Dreamcast CD burning Invalid Field in parameter list

[Maztr_0n]

i was excited to get some CD-Rs today to burn some rare/obscure dreamcast games onto, so i tried the infamous Spirit of Speed 1937 and it would always stop around sector 80400 or so and give me an error, i also notice the "buffer" bar starts to go down slowly before this happens, why is this happening? 

ImgBurn.log

[dbminter]

It's as I suspected.  This is most likely your culprit:

I 23:47:45 Destination Media Type: CD-R (Disc ID: 97m26s66f, CMC Magnetics Corp.)

 

CMC Magnetics makes the worst optical discs out there.  More than half the problems we see on this board are caused by CMC media and usually go away when you switch to quality media.

 

You probably got the Verbatim Life Series CD-R in a brick and mortar store?  Those are CMC's.  You'll want the DataLife Plus Series, also labeled as AZO, which you generally mostly only find in online store like Amazon.com.

 

The ironic thing is Verbatim sells both the high quality Mitsubishi media and the low quality CMC media.  Even more ironic?  CMC OWNS Verbatim!

[Maztr_0n]

oh my, i didnt know. That sucks eh?

[Maztr_0n]

https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-Super-Printable-Spindle-43438/dp/B00097CE30/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1_mod_primary_new?crid=D5DZTIWOP419&keywords=DataLife%2BPlus%2BSeries%2BAZO&qid=1702747842&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=datalife%2Bplus%2Bseries%2Bazo%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1-fkmr0&th=1

would these be good for burning my games?
or these?

https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-700MB-DataLifePlus-Inkjet-Printable/dp/B0002J5HHK/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=DataLife%2BPlus%2BSeries%2BAZO&qid=1702748791&sr=8-4&th=1

Edited December 16, 2023 by Maztr_0n
additional link

[dbminter]

I've never had those in the first link before.  They say AZO so they should be the good stuff.

 

I have had those in the 2nd link before, those DataLife Plus ones.  They are the good ones.  Or, well, rather, they were the last time I ordered them, which was some years ago.

[Maztr_0n]

okay i'll order the first ones on amazon and report back once i get them

 

[dbminter]

It's not 100% guaranteed to fix the problem, but it generally does.

[Maztr_0n]

well i'd hope so, i dont think i've ever had disc drive problems before. Also a different program reacted similarly to another disc from the same batch, still didnt think it worked properly when i put it into the dreamcast, but perhaps the varied results in each disc means something

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I very much doubt 'Test Mode' will work if you're trying to burn an image like this (multi-session).

Can you post the log from a burn where 'Test Mode' isn't used? It would probably give a different error.

[Maztr_0n]

okay i'll try, i've got different 50 discs now, i can spare some duds now

On 12/19/2023 at 12:24 AM, LIGHTNING UK! said:

I very much doubt 'Test Mode' will work if you're trying to burn an image like this (multi-session).

Can you post the log from a burn where 'Test Mode' isn't used? It would probably give a different error.

 

[Maztr_0n]

okay so heres my log, these are datalifeplus discs.
first was test mode which failed
and then without it 

it seemed to work just fine! sometimes buffer went to 0 but then it synchronized apparently and worked fine again! verify confirmed it had no errors so (sadly my console is away and in need of repair) but i'd say this has got to be a success!

ImgBurn2.log

[dbminter]

There are other benefits to switching to AZO/DataLife Plus away from CMC.  Even if you get CMC's to work in your drive and they burn, verify, and play okay, they will most likely become unreadable far sooner than the AZO/DataLife Plus ones.  So, one of the benefits of the more expensive quality media is that they will generally last longer.  I've only ever had 1 MKM DVD+R DL from Verbatim die on me after it successfully burned, verified, and played.

[dbminter]

2 hours ago, Maztr_0n said:

okay so heres my log, these are datalifeplus discs.
first was test mode which failed
and then without it 

it seemed to work just fine! sometimes buffer went to 0 but then it synchronized apparently and worked fine again! verify confirmed it had no errors so (sadly my console is away and in need of repair) but i'd say this has got to be a success!

ImgBurn2.log 18.6 kB · 0 downloads

 

I've never tried Test mode, so I can't say how accurate it is.  However, I believe LUK has said the Test mode is only an emulation of the actual Write mode, so it may return false negatives.

[ThaCrip]

I am a bit late... but I see that game you want (i.e. "Spirit of Speed 1937") on Archive site and you can try using Padus DiscJuggler software if you want as while I nearly exclusively use ImgBurn in general, Padus DiscJuggler is the official software for ".CDI" files which CDI files are what you need for using on real Dreamcast hardware.

I was looking into this stuff a moment ago and found the last released version of Padus DiscJuggler (i.e. https://dreamcast.wiki/DiscJuggler ) on my Linux setup and it seems okay. just in some brief testing I burned a game to CD-RW just to see what my Dreamcast would do and it does not even see the CD-RW disc.

I recently brought out my Dreamcast as it was collecting dust for many years as I tried one of my burned CD-R's (Mortal Kombat Gold), which I burned June 2004 on some generic 'CMC Magnetics Corp' media (as there is no brand name on the disc), and... the game still loads up but I noticed in the game it does not take long before the sound goes out in regards to punches/kicks etc but the background music is still okay. so either my copy degraded, or... it 'may' have been like that back when I first burned it. I 'may' try reburning that same game from a CDI image I found online just to see if it's any better. I tried comparing the original one I burned from June 2004 to the burned CDI image to CD-RW and ImgBurn shows for the June 2004 burned CD-R... "Size: 661,381,120 bytes". the one I just tested is... "Size: 736,954,368 bytes". even looking at basic 'data' section of the disc (not the Audio part) shows "378,216,295 bytes" on NEW disc. the June 2004 one shows... "352,110,505 bytes". I heard there was a couple of different versions of this game, so 'maybe' that's why. the file I downloaded says 'Re-release'. but I can't really say for sure. but I said screw it and decided to burn it to a Verbatim CD-R (one of the usual cheaper 'CMC Magnetics Corp' ones) at 8x (seems DiscJuggler did not take my 8x write speed setting as it appears it's burning it pretty much full speed as it only took 3min10sec to finish writing it and it's basically a full disc) on my 'Sony Optiarc 7240s' and see if that issue I had with the June 2004 copy went away and... it seems to work with no more audio missing issue with kicks/punches etc as it works as expected. so I am leaning towards that previous copy was flawed, not in burning quality but the data itself(?).

TIP: from what some claim, burning Dreamcast games slow is probably a good idea. most modern-ish burners don't seem to burn CD-R's any slower than 8x though. but I most likely burned that CD-R from June 2004 on a burner I still have (Liteon 24102b) as I never had a DVD burner until I think 2005-2006.

p.s. my console has to be one of the earlier models as it's got a Sep 1999 mfg date on it as the console was released Sep 9th 1999 here in USA (I noticed the console does not seem to keep the data you setup for long as powering it off for not long and back on seems to ask to set date again etc). I most likely bought mine in 1999 or 2000 at the latest.

[ThaCrip]

Also, I just messed around with ImgBurn with the same CDI file (Mortal Kombat Gold) and it passed a 'Verify' on the CD-R I burned with Padus DiscJuggler once I put the "pfctoc.dll" file (i.e. https://download.imgburn.com/pfctoc.zip ) into root of ImgBurn install directory on my Linux setup. but just to see what would happen after removing that file, it throws a error that it can't read the CDI file like expected. so if I do decide to burn another Dreamcast CDI file I might try ImgBurn as that should have no trouble adjusting write speed down to 8x like Padus DiscJuggler does (maybe DiscJuggler won't have this issue on Windows or older burners(?)) and I prefer ImgBurn in general.

but on that Dreamcast wiki page I noticed it says, "ImgBurn is usually very reliable with burning DiscJuggler CDI files, but on rare occasions there may be incompatible discs requiring the use of the original DiscJuggler software." ; I wonder if anyone has ever actually had any issues with ImgBurn burning CDI files as the quote says 'may be'?

[ThaCrip]

ALTERNATIVELY: I was just playing with 'Redream' and 'Flycast', which are Dreamcast emulators for PC etc (I am using the Linux versions but there is ones for Windows obviously to), and those work well.

Redream is a little easier to setup than Flycast but both work well with the game I tested, which is the one I mentioned above (Mortal Kombat Gold, using same CDI file I burned to CD-R for real Dreamcast use). on Flycast I had to switch from 'OpenGL' to 'Vulkan' though (as frame rate etc was pretty much shot on OpenGL but Vulkan runs as expected) and on Flycast you need Dreamcast BIOS files (which are easy enough to find online). even on Windows I heard you want to select DIrectX or Vulkan over OpenGL in regards to Flycast (it seems to default to OpenGL from what I can tell). but one thing I like on Flycast is when you start up the game as normally you have to wait through the intro videos etc, while you still have to, pressing 'spacebar' basically fast-forwards it so you wait much less time and then pressing it again once you can actually play goes back to normal speed.

just on a personal note... while I have not fully configured everything on these emulators for PC yet, besides the somewhat benefit of using it on real Dreamcast hardware with the real controller, depending on the game you are playing, I might prefer the emulated stuff more overall mainly because I can connect my X-Arcade dual-stick (I bought this back in the 2000's to play fighting games, primarily Mortal Kombat (series)/Killer Instinct on the MAME (arcade) emulator) to play MK: Gold which is better suited for the game than the four-button layout with the two back triggers on real Dreamcast controller. but even when it comes to random Dreamcast games through emulation I can likely just use my wireless XBox360 controller and get a very similar experience as if it was using real Dreamcast hardware.

so depending on what one has for use on their PC (like a decent controller and assuming their hardware is passable for Dreamcast emulation)... using Dreamcast games through emulation on PC appears to be a solid alternative to using real Dreamcast hardware. not surprisingly graphics are generally better on PC monitor. even on my recent Dreamcast use (on the real Dreamcast hardware) I had it connected to my usual 1080p TV but using the standard yellow/white/red connection from the old days as thankfully my TV (which has a 2016 mfg date) still has support for that old connection unlike a lot of fairly recent TV's which seems to be stuck to using the modern HDMI.

p.s. for those who have a more generic iGPU (like those built-in Intel GPU's that normally too weak for gaming) they might be passable on this sort of stuff given the age of Dreamcast games as it does not take a powerful GPU to run them as my 'NVIDIA 1050 Ti 4GB' GPU, which is basically 2016 GPU tech, along with a i5-3550 CPU, which is basically a good CPU back in 2012, easily handles them.