My "Mini" Test of Panasonic DVD-Writer

[Jerry Jones]

I've managed to finish a "mini" test of my Panasonic LF-D311 DVD-writer using the built-in DVD authoring of Ulead's MediaStudio Pro 6.5 today.

I got my Panasonic DVD-writer from AVLogic for just under $300:

http://www.avlogic.com/

My home computer is a self assembled PC.

I have an Elite Group K7S5A motherboard with 512mb of Corsair PC2100 DDR memory.

This motherboard uses the SiS 735 chipset and is reviewed here:

http://www.tweakmax.com/html/k7s5a/k7s5a-1.cfm

My processor is an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4gHz, which is a hot-running processor.

I have had some serious processor over-heating problems (more on that later).

The computer has a built-in LG CD-Writer and an ATI DV Wonder OHCI-compliant DV board.

I installed an inexpensive OpenGL video display adapter from CompUSA.

My DVD recorder is a Panasonic LF-D311, which burns to both DVD-R and DVD-RAM formats.

A review of the Panasonic unit is here:

http://www.dv.com/magazine/2002/0202/weissman0202.html

I first downloaded the DVD recorder drivers from the Ulead Web page:

http://www.ulead.com/tech/dvd_ftp.htm

I captured from a Canon ZR20 camcorder a half hour tape of a backpacking trip I took into some very high alpine country in Montana.

I did all of my editing in DV format and created one large DV file.

My hard drives are formatted in NTFS - so I have practically no .avi file size limitation on this machine. I'm running Windows 2000.

Editing went very smoothly.

The more I use MediaStudio Pro 6.5, the more I love it.

I used the Ulead "Smart Trim" feature to automatically trim all of my DV clips.

I dragged and dropped my DV clips into the "Storyboard" section of the Ulead Video Editor "Production Library" and then used the "A/B Roll" command to automatically load them into the timeline.

That worked great.

I then created the one large DV file.

Through all of this my hot-running AMD Athlon cooked at around 52 degrees, which is not nearly as cool as I would like. That translates into around 130 degrees F!!

Still, I have never had any stability problems editing DV material.

I then used Ulead MediaStudio Pro 6.5 to render the single DV .avi into a DVD-ready MPEG-2 file.

This is where my processor temperature really started to rise.... and my troubles began.

The MPEG-2 encoding goes very quickly with the Athlon Thunderbird - it really smokes.

Unfortunately, the Athlon temperature rose all the way to about 60 degrees after encoding ten minutes of MPEG-2...

...and that temperature - I've discovered - causes my machine to re-start...

As a result, I was unable to convert the entire DV file into MPEG-2.

Still, with about ten minutes of DVD-compliant MPEG-2 material, I decided to test the DVD authoring tools that are built-in to MediaStudio Pro 6.5.

First I tested the standard NTSC DVD template at CBR (constant bitrate) of 5500.

I inserted an Apple DVD-R disc into the Panasonic LF-D311.

The Ulead DVD plug-in menu appeared.

It was so easy.

I created three "chapters" in the ten minute MPEG-2 file and clicked "OK".

The disc tray automatically opened after the burn and I inserted the disc into my GE 1106P-B DVD player.

The DVD player recognized the disc immediately and took me directly to the menu I created with the Ulead DVD plug-in.

I played the resulting video and everything worked... the FF, REW, chapters, etc.

The quality of the video was S-VHS... but I suspected I could do even better so I did a second burn using VBR (Variable Bitrate) at 6000 and I checked the "I frames only" box in the menu of the Ulead DVD plug-in.

The second disc was an Imation DVD-R disc.

It worked great, too, and the video quality was even better... much closer to the original DV material.

There were no glitches in the video material on either disc.

There's no doubt about it... DVD is the format of choice.

The picture quality is much better for distribution than VHS and the ability to access chapters is so convenient.

I am SOLD on DVD authoring!

I plan to do more testing after I solve my processor over-heating problems with a high power fan and custom heatsink and silver paste... more appropriate for extreme Athlon temperatures.

[I'm currently using a wimpy Radio Shack thermal grease and a cheap stock fan and heatsink. But I've purchased Arctic Silver II paste and I have a SwiftTech heat sink and higher power fan on order.http://www.swiftnets.com/]

More to follow.

P.S. I got word that Ulead's new DVD WORKSHOP product is detailed in the January 2002 issue of EMedia Magazine.

The downloadable demo - I'm advised - will probably be available on the Ulead Web site THIS FRIDAY (THE 22ND)!

http://www.ulead.com/dws/trial.htm

I can't wait to test the new Ulead MPEG.Now codec!

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[bill2]

cool

very interesting, keep us updated.

I personally suffered a year of non-stopted problem caused by overheated CPU, finally I have added an Ext. fan and no more problem ....

[Technoid]

Re: My "Mini" Test of Panasonic DVD-Writer

Originally posted by Jerrold Jones
Through all of this my hot-running AMD Athlon cooked at around 52 degrees, which is not nearly as cool as I would like. That translates into around 130 degrees F!!

Unfortunately, the Athlon temperature rose all the way to about 60 degrees after encoding ten minutes of MPEG-2...

...and that temperature - I've discovered - causes my machine to re-start...

Wich means that the thermal probe don't get the corect temp...

You should probably ad 20~25 degrees to that as a TB shoulden't hang untill about 80~85 degrees....

Good Luck!

[Sciascia]

Jerrold

Just one more point concerning your heat problems, (I just battled this recently with my 1.4G Athlon--60C+ at load) is that besides a good cooler and fan, you need to make sure that you have good case flow. First thing I do with a case is start cutting. You may not have to be that extreme, but if done right, it will still perform and look like a stock case. The main cause is the really poorly designed fan grills. They are usually just a few holes punched into the sheet metal. Cut a nice hole the size of your fan and put a good metal filter in there that can be removed for the front and a wire grill for the rear. One of the common mistakes that I see is people adding a ton of fans, both intake and exhaust. This is not necessary. It can get realy noisy fast. If you make sure that all of the little cracks and miscellaneous holes are sealed and there are no gaps between your exhaust fan and case, it will act as a vacuum. I managed to drop my temperatures from the +60C to 40C with a 120mm Panaflo exhaust fan (very quiet) and 2 Nidec gamma 28 blowers mounted directly above my CPU HS. The blowers replaced the 60mm noise maker that was passed off as a fan. They are silent when running. I got mine from Radio Shack. I did a few other things like insulate the drives form the case with corkboard gakets to reduce noise and used 3M spray adhesive to secure corkboard to the side and top panels. My case is nearly silent and very cool. I found that with an intake fan it caused disrubtion in the airflow and actually obstructed the airflow. Not to mention the added noise.

I stole most of my ideas from www.noisecontrol.de

[Jerry Jones]

Thanks for the suggestions! Much appreciated!

Jerry Jones

[Hulk]

Wow! Great post. Thanks for taking the time to relay your experience.

Does this drive also burn CD's?

[sergiovalentino]

Yes, you have to use a case with a fan. This can make you gain 5°-10° C.
Mine system after an hour of MPEG-2 encoding (Tmpeg) from DV source is stable at 55°.

[Jerry Jones]

Hulk,

No - the Panasonic LF-D311 doesn't burn CDs, but a new model is being released soon by Panasonic that does. I already had a CD-writer in the case.

That new model not only burns CDs, but also adds DVD-RW to the DVD-R/DVD-RAM capability.

Jerry

[Jerry Jones]

Okay... I got so impatient I cancelled my internet order and visited a local computer store and I found a Swiftech MC462 heatsink with a Sanyo Denki fan.

Well, that *really* lowered the temp of the CPU.

It now idles at 38 degrees and under load it heats up to 46 degrees.

That's a lot better.

Unfortunately, my system still boots itself midway through MPEG-2 encode operations.

Hmmmm. I wonder if I remembered to install the AMD AGP patch.

I'll check that next.

Jerry

[Jerry Jones]

Well, I installed the Microsoft AGP patch for Windows 2000 and I checked to make sure I had the latest SiS drivers for both AGP and the video display adapter.

I'm now wondering if it's this cheap CompUSA display adapter, which uses a SiS graphics chipset.

Other than that, I can't think of anything that would cause a reboot *only* during MPEG-2 encoding.

Weird. If anybody has any other ideas... I'm all ears.

Jerry Jones

[Jerry Jones]

I fixed the problem...

I just finished encoding MPEG-2 video from a DV .avi file for a period of 2 hours without the computer self-booting.

I'm stoked.

I got suspicious about the AMI bios settings of the Elite Group K7S5A so I went into the ADVANCED settings and changed the following:
__________

1. GRAPHIC WIN SIZE: I changed it from 64m to 256m

2. DRAM timing configuration: I changed this from NORMAL to SAFE

3. I kept the default settings for...

a. SDR/DDR CAS Latency (SPD)
b. SDR/DDR RAS Active Time (6T)
c. SDR/DDR RAS Precharge Time (4T)
__________

With the above settings, I encoded for 2 hours with no troubles at all.

I'm also glad I got the SwiftTech MC462 heat sink with the big Sanyo Denki fan and the Arctic Silver paste.

With the old stock heat sink and AMD fan and Radio Shack silicon paste, my starting temp would be 48 degrees centigrade and it would rise to 51 or 52 degrees... and then boil to 59 degrees under stress.

With the new heat sink and fan, I start at 38 degrees and I haven't seen the temperature go past 45 degrees yet.

So I think I have a much healthier operating temperature for my 1.4gHz Athlon Thunderbird processor.
___________

More DVD burning tests to follow!

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

Hmmm. That's a tough one. Does the reboot occur at the same point in the MPEG compression or just around that point? I guess if it does it with all files during compression it's not just a particular file.

You might want to try and underclock your cpu bylowering your fsb to a frequency where everything still in spec. Like 133 to 100 if you have the PCI and AGP dividers to do this. Or lower your multiplier if you chip is unlocked. Sometimes easing the strain on the cpu and memory timings can resolve the type of problem you are describing, or at least help you to localize it.

You might also want to first try and set the bios more conservatively... memory latency.

Mark

edit - I replied to your second to last post without seeing the last post! I was pretty close.

[Jerry Jones]

By the way, Stratitec's motherboard is identical to the Elite Group K7S5A and I found their manual in PDF file format and it is much, much more complete in describing the bios settings.

K7S5A owners would probably appreciate this PDF manual.

http://stratitec.com/CBMB04_Manual_V10.pdf

Apparently, Stratitec is the parent company of "PC Builders", which is a unit that is marketing PC supplies to Sam's Club stores.

It's obvious the Stratitec/PC Builders motherboard being sold in the Sam's Club stores (model CBMB04) literally *is* the Elite Group K7S5A.

NOTE: On page 17 of the Stratitec manual, under CRASHES AND LOCKUPS it reads:

"Try setting your CPU speed to 100/100MHz and the memory timing to SAFE."

Bingo. That's what I did and it worked!!! (Except I didn't need to lower my CPU speed to 100/100. I kept mine at 133/133.)

Also... in line with my GRAPHIC WIN SIZE adjustment from 64m to 256m... I guessed right again:

"The GRAPHIC WIN SIZE is the amount of memory accessible by AGP. Set this to about half the total size of your memory."

I'm using a 512mb stick. So I set it to 256m.

PERFECT performance now. I really love this K7S5A mobo!!

Jerry Jones

[IM_Riktar]

Great thread Jerry! My present CD-R/CD-RW burner is starting to give me grief reading some CD's so I am looking to replace/upgrade in the near future. The newer version of the drive you mentioned looks like it would fit all my needs.

I am curious if you tried ghosting your drive images to DVD-Ram? This would be one area I haven't heard much reporting on. The fact that DVD-Ram has such a high reuse rate compared to DVD-R/RW leads me to think that it would also make a great back-up drive!

[Jerry Jones]

I've tested the DVD-RAM and it's great.

I think DVD-RAM gets over-looked because it won't play in today's DVD stand alone players.

But the purpose of DVD-RAM is data storage.

It works just like a hard drive.

You can drag and drop your files to store them.

I haven't done the backup... but it's certainly a great use for DVD-RAM.

You're right... DVD-RAM can withstand many, many more re-writes than DVD-RW.

Since DVD-RAM is enclosed in a cartridge, it's also less prone to be damaged over time.

The other interesting thing about DVD-RAM is that future DVD stand alone players will *also* be able to read DVD-RAM discs if they come with the new DVD MULTI designation.

DVD MULTI means the DVD device will read DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM.

The DVD Forum has approved version 1.0 of the DVD Multi specification and I think we'll be seeing many more stand alone players available in the stores that will read DVD-RAM as well as DVD-R and DVD-RW.

Jerry Jones