Question about jitter at the DL switch

[rcubed]

Hi,

Since this my 1st post, first let me say thanks to Lightning and rOIz fo their two programs (donations forthcoming). After reading several forums on the topic of layer breaks I decided to "go with the pros" and use PgcEdit to build an ISO image and decide the layer break point and ImgBurn to generate the final DVD. Works like a champ no coasters yet. Also I beg forgiveness if this is off topic.

 

It's really good to see Lightning has found a project to focus his considerable talents on following the demise of DVDD. #39;( I was heart broken when he was forced to stop work on the project. I especially enjoyed the DVDD form topics and the exchanges of humor.

 

My question concerns this. I have only done 3 burns of DL disks. I am using the Verbatim +R DL disks that supposedly can be burned from 2.4x to 6x. I am burning using a Plextor 716SA and checking the burns with Plextools XL. My system is an Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo with 1G ram, an Athlon 2800+ and am running Win XP Pro (latest change levels). The first burn I did at 2.4x and for that burn the jitter shows a step to a slightly higher level at the DL switch point. For the next two burns I did them at 6x and on those scans there is a single spike to the top of the Jitter graph at the DL switch point followed by a drop back to what I would consider the normal jitter level (i.e. similar to the 2.4x burn). In all other respects the PI levels and TA checks on the burns indicate they are very good if not excellent. Is there an explanation for this? Is it normal or abnormal. Is it going to cause any problems? All three disks play ok on my PC and with my Sony standalone DVD player and my daughter's player. I would be willing to post jpgs of the beta/jitter plots. However I don't appear to be priviledged to do attachements.

 

Any enlightenment would be appreciated. I suspect it may be an artifact of the burner and chosen speed, but don't understand why it only seems to occur at the 6x burn level (sample of 1@2.4x 2@6x). I haven't had the opportunity to try one at 4x yet. And yes I've had my share of problems getting the 716SA to work with my mobo. However that is another whole story. Things seem to have normalized.

 

Thanks in advance

R.R.Richardson (rcubed)

 

BTW

One other quick question. In ImgBurn should the Calculate Optimal option be used when burning using ImgBurn from inside PgcEdit or is it better to note the break point selected by PgcEdit and enter using the User Specified option? Some guides imply the one generated by PgcEdit will be used, but it didn't seem to be completely clear to me. Does this still hold true if the burn is done at a later date using ImgBurn in stand alone mode? I've also been using the 32K separation option in PgcEdit.

[rcubed]

No takers on the question?

 

I just burned another two disks one at 4x and one at 6x and no spike in the jitter plot at the layer switch.

 

After much appreciated advice from UK and others I switched to letting PgcEdit pass the layer break information using the "Calculate Optimal" option in ImgBurn. I looked back at the previous logs when I had been copying the info into the layer break using user specified. I noted the PgcEdit log indicated the absolute layer break as "Layer break is at absolute sector 2039968. (Offset in L0 is 1.)" I used a value of 2039968 when I think the value entered should have been 2039968-1 or 2039967. Would that have led to the spike in the jitter at the layer break?

 

Moral of story let PgcEdit and ImgBurn do it automatically.

 

Thanks for any insight.

 

Again thanks to UK and rOIZ for some terrific software!

 

rcubed

[Grain]

I have noticed what your describing on poor DL media(Ritek), but not on good Verbs like your describing. I've had very good scans (IMO) of Verbs at 6x, and burn all my DL's at max speed now. One thing you could try is running a Plextools scan again, unfortunately PI/PO scanning isn't an exact science, and I have noticed variations between dual scans on the same disc. As far as attachments, I don't think that's restricted, but you do have to host the image somewhere first, if you can't do that yourself there are freebie hosting sites available.

[r0lZ]

BTW

One other quick question. In ImgBurn should the Calculate Optimal option be used when burning using ImgBurn from inside PgcEdit or is it better to note the break point selected by PgcEdit and enter using the User Specified option? Some guides imply the one generated by PgcEdit will be used, but it didn't seem to be completely clear to me. Does this still hold true if the burn is done at a later date using ImgBurn in stand alone mode? I've also been using the 32K separation option in PgcEdit.

Sorry for replying so late.

As you have guessed, you should leave the ImgBurn setting to automatic when burning from PgcEdit. The layer break sector is passed via CLI argument.

 

If you want to burn the same image later, w/o PgcEdit, the automatic option is also recommended. As ImgBurn inspects the IFOs, it will find the cell with the seamless flag clear, and correctly placed in the middle of the compilation and at the beginning of an ECC block, and will use that cell. If, per chance, there are several cells suitables for the layer break, ImgBurn will (probably) open his layer break selection window, where you should be able to select the same cell.

 

Note that PgcEdit is still able to use DVDD to burn, but in this case the procedure is different, because DVDD has no /LAYERBREAK CLI option. The LB sector is forced in the DVDD settings in the registry, before DVDD is launched.

I do not recommend to use DVDD. I will probably remove the support for DVDD later, because it is not as safe and clean as the ImgBurn support.

 

I have no idea why you got this jitter peak in your first attempt. It might be because you forced a wrong LB sector. BTW, the LB sector must always be a multiple of 16 (32KB.)

 

And thanks for the thanks!

Edited December 19, 2005 by r0lZ