Attn: Newbies... this is why you should NOT buy CMC MAG or any other unknown media...

I second that after the last poo ones I got that were drive killers.

 

Won't miss hearing that one. Now if only CMC Mag would "restructure." I sent them some plastic explosives in the mail which should expedite the restructuring process. Long live Taiyo Yuden.

 

sorry, I've been looking around and this thread seems to be the best place to ask. Does poor media damage your laser?

 

Yes. Use quality Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim media. Check the PS2 FAQ link in my sig.

 

Here are two scans of mine...

Sony MIJ burned at 8x, and booktyped...



Verbatim 16x advanced AZO burned at 8x, and booktyped...

 

thans, I've been trying to find an answer but yours is the only answer I got caues I don't really understand all the screenshots. So basically, if I use bad media, it will damage the laser...I am curious how it does this?....is it because it strains the laser..?

 

how come you only get a score of 95? the PI Errors/Failures seems VERY low.

 

because he's SCANNING it w/ a Liteon drive...for example, liteon vs benq use diff. quality rating system to determine score~ the actual difference was something like 1-4 or 1-8 or something, it was discussed wayyyyyyyy earlier in this thread regarding the score given...i just don't remember the details, but since i have both Liteon and Benq drives, the scores are always very close (with Benq scanning giving HIGHER scores usually on the same disc)

i know what i'm telling ya is VERY vague and ambiguous, but i'm too tired to find out exactly the diff...i KNOW it's because he's scanning on a Liteon drive...scanning the same disc on a benq, he would probably achieve a 97+ if my memory serves me correctly, look back a few pages, i believe forkndave described it in detail, much better than i ever could...

docTY~

 

I have a Lite-on (Sony DRU-800A) the quality scores will post according to the maximum number of PI Failures;
PI of 1=98, PI of 2=95, PI 3=93, PI 4=90 and so on, lose about 2-2.5 points per PI failure.

 

BenQ drives scan in ECC blocks of 8, Liteon scans in ECC blocks of 1. So in effect, a 95 on a Litey will be a 99 on a BenQ.

 

Tokijin is correct about the 8 ECC blocks for BenQ and 1 ECC block with a Lite-On. Although the BenQ will show higher PIF, the quality score should be similar. Not exactly the same but similar. I prefer to scan with my BenQ because 8X is a good scanning speed for it and lite-On should be scanned at 4X. Nero CD/DVD Speed test now supports scanning with Pioneer drives, but the results are horrible. My Pioneer 109 is the best reader that I have, but it is totally useless for quality scans.

Dave

 

so I can't seem to find it anywhere else on the forum, but how does using bad media damage a unit's laser, I understand how using bad media would give you poor images (if you are burning videos) and data degradation but how does that damage the unit?

 

A bad medium cannot damage a laser diode unless the disc is so warped it whacks the optical pick-up. (This amount of distortion would be very noticeable because the disc would not sit flat in the drive tray.) During recording when the power is at its highest level, a drive will pass over an imperfect spot. A CRC error on playback means the drive will attempt to read a series of blocks at low power (0.5 to 1.0 milliwatts) a specified number of tries until the drive gives up and reports a CRC error. There were cases in which early Pioneer DVD-R drives could choke on 4X DVD-R discs and keep attempting to write to them at high power until either the diode burned out or the drive motor gave up, but this was because the early drives did not recognize 4X discs. It was not a question of quality; firmware updates took care of the problem for those early drives.

 

In the case of the PS2, crappy dyes will wear down your laser much quicker than Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim media. The crappy dyes force the laser to strain more to read discs, hence shortening its life. You can get Taiyo Yuden for cheaper than CMC Mag or other crap media. I've burned close to 300 PS2 games on Taiyo Yudens and Verbatims with 0 coasters (95% to TY's) in both formats. In the case of standalone players, JoeRyan may be right. Regarding the PS2, always use quality media.

 

THANK YOU! Thats the answer I was looking for, another thing is that I am not sure if my PS2 likes -Rs or +Rs, how do I test for it, it seems to like both of it.

 

V.4 PS2's and later will play DVD+R's book typed to DVD-ROM and DVD-R's equally well. I've burned half of all my backups to 8x Taiyo Yuden DVD-R's, and 8x Taiyo Yuden DVD+R's. They play equally well. I have a v.4 PS2 modded with a Matrix Infinity. I prefer DVD+R's, because they tend to be of better quality. That has to do with how they're manufactured. Others who're more qualified can inform you of the specifics, it's pretty technical.

86. Q. Where can I find good deals on legit Taiyo Yuden's and Verbatim's?
A. http://www.supermediastore.com
Great List of Merchants locally, online, in the U.K., etc:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/buyerguides/buymedia.htm

106. Q. Where can I find top notch Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim media locally?
A. This is somewhat of a crap shoot. Big manufacturer's like Fuji and Sony have at one point past or present payed Taiyo Yuden to manufacture media for them. The big companies slap their name on the label even though the discs were manufactured in Japan by Taiyo Yuden. These discs will always be made in Japan. Authentic TY media isn't made anywhere else. Even if it says Made in Japan on the label, there is no guarantee of getting authentic Taiyo Yuden media. You could still end up with Sony or Fuji media codes. Hence why I said this is a crap shoot. Places like Comp USA, Office Depot, Sam's Club, and Staples will carry Made In Japan branded discs. Again there is no way to know for sure from the package whether these are authentic Taiyo Yuden's. The exception is that Sony MIJ 8x DVD+R's will always code out as Yuden000T02. If you don't want to risk getting non TY discs, you can find 50 packs of Verbatim in the afore mentioned chain stores. One other alternative is the Made in Japan High Grade Maxell DVD+R's. They will say Made in Japan on the label and "High Grade" as well. These are excellent media. Remember when using DVD+R's, it's best you have a burner that supports booktyping/bitsetting, and a v.4 PS2 or later. Much thanks goes to kivory666 aka "docTY" for this information. He is indeed the Taiyo Yuden master. The best place to get authentic Taiyo Yuden media is from reputable online vendors like http://www.supermediastore.com http://www.rima.com http://www.meritline.com or http://www.newegg.com

23. Q. What version is my PS2?
A. http://mod-chip.com/en/ps2version
All Regions/Versions PS2: http://www.eurasia.nu/wiki/index.php?pagename=Ps2VersionTable

 

is this good or bad and what key things do i need to know to determine this?

 

Well to the untrained eye that's good, to vets of CD-DVD Speed, it needs some definite improvement. Your Max PIF's and average PIF's are pretty high, especially for Taiyo Yuden. Are you closing everything down while you're burning, including scanners, AV, Internet, etc? Is your firmware up to date?

 

i probably had some applications open when i burned it. i was going to flash my drive but it said i already had the latest firmware but for some reason my drive wont read dvd's or cd's but it can burn them and tell me if it is blank or empty, i just can't get it to play any media or recognize any media.i'll do another burn with applications closed and post it.