Mac Error Checking Tools?

[lu432]

Hey guys anyone know of any great cd error checking tools for mac, that will print out the results, or generate the results so you can print them out?

Thanks in advance thumbsup

[streaky]

Hahah I had the same problem last year...I eventually got around it by buying a cheap PC and Plextools and a Plextor drive!

This is where someone comes in and tells me I wasted all that money when there's something for Macs...

[finetuner]

Still nothing available pure Mac i'm afraid. Got around it with plextools on an intel mac mini via bootcamp.
I think people had success running it under parallels as well.

Warning:
I have to say that just today i've seen with my own eyes that a Plextools' approved master got rejected by an Eclipse tester.
That was the second time this week.

Maybe a matter of settings, but probably the reason that serious mastering houses, use equipment like Clover, StageTech or Eclipse...

Side note: The rejected ones were Tayio Yuden silver discs, and definitely a B choice as i learned this week. I got a spindle of a different type TY silvers with a better looking surface and no drop outs so far. Both types were marked 'type-1' in Plextools.

So much for Plextools...?

Peter van't Riet
FineTune Mastering

[Cellotron]

Eclipse tests a lot more than just for BLER - i.e. subcode transition point times, skew, etc. etc. - so sometimes issues that would not get detected with even a Clover could be problems.

However - in a lot of my experiences I've found that if something has passed Plextools but failed at Eclipse then sometimes handling or damage has occured between the Plextools test and the plant side test. Usually clients or shipper are the most to blame for these types of things.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[finetuner]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

...in a lot of my experiences I've found that if something has passed Plextools but failed at Eclipse then sometimes handling or damage has occured between the Plextools test and the plant side test. Usually clients or shipper are the most to blame for these types of things...

The rejects (in my case) were strictly because of E32's.
I handed over the discs personally and watched the loading in Eclipse. Not at a plant but a befriended (and better equipped) mastering house.
Reason for that extra testing was because of suspected 'lesser' TY discs, mentioned earlier.

Originally Posted by Cellotron

Eclipse tests a lot more than just for BLER - i.e. subcode transition point times, skew, etc. etc. - so sometimes issues that would not get detected with even a Clover could be problems...

O Yeah. I did get a warning about audio present under several pq end points.
What i learned was that my end offset (2 frames by default in SoundBlade) was 1 frame short for the dither turn off delay (0.1 sec = 3 frames also default in SB thank you). From now on i'll use 5 frames. Another lesson learned thumbsup

Best,
Peter van't Riet
FineTune Mastering

[Thor]

PlexTools with a supported drive in external enclosure and Windows XP running in VMWare Fusion or Parallels. Connect the drive via USB and point PlexTools at it, and you're good to go.

Print out the report, drag and drop from Windows to the OS X desktop and print.

Cheers,
Thor

Originally Posted by lu432

Hey guys anyone know of any great cd error checking tools for mac, that will print out the results, or generate the results so you can print them out?

Thanks in advance thumbsup

[Greg Reierson]

Originally Posted by finetuner

The rejects (in my case) were strictly because of E32's.

If PlexTools passed the disc for errors it means the Plextor drive was able to recover the data. If it then failed the Eclipse run, either the Plextor drive is out of spec with the real world or the drive in the Eclipse just didn't like your media. The data are obviously there otherwise PlexTools would not have been able recover them. Every manufacturer of blank media has bad runs from time to time. I don't think this necessarily disqualifies TY blanks or PlexTools as an excellent first line of defense.

IME, failing at the plant is typically related to other issues that PlexTools is not looking for.


GR

[lu432]

Cool beans! Thor as always you are a great guy to turn to for help! Thanks everyone else as well. I am disappointed that no one has developed something as simple as an error checking tool for macs. tutt

Well on we go! I do have a nice PC here running here, I guess I will use this thing to check for errors now. I guess the search remains, for the mac error checking utility!

Might be a great suggestion for a mac mastering utility.... hint hint nudge nudge to anyone who work on mac applications or at apple themselves.

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by Greg Reierson

If PlexTools passed the disc for errors it means the Plextor drive was able to recover the data. If it then failed the Eclipse run, either the Plextor drive is out of spec with the real world or the drive in the Eclipse just didn't like your media. The data are obviously there otherwise PlexTools would not have been able recover them. Every manufacturer of blank media has bad runs from time to time. I don't think this necessarily disqualifies TY blanks or PlexTools as an excellent first line of defense.

IME, failing at the plant is typically related to other issues that PlexTools is not looking for.

GR

Exactly. Other parameters include spec conformance, pit geometry, reflectivity, and of course the read speed and threshold specs to which Eclipse is set to flag warnings or fails. (not discounting physical damage.. I've witnessed non-tech office staff at a plant opening and re labelling masters themselves).

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by lu432

Might be a great suggestion for a mac mastering utility.... hint hint nudge nudge to anyone who work on mac applications or at apple themselves.

There is actually a very small clique of programmers who write much of the specialist CD related software in Europe. Many seemingly unrelated programs are actually connected by virtue of the people who wrote them. These guys are Windows or Linux based and seem to have no interest in the Mac platform.

Cheers

James.

[lu432]

Its funny you should mention that. My brother and father are electrical engineers and programmers. They meddle all day long on Unix and Linux platforms. Its funny because they always gave me the impression that they would prefer to work on a Mac or Linux box any day, then to a windows box (by they, I mean them and their programming buddies). Windows seems to be the great evil amongst the programming community by the way they speak.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by jamesp

There is actually a very small clique of programmers who write much of the specialist CD related software in Europe. Many seemingly unrelated programs are actually connected by virtue of the people who wrote them. These guys are Windows or Linux based and seem to have no interest in the Mac platform.....

bummer.

[Thor]

Porting from Linux to Darwin (OS X) is usually less than a no-brainer, as long as the programmer has kept within modern posix compliant practices, which most do. There aren't a whole lot of SysV/BSD incompatability showstoppers these days.

And as another poster pointed out, most Linux people would much rather go to Mac OS X than Windows as a second system.

Thor

Originally Posted by jamesp

There is actually a very small clique of programmers who write much of the specialist CD related software in Europe. Many seemingly unrelated programs are actually connected by virtue of the people who wrote them. These guys are Windows or Linux based and seem to have no interest in the Mac platform.

Cheers

James.

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by Thor

Porting from Linux to Darwin (OS X) is usually less than a no-brainer, as long as the programmer has kept within modern posix compliant practices, which most do. There aren't a whole lot of SysV/BSD incompatability showstoppers these days.

And as another poster pointed out, most Linux people would much rather go to Mac OS X than Windows as a second system.

Thor

Maybe I was exagerating the popularity of Linux amongst these programmers. Virtually all the specialist CD extraction/checking software utilities like EAC or CDSpeed have originated on the PC. There was an attempt to create an error checking program for Linux but it failed due to copyright restrictions.

Cheers

James.

[mixerguy]

anyone have a lead (maybe vern a web link) to a PlexTools supported drive .... for use in a USB external enclosure?

and - do i need a specific version of PlexTools?

and - i can just use BootCamp and Windows XP sp2, correct?

thanks!

[pmj]

Originally Posted by lu432

I am disappointed that no one has developed something as simple as an error checking tool for macs. tutt

Nothing at the moment, but coming soon apparently - start reading about halfway down this thread:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mastering-forum/362525-backline-ddp-player-burner-mac.html

Sooner rather than later with any luck

[finetuner]

to Matthew Foust of Audiofile Engineering: That would be awesome !
You'd have something really exclusive (for Mac that is).

[Greg Reierson]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

anyone have a lead (maybe vern a web link) to a PlexTools supported drive .... for use in a USB external enclosure?

Any of the Plextor drives that work with PlexTools can be mounted in an external enclosure. I have a converter that I got at Microcenter that plugs in the back of the drive and has a USB port on the other end. Works slick!


GR