New Dreamcast Maintenance

[marurun]

Are you just talking about scanning for the drive's capabilities? I'm pretty sure polling hardware is a simple function these days

pretty much any burner can scan but not all do it accurately , so you will get a result and its not reliable.

What makes you think IMGburn doesn't do this accurately? Does it simply not support enough hardware features, or does it only recognize older drives? I'm curious to know how it falls short.

[Ziggy]

Also, keep in mind that the whole "lens has to work harder thing" is mis-phrased. The lens typically is either in use or not in use. A dirty lens or a hard-to-read disc will cause the motor and lens to be in use for slightly longer periods of time and make more adjustments, thus having a minor effect on operational lifespan, but it's not like your optical drive lens has "relaxed" and "workin' hard!" modes. It doesn't go into overdrive.

The "lens has to work harder" thing is mis-phrased. All the lens does is focus the laser. It's just a lens. Unless you physically damage it, it's not something that'll wear out. Much like eyeglasses.

Two identical cars come off the line. One is driven only in the city, the other only on the highways. Which engine will crap out first? A DC burn with crappy file order will make the lens move back and forth much more often, putting that much more wear and tear on the drive. So that's kind of like city millage, compared to the highway mileage you'd get with pressed GD-ROMs.

File order aside, I think that same logic applies to reading burns. It's city and highway mileage. If the drive has to work for slightly longer periods of time, it all adds up. The lifespan of drives are rated in hours, after all.

I'm not exactly an expert on optical drives, but IIRC the laser's intensity is adjusted when reading discs. If the drive is having a hard time reading a burn it will increase the intensity. So yeah, it DOES go into overdrive. This will cause laser failure sooner.

How much sooner is always up to debate. All I know is that I want the optical drives in my consoles to last as long as possible.

[Jagosaurus]

keep a disc in at all times. This should help as another layer to keep dust off the laser.

[s8n]

ive been fooling around with GroovyMame/Switchres/Emu CRT Driver for days sorry for the late reply everyone

What makes you think IMGburn doesn't do this accurately? Does it simply not support enough hardware features, or does it only recognize older drives? I'm curious to know how it falls short.

i have to clear this up , when doing a scan with the software Nero CD-DVD Speed any burner will give a result but most will be inaccurate.

when im talking burn quality between IMGburn and Discjuggler , Discjuggler creates better burns check my below scan with Nero CD-DVD Speed.

this scan is of a Dreamcast game burned with Discjuggler




ive done in experiments using different burning software same game , same burn speed , same media and with IMGburn the C1 C2 errors shoot up causing a not so great burn also the ' quality score ' is an indication too.

[marurun]

Thank you for the clarification. You are saying that IMGBurn introduces more burn errors and the Nero scan tool is being used to verify this. That helps a lot. Have you tried looking at burns created by CDBurnerXP?

[s8n]

hi marurun , ive never used CDBurnerXP before i would try it but im out of TY CD-R's


btw heres something to throw into the mix , IMGburn is better than Nero for Gamecube ive ran some scans with Nero CD-DVD Speed

[grandta13]

I've been partial to Alcohol 120% for a while now (I started using it for PS1 burns). Have you ever checked the quality its Dreamcast burns? I'll probably do a comparison myself at some point, but all I have at the moment are Maxell CDs.

(Note: If you want to try Alcohol, the free edition can be a bit difficult to find on their main site, http://www.alcohol-soft.com/, so here is a direct link to the official repository for the Free Edition: http://www.filefacts.com/alcohol-120-free-edition-info)

[s8n]

grandta13

I've been partial to Alcohol 120% for a while now (I started using it for PS1 burns). Have you ever checked the quality its Dreamcast burns?

hi grandta13 , i havent tried Alcohol as well ive tried Nero IMGburn and DJ


i found that Nero and DJ give very similar results when burning Saturn and PS1 only DJ gives a error when trying to write games with a large amount of Audio so Nero is best for SS and PS1.

as i mentioned IMGburn for Gamecube and DJ for DC , i havent tried Nero for DC though only IMGburn and DJ

i was talking with someone over at ClubMyCE forums about better media for Gamecube i currently use Verbatim MCC 03RG20 and someone mentioned you wont get much better than what your using. He also said to try Verbatim DVD+R which i dont have yet but its in the pipeline to burn and scan them against my Verbatim DVD-R's

[Ziggy]

I haven't burnt a DC game in a while, but back when I did a dozen or so I would convert them to BIN/CUE first then burn them with ImgBurn. I would do the same for CCD PS1 images as well.

[grandta13]

Lube the rails and gears every 6 months or so with White Lithium Grease or Silicone Grease

Thank you; that was the type of thing I was wondering about. I don't have much experience with lubricants though; do you have any advice as to which would probably be better and application?