Domande e risposte (FAQ) su supporti DVD e masterizzatori

[Adric]

All'attenzione di tutti (utenti dei masterizzatori DVD Sony, Pioneer, Toshiba ecc).
Su di un forum estero (Club CD Freaks, che ora richiede la registrazione gratuita per essere visto, per problemi di banda) ho trovato questo post in inglese che ritengo di grande interesse:

DVD-Recorders

Domande generali

What is the capacity of a DVD disc?
It is 4,707,319,808 Bytes, i.e. 4,489 MB or 4,38 GB.

How can I determine the manufacturer of a DVD-R(W)?
Use ADVDInfo, cdrecord-prodvd or DVDDecryptor

How can I determine the manufacturer of a DVD+R(W)?
Use ADVDInfo or DVDDecryptor. I don't know if cdrecord-prodvd can do this.

Sometimes the outer region of my DVD±R(W)s are unreadable even for the burner itself. Help!
This can happen with bad media. Use better media.

My project is a litte bit larger than 4,489 MB. Can I overburn?
Not at the moment.

How long does it take to burn a full 4,489 MB disc?
1x speed: 59 min
2x speed: 30 min
2,4x speed: 25 min
4x speed: 15 min

Are there dual layer recorders?
Not yet. According to spath, a few companies are working on that, and such recoders might be ready for being shipped 2004.


Domande sui Pioneer

Can I write all media at 2x?
No! There is media around that even can't be written properly at 1x.
The following manufacturers make 2x compatible (non-highspeed) media:
Mitsubishi (=Verbatim),
Mitsui,
Maxell,
Pioneer,
TDK (DVR-A03: firmware 1.65 required),
Matsushita (only DVR-A04/A05),
Taiyo Yuden (only DVR-A04/A05)
Sony (only DVR-A04 firmware 1.40+/A05)
Prodisc (DVR-A05 firmware 1.21 required)
CMC is on the list as well, but I don't know why.
Support for Ritek at 2x (which has been introduced in 1.31 for DVR-A04) has been removed in 1.32, probably because of unreliable burns.
No other media will be written at 2x. Some programs always offer 2x speed, but the writer will ignore this setting if there is no 2x compatible media inserted! There are hacked firmwares available to enable 2x for all media, but you use that on your own risk!

Why does Nero only show 1x speed?
Because you have not inserted 2x compatible media. Note that firmwares 1.90 / 1.33 and earlier show 1x of no disc at all is inserted, while 2.00 / 1.40 show 2x if no disc is inserted.

Has 2x writing speed lower quality than 1x speed?
Usually it should not. Pioneer only allows 2x writing for media that they are satisfied with. However, there have been reports that some players reject 2x written media, but play the same media if it has been written at 1x, and there is also the possibility of getting bad batches of 2x compatible media, which might then not be reliable. You will have to try and find out on your own.

Can I bypass the media check?
Not with official firmware. There is a "modified" firmware available which allows 2x writing to all discs, but you use that on your own risk. Don't complain if you get coasters then. You were the one to install it.

I get write errors, "communication failure", system crashed while writing a DVD,verification errors or other weird errors. help!
There's a bug in the firmware of DVR-A03/A04 which sometimes causes these errors if you run it in DMA mode. You must set it to PIO then.

I bought 2x certified media, but my DVR-A03 only writes it at 1x. Help!
First possible reason: You use media that only the DVR-A04 can write at 2x speed. Second possible reason: There is so-called "2x"-media around which even the A04 can't recognise as 2x compatible. Then you should have a talk with your vendor.

The windows firmware loader doesn't work...
I have the DOS loader for DVR-A03 delivered with firmware 1.68 here. Boot into DOS mode and upgrade there. I used it to upgrade to 1.90 and it worked fine. Unlike what Pioneer claims, this loader can also downgrade. Note that this loader does not work if firmware 1.90 is installed. Pioneer seems to intentionally prohibit its use if firmware 1.90 is installed.

Can Pioneer DVR-A03/A04 write to low quality discs properly?
No. Such discs can give bad burns, power-calibration-errors, medium-write-errors, completely unreadable discs, discs skipping in many players etc etc.

Can I downgrade firmware?
For DVR-A03: Get the DOS-loader and firmware file here. You must then boot ms-dos or win 98 dos prompt in order to install it. This seems to work only if 1.80 or earlier is installed. If you want to downgrade from 1.90 to 1.68, then rename your r3100101.168 to r3100101.191, download this, boot to dos and execute upgdvd.exe.

Can bad-flashed drives be repaired?
The user jaay did a successful bad-flash-recovery with a DVR-A03 here using the DOS loader. I doubt that this works if firmware 1.90+ was installed before the bad flash. [sarcasm] Thank you, Pioneer! [/sarcasm]

Can Pioneer DVR-A03/A04 write the new 4x media at 2x speed?
Firmwares up to (1.90/1.33) support only 1x writing on these media, earlier firmwares must not be used at all on 4x DVD-R media or 2x DVD-RW media. Latest firmwares (2.00/1.40) allow 2x speed for highspeed dvd-r.

Is it necessary to format a dvd-rw disc before burning?
Usually not. This should be required only for some bad media which gives bad burns otherwise. However, if a disc is not recognised by some players, you can try a full erase and reburn the disc.

What about heat?
Pioneer DVR-A03/A04 consume about 20W, which is more than most other burners. Make sure that there is no drive mounted directly beneath the Pioneer DVD burner. Installing an extra fan is not a bad idea either.

But Ritek burns fine at 2x...
No, it does not! A good player can read good-batch-Riteks if written at 2x, but the PI sum 8 error rate of Ritek at 2x is 5x-25x higher than at 1x.

What about burning CDs...
DVR-A03/A04: CloneCD does not work at all with them
DVR-A05: No-sheep writer, but works with CloneCD otherwise

Note finali

The DVD+R(W) writers I know do not show any very special behaviour which would require an own section (i.e. they do not show DMA bugs, behave like cooking plates, etc etc). This could change of course...
The Sony DRU500A will also require an extra section which will be set up.

L'autore (alexnoe) pertanto aggiungera' una sezione per il Sony DRU500A.

[Coyote74]

Adric sei sempre il migliore.

[Adric]

Un altra FAQ, stavolta da parte di RICOH:
http://cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/PrinterFriendly.asp?RelatedID=3455

RICOH posts 1-4x DVD+R/RW media compatibility FAQ
Appeared on 2/4/2003, 4:53:47 PM
RICOH Europe posted today a FAQ about the new 1-4X DVD+R/+RW media. As RICOH says "...Recently, 4x writing speed DVD+R media started to appear on the market. These new DVD+R media are intented for next generation 4x writing speed qualified DVD+R/+RW drives. Such media was not initially developed to be used on "second generation" DVD+R/+RW drives, which offer a maximum writing speed of 2.4x. Using the new media on these drives could lead to read or write errors, as the drive does not correctly recognize the 4x disc..."
However, it should be possible for users of such "second generation" drives to use most of these new 4x DVD+R discs without any problems, provided that a simple firmware upgrade has been installed into the drive.

After the new firmware is applied, you will be able to write to 4x DVD+R media at your drives maximum writing speed of 2.4x. In this respect, the new media will work in the same way as the 2.4x media you were accustomed to: there is no loss in writing performance when you use the new media! Of course, when the upgrade is installed you can still use 2.4x DVD+R media, and 2.4x DVD+RW media. When 4x DVD+RW media will be introduced later this year, we will inform you of a recommended firmware upgrade on this site.

To make the upgrade procedure as straight-forward as possible, we provide you with a convenient listing of DVD+R/+RW drive manufacturers. Simply select your drive manufacturer (or PC vendor) from the list shown below. Doing so will advance you to the upgrade page on the manufacturer's web site, where you will find additional installation instructions and the downloadable upgrade files.

I get an error message when I try to write to the new 4x media, what can I do?
Please update the firmware to version X.XX to improve the compatibility with the new media.

I can write to the new 4x media, but I cannot read the disc?
Please update the firmware to version X.XX to improve the compatibility with the new media.

Does this firmware allow me to write at 4x?
NO. This firmware only improves the compatibility of your drive and enables you to use the new 1-4x media.

Is there firmware available to change my writer from 2.4x to 4x?
NO. The drive was designed as a 2.4x writer and cannot be changed to a 4x writer.

Which media do you recommend?
At present we recommend the following brands, RICOH , Taiyo Yuden (That's brand), Mitsubishi Chemical / Verbatim

Do I need to update the firmware of my drive?
Yes, at present the DVD+RW and DVD+R media are compatible only to 2.4x but will be replaced by 1x-4x media. To improve the compatibility of your 2.4x writer with the new 1x-4x media the firmware must be updated.

What could happen if I do not update the firmware?
You will not be able to properly write to the new 1-4x DVD media.

N.B. Taiyo Yuden (That's brand).
That's e' il marchio con cui Taiyo Yuden commercializza direttamente i suoi supporti (cdr e dvd) e non va confuso con That's Write.
Per cortesia, se in Italia vedete supporti That's (e non That's Write) vi prego vi mandarmi un messaggio privato o un email segnalandomi dove,
a qualsiasi prezzo. grazie!!!

[aXio]

magari adric...

Pensa che prima stavo vedendo un situzzo usa, Taiyo Yuden dvd-r 2x spindle 90 2.35$ l'uno... ovviamente spediscono solo su territorio americano

...nessuno ha uno zio d'america?
gli passo un paio di linkini hihi


P.s. anche in uk si trovano ma costano cari e son in dei negozietti inculati di cui non ho nemmeno uno staccio di link... sigh