CD Speed 99 Documentation

Current version: 0.8 Beta

  Features

bullet 32-bit program: works under Win95/98/2000/NT
bullet Transfer Rate Test
bullet Drive type detection: CLV, CAV and P-CAV
bullet Write Transfer Rate Test (new in version 0.8)
bullet DAE quality test: determines whether the drive supports accurate streaming.
bullet Extensive DAE quality test: with a special test disc the DAE capabilities of the drive are tested in detail. (new in version 0.75, updated in version 0.8)
bullet Random, 1/3 and full seek test
bullet CPU utilization test
bullet Burst rate test
bullet Spin up/down test (new in version 0.2)
bullet Disc eject/load test (new in version 0.7)
bullet CD quality check (new in version 0.5, updated in version 0.75)
bullet Drive check (new in version 0.6)
bullet Overburning test (new in version 0.7, updated in version 0.8)
bullet Speed selection (new in version 0.3, updated in version 0.7)
bullet More accurate results with a higher resolution timer
bullet Save status option
bullet Show RPM on grid (new in version 0.2)
bullet Save and load settings (new in version 0.3)
bullet Selectable grid limits (new in version 0.4)
bullet Load and save results in binary file (new in version 0.4)
bullet Save results to ASCII file which can be imported with spreadsheets such as Excel (new in version 0.4)
bullet Test ability to read in RAW mode

  Transfer Rate Test

The Transfer Rate Test measures the data transfer rate and displays the results in a graph.
When an audio CD is inserted, the DAE speed will be measured.

During the test, the rotation speed of the drive is displayed in another graph (yellow color).
The test also determines the reading type of the drive (CLV, CAV or P-CAV)
More information about the different reading types can be found on the CD Speed website

  Write Transfer Rate Test

CD Speed 99 can not only test the reading performance of CD-ROM drives, but also the writing performance of recorders/rewriters.
Checking the writing performance is very easy. Just insert a blank CD-R(W) disc in your recorder and run the transfer rate test.
CD Speed 99 will not write any data on the disc so you can still use your CD-R after running the test.

Please note there are some important differences with the reading test:
  DAE Quality Test

The DAE quality measures how well the drive can extract audio tracks.
First some audio sectors are extracted to the HD at three different locations on the CD.
The same sectors are read again and compared to the sectors written to HD.
Depending on the number of differences, the DAE quality will be rated from 0 to 10.
10 means perfect DAE (no differences).
Next CD Speed 99 will try to determine whether the drive supports accurate streaming.
When accurate streaming is not supported the drive is unable to locate the requested audio location at any time.
  Extensive DAE Quality Test

Please read the recording issues topic first.

The Advanced DAE Test will reveal all DAE problems a drive may have.
By using a special test disc, which must be created with CD Speed 99, even the slightest error will be detected.
There are two kind of errors which can occur:

Data Errors
These are just audio samples which are read incorrectly.
The cause of these errors is usually bad media. A solution is to use different media or decreasing the drive's speed.
If the number of data errors is not too high you probably won't hear them because the internal error correction routines of the drive should be able to fix them.
CD Speed 99 detects them by comparing the read bytes with the known data from the test disc.

Sync Errors
A sync error occurs when the drive does not read the audio sector requested by the application but a sector near it.
For example when the application requests sector 1000 the drive may return the data from sector 999.
When this happens either some samples are missing or samples are repeated. This error is probably audible.
The test disc contains data which allows CD Speed 99 to determine whether the correct sector is read.

The sequential read test simulates DAE under perfect conditions. Most drives will pass this test without errors.
The harmonica read test is very though for the drive. Most drives will not pass this test without errors.
Based on the number of errors a score is given. A score of 100.0 is a perfect score.

After checking the DAE quality, the test will determine whether the drive can be used in combination with a recorder to make backups of audio discs on the fly.
The test will check if an audio disc can be copied without any errors at different speeds ranging from 1-16X.

Finally some advanced features of the drives are tested:

Offset
All drives start reading audio sectors at a different position from the actual start position.
This offset is usually a few 100 samples. Also recorders don't start writing at the start position.
CD Speed 99 reports the total of the read offset of the tested drive and the write offset of the recorder which was used to create the test disc.

Read Leadin
To make perfect copies a drive should be able to read data before the start position (see offset explanation).

Read Leadout
To make perfect copies a drive should be able to read data from the leadout (see offset explanation).

CD Text
Checks the drive's ability to return CD Text information.

Read Subchannel Data
Subchannel data contains information such as index markers, track number, etc..
A drive must be capable of returning this information to make perfect audio copies.



  Seek Times Test

With this test the random, 1/3 stroke and full stroke seek times are measured.
To get accurate results, a CD with a capacity of at least 70 minutes must be used.
  CPU Utilization Test

The CPU utilization at 1X, 2X, 4X and 8X is measured.
  Burst Rate Test

The Burst Rate Test measures the transfer rate from the hostadapter to the drive.
This test is mainly intended for SCSI drives.
  Spinup/spindown Test

For high speed drives it is necessary to spin down the drive to lengthen the life of the optical parts.
The spinup test measures how long it takes before the drive can read data after it has stopped.
Faster drives will have higher spinup/down times.
  Disc Eject/Load Test

This test will measure the time it takes for a drive to eject, load and recognize a disc.
The eject and load times should always be about the same.
However the time needed to recognize a disc depends heavily on the type of disc.
For example a drive needs much more time to recognize a multisession disc than a single session disc.

Example of test results:

DriveDiscEject timeLoad timeRecognition time
Asus CD-S50011.84 sec1.31 sec3.85 sec
21.84 sec1.30 sec12.10 sec
31.84 sec1.31 sec4.45 sec
Afreey CD-205011.22 sec1.17 sec6.05 sec
21.22 sec1.17 sec8.20 sec
31.22 sec1.17 sec6.68 sec
  CD quality check

With this function you can check if a CD(-R/W) contains errors.
The test will read all sectors on the CD and verify the data integrity.

It can be usefull to:

- Compare the recovery strategy of different drives when a low quality or damaged CD is used.
- Check the quality of the CD(-R/W) media
- If you have a CD recorder, you can check if the data on the CD-R(W) is written correctly.

The test can be used for both data and audio CD's.

Please note that not all drives are capable of returning error information.
To make sure your drive supports this feature you should run the test with a badly damaged disc. An audio disc is highly recommended for this because you will probably get a read error when you're trying to read from a badly damaged data disc.

Drives which will definitaly work with the test are:

Plextor 8Plex/12Plex/20Plex/UltraPlex/UltraPlex40Max
Asus CD-S400/CD-S500
Afreey CD-2050E
Ricoh MP7040

The screenshot below shows the graph from a badly damaged audio disc.
After the test has finished the total number of errors and the average reading speed are reported.
  Drive check

With this function you can view important information such as:
 This information can be saved to a text file.
Below you can see an example of the output.

 --------------------------------------------------------------
 General information
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Operating system      : Windows 95 V4.00.1111  B
 ASPI manager          : Adaptec V4.60 (1017)

 Host adapter          : Adaptec AHA-2940AU PCI SCSI Controller
 Driver                : AIC78XX.MPD
    Description        : Adaptec CHIM Family SCSI miniport
    Company            : Adaptec, Inc.
    Version            : 2.10

 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Drive information
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Host adapter          : 0
 Device ID             : 4
 Vendor                : PLEXTOR
 Product               : CD-R   PX-W8220T
 Firmware version      : 1.01

 Buffer size           : 4096 KB
 Maximum read speed    : 3528 KB/sec (20 X)
 Read CD-R             : yes
 Read CD-RW            : yes
 Read CDDA             : yes
 CDDA accurate         : yes
 Read R-W              : yes
 R-W packed            : yes
 C2 pointers           : no
 Speed settings        : 1-4-8-20 X

 Read RAW mode   : yes
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Disc information
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Type                  : data mode 1
 Tracks                : 2 (2 data, 0 audio)
 Capacity              : 10:35.20 (47645 sectors)

 CD-R(W) information
    Manufacturer       : Ricoh Co.
    Media code         : 97m27s00f
    Dye type           : 0
    Disc Type          : CD-RW (4 X compatible)
    Capacity           : 74:12.00

 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Supported commands
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Mode Sense 6
 ok
 Mode Sense 10
 ok
 Seek6
 ok
 Seek10
 ok
 Read CD
 ok
 Read10
 ok
 Read12
 ok
 Read CDDA
 ok
 Set CD Speed
 ok

  Overburning test

Please read the recording issues topic first.

With the overburning test you can check whether your recorder supports overburning and how much data can be overburned on a particular CD-R(W) disc.

To run the test first insert a blank CD-R(W) disc. Nothing will be written on the disc.
Then select the recording speed and the test capacity.
The test capacity should be higher than the official capacity.
Also note that many recorders refuse to write beyond 90 minutes. This is important when you're testing 99 minute CD-R's.

During the test you can see the recording progress.


Position: current write position.
Relative: position relative to the official capacity.

Green bar: written data before the official capacity.
Yellow bar: written data beyond the official capacity (overburned part of the disc).
Dark green bar: data buffer.
Blue line: official capacity.
Red line: current/end position.

Disc information: official capacity, manufacturer, dye type and disc type.

If the test has completed successfully you can add the results to the list at the end of the screen.
You can delete entries with the delete key.

Notes The maximum capacity will be lower than the last written position because the recorder still has data in it's buffer.
You should not write until the very end of the maximum capacity. It is very likely that the area at the end of the disc is unreadable.
You can find more important information about overburning on the CD Speed website.

  Recording issues

This information applies to the DAE Quality Test disc creation and the overburning test.

Even though the recording routines have been tested extensively with many different recorders it is possible that your recorder is not supported.
This can happen if the recorder is not fully MMC compliant.
Therefore it is recommended to use the simulation function first.

Many recorders require that you eject the disc after a writing process.

With both functions you have the option to write in DAO (default) mode and RAW mode (type 3).
Most, if not all, current recorders support DAO mode but only very few recorders support RAW mode.
The reason why support for RAW mode is added is that this is by far the most interesting write mode.
It gives the software full control of what will be written on the disc.
If a drive supports RAW mode type 3 correctly then it can write any type of disc, regardless of what the official specifications of the drive may say.
The most interesting possibilities are:
Because most recorders don't support RAW mode correctly, it is highly recommended to test with a CD-RW first when you have selected this mode.
You could also use the simulate function but there are many recorders which don't support simulation in RAW mode.
  Speed selection

If you have a MMC compatible drive (most atapi drives and recorders are) then you can change the reading speed with CD Speed 99.
When you select the options screen for the first time, all possible speed settings for the selected drive will be scanned.
These settings are saved and restored the next time you select the options screen.

There are many drives which are unable to retrieve the possible speed settings.
However in most cases it is possible to change the speed with these drives.
For these drives CD Speed 99 automatically adds the three most common speed settings: maximum, 8x and 4x.
  Screenshot



  Contact Information

Email
cdspeed@cdspeed2000.com

Website
http://www.cdspeed2000.com

  Legal

CD Speed 99 is copyrighted ® 1999, 2000 by Erik Deppe, All Rights Reserved.

Distribution of this program is not allowed without my permission.
For information about this please send an email to: erik.deppe@cdspeed2000.com.

You are not allowed to make changes to the distributed files and/or disassemble/decompile the executable.

CD Speed 99 is provided as is without warranty of any kind.
I will not take responsibility for any damage that may be caused by this program.