One more testing at 8x on another AAMQR disk written at 8x via both the CD Doctor (v. 1.04 Eng) and K-Probe (latest v. 1.1.8) under WinXP Pro.

NOTE: I'm not sure if this thread is quite suitable for such the comparisons. Please stop me if not.

1. The FujiFilm (TY ) CDR contains some 59 mins of music, 19 tracks. The surface is in perfect conditions. Visually, some room is left at the outer edge. It plays well in both PC (Sony drive) and conventional player.

2. The CDD exits at some 24 mins. Why it does not complete - I don't know. It reports no C2 errors, C1 Max=6, Avg=0.167.

3. The situation with the K-Probe is weird. I'd have to supply this screen along but don't know how to and if it's normal on this forum or not. Anyway, I've saved a printscreen and edited it in the Photoshop. The interesting thing: on this printscreen, at the bottom of the picture, it's read "Testing ..." while actually on the screen I see "Track Slipped at LBA:274609,jump to LBA:274612". Why is this (the only!) discrepancy?? Yes, the system is busy but...

Not only does it run across the whole disk but even beyond its end! Currently, its screen reports (with no any chart showing up?!):
- Progress - 102% ?!
- Current MSF 61:02:61 (which is beyond the end!);
- Current LBA 43081h (also beyond the edge);
- MSF End 59:31:27;
- LBA End 415B6h;
- C2 -1 and all zeroes (note: -1 appeared only after end of the disk);
- C1 -1(Cur) 270(Total) 0.112(Avg).

Well, actually, the K-Probe has not quite completed and I killed it (without problems) as I can't wait and have to go now. The surprise is it still was running, making some noise with reading the CD and slowly updating the increasing values of Current MSF and LBA at the bottom of the screen!

Yet, I'd have to think about conclusions on the test and maybe even reproduce it. However, some problems with processing the AAMQR disks, even not data ones, are already obvious in both CDD and K-Probe.

First of all, these issues may be associated with how the drive (Sony CRX220E1, Lite-On firmware 6s0d) passes on the information to the programs. But even if so, for the K-Probe, there is no a good reason to keep going beyond the end of the disk. Otherwise, this program seems to be clearly superior to the CD Doctor.

(in reply to john)

I've rerun the tests on the previously mentioned audio CDR written in the AAMQR mode at 8x. Now, the results and conclusions are more certain. The drive only used is the Sony CRX220E1 (FW=6s0d).

1. The length of the CDR reported by :
- K-Probe: 59:31:27;
- CD Doctor: 59:27:43;
- CD Speed: 59:29:28.

2. The Nero CD Speed (ver. 1.02e) reports a perfect CD in all the tests. After all, this seems to be the only testing module free of programming bugs!

3. As I've used the Nero Drive Speed along the way (to set the read speed and spin-down time), a couple of words on it.
When the CD Speed or CD Doctor are running, the Drive Speed reports the parameters correctly. However, when the K-Probe runs, it reports the previously set speed but obviously not the actual speed used at the moment. Hard to say why it's so but I've already noticed in the past some other bugs in this module.

4. First C1/C2 test is by the CD Doctor.
At 52x it has no problems - to the completion.
At 8x, it exits early at some 24 mins (24:46:24 and 24:46:26). C2 errors = 0. C1 errors: Max=6 (or 7), Avg. 0.171 (or 0.178).
I suspected that the spindown time (initially it was 2 mins) is the cause. But the same thing happens at an infinite time. So, there is a definite problem with CD Doctor at 8x test speed.

5. Now, it's turn of the K-Probe.

5.1. First off, it refused to run any of Performance tests with the error message at the bottom of the screen: 056400 ILLEGAL MODE FOR THIS TRACK.

5.2. What I notice at the Disk Info, and this is strange:
Disc Type = CDR (A+)
Disc Identification Valid(DID_V) = False
Disc Bar Code Valid(DBC_V) = False
Unrestricted Use Disc(DRU) = False
Disc Type = CD-DA or CD-ROM Disc
Disc Identification = 00000000h
Lead-in Start Time of Last Session = 255:255:255(FF:FF:FFh)
Last Possible Start Time for Startof Lead-out = 255:255:255(FF:FF:FFh)
Disc Bar Code = 0000000000000000h
Number of OPC Table Entries = 0.

5.3. C1C2/PIPO test at Max speed completes fine with 0 of the C2 errors.
C1 errors: Max=6, Total=247, Avg.=0.097. These results are slightly higher but very close to the CD Doctor's ones.
It is interesting that during this test the Drive Speed reports 48x, not 52x!?
While the test was in progress, I browsed something on the Internet. This multitasking, in contrast to the testing at 8x (see below), had no impact on the execution!
At 8x, the test cannot complete if I do even a simple multitasking. The K-Probe's screen becomes garbled and it issues the error messages about slipping the tracks (see my previous post).
However, if the K-Probe runs alone, it completes Okay. The level of the (C1 only) errors is significally higher than at 52x: Max=6, Total=305, Avg.=0.106.

6. I've saved the screenshots of the K-Probe tests, cropped and resized them (to 1024 pixels wide) in the Photoshop. File sizes are of 340 Kb, so I can mail them out on request.

And this is all the information I have up to the moment on running the tests over AAMQR disks with the CD Doctor and K-Probe.

I have to specifically point out that the Sony drive itself seems to be fully capable of properly reading the audio AAMQR disks. Otherwise, the Nero CD Speed would have some problems with it.

As for the data AAMQR disks, this is definitely the Sony drive's issue.

(in reply to john)

I've just updated the Sony drive to the latest Lite-On firmware 6s0f. Still it can't read the data AAMQR disks. The Lite-On has to fix this!

(in reply to john)

A new version of CD Doctor has just been released (version 1.2.0 Beta 1). It has some MAJOR improvements too!

- More test speeds (4x, 8x, 12x, 16x and MAX)
- Choice of C1/C2 test or C2/CU test
- Real-time display of test results via a small scrolling chart
- Real-time display of test results via numeric counters
- Real-time display of test results via red/yellow/green bar-graph
- Display of disc's tracks, their type and length
- Ability to select only specific tracks for testing
- Ability to select portions of tracks for testing by specifying LBAs
- Choice of linear or semi-logarithmic chart
- User selectable chart limits
- Prompt to continue or abort when unreadable sector encountered
- Automatic Japanese/English detection and support
- Copying of disc identification information to clipboard
- Grading of disc quality (not fully implemented)

You can download it here: http://www2.tcnet.ne.jp/miyuri/files/index.html

Like the older version of CD Doctor, there is a password protected inbedded Zip file. The password is in the readme.txt of the first zipfile, but as it is yet untranslated I will give it to you as long as you understand the following:

CD Doctor's copyright is held by the author Miyuri. The author accepts no responsibility for any damage caused by use of this program. Please contact the author regarding this package prior to publication in books, magazines and the like.

If you understand and agree to these terms, agree that the above terms are superceded by the actual Japanese test included within the readme.txt file, and are willing to try an incomplete and not thoroughly tested beta version, then you may extract and use the program by entering the password "DrawPrimitive" (without the quotation marks).

Many thanks to "cfitz" of CDRlabs.com for this news!

(in reply to john)