DVD and CD Testing is not just for manufacturers anymore.  If you are involved with the creation, duplication, replication or distribution of DVD's or CD's, you can save money and prevent problems by being able to measure disc quality.

Why Test Discs?

  Data comparison does not measure disc quality.  

  Just because you can read it doesn’t mean it’s good.   

  Poor disc quality can cause unreliable operation and short lifetime.

All optical discs incorporate very powerful error detection and correction.  This error correction is extremely effective, and DVD's & CD's could not work without it, as there would be far too many errors.

However, the error correction also hides a multitude of sins.  In principle, it is possible to drill a 2mm hole through a CD, and still recover every single bit!  But even though this disc is readable, you could not consider it a "good" disc.  It will be slow and unreliable.  The data could become unrecoverable at any time.

The only way to judge the quality of the disc is to make sure it conforms to Red Book or DVD specifications.  Measuring error rates also shows the location and severity of defects.

Who Should Test Discs?

  Duplicators

  Evaluate and Qualify CD & DVD Media.

  Identify burners that are failing or about to fail. 

  Discover if the problem is the media or the writer.  

  Make sure the masters are good.  

  Replicators

  Quality Assurance

  Production line screening

  Conformance with standards & License Agreement  

  Distributors

  Manage quality variations from suppliers.

  Generate confidence in products.  

  Avoid returns & unhappy customers.  

  Get what you pay for.  

  Mastering Studios

  Make sure your pre-masters can be mastered.

  Avoid delays due to re-mastering.

  End Users

  Increased reliability for critical applications.  

  Archiving - High quality discs have longer lifetime.  

  Avoid long access times.