Bob's February Scream

DD_UK · 10th January 2003, 22:09

I have just read Bob's editorial which leaves me wondering about (a) manufacturers new hardware and (b) other magazines.

I thought the days of hardware not working as advertised were well behind us yet in the 'scream' we have 2 examples of just that (Sony and Apple) and a further one (Adaptec)in the reviews.

I don't know whether or not I am surprised about Sony, but I am certainly surprised about Apple and Adaptec.

I saw a review of the Sony burn-anything DVD writer in another mag. It was full of nothing but praise with no negative comments at all. Makes you wonder how they test things.

I may not agree with everything Bob writes, but at least we do get honest warts and all reviews and news.

David

bcrabtree · 11th January 2003, 01:06

Thanks for the kind words.

Trouble is, there is a review of the burn-everything Sony coming up in our March issue, and there's not a great deal of criticism in there by our standards!

Mind you we do criticise the software to an extent, along with the way that the drive was introduced without being finished (there were two firmware updates released to put that right), and the initial absence of certain high-speed media.

Bottom line, though, is VERY positive.

We're reviewing two other burners, too, the Pioneer A05 and the Philips DVDRW228K.

The Pioneer gets a good write up, but the Philips, quite justifiable, gets a thorough beasting because it has an idiot-proof installation routine that, it turns out, makes the product almost install-proof.

I had the Philips for a few weeks before Peter got hold of it to do the review and I really struggled to install it.

Peter was forewarned by me of the sort of problems he was going to have (and of possible solutions), and he got away lightly - it only took him half a day to install.

:-(

Well before I'd passed it on to Peter, I'd written a whole raft of emails to Philips telling them that I thought that the routine was a VERY big mistake and nothing I've heard back from them has made consider changing that viewpoint.

Bob C

dacquinh · 11th January 2003, 01:15

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bcrabtree:
Trouble is, there is a review of the burn-everything Sony coming up in our March issue, and there's not a great deal of criticism in there by our standards!

Mind you we do criticise the software to an extent, along with the way that the drive was introduced without being finished (there were two firmware updates released to put that right), and the initial absence of certain high-speed media.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I am having the dru500a now for two weeks and overall I am quite happy with its performance, although - indeed - 4x media are very hard - if not - to get your hands on here in overdeveloped Belgium.

One thing that frightens me a bit is the media compatibility. I have backuped some important data onto a DVD RW (a Verbatim european RW disk with a 100 years archival life) and am sad to notice that the disc gets recognized fine in my portable with DVD rom yet fails everytime on the Sony machine on which I burned the disc. There were reports on Sonys website about having writing troubles with the -specifically mentioned - US discs but nothing mentioned about the euro ones. Anyway I will be avoiding verbatim media on this disc, even though I have upgraded it successfully to 1.0f firmware from the beginning before I even burnt a disc.

Hendrik

[This message has been edited by dacquinh (edited 11 January 2003).]

bcrabtree · 11th January 2003, 03:31

The problem of discovering - years down the line - that a CD or DVD is not readable is a worrying one, but, as you've pointed out, discs go bad in a short period of time, too.

I've not really burned that many DVDs, but I've burned many hundreds of CDs and I've not discovered many that have gone off, but I did find one the other day, and it was quite important to me.

Then, I remembered that I had recently installed a program called IsoBuster - which claims to be able to recover dodgy CDs and DVDs (I probably went and got it as a result of reading something about it in the DVD forum).

I downloaded it from: http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster1.htm

And, this program turned out to be a gem!

I was able to use it to scan the CD for errors and then make a disc image in RAW (.iso) format on the hard disk. This I was then able to load into Easy CD Creator 5 and burn to a blank CD - which appears to be perfect.

Two little gotchas that were easily overcome:

* The program doesn't automatically give the file a .iso extension, so once the image had been created, I simply renamed it to give it a .iso extension

* Easy CD Creator crashed if I tried to load the imagine simply by double-clicking on it in My Computer. However, when I started the program and then picked the option to burn from a disc image, the image came in okay and the disc was burned just fine.

Oh, actually, there's one other tiny gotcha - when you go to find the
image file from within Easy CD Creator, you can't see it, because, by default, the program looks for files with a different file extension. But, using the drop-down list of file types within the file-open dialogue, it's possible to choose .iso - find the file and then get on with burning.

I've yet to try it with DVDs, but even just for CDs, I think this is a tool that many people will find useful, and which could save them a lot of heartache.

Bob C

drgagx · 11th January 2003, 09:58

Is it feasible to provide compatibility tables between the various (and confusing) DVD formats and players - either on-line or in the magazine?

This would be very helpful to many, I believe.

dacquinh · 11th January 2003, 11:47

Isobuster os indeed a very useful tool that I allready have used many times. Another useful tool that you might not know about is daemon tools http://web1.athen215.server4free.de/main.htm

It is a Virtual DVDROM drive (Generic DVDROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI). Allright it's used in the games copying world (used to copy Xbox and PS2 games to DVD) but for me it's just a useful tool that goes quite well together with isobuster.

Hendrik

bcrabtree · 11th January 2003, 12:54

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by drgagx:
Is it feasible to provide compatibility tables between the various (and confusing) DVD formats and players - either on-line or in the magazine?

This would be very helpful to many, I believe.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There is a FAQ with pointers to this information here: http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/...ML/000086.html

Bob C

Arthur.S · 11th January 2003, 16:15

With regard to data recovery. Does anyone know of a programme for HDD data recovery?

DD_UK · 11th January 2003, 20:04

Oh well what goes around comes around.

Like chinese whispers my initial post has come back to me on a totally different subject.

However I can answer the question of data recovery on an HDD. I had a horrible problem with a corrupt disk and a failed backup and found a prog called 'fast file recovery'. It is brilliant.

The advice I got by email was instantaneous. The procedeures seemed most dubious and included both fdisking and formatting the drive. But the prog recovered ALL (and I do mean ALL) my files.

The price seems to have gone up since I bought it but still seems reansonable at $249, bearing in mind it recovered some 8 years work.

Go look at www.ics-iq.com

David

cstv · 12th January 2003, 08:37

Alcohol www.alcohol-soft.com will also do this. It allows up to 31 "virtual" CD/DVD drives (disc images that appear to the OS as drives). And allows you to read from virtual drives at 200x since they're on HDD. It will also burn images to disc.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dacquinh:
Another useful tool that you might not know about is daemon tools http://web1.athen215.server4free.de/main.htm

It is a Virtual DVDROM drive (Generic DVDROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI). Allright it's used in the games copying world (used to copy Xbox and PS2 games to DVD) but for me it's just a useful tool that goes quite well together with isobuster.

Hendrik<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

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10th January 2003, 22:09	#1
DD_UK Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Leavesden (opposite the studios) Posts: 375	I have just read Bob's editorial which leaves me wondering about (a) manufacturers new hardware and (b) other magazines. I thought the days of hardware not working as advertised were well behind us yet in the 'scream' we have 2 examples of just that (Sony and Apple) and a further one (Adaptec)in the reviews. I don't know whether or not I am surprised about Sony, but I am certainly surprised about Apple and Adaptec. I saw a review of the Sony burn-anything DVD writer in another mag. It was full of nothing but praise with no negative comments at all. Makes you wonder how they test things. I may not agree with everything Bob writes, but at least we do get honest warts and all reviews and news. David

11th January 2003, 01:06	#2
bcrabtree DVdoctor's little helper Join Date: Mar 1999 Location: London, UK Posts: 7,830	Thanks for the kind words. Trouble is, there is a review of the burn-everything Sony coming up in our March issue, and there's not a great deal of criticism in there by our standards! Mind you we do criticise the software to an extent, along with the way that the drive was introduced without being finished (there were two firmware updates released to put that right), and the initial absence of certain high-speed media. Bottom line, though, is VERY positive. We're reviewing two other burners, too, the Pioneer A05 and the Philips DVDRW228K. The Pioneer gets a good write up, but the Philips, quite justifiable, gets a thorough beasting because it has an idiot-proof installation routine that, it turns out, makes the product almost install-proof. I had the Philips for a few weeks before Peter got hold of it to do the review and I really struggled to install it. Peter was forewarned by me of the sort of problems he was going to have (and of possible solutions), and he got away lightly - it only took him half a day to install. :-( Well before I'd passed it on to Peter, I'd written a whole raft of emails to Philips telling them that I thought that the routine was a VERY big mistake and nothing I've heard back from them has made consider changing that viewpoint. Bob C

11th January 2003, 01:15	#3
dacquinh Senior Member Join Date: Nov 1999 Location: belgium Posts: 460	<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bcrabtree: Trouble is, there is a review of the burn-everything Sony coming up in our March issue, and there's not a great deal of criticism in there by our standards! Mind you we do criticise the software to an extent, along with the way that the drive was introduced without being finished (there were two firmware updates released to put that right), and the initial absence of certain high-speed media. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I am having the dru500a now for two weeks and overall I am quite happy with its performance, although - indeed - 4x media are very hard - if not - to get your hands on here in overdeveloped Belgium. One thing that frightens me a bit is the media compatibility. I have backuped some important data onto a DVD RW (a Verbatim european RW disk with a 100 years archival life) and am sad to notice that the disc gets recognized fine in my portable with DVD rom yet fails everytime on the Sony machine on which I burned the disc. There were reports on Sonys website about having writing troubles with the -specifically mentioned - US discs but nothing mentioned about the euro ones. Anyway I will be avoiding verbatim media on this disc, even though I have upgraded it successfully to 1.0f firmware from the beginning before I even burnt a disc. Hendrik [This message has been edited by dacquinh (edited 11 January 2003).]

11th January 2003, 03:31	#4
bcrabtree DVdoctor's little helper Join Date: Mar 1999 Location: London, UK Posts: 7,830	The problem of discovering - years down the line - that a CD or DVD is not readable is a worrying one, but, as you've pointed out, discs go bad in a short period of time, too. I've not really burned that many DVDs, but I've burned many hundreds of CDs and I've not discovered many that have gone off, but I did find one the other day, and it was quite important to me. Then, I remembered that I had recently installed a program called IsoBuster - which claims to be able to recover dodgy CDs and DVDs (I probably went and got it as a result of reading something about it in the DVD forum). I downloaded it from: http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster1.htm And, this program turned out to be a gem! I was able to use it to scan the CD for errors and then make a disc image in RAW (.iso) format on the hard disk. This I was then able to load into Easy CD Creator 5 and burn to a blank CD - which appears to be perfect. Two little gotchas that were easily overcome: * The program doesn't automatically give the file a .iso extension, so once the image had been created, I simply renamed it to give it a .iso extension * Easy CD Creator crashed if I tried to load the imagine simply by double-clicking on it in My Computer. However, when I started the program and then picked the option to burn from a disc image, the image came in okay and the disc was burned just fine. Oh, actually, there's one other tiny gotcha - when you go to find the image file from within Easy CD Creator, you can't see it, because, by default, the program looks for files with a different file extension. But, using the drop-down list of file types within the file-open dialogue, it's possible to choose .iso - find the file and then get on with burning. I've yet to try it with DVDs, but even just for CDs, I think this is a tool that many people will find useful, and which could save them a lot of heartache. Bob C

11th January 2003, 09:58	#5
drgagx Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: UK Posts: 602	Is it feasible to provide compatibility tables between the various (and confusing) DVD formats and players - either on-line or in the magazine? This would be very helpful to many, I believe.

11th January 2003, 11:47	#6
dacquinh Senior Member Join Date: Nov 1999 Location: belgium Posts: 460	Isobuster os indeed a very useful tool that I allready have used many times. Another useful tool that you might not know about is daemon tools http://web1.athen215.server4free.de/main.htm It is a Virtual DVDROM drive (Generic DVDROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI). Allright it's used in the games copying world (used to copy Xbox and PS2 games to DVD) but for me it's just a useful tool that goes quite well together with isobuster. Hendrik

11th January 2003, 12:54	#7
bcrabtree DVdoctor's little helper Join Date: Mar 1999 Location: London, UK Posts: 7,830	<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by drgagx: Is it feasible to provide compatibility tables between the various (and confusing) DVD formats and players - either on-line or in the magazine? This would be very helpful to many, I believe.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> There is a FAQ with pointers to this information here: http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubb/...ML/000086.html Bob C

11th January 2003, 16:15	#8
Arthur.S Senior Member Join Date: Jun 1999 Location: S.E. Posts: 3,086	With regard to data recovery. Does anyone know of a programme for HDD data recovery?

11th January 2003, 20:04	#9
DD_UK Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Leavesden (opposite the studios) Posts: 375	Oh well what goes around comes around. Like chinese whispers my initial post has come back to me on a totally different subject. However I can answer the question of data recovery on an HDD. I had a horrible problem with a corrupt disk and a failed backup and found a prog called 'fast file recovery'. It is brilliant. The advice I got by email was instantaneous. The procedeures seemed most dubious and included both fdisking and formatting the drive. But the prog recovered ALL (and I do mean ALL) my files. The price seems to have gone up since I bought it but still seems reansonable at $249, bearing in mind it recovered some 8 years work. Go look at www.ics-iq.com David

12th January 2003, 08:37	#10
cstv Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: hampshire, uk Posts: 2,543	Alcohol www.alcohol-soft.com will also do this. It allows up to 31 "virtual" CD/DVD drives (disc images that appear to the OS as drives). And allows you to read from virtual drives at 200x since they're on HDD. It will also burn images to disc. <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dacquinh: Another useful tool that you might not know about is daemon tools http://web1.athen215.server4free.de/main.htm It is a Virtual DVDROM drive (Generic DVDROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI). Allright it's used in the games copying world (used to copy Xbox and PS2 games to DVD) but for me it's just a useful tool that goes quite well together with isobuster. Hendrik<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>