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| Posted by | Jan S. |
| Posted on | 17/07/04 18:55 |
| Number of views | 10906 |
To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the LaCie d2 DVD±RW Double Layer. These tests are: making backups of protected data and
audio discs as well as some special disc tests.
Copy protected data discs:
For this test, we will use CloneCD 4.3.2.2 and Alcohol 120% 1.9.2 Build 1705 to make a backup of games containing some of the most popular copy protections. In the screenshot below we see that the LaCie d2 DVD±RW Double Layer supports all available write and read features:
LaCie d2 DVD±RW Double Layer supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means that it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data. Below are our results for all the tested games:
Singles - Flirt up your life! uses Starforce v3.3.33.08 a very special protection that is added during the manufacturing process. So far no drives have been able to make a 100% working backup. The Starforce v3 copy protection is similar to the CD Cops copy protection.
Beyond Good & Evil is protected with Tagé¨s, a protection that uses a very special sub channel protection. So far no drives have been able to backup this game successfully.
Messiah is protected with Laserlok, a protection that takes very long time to read for most drives, but most drives is able to make working backups of this game.
Der Herr Der Ringe - Die Gefé¤hrten is protected with SecuROM: version 4.85.04. Very few writers could reliably make working backups of this protection.
Hulk is protected with a newer version of SecuROM: namely version 4.84.76 0079. Very few (if any) writers could reliably make working backups of this protection. There are a few tricks that advanced users may use in combination with some writers to make a backup that will at least work in some drives, but this is still not a perfect copy.
Hidden & Dangerous 2 are protected with one of the most recent SecuROM versions: version 4.85.07.0155. Very few (if any) writers could reliably make working backups of this protection.
Serious Sam The Second Encounter is protected with the very popular Safedisc protection; the version used on Serious Sam The Second Encounter is version 2.51. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most Safedisc protected games with weak sectors.
IGI 2 Covert Strike is another game protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on IGI 2 Covert Strike is version 2.80.010. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it may be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most Safedisc protected games with weak sectors. Note that some writers may still have problems with this version.
Painkiller is yet another Safedisc protected game, this time it's version 3.20.022. Very few writers are able to reliably make a working backup of this protection. . If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it may be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most Safedisc protected games with weak sectors. Note that some writers may still have problems with this version.
The table below shows the backup capabilities of the LaCie d2 DVD±RW Double Layer drive:
| Game - | Read time | Backup |
| Singles - | 2m:31s | No |
| Beyond Good & Evil - | 2m:43s | No |
| Messiah - | 19m:48s | Yes |
| Der Herr Der Ringe - | 39m (4x) | No * |
| Hulk - | 29m (4x) | No |
| Hidden & Dangerous 2 - | 24m (4x) | No |
| Serious Sam 2nd Enc. - | 32m | Yes ** |
| IGI 2 Covert Strike - | 37m | No |
| Painkiller - | 42m | No |
*Works when using Alcohol 120% to back it up and RMPS/emulation enable.
**Works when using Alcohol 120% to back it up.
Settings for CloneCD: Read subchannel data and write them uncorrected. Fast Error Skip: enabled. Intelligent bad sector scanner: enabled and set to 100-error skip. First we tried to write with AWS(Amplify Weak sectors) disabled, if that did not work we wrote again with AWS enabled, as a last attempt we tried the emulate option as well.
Drive used to verify that the backup works: JLMS XJ-HD166S, No emulators or ATIP hiders are running while testing the backup copy.
The LaCie drive is not a good drive for backing up protected discs, and is pretty slow at reading safedisc protected discs.
Copy protected Audio:
For our protected audio test we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test:
French Trance - The New Era Of Trance Vol.01 - This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4 (4.1 Build 2a)
Celine Dion: A new day has come; protected with key2audio version 3.
Results:
| Protected | Protection version | Exact Audio Copy |
| French Trance: | Cactus data shield 200 | Detects and rips the content |
| Celine Dion: | Key2Audio version 3 | Detects and rips the content |
The CD's were read at full speed without any problems.
Overburning:
To test the overburning capabilities of the LaCie drive, we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to about 90min, setting the test value higher will result in an error message.
To make sure that it actually works we wrote a couple of CD-R's near 90 minutes long with Nero Burning ROM:
No problems with the writing, so we tried to read the largest disc back:
A nice looking curve on the read back, and the speed at the end of the CD was even 44.38x (The drive is certified with 40x on CD-R).
We also tried reading 99 minutes discs but the drive was unable to recognize them correctly. This means that the drive is unable to read and write discs larger than 90 minutes.
8CM CD-R and pocket card CD-R discs:
Now we will try to read and write 8cm CD-R discs and credit card CD-R discs.
8cm CD-R disc:
| Brand: | SONY |
| Manufacturer: | SONY Corporation |
| Code: | 97m24s11f |
| Disc Type: | CD-R |
| Recording Layer: | Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO) |
| Capacity: | 22:48.01 (200.10MB) |
| Certified Speed: | Not specified |
| Write Speed: | 16-24x Z-CLV |
| Write Time: | 1m:33s |
The LaCie did not have any problems with writing and reading the 8cm CD-R 200 MB disc.
| Brand: | Intenso |
| Manufacturer: | Digital Storage Technology Co., Ltd. |
| Code: | 97m27s01f |
| Disc Type: | CD-R |
| Recording Layer: | Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO) |
| Capacity: | 28:10.74 (247 MB) |
| Certified Speed: | Multispeed |
| Write Speed: | 16X CLV |
| Write Time: | 2m:10s |
The LaCie did not have any problems with writing and reading the 8cm CD-R 250 MB disc.
Credit Card CD-R:
| Brand: | Data Becker |
| Manufacturer: | Ricoh Company Limited |
| Code: | 97m27s00f |
| Disc Type: | CD-R |
| Recording Layer: | Dye Type 0: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO) |
| Capacity: | 04:41.00 (41 MB) |
| Certified Speed: | Not specified |
| Write Speed: | 4x |
| Write Time: | 1m:36s |
The LaCie drive did not have any problems reading/writing the credit card disc either.
Now, that concludes our LaCie review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…
Re-Writing performance
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