searching for BLER test software

[Rxke]

hello, everybody.

if this post seems a bit long-winded, that's because i have problems expressing myself clearly in English. Apologies for that;
I'm a student in conservation/restauration of visual media (photographs, video, digital media etc)

I'm looking for freeware that can do at least some kind of a BLER-test (block error rate) on damaged cd-r's, and give out a test report. I'm working on a project that involves testing older cd-rs to try to figure out what were the causes of damage-data corruption, i'm planning to test a lot of cd-r's to get an 'overall picture' (cd-r in museums, offices etc) right now it's either a 'good-bad' test of the things, but more detailed info could be very valuable....
Note: i'm NOT interested in file recovery, only detection of problems... of course if there is a recovery option it's only a plus.

Best thing i could find so far is checkCD, but i'm convinced there are better solutions around. Since i'm non-native speaker, i have a hard time getting 'inspiration' for searchterm for Google, a thousand things pop up, but i seem to be unable to find what i want.

I'd love to find something in mac classic, but linux, dos , osx, windows95 is also fine with me, i'm prepared to do some studying to get programs working.
Of course, an open-source app would be great, since this is a research for museums, they like to have as much 'tweakability as possible, so linux or scrips etc is in fact preferred
more recent windowsversions are a no-no because it would have to run on older equipment in the case of windows
i'm even prepared to do some programming myself, (have to study a recent language first!) but i don't want to reinvent the wheel...

i've been looking for freeware that did a 'literal' copy-read, faults and all, of cd-r that puts it in a textfile or something like that (for comparing later with master etc) but that doesn't seem to exist?

any help would be very appreciated, and i'll surely keep you kind people posted if the project find something interesting (hope i do!)

 

[Rxke]

Ok, looks like what I'm searching for is quite elusive, at least on the freeware front.

Gold Member Duracell (Thanks!) pointed me to the quite elaborate program CD/DVD Inspector, from arrowwolf.
This has an 'readability-check' feature.
I downloaded the manual, and it says it gives a graphic representation of the readability of a disk, i guess that's good enough, for now.

What iwant to know is: has anybody experience with this program, and if so, could you recommend it?

It's a bit overkill, cause it's mainly a program designed to examine file-content, retrieval of hidden files, forensics etc, and all i want to know is what shape a disk is in....

You can buy hardware solutions, that use a standalone reader that do what i'm after, and more, but the cheapest option is about 3000 dollar...

Guess i'll fork out for a Plextor Premium instead, it does something like this too...
Problem, ill have to use the usb variant, most places won't let me install hardware internally into their machines... but then again, most places dont have new computers, with usb (really, you should see what some libraries are working with...)

 

[roadworker]

Some basic,free stuf:

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=download.html

 

[Rxke]

Thank you Roadworker, looks promising, now i'll have to try and 'sell' te idea to my mentor (shudder)

 

[LTR12101B]

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=Testing+media+quality&index=11
Useful?

CD Doctor 1.04 (I believe there was a later one) doesn't cover BLER specifically, but gives a readout of C1 and C2 errors - in general, it needs a SANYO or Mediatek chipset CD-RW drive to work (Liteon Drives are ideal)

http://www2.tcnet.ne.jp/miyuri/files/index.html - 1.20b1 is here - now I have a vague recollection, that the zip inside that one is passworded

- Cut/paste from CDRLABS forum -
Click on the link labeled "doctor_120b1.zip ".

As before, the actual program file is password protected within an embedded zip file in the main zip file. The readme.txt file contains the password. However, it has not yet been translated into English, so I will give you the password subject to the following conditions:

CD Doctor's copyright is held by the author Miyuri. The author accepts no responsibility for any damage caused by use of this program. Please contact the author regarding this package prior to publication in books, magazines and the like.

If you understand and agree to these terms, agree that the above terms are superceded by the actual Japanese test included within the readme.txt file, and are willing to try an incomplete and not thoroughly tested beta version, then you may extract and use the program by entering the password "DrawPrimitive" (without the quotation marks).

-- end ---

The other tool, KPROBE seems to have been pulled (as, it appears, does the author's site) at the request of Liteon.
Also LTNFLASH (same author) - also pulled - this is getting serious!

I have a copy of KPROBE, obtained actually just AFTER the pull (site pulled, but cached links still valid) - Although I'm still using CD Doctor 1.04 - will deposit at suitable drop zone if required - I've never honoured a "pull" as a point of principle.

To see some results from different software, check out the media tests at www.thedolphinreview.com - the same software that checks quality of burns, is also pretty good for checking deterioration of burns or originals.

 

[Rxke]

Useful?

Thank you very much! looks really good (better than i hoped for, actually)

can't test it at home (pre-windows pc(!) and aging mac only)
but will look what i can do at college. I'll also try to contact Mr. Miyuri (to get full approval etc... besides it'll look good in my paper (if it ever gets written)

Again, thank you very mutch (getting so excited, starting to type 'much' semi-phonetically...)

 

[LTR12101B]

Not sure that you need approval to publish RESULTS.

A quick guide to interpreting CD Doctor results...
1. Testing at high speed is generally tougher, so a good result on the maximum speed test, is a greater "confidence score" than at 8x - don't be fooled into thinking the slower test would be more accurate at finding errors, as it's actually better at reading the data.
2. Liteon drives ending in 5(S/W) may throw a small error spike at 50-something minutes - if this is likely to bother you, be sure to get the latest 52326 as that doesn't have the error spike.

3. C1 errors (coded blue) - The finest burn, or a fresh pressed CD, ought to register an average of 1 or less. 15-30 average is a poor but usable burn. Peaks of 100+ are worrying.
4. C2 errors (coded RED) - This means C1 correction failed - some people would consider ANY C2 errors to be unacceptable (on a burn), and they would usually occur within an unacceptable C1 error peak.
5. I believe unreadables are coded (paradoxically) GREEN

As far as I gather, Nero CDSpeed would report C2 as "damaged" in the surface scan - and I'm not quite sure what it reports in CD Quality check.
It's a far less powerful test than CD Doctor (which would be showing a C1 error profile when CDspeed sees no errors), but can be usable on drives that CD Doctor cannot use.

This is not a professional test suite, but then it's not a professional price either!
CD Doctor is certainly great for judging good/middling/poor/danger on a burn, but I HAVE seen it turn in a "poor C1 but no C2" on a CD-R that actually failed write verify (could have been another problem though).

PS. Native English, and still garbled most of the time ... this keyboard makes far more errors than my old one!

 

[Rxke]

Not sure that you need approval to publish RESULTS.

probably not, but i guess it's always nice knowing somebody uses your software...
If it ever comes to that, for now i'm kinda 'bogged down' in other assignments, nothing to do with digital stuff, so there i go again, wielding tweezers, gluing pellicule, peering into microscopes etc....