Burning, and complicated read operations on standalone?

[Joergen]

Hello all.

I've been burning DVD-R for a couple years now, and I've noticed that with some player brands, playback of a DVD-R movie (shrinked, 1:1 etc) causes the read-mechanism to move back and forth more than with the original disc. The drive either hammers itself agains the border or moves back and forth on the disc looking for the next item to play (ie when going from menu to movie or from studio animation to menu).

This doesnt happen with all players mind you. Especially Sony players play the copy as quick as the original with no "extra" sounds from the drive.

I usually burn with Nero and havent had any problems. I used to also burn with Prassi Primo DVD.

It seems as though even an 1:1 copy of a single layer movie causes this searching where the original more optimally finds the next titleset to play.

My question is, is there any way to "help" some standalones find the titlesets faster on the disc? Any difference between Nero and other tools?

And in the case of a short burn (less than 4GB) would it be useful to fill the disc with dummy files so the border is further to the end of the disc? I believe pressed disc have it this way.

Thanks.

[Dimmer]

I think these back-and-forth laser movements indicate retries due to a read error. Recording even on the most expensive DVDR is a way less accurate process than pressing hence the read errors. There is a chance that the burner affects recording quality, too, but not the recording software or compression.

You can hear the same sounds in the computer DVD drives, especially when reading scratched discs. Back when people used floppy discs, it was more than obvious if there is a read error on the disc since those drives made much more noise. In either case, the reading mechanism returns to the original position and retries the search of the sector in question. Player's DVD drive quality certainly affects the number or read errors, too. It's been noticed that DVD-ROM drives and especially DVD burners are much better at reading discs than standalone players.

So to answer to your question whether you can "help" a standalone to read the recordable DVD, the best you can do is indeed write a bit less than maximum capacity. Most of the drives/players read DVD in CAV mode meaning the linear speed of rotating disc is higher at the outer edge, which increases the chances of read errors. I don't see why you should fill this space with dummy files since they are never being read anyway.

[Joergen]

The weird thing is that the worst of these "screechers" is a new Panasonic standalone. And Panasonic is one of the core developer and backer of DVD-R (and RAM) so one would think their firmware would handle DVD-R better.

The unit reads even the worst discs without pixelation (where other players fail) but when it searches for the start of a new title it moves back and forth 4 times (goes to the root of the disc to read the file table perhaps?).

With dummy files I meant "mimicing" a pressed disc. Since they always have the disc filled with dummy sectors right to the brim. Some dvd-players even fail to read a DVD with less a certain amount of data. The "border" is the end of the data-area on the disc so pushing it to the edge might help a searching laser not get "lost" in the empty area.

Ah well, I tell everybody to buy sony or panasonic, so from now on its just sony ;)

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by Joergen
With dummy files I meant "mimicing" a pressed disc. Since they always have the disc filled with dummy sectors right to the brim. Some dvd-players even fail to read a DVD with less a certain amount of data. The "border" is the end of the data-area on the disc so pushing it to the edge might help a searching laser not get "lost" in the empty area.

Ah well, I tell everybody to buy sony or panasonic, so from now on its just sony Every blank DVD always has sectors right to the brim on it. Laser isn't cutting the track as if it was a vinyl LP, but simply burns "holes" in the dye of the existing tracks. So you don't have to worry about filling up the empty space.

Experience shows that the best DVD players are no-name models made in China that would play anything you can write on a disc, including files on a simple DVD-ROM and non-DVD standards like MP3. They often allow firmware upgrades from a CD. Plus they are dirt-cheap nowadays. Brand names on the other hand usually adhere more strictly to the standards and don't allow any tricks with firmware or "secret menus". What's worse, they are not as good at reading defective or scratched DVDs. For example, I have a low-end Sony NS-300 that is so picky I use it to test DVDR quality and compatibility. If that Sony can play it, then any other player can, too.

[Joergen]

Ok. Then again I have an NS-410 with the "precision drive 2" system and it reads about as good as my old Pioneer A03 that will read everything that dvd-rom drives and other standalones cant read. I know older sony players didnt like to read much anything.

The china-players tend to have a normal PC dvd-rom showed in there and might not be that hot on reading afterall. I have one "china" player, an Euroline 2500 and it's about as good as a Liteon 163D DVD-ROM in that it reads readable discs but can crap out with discs that the A03 and Sony can still handle.

Over about 7 standalones (4 mine) I prefer the sony ns-410 overall. A friend's Pioneer comes second (though it cant handle DVB/SVCD on DVD where the sonys and panasonics can).

I guess the R1 region gets more low-end china players to choose from so brand players will be strong in Europe for a while still. And in the case of my friend's new Panasonic player, I just might have to believe that it's not so hot at DVD-R, and at 150€ too :(

[Joergen]

Hmm I finally upgraded from latest(last) Nero 5 to latest Nero 6 and I think the problem is lesser now. At least one player that goes *CRUNCH CLANK* against the outer edge now doesnt (with the same disc make and movie). I'll get to testing the slower Panasonic model with these Nero 6 burns to see if its any faster.