Is Bitsetting Supported By The Asus DRW-1608P2S ?

[scuzzy]

I've been exploring the ImgBurn change-book-type feature with some DVD+R discs, trying to figure out whether my drive supports it. It's an Asus DRW-1608P2S, for which there is no explicit tab in the drive-type list of the change-book-type dialog - so I guess I have to hope that Asus drives are OEM'd from some other manufacturer for which there is a tab.

 

Research so far suggests the drive (mechanism ?) is a rebadged Pioneer, and the electronics is from NEC - and that some degree of "auto" bitsetting may be available (depending on exact model) but only for DL discs (why only for DL ?). There's no change-book-type tab for Pioneer drives ...

 

At CD Freaks I didn't find a review of the DRW-1608P2S, but I did find these :

 

DRW-1608P

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/ASUS-DRW-1...ner-Review.html

Says "tests indicated that this drive does not support bitsetting ... could lead to DVD+R compatibility issues", and also "DVD+R DL discs are set with the DVD-ROM booktype automatically on this drive".

Also: "based on the Pioneer DVR-109 drive".

 

DRW-1608P2

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/ASUS-DRW-1...Technology.html

Says "The ASUS DRW-1608P2 does not support bitsetting on DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media"

Also: "based on the Pioneer DVR-110D drive".

 

DRW-1608P3S

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/ASUS-DRW-1...ner-Review.html

Says "Supports auto Bitsetting for DVD+R DL (BookType DVD-ROM)"

Doesn't mention OEM drive maker.

 

A review of the DRW-1608P2S elsewhere :

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/optical/asus1608p2s.html

Says "this recorder was an OEM modification of Pioneer DVR-110", and "based on the NEC chipset", and "It automatically sets Book Type to DVD-ROM for DVD+R DL format"

 

 

Questions :

• Does anyone here know the bitsetting ability of the DRW-1608P2S ?
  
• Is the auto-bitsetting ability of some drives an adequate substitute for manually using ImgBurn's bitsetting dialog ?
  
• Do we select the ImgBurn change-book-type tab based on drive make, or electronics make ?
  
• Does ImgBurn include a drive-type tab for all drives capable of bitsetting, or only for a subset (perhaps only those with publicly available specs) ?
  
• Why would a drive support bitsetting only for DL media ? Don't single-layer discs need it too ?
  

Cheers

[scuzzy]

(for the sake of the archives) Just noted that using ImgBurn's check-for-firmware-updates feature opens a page on rpc1.org which says "Pioneer DVR-110 OEM drive", and that the device-capabilities dialog says "Vendor Specific Info: 06/01/26 PIONEER" ... so it's becoming clearer what the drive actually is, but this doesn't help with the change-book-type dialog.

[kevdriver]

scussy, I'm not all the famliar with the Asus line of burners, but if what your saying is that Asus is a rebaged Pioneer drive then your in the same boat again as Pioneer drives do not support bitsetting which is why you won't find a setting for it in Imgburn. Pioneer drives auto bitset to DVD-ROM for burning. One of the other members will probabley be able to help you out more once they see this post.

[lfcrule1972]

I used to use DVD+R's exclusively a fews years back before I could bitset and none of the burnt discs had any problem playing back on PS2's DVD players etc....

 

I think the reason it was heralded for DVD+R DL's is that they didn't exist when a lot of people bought DVD players so the did not have the specs in built for them. Thus by changing them to DVD-ROM your drives ensured that they stood a better chance of being played.

 

Are you finding that your players don't like DVD+R discs ?

[scuzzy]

I used to use DVD+R's exclusively a fews years back before I could bitset and none of the burnt discs had any problem playing back on PS2's DVD players etc....

 

I think the reason it was heralded for DVD+R DL's is that they didn't exist when a lot of people bought DVD players so the did not have the specs in built for them. Thus by changing them to DVD-ROM your drives ensured that they stood a better chance of being played.

Aah ... thanks for that ... makes good sense.

 

Are you finding that your players don't like DVD+R discs ?

No, that's not an issue - my domestic player (a supermarket ?25 special) played them fine till it died (since then I've been playing my discs in a PC DVDROM drive piped out of the graphics card TV-out to the TV - works just fine, except for not having a remote )

 

I just wanted to learn how to make the best burns possible ... and setting the booktype appropriately seemed to be something to be desired if possible. I'll just ignore it for now.

 

Cheers

[lfcrule1972]

Ah I see - like I said, I would only be really worried about bit setting for the DVD+R DL discs.....

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Bitsetting doesn't magically make the burns better, it's purely there for drives that see the 'DVD+R' booktype and don't even attempt to read it (because it doesn't know about it).

 

If your drive understands (or doesn't care about) the DVD+R booktype, it really shoudn't be an issue for you.