Daystrom M5

Hello, Added the volume label and drive info to the "ImgBurn File Info". Latest version attached. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] If any information is too long to fit in the display area the excess will just disappear off to the right hand side. I hope this is an acceptable compromise. I placed the data in what I thought was a logical order. Let me know what you think.

Hello, Latest version of BurnPlot attached. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] I tweaked the RPM plot calculations a bit (Realized they were not responding to the media layer break) and, per Cynthia's suggestion, I have started to work on multiple language capability. As suggested by riahc3 I have edited my original post and added the most recent version to that post as well. @ thekochs - The .ibg files do contain the "DATA_VOLUMEIDENTIFIER" information and this can be added to the Imgburn file info displayed in BurnPlot, but, displaying this information won't change the name of screen capture images which are currently saved as a .png with the name of the .ibg file loaded. As suggested by LIGHTNING UK! you would probably be better off changing the way ImgBurn names the .ibg files so you would not need to rename the .png files before saving. @ LIGHTNING UK! - Still looking for a selection of .ibg files so I can refine my averaging routine and check out the layer break stuff. Thanks.

@ LordWarlock & LIGHTNING UK! - OK, will do, next build. The two icons are identical - "1" is the form icon and "AAA" is the RC compiled resource used with the vbaccelerator code module. I will have to look at the vbaccelerator code so I understand what it is actually doing. @ Shamus_McFartfinger - This is why I will never migrate to Vista - All show and no go ! I'm glad to see that Windows 7 is not quite the resource hog that Vista proved to be. Nice analogy but I have to admit I just bought my first digital camera. I waited until I could buy a 10 Megapixel camera at a reasonable price. I wanted the resolution to approximate that of film. I want to see every hair - is that so wrong ? BTW - How much do you usually pay for a hooker ?

Yes, thank you.

Hello, New version of BurnPlot attached. BurnPlot.exe @ LordWarlock - Let me know if the taskbar icon works correctly in Windows 7. I tried the vbaccelerator code again. I must have done something wrong the first time. It looks OK in XP but who knows if it is actually going to do what it is supposed to do in Windows 7. @ LIGHTNING UK! / Everyone - I would like some .ibg files for CD, DVD (SL & DL), HD DVD (SL & DL) and BD (SL & DL) media so I can work on the data averaging routine. If you have any, please attach them. Thanks.

It looks like I misspoke - I am not actually using the "Windows Classic" theme. My current theme is described as "Windows XP (Modified)" under Display Properties and it is anything but gray ! I am happy to say that a little research reveals I will be able to modify the default Windows 7 "Readers Digest" taskbar to resemble the XP taskbar (Small icons and descriptive text for open programs) and enable the Quick Launch toolbar. It looks like I will still be able to tweak the UI to my liking much as I did when I started using XP. I guess I won't be shopping for an Apple just yet.

<Rant> Well, then, I guess I need shooting ! I was appalled when I first saw the "fuzzy bunny" interface of XP but relieved to see that I could use the "classic" view to get my desktop, start menu, and folder views to resemble something I was familiar with but still retained the XP style. I am sorry to hear that there is no "classic" option available in Windows 7. Now, besides there being no functional reason for me to ever migrate to Vista or Windows 7, it appears that there are stylistic reasons for me not to do so. I am probably missing the point here but if I wanted the Readers Digest large type taskbar I would have gotten one of those magnifying lenses to put over my monitor. Maybe it's time to start looking at an Apple ! </Rant>

Hello, @ LIGHTNING UK! - Yes, you missed DVD+RW and DVD-RW. It worked out well though. The .ibg issue forced me to clean up my code a bit. The case statement I use to setup the graphs was looking for discrete media types ("CD-ROM", "DVD-ROM", "HD DVD-ROM", "BD-ROM", etc...) which would fail if the program encountered an unknown media type. (As you found out. I did not include an "Else" statement so errors would be easy to spot.) The new structure looks for the first two characters of the media type ("CD", "DV", "HD", "BD") and then scales the graph according to disk capacity (Media sectors * data type - the SL/DL check you suggested because some media types do not differentiate between them.) Let me know if you see any problems with this technique. @ LordWarlock - Is that the "Quick Launch" portion of the Windows 7 taskbar you are showing ? What about the center portion of the taskbar that shows an icon and title for open windows/running programs - is that also twice as high as Windows XP taskbar ? Please tell me that Microsoft has included a "Classic" desktop/taskbar theme so I can do away with the preschooler version you are showing me !

Hello, Sorry about the ocx ! Never even thought to check for dependencies when I added the rich text boxes. Fixed in this version. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] @ LIGHTNING UK! - Fixed the issue with the .ibg file you attached. Turns out the "Media Type" in this particular .ibg file was not included in the list of valid media types you provided. Of course you are correct about the icons - removing the 4 bit icons seemed to give me the desired effect. (At least on XP and, apparently, on Vista.) I had already tried the code suggested by LordWarlock and ended up with a nice taskbar icon but a blank white box where the form icon should be. (VB6 does not support 32 bit form icons - I guess.) @ LordWarlock - I am unfamiliar with Windows 7. Why would you need a 32x32 icon in the taskbar ? Is the taskbar in Windows 7 twice as tall as the taskbar in XP ? @ Everyone - Should be approaching useful with this version. As LIGHTNING UK! mentioned, let me know what you think about the layout. Thanks.

Hello, Latest version of BurnPlot attached. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] Changes made to this version : 1. Form and taskbar icon fixed. (I hope !) 2. MEDIA_LAYER_BREAK indicator line implemented. (Yellow line instead of red.) 3. DVDInfoPro like .ibg file data displayed. 4. DVD-ROM, HD DVD, and BD media SL/DL check implemented. I don't have any .ibg's to test some of this stuff so I hope it all works. As always, take it for a spin and let me know what you find. Thanks.

Hello, I may be wrong, but, as I understand CLV drive operation, to achieve a straight RPM plot you need to vary the burn/verify rate exactly as the circumference changes while you burn/verify the disk. I doubt this would happen often given the variety of drives, media, and system capabilities. I just posted this question on the CD Freaks Forum. I hope someone can lead me in the right direction.

Hello, @ LIGHTNING UK! & mmalves - I found three bugs in my Open/Save file routine (One you already know about) after posting the previous version of BurnPlot. I fixed them and attached the new version. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] @ LIGHTNING UK! - Not sure about the icon - I am using an icon with 4 sizes at three different color depths. I'll look into it. Can you send me .ibg files for the various types of media so I can make changes and use them for testing ? (MEDIA_LAYER_BREAK) Except for the scaling, I have to stand behind my math on the RPM calculations but I will ask at cdfreaks to see how they think it should be done. (Checked the current algorithm with custom .ibg files I created. I think curved speed plots should give a curved RPM plot.) I can change the UI any way you like but I was trying to avoid creating a DVDInfoPro look-a-like and only included the information I felt necessary. Do you want me to present everything DVDInfoPro does ? The raw setting simply plots each sample read from the .ibg file and, yea, it looks "busy". I will look at DVDInfoPro again to see what he is actually doing. ( As soon as I reinstall DVDInfoPro - expired trial.) Currently not saving any settings. Will look into writing them to the registry. Always improving. Thanks.

Hello, Yet another "latest version" of BurnPlot attached. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] Made the following changes : 1.) Use localized settings for .ibg date and time data formatting. 2.) Changed 'Raw Data' / 'Average Data' selection to radio boxes. 3.) Removed 'Shown' / 'Hidden' / 'No Data' text from plot selection descriptions. 4.) Use common dialog for open file and save file functions. (Open file defaults to user selected ImgBurn graph file folder. Save defaults to desktop.) 5.) Standardized drop down menu selections. I think I see light at the end of the tunnel but I am not sure. Take it out for a spin and let me know how it works. Thanks.

Hello, Another new version of BurnPlot attached. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] @ Cynthia - I think I have addressed all of your issues except for date/time formatting. I display the information as read from the .ibg files. If local formatting is something that DVDInfoPro does then I will look into it. @ LIGHTNING UK! - I cheated and added the manifest file to the compiled .exe with Resource Hacker. @ Everyone - I think the program only has a couple of thousand problems now. Let me know how it looks. Thanks.

Hello, I haven't had too much time to work on this during the week. (OT at work.) I attached a new version with what I have done. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] @ LIGHTNING UK! - I added the code for the XP manifest but I am still trying to figure out how to add the manifest to the .exe as a resource. I attached a manifest file for testing - just remove the .txt from the name. (Wouldn't let me upload as a manifest file.) I scaled the following media types per your previous post : CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW - 1.125GB full scale / 125MB increments. DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM - 4.5GB full scale / 500MB increments. DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL - 9.0GB full scale / 1GB increments. HD DVD-ROM, HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM - 18.0 GB full scale / 2GB increments. BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE - 27.0GB full scale / 3GB increments. You didn't mention DL HD DVD or DL BD media as types that ImgBurn would report in the .ibg files. Should I add these media types as well ? I am saving the plots as a .png now. Let me know if I corrected the "save" problem and if I am only capturing BurnPlot instead of the whole desktop. @ Everyone - Try it out and let me know how it works. Thanks.

Hello, New version of BurnPlot attached. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version] @ LIGHTNING UK! - I am still working on horizontal axis scaling, RPM data ploting, and saving the plots as a .png, but, I think I fixed the problem with opening the last .ibg you sent me (Even made a few worst case .ibg files to check it out), disabled the splash screen, and added the command line parameter functionality. Let me know if the command line parameter stuff works the way you want. Would you happen to know the 1X maximum (Sector 0) and minimum (Last sector) RPM's for CD, DVD, HD, and BD CLV drives ? I will use these values to scale the RPM calculations. @ Cynthia - Sorry about the screen name. I have been using that name since I worked in Japan several years ago. Most Americans have no idea what it means so it was kind of an inside joke. @ Everyone - Bug reports, please. Thanks.

Hello, It looks like BurnPlot will open .ibg files on Cynthia and eSkRo's systems now. Good, now I can start concentrating on form over function. Let me answer a few of your questions - yes, yes, no, yes, no, no, yes, and no. Just kidding. @ LIGHTNING UK! - 1. I think I have figured out an algorithm to calculate the RPM data but I will try the link provided to see if they have a better way. 2. Window start position = center screen. OK. 3. Yes, I can scale the X-axis the same as DVDInfoPro - even though he compresses the plots to show a 4.7GB DVD on a 4.5GB scale. Can you give me a list of all the valid "MEDIA_TYPE" entries ImgBurn can/will show in the .ibg files ? (Such as CD-R, DVD-R, etc...) 4. The splash screen is just for show. Should I eliminate it or just shorten the time out ? 5. I am adding the ability to save the plot image as a .png. I will use the common dialog for saving an image which will eliminate the drop down menu problem. 6. Will fix the icon in the next go round. @ Cynthia - 1. I am not trapping any errors so people can tell me if they have an error instead of "It looks wierd". When I get BurnPlot to the point where it seems to work for everyone I will trap the errors so it doesn't bomb out on unsuspecting users. Interestingly, I tried opening a "fake" .ibg file (.png renamed to .ibg) with DVDInfoPro - the first time it trapped the error and gave me a nice message but the second time it blew up and invoked Dr. Watson for a dump which also crashed. I had to use task manager to end the process - very messy ! 2. As I mentioned to LIGHTNING UK! above I am adding the ability to save the plot image as a .png. I will use the common dialog for saving an image which will eliminate the drop down menu problem. The open and save dialogs initial directories will be ImgBurn\Graph Data Files and Current Users\Desktop respectively. @ Everyone - Again thanks for your help/suggestions.

Hello, @Cynthia - Thank you very much ! Your post about changing the 'Regional and Language Options' on your system pointed me in the right direction. Since you were able to get the program to work by changing your settings to "English(United States)" I thought I should be able to get it to fail if I changed my settings to "Swedish". (Duh!!) I was able to reproduce the error and since I was inside the VB IDE it took only seconds to find the problem. @LIGHTNING UK! - I use the 'Split' function to parse the CSV data into separate values and then 'Val' to convert the text into a double - or at least I should have been. I found I had not used 'Val" on some of my calculations. (Copy and paste error) Apparently the strings were being evaluated properly in the "English" environment but failed miserably when faced with an alternate reality. BTW - the "browse for file" is back in. I found an all API solution so no problems with a missing OCX. Yea ! @Everyone - I managed to reproduce the errors Cynthia and eSkRo were having by changing my language settings to Swedish and French. I believe I have corrected the issue. Please take some time and throw a few .ibg files at the new version (attached) to see if I have really solved the problem. Thanks. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version]

Hi Everyone, @ Cynthia - Thank you for the information. It will be very helpful. @ LIGHTNING UK! - I have not had much time to work on this during the week but I managed to make a few of the UI changes you suggested. I added a "browse for file" menu button but removed it because VB requires an OCX to access the common dialog used for file browsing. A quick test on the only machine I have without the VB IDE installed reveals that the program will not run because a virgin XP installation does not have the required OCX. I would like for this to be a "no installation required" type of program so I hope the D&D will be sufficient. The RPM scale I added would be correct if I was actually plotting RPM values. Working on it. (Do you happen to have the algorithm used to calculate disk RPM from the data you provide in the .ibg files ?) The horizontal graph scale is currently only acurate for 4.7GB DVD's. Working on it. The vertical graph scale is currently fixed and does not provide adequate head room for CD write or verify speeds. Working on that too. This program is intended to be a companion to ImgBurn so any suggestions as to what type of a theme you would like to see on the plot toggle buttons ? @ Everyone - I have attached a new version of the program that (On my system at least) opens and plots all the .ibg files you have provided. If you have time, please try it on your system to see if it will work in your environment. When you open an .ibg file, this version of the program will create a text file on your desktop that contains the burn/verify data as parsed by the program. If you have a problem with an .ibg file please attach the text file and the .ibg so I can see what is going wrong. Thank you. [Edited - Previous Version Removed, See Current Post For Latest Version]

Hi everyone, @LIGHTNING UK! - Yes, I was trying to reverse engineer the .ibg files because I thought you had some kind of a deal going with the author of DVDInfoPro and would therefore be reluctant to divulge any proprietary information. Two questions concerning the .ibg file structure : 1. I thought the WRITE_GRAPH_VALUE data lines contained this information - Write Speed, Sector, Write RPM, Write Buffer %, Write CPU % and the VERIFY_GRAPH_VALUE data lines contained this information - Verify Speed, Sector, Verify RPM, Verify CPU % but it seems I am wrong about the Write RPM/Verify RPM data - what do these data entries actually represent ? 2. Can you show me the algorithm used to generate the checksum shown at the bottom of the .ibg files ? BurnPlot is written in VB6 and I am using the split function (With ',' as the separator) to parse the graph data lines. I am confused as to why this is apparently not working on Cynthia and cornholio7's systems even though their .ibg files work properly on my system and the screen captures show that their systems are presenting the .ibg files in a fashion that should parse properly with the split function. I will add a check for the separator value and see if that corrects the problem. BurnPlot is not dealing well with .ibg files that contain burn or verify only data which explains the errors you and eSkRo received from the .ibg files you provided. A few modifications should fix that. @Everyone - As I mentioned in my original post, BurnPlot was created over a weekend and only tested with the .ibg files I had on hand. (4.7GB SL DVD-R Burned and Verified) Thanks to your input I will be able to correct the problems that I never knew existed. Feel free to send me as many .ibg files as you wish so I can continue testing.

Hi Cynthia and cornholio7, Thanks for attaching your .ibg files. Unfortunately, they seem to open properly on my system. (See attached pictures.) It looks like I am dealing with a Windows conversion problem. From your screen captures it looks like you are both running Vista - is that correct ? Could you open your .ibg files in notepad and send me a screen capture so I can see how they are presented on your systems ? @LIGHTNING UK! - I am not sure how DVDInfoPro is coming up with the Write RPM plots. My Verify RPM plots seem to match DVDInfoPro but my Write RPM plots not so much. Are the Write/Verify RPM values in the .ibg files direct RPM values or are they a percentage as are the CPU and Buffer values ? Please attach a read only .ibg so I can use it to verify my program changes. Thanks.

Hi everyone, Thank you for the input. As LIGHTNING UK! pointed out, most of the problems you are having stem from an OS running in a language other than English and the use of different plot data seperators. As I mentioned, I put this together last weekend and never even thought about handling foreign language conventions. Currently, BurnPlot expects the plot values to be in CSV format and uses string comparisions to pick up the burn file information and detect the end of burn and verify plot data. Both of these go right out the window when faced with a language other than English and the use of a '.' instead of a ',' to seperate the plot data values. I will try to implement checksum verification on the next version and then I can eliminate the string comparisons making the program language independent. (I hope !) I will also check for the plot data value seperator type to solve that problem. @ LIGHTNING UK! - I don't mind tweaking the program if people feel it may be useful. I appreciate your UI suggestions and will implement them. The .ibg file you attached has an anomaly I have not run into with all the .ibg files I have on my system. The file info shows "DATA_SECTORS=2468832". The last burn data sample sector count = 2468832 but the last verify data sample sector count is only 236736. This allowed the program to over run the data and caused the error you received while opening the file. I will fix that. Can you attach a read only .ibg file so I can see why it won't open ? @ cornholio7, Cynthia, and eSkRo - Can you attach the .ibg files you used to create the plots shown in your posts ? I will use them to verify the efficacy of my modifications. Again, thanks for the input. I will see what I can do and upload a new version in a couple of days.

Hello, After a recent problem burning a DVD I decided I wanted to view the numerous ImgBurn .ibg files saved on my system. I was dismayed to find that ImgBurn has no internal support for these files but relies on DVDInfoPro to provide a graphical view of these files. While DVDInfoPro offers quite a few outstanding features it is, unfortunately, a trialware program and a quick bit of research at the VideoHelp website (The same site that introduced me to ImgBurn) revealed quite a few negative opinions towards this aspect of the program and the programs author. As some what of a "shade tree" programmer I decided to make a weekend project of creating a freeware program that will allow people to view the .ibg files generated by ImgBurn. I have attached my first pathetic attempt at such a program. (Version 1.0.1.4) BurnPlot.exe The program is a work in progress. I am currently working on the RPM plot calculations and the ability to use language files. I had some spare time yesterday and decided to add a bell and/or whistle to the program. Added a pseudo CAD/CAM feel to this version - mouse over the plots and the sector and plot value information will be displayed. No real functional changes so I left the previous version available for download. (Version 1.0.1.5) BurnPlot.exe Any suggestions or comments concerning the program will be appreciated. Thank you.