Which drives are caching audio data? Options

[norton]

EAC => What about the 'caching audio data'!?


I have read almost everything on this forum about this subject.

No doubt about it: If the Drive you are using to rip with EAC is caching audio data, the 'Drive caches audio data' Box (Drive options... / Extraction method) have to be checked (ticked).

But how can you know if your Drive is caching audio data?

Of what I have read on this forum, you should run 'Detect Read Features' (Drive options... / Extraction method / Detect Read Features). If the result is: Caching: No => You're OK! If the result is: Caching: Yes => You have to checked the 'Drive caches audio data' Box.

Well... The problem is, many people are saying that the 'Detect Read Features' is NOT accurate!!! (How do they know that??) That means even if you perform 'Detect Read Features', you are still not sure if your Drive is caching audio data, or not.


MY QUESTION IS: How can I know if my Drive is Caching audio data, or not?


Thanks for helping,


norton

This post has been edited by norton: Sep 1 2004, 16:21

[VolMax]

Caching or not, it doesnt matter for me now.

The quality of optic and internal device error correction is much more relevant.

I have Teac-CDW548E, ASUS DVD-ROM E616, and have access to some NEC RW drives. Because TEAC caches audio(old NEC and asus - not) EAC tells me that
TEAC<<NEC<ASUS
in terms of quality.

I conducted some test (Nero CDSpeed) on specially scratched test audio cd. And got WERRY intresting results:

ASUS DVD-ROM E616
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On The Fly Copying Simulation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copying at 1 X
OK
Copying at 2 X
data errors
Data Errors: 1
Copying at 4 X
OK
Copying at 6 X
data errors
Data Errors: 16541
Copying at 8 X
data errors
Data Errors: 57
Copying at 10 X
data errors
Data Errors: 20
Copying at 12 X
OK
Copying at 16 X
too slow

The ONE speed working correctly is 12x. Lower or higher speeds produced unrecoverable errors. I tried all speeds to ~40x without much results. Firmware of ASUS seems to be flawed. NEC drive could not read this disc without errors at all.

Teac-CDW548E
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On The Fly Copying Simulation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copying at 1 X
OK
Copying at 2 X
OK

Copying at 4 X
OK
Copying at 6 X
OK

Copying at 8 X
OK

Copying at 10 X
OK

Copying at 12 X
OK
Copying at 16 X
too slow


Later i scratched cd to make unrecoverable errors for TEAC. I lost result of various test with binary comparision, but i clearly remember TEAC even in burst mode have more than TWICE LOVER ERROR RATE! It even slowdouns from 20x to lower speed on scratches even in BURST mode! I was shocked. Because I bought asus drive after teac for better extraction results :Z

Later testing shows me using cache overreadind lowers error rate insignificantly. But slowdowns from ~20x to <2x. Also i found that using С2 for error correction more significantly lowered error rate. Its weird that latest eac doesnt support this feature.

My current preferences:
NEC<<ASUS<TEAC
Now i ripping with TEAC (EAC_09b4 settings:
Accurate stream: ON (for quality reasons)
Drive caches audio data: OFF (for speed and security reasons)
Drive is capable of retreiving C2 ON (for quality reasons)
Use C2 for error correction YES (for quality and speed reasons)
)

This is ONLY for this particular situation, DO NOT use without rigorous testing on your drive!

What the point overriding cache and trying to re-read sector if drive make everything it can fo recover errors? It could even damage drive...

P.S. Test takes 3 full days...

[Pio2001]

Your results are interesting, but they are all about quality, not secureness.

The quality of optic and internal device error correction is much more relevant.

It's not my opinion. I've got a Teac too (540e), that outsmarts my other drives in reading quality, but it's not secure (because of a firmware bug). I get glitches in the wave files that it produces. With other drives, it is worse, but at least the secure mode tells me about the problem.

Its weird that latest eac doesnt support this feature.

I was the only one to have tested it properly, but it didn't work on my drive. Since no one, when it was out, did understand what it was for, and I reported it not to work, it was given up. It also generated a mess of a newbie confusion in the EAC forum.

What the point overriding cache and trying to re-read sector if drive make everything it can fo recover errors? It could even damage drive....

In order to detect the remaining ones, of course.

P.S. Test takes 3 full days...

I'm not surprised.