14 replies to this topic

[aaron44126]

Hello,
I think that the option to verify the disc against the image after you burn it would be a very nice thing to have. (Not to sound "demanding" or anything, but this is the suggestions forum after all.) I often choose to use Nero instead of Alcohol 120% to burn an image, because it has this option, but I can't burn everything in Nero.

[Jito463]

This has been suggested before, but it's not a bad idea and probably worth repeating. I've had enough burns that completed but with a bad disc lately (using Nero though) that I've started resorting to verifying most important stuff myself.

[sbrannon]

Hello,
I think that the option to verify the disc against the image after you burn it would be a very nice thing to have. (Not to sound "demanding" or anything, but this is the suggestions forum after all.) I often choose to use Nero instead of Alcohol 120% to burn an image, because it has this option, but I can't burn everything in Nero.

I would like to see this feature in Alcohol 120% also. Frankly, I'm surprised that it is missing.

[duydaniel]

Hello,
I think that the option to verify the disc against the image after you burn it would be a very nice thing to have. (Not to sound "demanding" or anything, but this is the suggestions forum after all.) I often choose to use Nero instead of Alcohol 120% to burn an image, because it has this option, but I can't burn everything in Nero.

I would recomend if Alcohol has feature like Nero CD-DVD Speed. This small appl can show you disc quality, burn quality (scan disc)...

[khat17]

I usually burn at the slowest speed available for my DVD's (2x-4x) and not over 32x for CDs. Not because my burner is slow, but it's proven that when you burn slower the media will be more reliable. It will also lessen your chances for a bad burn while doing other stuff (like me) for example, playing games online.

PeAcE.

[arb]

Please, Alcohol-team, can you tell us when the Verify feature is going to be made available?

I know you've been working on it for a few years now so it must be almost ready to release ;-)

[MaLing]

Well, I had some words about this in another topic of this suggestion, but let me revise them here.

Before Alcohol issued the premastering function, the main purpose of Alcohol had been producing copies of PROTECTED discs, I believe that it had been very difficult, if not impossible, to verify a protected disc especially with SafeDisc weak and bad sectors. In addition, at a later stage, recording to physical optical discs had declined its popularity, most of the users had just created images and mounted to virtual drives to play games.

Now Alcohol has issued premastering function, this is something different, it seems that verification is an very useful function, I strongly believe that the developers are fully aware of the usefulness of verification too and even in advance. However premastering is a new baby, it just needs some time to be perfect, and there are a lot of functions need to be accomplished as well.

Someday it will be an alternative to Nero.

[arb]

Actually I don't want an alternative to Nero -- I've already purchased it and use it for different purposes. I purchased Alcohol because (unlike Nero) it's not bloat-ware and so what it does should be done well.

In my opinion the developers should not spend time adding a mastering function when such a basic facility like verification has not been implemented.

If the developers themselves can come back with specific reasons why it cannot be done then I will happily listen. But the fact that Nero can do it suggests it's not impossible (even I can do "cmp /dev/dvd file.iso" !) for ISO images and I am happy hear why it is impossible for Alcohol with MDS images.

The replies I have had in the past were along the lines of "if there is no error then the burn was good" and "it's never failed for me" which, frankly, are nonsense! Think about it: if you've never verified the disc then how do you know it's good?! And I've had discs burn fine in Nero but fail the verification so I have proof that such a scenario is possible.

[Charalambos]

I personally agree with you about the importance of a verification function, yet Alcohol does its job very good if the drivers and the media are OK and reports any possible problems. So at least it isn't such a critical issue that we can't wait untill the verification function is implemented in one of the future versions.

[Phoenix]

Its not an option we have decieded not to add, its an option we have not deemed nessesary upto this point it in time, the majority of bad writes reported by users have resolved in either bad media, or other reasons that a verify option would be pointless. This is not to say we will not add a verfy in a future version update

As for your praise of Nero, i do not knock other software but even i know Nero will tell you things you want to hear and not what is actulay happening take for example Nero write speeds, Nero will tell you its writing at your selected speed but is actualy writing at its own dictated speed.

I doubt that all our long term customers who have been waiting for Alcohols pre mastering would agree with you concerning your thoughts on not adding pre mastering.

On a personal note i have never purchased a software for what it might do, i only ever purchase a software that suits my needs at the time of purchase, if at a later date something is added that i dont have to pay for its a bonus. If it does not do what i want when i trial it, i will purchase another software or wait untill the one i am intertested in suits my needs.

[Jito463]

Actually I don't want an alternative to Nero -- I've already purchased it and use it for different purposes. I purchased Alcohol because (unlike Nero) it's not bloat-ware and so what it does should be done well.

In my opinion the developers should not spend time adding a mastering function when such a basic facility like verification has not been implemented.

If the developers themselves can come back with specific reasons why it cannot be done then I will happily listen. But the fact that Nero can do it suggests it's not impossible (even I can do "cmp /dev/dvd file.iso" !) for ISO images and I am happy hear why it is impossible for Alcohol with MDS images.

The replies I have had in the past were along the lines of "if there is no error then the burn was good" and "it's never failed for me" which, frankly, are nonsense! Think about it: if you've never verified the disc then how do you know it's good?! And I've had discs burn fine in Nero but fail the verification so I have proof that such a scenario is possible.

To expound a little on what Phoenix said, most of the time verification would be pointless anyway.  Since Alcohol's primary purpose is for copy protected games, there are number of tricks Alcohol uses to duplicate the copy protection and make the image and any burned copies APPEAR as if they were original.  The key word is appear.  You will never make a perfect copy of a copy protected game with commercially available drives.  You can make a working copy, but it will not be exactly the same as the original, or even the image in many cases, due primarily to the tricks involved in making them work in the first place.

As such, verification of copy protected images is useless, because it's almost always going to fail verification.  You could verify non-copy protected discs - as they would just be a straight dump - but who uses Alcohol for that?  A small minority, comparatively speaking.  Hence, what I'm guessing is the reason why verification has not made an appearance before.  Now that premastering has been added, it's more likely to be added in a future update, but that's up to the devs to decide.

[PureAlcohol]

Verification will always be useful. And if Alcohol becomes more versatile (verification, editing of image files, even simple burning of files), this will only make it better - and more lucrative to future customers.

I also own CloneCD - which is a great piece of software for what it does, only what it does is very limited - and therefore in my opinion CloneCD is slowly leaving the stage.

So, speaking for myself, I can say that I am looking forward to downloading a version of Alcohol that can actually verify a written image file. It should not be too difficult to implement.

[ocyl]

Seconded. It would be great if future versions of Alcohol 120% can at least verify the backup copy against the image created/used by Alcohol during the backup process. Verifying against the original copy isn't a necessity and may be difficult to implement due to the reasons described by Jito463.

[Dkamerad]

I might be crazy here but I really thought when I first purchased Alcohol it did have a checkbox to verify the burned disc against the image files it was sourced from. This would've been... circa 2004 ish.

Edited by Dkamerad, 12 February 2009 - 08:28 AM.

[jhuk]

I usually burn at the slowest speed available for my DVD's (2x-4x) and not over 32x for CDs. Not because my burner is slow, but it's proven that when you burn slower the media will be more reliable. It will also lessen your chances for a bad burn while doing other stuff (like me) for example, playing games online.

PeAcE.

That's totally untrue today.

Modem Burners and Media are made for rated speed, if you burn slower your simply keeping the Media hotter for longer than it needs be so this is bad.

The only reason I use 4x for DVD (both DVD5 and DVD9 in Alcohol (they advise you to do slow) is because its trying to copy/break the protection on DVD or Image File.

If I am burning anything not game related I burn at 20x DVD5 and 10x DVD9 in Nero.

I also only use Verbatim Media.