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necrocracker

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Posts posted by necrocracker

  1. The problem is that MPEG2 is variably compressed. You can have a full DVD-5 that has any where from 60min to 180min of video. It also depends on what type of audio you use and other factors. I also think that your SP definition will vary between hardware and software. I think it would seem more confusing to some users to see this method. At the same time, the amount of 44.1k 16b CDA audio I can fit on a DVD has much meaning either. Maybe just don't show the time for anything other than CD?

  2. Disk and Disc are both correct. Probably just a regional thing like gray/grey or jail/goal.

     

    I was always under the impression that when referring to any optical media CD/DVD/BD it was always disc with a "c". When talking about magnetic media 3 1/2" & 5 1/4" floppy or Hard Drive it was disk with a "k" as in diskette.

     

    Can anybody back this up or have I been misinformed for many years?

    I'm not sure why I care, but I feel I need to know for sure.

     

    EDIT:

    Just found these links. I guess they sum it up.

    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302152

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_or_disk_%28spelling%29

  3. As a rule of thumb, use 8000 as your max BR.

     

     

    Thanks,

     

    If my final medium is going to be DVD-R, I often use a max of less than 8. If a pressed disc is the end, 9.8 is usually where I end up. I often have discs with 16bit Stereo PCM, Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 along with 7 or more subtitle tracks. If I kept the max to 8, I wouldn't have enough head room for the video. Sometimes if you've got it, use it and let the players sort it out....

     

    On a side not, the correct spelling of disc (not disk >_< ), when referring to optical media comes up every time in the spell checker. I had to add it to the dictionary. Weird?!?

  4. DVD video has a maximum bandwidth that must be respected if your disc is intended for playback on a set-top player. This means that the fastest your DVD player can read the data from the disc is 9.8Mbps. This includes Video, Audio, Subtitles and the like. This is why your DVD authoring program (DVDauthorgui) needs to compress the video into MPEG2 and probably the audio into AC-3. The compression/encoding stage is where your quality is set. The higher your bit-rate the lower your compression and the better the quality.

     

    Keeping in mind the 9.8Mbps (mega bits per second) limit for DVD-V, if you do the math, your program would need to be longer than 60 minutes before you would even be able to consider a Dual Layer disc. 9.8Mbps / 8bps x 60s x 63m = 4,630,500 bytes.

     

    Keep in mind that DVDs are measured in base 10 and your hard drive looks at base 2, so even though your disc says 4.7GB, it will only hold a file that is 4.36GB from your computers HD.

     

    Also, a Dual Layer disc is not double a single layer disc. Because of the track spacing that is needed for a DL disc, each layer only holds 4.2GB for a total of 8.4GB. It is still a lot of space, but at max bit rate, a single layer can hold 63min and a DL will hold 114min. You also need to worry about a layer break, the spot in the video where the disc switches from layer 0 to layer 1.

     

    Last, I don't recommend maxing out your bit rate if your final product will be DVD-R. Many times recordable media is not as easily read as a pressed DVD. If you max out your quality, you don't leave your player with enough time to error correct on playback and can end up with stuttering or jumping video and audio.

     

    If you take the time and use a good encoder, you can get very nice quality from mid to low bit rates.

     

    Sorry for all the info. Maybe to much, but I hope it covers your issue!

  5. Nothing important here. Just thought this was amusing.

     

    I needed to burn four discs from an Admin PC (Dell). It only had a ROM drive and I didn't feel like transfering files to another machine so here's where I ended up.

     

    I 13:16:21 Source Device: [1:0:0] SONY BDRW BWU-100A 1.0a (D:) (ATA)

    I 13:16:21 Source Media Type: DVD-R (Book Type: DVD-R) (Disc ID: ProdiscF01) (Speeds: 4x, 6x)

     

    The only spare drive I could find was this cool new BD drive :w00t: and the only discs around were some junky Prodisc. :&

    I threw the drive in the Dell (no tools needed) and ImgBurn saw the drive, burned and verified, no questions asked. Gotta Love IB! :thumbup:

     

    Thanks!

  6. Is the disc actually "blank" or is it full and just not readable? An image that size should fill the entire disc and maybe it just looks like it's blank. If you compare the bottom of this disc to a new disc, are they the same color or is one lighter? If you put the disc back into the drive after a burn what does the disc info window say? If the disc is really blank, then it would seem that your drive is just pretending to burn the disc and that's why it can't verify it. In this case, I would probably recommend a new drive.

  7. If any of you are a fan of Futurama, they explored this topic in one of the episodes. Fry goes back in time and ends up accidnetaly killing his "grandfather". He comforts his grieving grandmother a little too much and BAM, he's his own grandfather. It somehow made perfect sense. Ahhh, cartoons.....

  8. Your drive only supports burning at 4x, 6x and 8x to this media. Since you set requested to burn at 2.4x, your drive is setting to the closest supported speed, 4x. A drive can't usually burn at the requested speed for the entire process so the average is usually lower than the max. In this case 3.8x.

     

    You could look to see if there is a firmware update for your drive that would allow for other burning speeds if you are concerned about it. Normally on DL media, the slower the burn the better. This allows the drive to spend more time burning each pit on the disc which creates a better quality burn.

     

    If you get good burns with 4x, that suits your purpose, then use 4x. As long as the disc verifies correctly and plays ok on your equipment, then that's all that really matters. I burn all my DL discs at 4x and rarely verify. I'm a little impatient sometimes.

  9. Some software DVD players will play from an ISO image file. Many won't.

    An ISO is just a package that contains all the files as they would appear on the disc. There is no compression involved and should be the same size as the original DVD

  10. Are you trying to burn something other than an iso image using "write" mode? If so, try using build mode to create an image either to hard drive or on the fly to the disc. Write mode only supports writing image files.

     

    [edit] I thought for once I would be able to answer one of these first.... I guess I need to type fast around here!

  11. Anybody know where I might find a firmware update for a LiteOn SSM-8515S? It came installed in my wife's Acer Aspire 5000 laptop and I can't seem to find any firmware anywhere. It came with GRS2 and I don't actually know how current that is. I use ImgBurn all the time on my desktops with no problems, but am having nothing but trouble with this laptop.

     

    I tried one to burn a data disc using a Prodisc DVD-R and it wouldn't finish writing the lead in. I know they are junk but I've burned hundreds of these on my Pioneer 109's with no problems. After 20 minutes, I force quit and rebooted to get the disc out. It had written some, but not past the lead in.

     

    Thinking maybe this drive just didn't like Prodisc, I used a Verb DVD+R DL even though the ISO was only 3Gig (all on first layer). It wrote the lead in and then the full image at 4x, but then hung up on the lead out. Again I force quit and had to reboot to get the disc out. The disc finished and reads back fine, but something isn't happy.

     

    This is only the 2nd and 3rd discs that have been burned with this drive. The first was a Prodisc burned with DVD Dec that worked fine.

     

    I've looked on the ACER site, the LiteOn site and rpc1.org with no firmware options at all. Any other ideas would also be a help.

     

    Here is the info panel from the Verb burn. I couldn't find any saved logs, maybe since I had to force quit out both times?

     

    Slimtype DVDRW SSM-8515S GRS2 (ATA)

    Current Profile: DVD+R DL

     

    Disc Information:

    Status: Complete

    Erasable: No

    Sessions: 1

    Sectors: 1,637,232

    Size: 3,353,051,136 bytes

    Time: 363:51:57 (MM:SS:FF)

    Supported Write Speeds: 2.4x, 4x

     

    DVD?R DL Boundary Information:

    L0 Data Zone Capacity: 1,637,232

    Changeable: No

     

    TOC Information:

    Session 1...

    -> Track 01 (Mode 1, LBA: 0 - 1637231)

    -> LeadOut (LBA: 1637232)

     

    Physical Format Information (ADIP):

    Disc ID: MKM-001-00

    Book Type: DVD+R DL

    Part Version: 1

    Disc Size: 120mm

    Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified

    Number of Layers: 2

    Track Path: Opposite Track Path (OTP)

    Linear Density: 0.293 um/bit

    Track Density: 0.74 um/track

    First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608

    Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 16,580,607

    Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 2,283,519

     

    Physical Format Information (Last Recorded):

    Disc ID: MKM-001-00

    Book Type: DVD+R DL

    Part Version: 1

    Disc Size: 120mm

    Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified

    Number of Layers: 2

    Track Path: Opposite Track Path (OTP)

    Linear Density: 0.293 um/bit

    Track Density: 0.74 um/track

    First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608

    Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 1,833,839

    Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 1,833,839

     

    Layer Information:

    Layer 0 Sectors: 1,637,232 (100%)

    Layer 1 Sectors: 0 (0%)

     

     

    Please move this if it would be better in another section.

    Thanks!

  12. I've not tried this exactly the same way, but I often burn multiple DL DVD copies of discs from a single ISO. Six simultaneously is the most I've tried and admittedly it is slow. I do four at once all the time. I set up all the burns before starting any. If you start one and and then try and open a second instance, it is often enough to cause problems with the first. If burning two at a time, I set my max burn speed to 4x. Three or more and I knock it back to 2x.

     

    I'm using six Pioneer 109 drives connected via firewire and Verb DL's only. I know everyone will say it's risky (and it is) but if a client is waiting for test copies of their project, you don't want to make them wait!

     

    I don't know if it makes a difference if they are all the same drive type or how they are connected, but so far, so good here.

  13. The last time when I posted this topic, for very same reason that layer 1 was larger than layer 0 and I wanted to give clients as exact a test disc as possible, it was determined that the media was the problem. The reason is that OTP and PTP media are indeed different.

     

    Since DVD drives only spin the disc in one direction, the track spiral path must match this. For OTP media, the spiral direction on the two layers is opposite (Opposite Track Path) since the laser reads from the center out and then switches layers and reads from that point back to the center. For PTP media (Parallel Track Path) the spiral direction is the same for both layers since the laser starts at the center and reads out for each layer.

     

    You can use a record player for an example. The record only spins in one direction and when the needle follows the path, it reads from the center out. If you try to keep the record going in the same direction, and read from the outside back in, it doesn't sound so good. There is no path to follow back to the center without jumping ridges.

     

    The only way to accomplish center out reading on a current disc would be to stop the disc at the end of layer 0 and then spin it backwards for the second layer. I think this would require a little more than a firware upgrade.

     

    Another option would be if you could call the recorder to jump to the edge of the disc when it switches layers and start recording back from the very outside. This would allow you to have layer 1 larger than layer 0, but even if you could command a recorder to do this, I gaurantee it would not play on 99% of players as it is a violation of DVD-Spec. Even if it did work, it would still not be PTP.

     

    I'm not sure why anybody at Verbatim would tell you that it is possible. It is the physical limitations of their discs that will not allow for this. Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this. I would love to be able to burn PTP.

     

    NC

  14. The mastering company is probably using Eclipse software to verify and create the glass master. Unfortunately, a ddp image is about the only thing you can give eclipse. Wheather it comes from tape, or a file set, it is all just ddp.

     

    Many replication plants will take DVD-+R media for masters. They will often inform you that you can't use RCE or CSS since recordable media doesn't allow for it. Many small replicators will take almost anything for a master. They are always trying to gain new clients and are very flexible. You should call around and see if you can get a better deal at another facility.

     

    If you really need to create and send a ddp, you can try Gear Pro Mastering Edition. Maybe a trial version or something is available. I know there is a create ddp function. Also DVD Studio Pro on the Mac has a ddp file output option, but I'm not sure if you need to create the project in DVDSP for this to work. Sonic has "Sonic Rom Formatter" but it is expesive so unless you know someone with a copy, it's probably out of reach.

     

    NC

  15. I just tried to install V2.2 on my WindowsNT 4.0 system and it will not run. It seems to be missing MSIMG32.DLL. Is this version not compatable with NT? I can't upgrade this system since other software requires NT. I've gone back to V2.1 and everything is fine. This isn't a big deal since I've never had a problem with 2.1, but I thought I would see if there is a way around this.

     

    Thanks!

  16. DDP as said above (Disc Descriptor Protocol) is the format that the image is written to DLT tape to be sent for replication. CMF (Cutting Master Format) is a format written to DVD-R Authoring Media (Anybody remember the Pioneer S201 drives). This allowed for a DVD-R to be sent to the replicator instead of a tape. CMF allowed for region coding and possibly (not sure) CSS to be added to the master image. The disc would also still be playable in a set top player. CMF can not be written to DVD-R general discs, the ones that are common and affordable. Neither DDP or CMF are platform specific and are formats unto themselves.

     

    It would be handy to be able to write a DDP image to a file or direct to DLT. It wouldn't be used much since most current DVD authoring products can write this image themselves. Only for data discs and older authoring packages that don't support plant direct images.

  17. If any of this info is off limits, moderators please edit or remove.

     

    The DLT tape itself will most likely not be CSS encrypted. The encryption process generally happens at the replication plant when they create the glass master. The keys are added at this point. Since they are so expensive, almost no DVD authoring facilities can afford to purchase the keys.

     

    If the intent was for this DVD to be CSS encrypted, the sector size written to the DLT will be 2054 rather than 2048. The 6 extra bytes per sector are where the CSS keys are written. 2048 is currently the only allowable sector size for recordable DVD's.

     

    If you read back the DLT (using Gear, Eclipse, your favorite authoring software, or other) you will get three files. CONTROL.DAT, DDPID.DAT and MAIN.DAT (sometimes MAIN.IMG) The only one you need to be concerned with will be the largest MAIN.DAT. The other two you can throw away. Rename the file with an IMG suffix and open in ImgBurn. When you try to burn it will inform you that it has a 2054 sector size and it will just cut off the extra. Say OK and burn away. Some players may complain that the copy protect flag is on (Quicktime) but the info isn't copy protected. This is fixable, but not on this forum.

     

    If you are trying to restore a DVD-9 (you will have two DLT's) then you will need to combine the two files together. The simplest way to do this is using the dos "copy" command. "copy /b layer0.dat + layer1.dat fullimage.img" Layer0.dat is the first layer, layer1.dat is the second layer and fullimage.img is the complete image fill output. You need to use the /b command to do a binary copy append. You can use ImgBurn to find a layer break, or you can calculate the layer break by dividing the layer0 file size by 2054 or 2048 where applicable to get the number of sectors on the first layer. This method is only a problem if the intent of the author was for the final pressed disc to be written PTP and the size of layer 1 is larger than layer 0.

     

    I hope this helps. Good luck!

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