

[usually_quiet]

Nobody wants to pay much for a DVD drive anymore, and many computers don't even include an optical drive now. Most of the remaining ODD manufacturers see no need to raise costs in order implement a feature that few will use.

A LiteOn portable DVD Drive from 2010, eTAU108, has this feature.

However, optical discs are not obsolete.

• Archival
• Reliability
• Compatibility
• Real WORM (only R)
• no accidental data losses
• cheapest unit price
• good for distribution
• no internal electricity
• disc rot predictable via error test
• Longevity
• (only for movie companies) copy protection possible (but not reliable)
• DVD rotation sound causes exciting movie ambience.
• same physical shape globally
• (Only DVD R discs) beautiful red/pink/violet dye colour
• printable for private distribution
• interesting technical science
• true write protection
• no USB killer can be hidden inside of it
• environmentally friendly
• good for physical experiments (also floppy disks, despite being FULLY obsolete, are suitable for experimental purposes).
• packet writing + recovery
• used and remaining storage optically visible
• not accidentally removable
• not sticking out of device
• ..and a few other things that do not jump into my mind at the moment.

USB and SD are inevitably the best, especially for portable consumer devices (flash cards are more for professionals with expensive equipment), but I am just saying, that the digital revolution from the previous century is still irreplaceable.
Unfortunately, some universal projects such as the HVD have been aborted.
There are only proprietary alternatives such as Sony ArchiveDisc.

I still burn a fair amount of optical media, but I think you are mistaken about burned optical media being irreplaceable. I see lots of evidence that many have already replaced it with something else. I expect that I will move away from burning optical media one day too, when something better comes along, or production ends.

I bought a new PC case last year, and many that I saw were not designed to accommodate an ODD. A good many laptops don't include an ODD either. Sure, it is possible to buy external ODDs, but many have no need for one. Lots of software products are now only available as downloads, and lots of people have switched from physical media to streaming for entertainment.

There are more and more members of this forum who only use ODDs to rip their purchased movies for their home media server. Burnable optical discs are slowly fading away as a storage medium. Based on current trends, cloud storage or home servers will likely replace optical media for permanent bulk storage.

Burnable optical media is probably NOT environmentally friendly BTW. They shouldn't just be tossed in a landfill. The dyes and phase change alloys used for the recording layer are potentially toxic, and the discs are considered to be a "hard to recycle' item.

[hello_hello]

Sorry, your post already mentioned the solution.
I have not seen it first.

No problem.
If you do unblock a drive I'd be interested to find out if it plays nice with Disc Speed and reports errors accurately. If you wouldn't mind posting again with the results....

[TechLord]

[HIDE]

Nobody wants to pay much for a DVD drive anymore, and many computers don't even include an optical drive now. Most of the remaining ODD manufacturers see no need to raise costs in order implement a feature that few will use.

A LiteOn portable DVD Drive from 2010, eTAU108, has this feature.

However, optical discs are not obsolete.

• Archival
• Reliability
• Compatibility
• Real WORM (only R)
• no accidental data losses
• cheapest unit price
• good for distribution
• no internal electricity
• disc rot predictable via error test
• Longevity
• (only for movie companies) copy protection possible (but not reliable)
• DVD rotation sound causes exciting movie ambience.
• same physical shape globally
• (Only DVD R discs) beautiful red/pink/violet dye colour
• printable for private distribution
• interesting technical science
• true write protection
• no USB killer can be hidden inside of it
• environmentally friendly
• good for physical experiments (also floppy disks, despite being FULLY obsolete, are suitable for experimental purposes).
• packet writing + recovery
• used and remaining storage optically visible
• not accidentally removable
• not sticking out of device
• ..and a few other things that do not jump into my mind at the moment.

USB and SD are inevitably the best, especially for portable consumer devices (flash cards are more for professionals with expensive equipment), but I am just saying, that the digital revolution from the previous century is still irreplaceable.
Unfortunately, some universal projects such as the HVD have been aborted.
There are only proprietary alternatives such as Sony ArchiveDisc.

I still burn a fair amount of optical media, but I think you are mistaken about burned optical media being irreplaceable. I see lots of evidence that many have already replaced it with something else. I expect that I will move away from burning optical media one day too, when something better comes along, or production ends.

I bought a new PC case last year, and many that I saw were not designed to accommodate an ODD. A good many laptops don't include an ODD either. Sure, it is possible to buy external ODDs, but many have no need for one. Lots of software products are now only available as downloads, and lots of people have switched from physical media to streaming for entertainment.

There are more and more members of this forum who only use ODDs to rip their purchased movies for their home media server. Burnable optical discs are slowly fading away as a storage medium. Based on current trends, cloud storage or home servers will likely replace optical media for permanent bulk storage.

Burnable optical media is probably NOT environmentally friendly BTW. They shouldn't just be tossed in a landfill. The dyes and phase change alloys used for the recording layer are potentially toxic, and the discs are considered to be a "hard to recycle' item.

[/HIDE]


Thank you for your information. I appreciate the time you took to write that.

I consider every particular available storage medium as useful in some way. I consider optical media as far away from being replaced.
Even floppy disks are being sold at a nearby tech store, still. Probably just for technically experimental purposes.

By the way: In my opinion, the HD-DVD should still be available as data storage media. It just lost against BluRay due to storage capacity comparison, but has great advantages:

• The data layer is in the middle, 600ųm away from both sides of the disc, not 100ųm near to the reflective side, which would make it highly vulnerable to physical damage, like CDs.
• There is a HD-DVD-RAM, but no equivalent BD-RAM in the BluRay compartment.
• In my opinion, both have their individual purposes.

[usually_quiet]

Even floppy disks are being sold at a nearby tech store, still. Probably just for technically experimental purposes.

No. Floppies are purchased for use with thousands of old machines and old software which require them. ...but floppies are definitely obsolete and they will disappear from store shelves eventually because floppy discs, floppy drives, and the machines that require the use of floppies are no longer made. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/why-do-floppy-disks-still-exist-the-world-isnt...dy-to-move-on/

By the way: In my opinion, the HD-DVD should still be available as data storage media. It just lost against BluRay due to storage capacity comparison, but has great advantages:

• The data layer is in the middle, 600ųm away from both sides of the disc, not 100ųm near to the reflective side, which would make it highly vulnerable to physical damage, like CDs.
• There is a HD-DVD-RAM, but no equivalent BD-RAM in the BluRay compartment.
• In my opinion, both have their individual purposes.

Nope. HD DVD-RAM never made its way to market! Even DVD-RAM production ended some time ago, around 2008, making it an obsolete format.