Erik Deppe releases Opti Drive Control

[Ian]

Has anyone tried Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control software yet? It looks like he's taken the functionality from CD Speed and InfoTool with a new interface.

http://www.optidrivecontrol.com/

Opti Drive Control Transfer Rate.png (127.32 KiB) Viewed 14556 times

Opti Drive Control Drive Info.png (143.08 KiB) Viewed 14553 times

Opti Drive Control is a test and benchmark utility for optical drives. It can be used to verify the performance, quality and reliability of the burn and read functions of optical drives and discs. Test results can be saved as a HTML report and the graphs can be exported to CSV which allows for detailed analysis with spreadsheets.
With the multi-test feature all functions can be run and saved without user intervention.

Key features

* Support for CD, DVD and BD drives/media
* Read / write transfer rate
* Create test disc / verify function
* Detailed drive information
* Detailed disc information
* Disc quality tests: BLER, PI/PO, C1/C2, Jitter
* Erase / format
* Overburning
* Multi-test
* Enhanced save functions
* CSV export of graphs

[Ian]

Ah, this software is not free. When you click on the download link, it says it works for only 30 days. After that, you have to pay $24.95 USD or 19.95 EUR for a serial number. Sadly, you can no longer download CD Speed from him.

[MediumRare]

I can't say that I'm very happy about the discontinuation of CD-Speed, although it was to be expected. There haven't been new versions for a while (although Erik kept referring to betas) and Nero is becoming increasingly strange ( a friend told me that they're moving development to China ).

I haven't had time to try OptiDrive yet- maybe this weekend. From a quick look at the manual, there are some things that I like (e.g. the possibility to save results as a csv file, additional info on hours of use). However, the option to use an iso or nrg file for a test disc seems to be gone and we'll have to see if it's able to read the recording information (drive and speed trace) from CD-Speed discs.

The new look reminds me a bit of Plextools- and sort of as an aside, Erik has outed himself as the author of Plextools! (see the banner on his new site).

G

[Ian]

Yeah, there are a lot of changes going on over there. They let go a lot of their outside contractors and judging by what Erik is doing, he was one of them. From what I understand, Nero still owns the rights to CD Speed and could continue development, but I really don't see that happening as it doesn't help them sell software.

[Ian]

I'm not sure if anyone else is following the development of Opti Drive Control, but its now up to version 1.21.

Version 1.21

Disc quality: added jitter reporting for Plextor drives
Bug fixes and small improvements

Version 1.20

Disc quality: added support for BD scanning with LiteOn BD-ROM drives
Disc quality: added option to skip jitter scanning with LiteOn drives
Drive info: improved detection of BD features
Drive info: improved detection of DVD region control
Improved read speed detection
Bug fixes and small improvements

[Dartman]

Well I guess dvd info pro will get some new customers now that nothing is technically free for testing software though I think they also do a free cut down version that may have a 30 day limit.
I've used both and they both are good but I got used to the way CD speed is setup and the way my drives read with it so I use it more.

[Ian]

I use both too but prefer CD Speed's interface for benchmarking.

[FUBARinSFO]

I'm using ODC 1.51 --- it has some problems, and I've emailed Eric three times now. He hasn't replied back. -- Roy Zider

[Ian]

I wish I could tell you that he'd email you back soon but the last time I tried contacting him, he didn't email me back either.

His software hasn't been updated in a year. Maybe he's moved on?

[FUBARinSFO]

Ian: Not happy here. He may have moved on, but still has a bucket to receive the $25 I paid for a license. -- Roy