womble output..VIDEO_TS vs iso burn

[bkorn]

I thought I had it all figured out. Womble mpeg dvd wizard creates a nice VIDEO_TS folder that is ready for burning. Now that IMGBURN will burn the folder direct to DVD , I decided to use that. And it worked like a charm! But I was dismayed that my first Taiyo Yuden DVD+R 8X burn on my Sony External burner created a DVD that had a Nero Speed quality score of around 40. Yikes!! Was it damaged? Not sure, but unscientifically, I burned another disk, this time at 4X speed, and this yielded a score of 93. EXCELLENT I thought..I now have a tried and true method. But the next burn, also at 4x, gave me a burn score of around 60. Oh brother!

So despite my having searched for this topic, I thought I would ask again since some time has elapsed: Might I get a more consistent result (and hopefully high Q score) by converting the womble output to an ISO file (using a tool like Folder2Iso, and THEN burning the ISO to DVD? Consistency and high quality are what I need most.

(I haven't tried burning at 2x, but I might try that also)

And when all is said and done, is a DVD with a Q score of 93 really going to last longer or be less problematic that one with a score of say, 63, if both seem to play back perfectly?!

Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated!

And thanks

Bruce

[r0lZ]

What software are you using to examine your burns and score them? DVDInfoPro?
I have noticed that the score given by DVDInfoPro varies extremely when it finds one or two high peaks in the PO test. However, those peaks can be caused by some dust on the disc during the analysis. If the peak are clearly "accidental" and isolated, you can ignore them and consecutively ignore the score given by DVDInfoPro.

Also, the quality of the burn is dependent of the speed of your drives. If, for some reasons, the buffer is emptied completely during the burn, the quality decreases dramatically. To avoid this problem, usually I reboot right before burning the DVD, and I close all running applications (including the apps in the system tray.)
If your hard disc is very fragmented, you should also defragment it.

IMO, creating an ISO is not a guarantee of a better burn, and remember that the ISO must be authored properly. (Many ISO creation tools are not standard compliant, especially for DL DVDs. Of course, if you use ImgBurn in Build more to create the ISO, everything should be fine.) The fact that ImgBurn has only one single file to open and read can help in some situations, but I doubt it's your problem here.

BTW, are you sure your Taiyo Yuden DVDs are really +Rs? I thought they do only -Rs.

[DaChew]

the yuden T02 mid code is highly rated and made in japan by taiyo yuden, however a few companies clone/fake those disks and manufacture in china and hong kong

quality scanning is an art, knowing what speed to scan at and which burners to use is the problem

I have never gotten more than a few scores less than 90 with any authentic taiyo yuden media when burning at 4 or 8X

older disks that have been abused are another story, one spec of dust, a smudge etc kill the score

it's more usefull to look at pif totals than the overall quality score(%) when using cd speed

It's not a bad assumption to make that better burns will last longer/keep their playabilty or be more resitant to damage/abuse/deterioration

a usb burn or quality scan is extremely sensitive to anything else going on with the computer

[bkorn]

Thanks for your reply and for your tips. I will try them!

I am using the Nero DVD Speed tool to test the quality.
And yes, the Taiyo Yudens really are +R (got them at SuperMediaStore).

Also, I did notice while testing that the quality score was "starting out" to look like it would be, high, but a few isolated spikes in the beginning dropped it somewhat, and then some large spikes at the end of the test dropped the score much more. For what it's worth.

Thanks again!

Bruce

[DaChew]

what sony drive are you using and what speed are you scanning at?

unfortunately sony is not a good choice for burning or scanning, they don't even make their own drives

[bkorn]

I'm using a Sony USB External drive (model DRX-830U). It advertizes that it burns at 18X both DVD+R or -R.
CD-Freaks gave it a pretty good review, which is why I bought it.

For reasons unrelated to this discussion, I am using Taiyo Yuden 8X media (as opposed to 16X media), and since I got 2 good burns at 4X that is what Im burning at. As far as Nero scan speed goes...oh my goodness..I didn't even look at that! I guess I am scanning at "Maximum" speed.

So now the question is, what speed SHOULD I scan at to check the quality using Nero speed..4x? the same as the burn speed?

[r0lZ]

You should scan at 1x (which is usually the only fixed speed that can be used in scan mode), but if your drive supports other fixed speeds in scan mode, you can also use them, if you take in mind that you should compare the results of the same speed only.
Anyway, scanning at MAX speed doesn't make sense, as it's normally a variable speed.

[bkorn]

I think I'm confused. All I was trying to do was ascertain the quality of a burn using Nero CD-DVD Speed V4.7.5.

And all I do is go to the Disc Quality Tab and then hit start.
But now that you mentioned scan speed, I have become aware that you can set the scan speed in the Settings drop down. But 1X speed is not a choice. The choices are 2x 4x 6x 8x 10x 12x and Maximum, with Maximum always coming up as the default.

Am I missing something (else?)

[DaChew]

you have to test different scan speeds and select the one with the lowest errors, otherwise you are graphing read errors on top of burn errors

interestingly the drive is a samsung and scans for quality

go no faster than 4x(uses the same chipset as liteons) and since you are using it in an external case that would be more consistent

firewire I might push to 8x if it yields similar scans on the same disk as 4X

and with newer samsung drives burning too slow yields poor results