Changing DVD±R write strategies (general discussion thread)

[code65536]

A Quick F.A.Q.

Q: Introduction
A: In order to burn a disc, the drive need to know things about the disc so that it could use the right power levels, calibration, etc. The collection of various parameters that determine how a drive handles a disc is called the "write strategy." All DVD discs have write strategy information physically embedded in them. But this is not enough, and for all the drives out there, their firmware contains a list of various media codes and additional write strategy information for each media code. In this thread, we will be dealing with this additional strategy information stored in the firmware.

Q: Why?
A: Sometimes, the write strategy stored in the firmware is not very good. For example, a number of the older 8x2S firmwares had a defective RITEKG05 write strategy. In cases like this, it might be useful to have the drive use another media code's write strategy instead (in this case, for example, the RITEKG06 strategy). The other situation where this might be useful is if you are overspeeding media (e.g., trying to get MCC003 to burn at 12x) and the write strategy in the firmware does not contain the necessary strategy information for higher speeds. In the case of this example, you might want to use the MCC004 write strategy for MCC003 because MCC004's write strategy contains information needed to burn the media at 12x and MCC003's strategy does not.

Q: What do I need for this?
A: OmniPatcher, preferably version 2.2.0 or newer.

Q: How do I change write strategies?
A: There are two ways to change write strategies in LiteOn drives. The first is to use OmniPatcher's write strategy reassignment function. This will allow you to, for example, assign a MCC004 write strategy to MCC003. This method is "lossless", has no side effects, and is the recommended method. The other method is write strategy swapping. In this case, you would use OmniPatcher's media code renaming feature to, for example, rename the MCC003 media code to MCC004 and rename the MCC004 media code to MCC003. The result is that MCC003 will now use MCC004's write strategy, but you get the side effect of having MCC004 use MCC003's write strategy (whereas if you had used reassignment, both would be using the MCC004 write strategy). Thus, the greatest limitation of strategy swapping is that each write strategy can be used by at most one media code whereas in the case of strategy reassignment, each write strategy can be used by as many media codes as desired. Strategy swapping is thus not recommended and should be used only in cases where strategy reassignment is not an available option.

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The purpose of this thread

This is a general discussion thread. Feel free to post anything you want about this. All that I ask is that if you have any results, that you post them in the results thread.

[Vitus]

What's the recommanded writing strategy to write Ritek G04, TYG01 and MCC01 at 8X??

I will be trying TYG02 1st, but any suggestion is welcome

[booma]

check HERE for ideas

[code65536]

Actually, rdgrimes tried out some strategies for G04. Of the 2 that he tried for 8x burning, G05 did badly (I think the G05 strategy in LiteOn drives is messed up, as it produces bad results for real G05 discs, too). However, he got pretty good results with one of the Maxell codes. Check the results thread for the strategy that he used.

BTW, here is Herrie's complete release notes for +R and -R (non-R entries like RW removed to reduce clutter)... (attachment)

But as Herrie himself pointed out in a recent chat that we had, there are enough differences on the NEC such that replacements that work well on the NEC might not work well with LiteOn, and replacements that work well for LiteOn might not necessarily work well for NEC.

[pchilson]

Originally Posted by booma

check HERE for ideas

That is a 237 post thread. Can you be a little more specific?

[booma]

ok, my bad. I could have been more specific, but I meant the very first post as that had a decent listing of media and strategies used.

EDIT:

Will there be some standard post where optimal firmwares are listed for easy compilation into a 'super firmware'? Sure its all there for eyes to see in the results thread, but I think I see that thread getting really large in the not too distant future

[code65536]

Originally Posted by booma

Will there be some standard post where optimal firmwares are listed for easy compilation into a 'super firmware'? Sure its all there for eyes to see in the results thread, but I think I see that thread getting really large in the not too distant future

I guess I could edit that into the first post of the results thread. In the future, as more people confirm good write strategy replacements for use, I will add them to the list of pre-programmed recommended replacements in the OmniPatcher (so far, the only pre-programmed ones are the 4 that I have had a chance to test out myself, since I have a very limited media collection).

[rdgrimes]

My general feeling is to start with strats that are known to work well, like TY and Maxell and Fuji (if available), Ricoh and Ritek too. It's really all a matter of luck and wasting some media.

I think that if any members have some media of a common type that they don't mind wasting, they could volunteer to do some strat testing for their specific drive model.

[mrQQ]

i suppose i could try lots of optodisc testing (loads of it here, cheap aswell), its just that I dont have all that much time =/ (data preparing takes most time - in case it proves to be a decent burn i dont waste media)

[mrQQ]

Hmm, doesnt look like it was worth flashing to GS0K for me.. either that, or it's Nero's fault (all except GS0K burns were done with Sonic RecordNow)

optodisc0r4@8X@851S@GS0H-burn-fix-swap.PNG
optodisc0r4@8X@851S@GSC2.PNG
optodisc0r4@8X@851S@GS0K-stock.PNG

[code65536]

I guess I won't discount GSC2 just yet, then. In my experience, things have come out the same, but then again, I have a very limited media selection and I actually haven't been burning that much lately.

[mrQQ]

ok, did one more burn, this time replacing OR4 with OR8 - and the result is pretty much the same as with GS0F-burn-fix and those two strats replaced - still not nearly the same as GSC2

Code65536, you perhaps extract OR4 strat from both GSC2 and GS0K and do a byte compare on them? I'm worried wether different scans are caused by actually different strat, or is it other factors (Nero vs SRN, XP vs 2k3 Server, different batch, etc)

Or just tell me how to extract them myself

thanks!

[code65536]

They're identical. My guess is that there is something else that is causing the difference. Who knows.

[mrQQ]

i flashed back to GSC2 and will try burning again (my last infodisc here.. gotta buy more tomorrow. besides, i found prodiscs and ricohjpns in local shops too! gee, lith rocks - mcc's, ty's, ricoh's, prodiscs, infodiscs, aml's, an's, sky's and so on=p)

[virtue27]

Can anyone recommend a replacement write strategy for OptoDisc +RW and -RW?

[rdgrimes]

Originally Posted by virtue27

Can anyone recommend a replacement write strategy for OptoDisc +RW and -RW?

RW strat swapping is not supported at this time AFAIK.

[prking]

Has anyone tried a different write strategy for cmcmag f01?

[code65536]

Originally Posted by prking

Has anyone tried a different write strategy for cmcmag f01?

Not to my knowledge... but you can be the first to try!

[VAD]

Originally Posted by prking

Has anyone tried a different write strategy for cmcmag f01?

What drive do you have? CMC MAF F01 burns just fine with "simple" speedhacking to 8x with US0N and GSC2 firmwares on both of my drives. Your mileage may vary, of course.

[prking]

Originally Posted by VAD

What drive do you have? CMC MAF F01 burns just fine with "simple" speedhacking to 8x with US0N and GSC2 firmwares on both of my drives. Your mileage may vary, of course.

well i have two ldw-411s but i use them to burn simultaneously so i wont be doing the 411@811 cause my computer is not that fast enough!!

anyways i tried different strategies and actually the best one that worked out for me burning simultaneously at 4x was the cmcmag r01/00 strat!!

before:


after write strat:

[ronallan22]

Hi guys

Im planning to buy 50 pcs of Dvd+r (Ricohjpn00) rated @ 2.4x. Whats the recommended writing strategy and the recommended burn speed for this media?

[code65536]

@prking

That's really weird. First time I've heard of better results from using a strat from a "downgraded" media code.

In the CMC heirarchy...
R01 = earliest, 2.4x-rated
F01, rev. 0 = later, 4x-rated
F01, rev. 1 = better version of the 4x-rated, 8x-rated
E01, newest, 8x-rated...

So I was kinda expecting better results from using E01 or something, not R01. That's interesting. BTW, what revision are your F01 discs? (DVD Identifier will tell you the revision).

@ronallan

Oh, Ricoh R00. I love these discs. On the 1S and 2S drives (things seem to be very different for the 3S drives), they should be burnable at 8x (a few months ago, I burned a R00 at 8x using just the standard R00 strategy and got pretty good results... I might've done better if I was using a R01 or R02 strat, but I don't have any more R00 discs to play around with, so I can't personally test a strat-switched burn at 8x... but you can test it out. If I were you, I'd try out the 3 Ricoh strats: R00 (hack it up to 8x), R01 (hack it up to 8x), and R02.

[prking]

Actually code, i somewhere read that someone was having better 8x burns with the 2.4x khypermedia(cmcmag r01/00) than with the 4x khypermedia(f01/00), so that's why i tried it!! all the other strats either burnt the same or slighty worse!

will tell you the revisions pretty soon since all my dvd+rs are cmcmag f01/00 but differrent brands, i have HP, memorex, khypermedia and value discs! all cmcmag f01/00.

I guess my burners love cmcmag!

[ronallan22]

Thx again for the fast reply code. Nice Ill try it out as soon as i have the discs

reagards

@king

I thought memorex gets their dvd+r media from ritek or was it ricoh?. If they get it from cmc then its good for me since they offer here 50 pcs Memorex dvd+r media for 39 euros (incl. shipping). Anyway is memorex dvd+r media good? Ive read in some other forums that memorex media are crappy ones

[VAD]

Originally Posted by prking

i have HP, memorex, khypermedia and value discs! all cmcmag f01/00.

I guess my burners love cmcmag!

I guess you have your burners love CMC. LOL.

Originally Posted by ronallan22

I thought memorex gets their dvd+r media from ricoh.

I like that answer by rdgrimes ;-)