Burning SVCDs with NTFS, any problems?

[Richum]

I have seached this forum and others for an answer to why, I cannot dependably copy from an existing SVCD to burn another. I have tried all methods suggested in several posts found here, including the fool proof way using a virtual drive. I have tried different different brands of CDRs, all speeds from 2X up to 24X, and still have had no luck on two different computers. Most artifacts occur in the first 5 mins of the copied SVCD, but have shown up later as well.

The original SVCD burned from an image, no matter who made it or with what ecoder are flawless, absoulutely no problems there.

The things both computers have in common are Windows XP Pro, NTFS file systems, Yamaha 3200E 24X burner, and both use Promise controllers for the primary and secondary hard drives with the with the DVDRom drive and Yamaha burner on the primary and secondary MB IDE controllers. All drives are jumpered Cable Select. That's it as far as them being alike. Auto play is not turned on and I have killed all running applications that were not needed using Task Manager.

When using the fool proof way, I make an image of the original SVCD using CloneCD and mount the image with the Daemon/Virtual Drive, then make a CD copy with Nero. For the most part they look great, but still they have artifacts and some freezing has occurred in a few.

So here is my question. Is there any chance that using a FAT 32 partition would make a difference? I could fire up Partition Magic and set one up or I have a Windows 98 machine I could test the idea on, but it means moving a CD burner to it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Richum

[Justinus]

I burnt SVCDs under NTFS (Windows 2000) without any problem. However, I don't think it's an OS problem. Is the file cue/bin? If it is, have you try to open the image file and burn directly using Nero? No need to mount into a virtual drive first.

[Richum]

Thanks for your reply. I do not have problems burning the original image files. Every program I have will do that, Nero, Fireburner etc.. The problem is when you do not have the original image and must create one from an already burned SVCD.

Once again, it is a matter of copying a SVCD from a CDR to another CDR.

[htc10825]

You problem has nothing to do with you OS and your filesystem(NTFS).

The data on SVCDs are saved with almost no error correction(thus you can store 100MB more data on a 80min cd-r than data in cd-rom format). The read out of these data is afflicted with many, many read errors. With my method in thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19131
you can, if you have enough luck, make a successful copy of svcd.
Generally, you should copy the svcd (in cdrwin or cloneCD) to hdd 2-100 times, than compare the 2-100 images with each other till you find two identical images. This image is the correct one.

The reader device is very, very important. I suggest you use the Plextor 16x or 24x CD-Writer to do the critical job. DVD-Rom drivers are mostly very bad in error correction. SO with Plextor CD-Writer!

[Richum]

Thanks htc10825, your reply explains a lot and makes perfect sense.

I have had on a rare ocasions made "Perfect Copies" but it is rare.

I have been extracting an image from the SVCD using CloneCD and my Lite On DVD 16 Rom. I will give this a try with my Yamaha 24X burner at a slower speed and do as you say keep comparing the results bit by bit until I find a good duplication and save this for future burning.

I quickly read the link you gave me and will read your comments more throughly before I attempt another copy session. I wish I had found it in my many searches long before this. Finally something that makes sense.

Thanks,

Rich

[htc10825]

To make a "perfect" copy of svcd is very difficult. In many cases it is more reasonable to make a "acceptable" copy of it. A forum user has find out that the copy software "BlindWrite" did a good(or better) job as others (see thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30776). So my final suggestion:

1. use BlindWrite to make several images of the same svcd.
2. burn these images on CD-R/W at speed 4x or 8x
3. compare these svcds on dvd player to find out the best one
("most acceptable")
4. save this one and burn it on CD-R at 4x or 8x.

[Richum]

htc10825,

Your method is working great. I was able to extract images with CloneCD and CDRwin as well. The secret must be taking off all error correction. I even tried one at 8X read and burned at 24X. It worked, I could not tell the difference between the original SVCD and the copy. I have done 5 now with out a single artifact or freeze in any of the 5, audin is in sync and all is well. I may of course fail on my next attempt, but I wasn't getting 1 in 10 good the old way.

So thanks again, if I discover anything new I will post it here just like you did to try and help others.

Rich