Hi all,

My current work flow is this:

Burn ink jet printable genuine TYG02 disc in Pioneer DVR-111D at 8x.

Test disc quality in lite-on 1673S drive and reject any discs with PI errors higher than 15, or PI failures 3 or higher.

Anything that passes those tests, can be printed on in Epson R310.

I've found this to be very effective at presenting high quality, reliable discs to clients in the past.

Had a call today from a client saying disc was stuttering/useless near end of video.

Did some testing today, testing discs before and after printing and was surprised by results. Here's some example test results before printing:

General Information
Drive: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1673S
Firmware: JS0D
Disc: DVD-R (TYG02)
Selected speed: 8 X
PI errors
Maximum: 11
Average: 1.82
Total: 14649
PI failures
Maximum: 2
Average: 0.04
Total: 365
PO failures: n/a
Jitter: n/a
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 9:48
Number of samples: 61956
Average scanning interval: 2.22 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

and the same disc after printing:

General Information
Drive: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1673S
Firmware: JS0D
Disc: DVD-R (TYG02)
Selected speed: 8 X
PI errors
Maximum: 21
Average: 2.67
Total: 24267
PI failures
Maximum: 3
Average: 0.10
Total: 2264
PO failures: n/a
Jitter: n/a
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 9:48
Number of samples: 90822
Average scanning interval: 1.52 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

I guess the big jumps are in the total PI errors and also the PI failures, from 365 before, to 2264 after.

Has anybody come across this before and know any remedies/solutions?

Thanks in advance.

1. Why does the number of samples increase from scan to scan?

2. What is the disc-contact surface of the disc printer tray made of? Perhaps the disc printer tray is either causing additional scratches or has a build up of dust/ink that is transferred to the read surface?

-brendan

Perhaps you could post the actual scans which will tell use more?

You can easily get a jump in PIF due to dust and minor scuff marks added during printing or any other sort of handling, but seeing actual scans will make it easier to determine if that's the reason.

@thebtrain: Congrats on your first post!

Thanks for the replies thus far.

I've just burned, tested, printed, tested another disc and the results were consistent before and after.

I didn't do anything different, just checked the tray for any dust/fluff etc so I guess that could've been it.

If the problem comes up again, I'll post some images.

Thanks for the welcome, DrageMester. Long time reader, first time poster..!

This is certainly not the fist time folks have posted with similar results. The most likely cause for this is "user-generated" issues, which would include poor handling and/or printer-induced dust or scratches. There's certainly nothing in the printing process itself which can in any way effect the readability of a disc.

Well, it's started happening again. From what I can tell the CD tray is clean. I've cleaned it with a dry cloth.

I've attached the results before and after printing.

I'm open to suggestions - the only thing I can think of that can be causing it is a dirty tray, because as far as I can tell there's nothing else within the printer that comes into contact with the data side of the disc. Does anybody know a good way to clean these things?

The only other cause I thought of might be something to do with the pressure of the rollers?

I'm pretty sure the errors are still within acceptable limits, but it's the increase that concerns me. I've only got the one el cheapo Chinese DVD player to test them on and it pretty much swallows anything you throw at it.

Anyway - have a look and let me know what you think! It's driving me nuts..!

Those results are not different enough to be concerned with. It could be something as simple as a difference in the temperature of the disc or drive.

CDan made a great point the temperature of the disc could have something to
do with the rise of PIE/PIF. I've scanned discs right after burning and then did
a rescan later on after the disc had cooled for a while and the PIE/PIF was a
little bit higher and this was before printing it. Try scanning one right after it is
burned then carefully lay it up and let it cool for a while and then rescan it before
printing it and see if it has a rise or fall in PIE/PIF if not then it could be something
in the print tray/ rollers causing it.

Yep - thanks for the replies.

I think the temperature thang may have been it.

I re-scanned a disc I'd previously tested today and the PIE were much lower. Interestingly enough, the PIF tend to stay the same.

Anyways - thanks again everyone for the replies and input. Much appreciated!

Again, those 2 scans are not different enough to be significant. You could just as easily see similar variations just from repeatedly scanning the same disc over and over. The results are also not consistent with any sort of physical damage.

Agreed on all points.