Like you all know it's not always easy to pick up a decent DVD media out there. Even so-called "good" brands like Verbatim, TDK, Maxell etc are not always bullet proof choices. So what can you do? Well you need to do some work to see if your discs are good, decent or bad. There is several programs out there that may help you to sort out good discs from coasters. We are using in this guide only the Nero CD-DVD Speed program, which is very newbie friendly solution.

First step

First step is to Download the Nero CD-DVD Speed program. The "installation" is very simple. Just Unzip the file to a new directory and run the executable.

Nero CD-DVD Speed tests

The program itself is very easy to use. We won't explain all the settings to keep this guide as simple as possible. If you would like to know more about the program you can read the comprehensive fag from Nero CD-DVD Speed homepage. If you would like to have realistic results you should always use Lite-On, Plextor or BenQ DVD Writers for the scanning process. Lite-On should be the best choice. It's very cheap investment if you're going to scan discs frequently. Okay lets start!

First you will need a DVDR/DVDRW disc (blank disc is fine too) that you would like to test. Insert the disc in to the DVD Writer. Obviously it's nice to have a disc that has been burned as full as possible to have a full scan from the disc. It is very common to have errors in the last part of the disc. Start the Nero CD-DVD Speed program and you should see the window like in the picture below.

If you had a blank disc you need to first burn a "Test Disc". It's very simple and you have two choices. You can burn image file (*.nrg and *.iso formats are supported) or you can select the "Create Data Disc" option which will create dummy files to the disc and it will write the disc as full as possible. If you're using default settings the program will use maximum writing speed. If you prefer to use some other writing speed you should first select File -> Options -> Standard Tests. In this guide we will use the "Create Data Disc" option to create the "Test Disc".

After the burning process you should see the writing speed graph, like in the picture below.

Select the "Disc Quality" tab and you should have a similar window like in the picture below. Use always the default settings. Hit the "Start" button and the test should begin.

After the test you should see the "Disc Quality Test - Statistics" window like in the below picture.

You can Copy the results if you like. Then hit the Close button and you will see the Disc Quality graph like in the picture below.

You can btw save the picture by clicking the save button in the upper right corner.

Okay this is the hardest part to understand :) We won't go too deep. Let's keep it still simple. If the results are within these specs:

- PI Errors Max should be < 280
- PI Failures should be < 4

Then the disc should be ok. You should'nt worry too much about high single PI Error spikes that exceed 280 or high single PI Failure spikes that exceed 4. If there is larger areas then the disc may have some serious problems. The disc may still be readable. You can check the readability with Nero CD-DVD Speed Transfer Rate Test and we will go through that process too. Don't worry about the "Quality Score" value. It will only use the Max PIF value to indicate the disc quality (Table below).

Here is some example scans that may help you to understand the graphs.

This is a very good scan. PI errors average is very low (3.19) and there is only couple of spikes that are still under 15 so those are far from the 280 PI errors standard. The PI failures are under 3 which is also a very good result.

This is a decent scan. The PI error max is 107 and a PI failures max is 8 (single spike that you should ignore) These results are still far from exceeding the limits (PIE=280, PIF=4). Those few PI Failure spikes you can just ignore. If there is larger areas (PIF > 4) then you should do the Transfer Rate Test that we will explain later in this guide.

This is a horrible scan :) The PI erros max is high as 3494 and the PI failures max is 52. So it's quite obvious that this disc could be a coaster. Actually it was a coaster. This disc did not work in any of our standalone DVD players.

Readability test (Transfer Rate Test)

So if the scan was looking poor you can always try to check if the disc is still readable with your DVD Writer. DVD Writer doesn't actually Read the data while performing a PIE/PIF scanning so we need another test. The best tool for this is to use Nero CD-DVD Speed Tranfer Rate Test. It will read the disc at max speed and it will do a graph where you may see if there is any problems. If the disc is not readable you will get an error message.

Select Run Test -> Transfer Rate or hit the F2 to start the Transfer Rate Test. Don't do anything else with your computer when the test is running! If the graph looks like in the below picture everything should be fine (perfect result).

Here is a good example of disc that had some serious problems with readability. This disc did not work in any of our standalone DVD players.

Keep this still in mind: A Tranfer Rate Test with a read failure is not the same thing as a coaster, it will only give you information that your DVD Writer was trying to read the disc and failed. It could be readable with some other writer/drive! But it's definitely a disc that I wouldn't keep. And also remember that if you can read perfectly the disc with your DVD Writer it won't give you absolut proof that it would play fine with your standalone DVD player ;) It will only give you a hint.

Any questions regarding the software or this guide? Visit our forum! You may also post your own scans to our forum ;)

Document history:
10-October-2006 - v1.00 - Initial release - Samulib