Reader Calibration Discs
These are images I never shared before. I use it to help me calibrate Dreamcast reader.
It's common for Dreamcast reader to get bad after some time. However, the cases I saw could be fixed by calibrating the reader. There is a screw on the lens block that you can adjust, and depending on what you do there you'll make it read better or worse. I'm lacking photos at the moment, so you'll have to look somewhere else for the location of this screw, and for instructions of how to change them.
What I noticed, is that bad readers have difficulties recognizing multi session discs (selfboot discs). What also noticed is that it also depends on where the second session start. Some readers won't work fine for most releases (where second session starts near the beggining of the disc), others will have difficulties with discs where session starts close to the end of the disc (too many CDDA, or big games generated with bin2boot). If that's your case, calibrating your lens should fix it (I take no responsability though xD).
These discs can help you calibrating your reader. They're Dreamcast layout discs with extreme cases: second session starting in the beggining and in the very end of the disc. If can know if they were recognized correctly by the noise Reader does. If you keep changing the reader's screw, you'll notice that there's a point where it recognizes great the first disc, but won't read the second disc. There's also a point where the opposite occurs. You'll need to find a point where both discs are recognized fast, that should be the ideal adjustment.
Since these discs you'll be used as reference, I recommend recording them on a nice CD-R brand in a moment close to the calibration. I mean, don't try to use the damaged ones your recorded one year ago on the cheapest CD-R you could find.
I calibrated my reader twice on my 2000 console during its lifetime, using these discs on the second time. My Dreamcast is still awesome. I played for 3/4 years intensively, and used it for all my releases, so you can have an idea of how long these things can last if you re-calibrate it.
