Thanks to this forum I have been able to burn a couple of DVD's. But only through alot of trial and error. I burned about 3 or 4 DVD's only to find out when I tried to play them in my home DVD player the quality was bad, ie kept freezing up, small square patches (pixilating?). Being a novice, I bought Memorex DVD+R and have since read they aren't very good. I also read that my Nero can check a DVD, well I evantually found the disc quality and disc scan part. I checked 3 so far and in the disc scan they are completely red (bad) is this possible? Am i doing some thing wrong? the disc info says the mfg is Richo. Any suggestions?
Hi. Disk quality can be affected by the drive reading the disk as well as the actual burned disk so you have to be a little careful in interpreting results. With that said, the most common causes for poor quality burns are: -Using poor quality media. Good quality media is that made by Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, and made in Japan labeled Sony and Fuji. Ricoh is usually halfway decent although nowhere near the best. -Burning too fast. A good rule of thumb is to burn at half or less the rated speed of the media. For example, 16X media would be burned no faster than 8X as long as your burner and system supports that speed. I burn at 4X in almost all cases because I seem to get the best quality at that speed. -out of date firmware. Make sure your burner firmware is up to date so that it actually has a burn strategy for the media you're using. Firmware can be found here: http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_all.php To give you an example of the role of media quality, I regularly use Taiyo Yuden 8X media and get quality scores of 97% - 99% using a BenQ 1655 burner. With Verbatim media, I usually get scores from 96% - 98%. With Memorex (CMC Mag) media, the quality scores are usually around 55% - 65%.
I only buy media from places I can return. I burn one and read it on my poorest reader. It that reads fine I buy more if they are on sale. I wait for good brands to go on sale. I will add Verbatim to the winner list. I have even had some problems with Fuji but I will still but their media.
Not all Fuji is made in Japan. Actually, I have not seen a spindle since last year that was made in Japan. The Japanese Fuji (and Sony) DVD+R 8x are probably the best DVDs you can find. They are actually Taiyo Yuden and the DVD+R 8x might be the best TY makes
I will only use Verbatim I can't find any disc around here that are made in Japan . I had to reburn all my movies and I only used Verbatim they work perfect (1,000 plus movies) I used any brand that was on sale and learned a big lesson
Laddyboy, thanks for the reply.I went to the firmware and am totally intimidatd! ( I am a novice). But I did slow down the burn and the DVD's came out ok. thanks for the advice I really need to learn about what firmware is and how to update it.
firmware is what 'teaches' your burner about discs, 'MID' codes (media identifier codes) and burn speeds for various discs. for instance - Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R 4x Pastel (YUDEN000-T01-000) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R 8x (MCC.....003) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R 8x Advanced AZO (MCC.....003) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R 8x Printable (MCC 003) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+RW 2.4x (MCC.....A01) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD-R 4x (MCC 01RG20) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD-R 4x (TYG01.......) Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD-R 8x Advanced AZO (MCC02RG20) ..the MID code is in brackets; if your burner's firmware is either really old or no longer updated, it very likely isn't equipped to recognise newer discs
@Angisan You're welcome. If you want to learn how to update your firmware, post back the brand and model of your burner and I or someone else will step you through the process. Since you have Nero, just run the Nero CD-DVD Speed program. Select your burner in the menu at the top of the window. Post the exact name shown in the menu. The last 4 characters following the brand/model number is the firmware version you currently have. You can also run the Nero Info Tool to get the firmware version.
The only consumer test for checking a blank DVD before recording is Plextools. It requires a Plextor drive, but there is a utility that checks focus error by seeing how well the drive can follow the wobble groove in a disc. This will turn up problems with tilt, radial runout, and even debris in the coatings. It only works with unrecorded discs.
BenQ tools also has a blank pre-test that will advise on what speed to burn the media at. That usually tells you that the media is not a good match for your burner.
The BenQ utility is handy for identifying compatibility but not quality. Its results may suggest the subsequent quality of the recording but not the medium being used. The Plextools utility checks the integrity of the wobble groove, and this is a quality parameter. That's why I suggested it has a tool for checking quality since all other utilities for determining quality are "destructive" in the sense that they permanently change the medium after recording and base their results on the quality of the recording, not the medium. Firmware engineers have to record dozens of discs, changing power settings each time to see if the recordings improve in terms of jitter, output, and errors each time.
ok, this is what I got from Nero Nero InfoTool 3.02 Drive Information ------------------ Drive : LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-160P6S Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder Firmware Version : PS09 Buffer Size : 2 MB Date : 2006-02-09 Serial Number Vendor Specific : 2006/02/09 09:59 Drive Letter : D:\ Location : 0:0 Mechanism : Tray Read Speed : 48 X Write Speed : 48 X Read CD Text : Yes Return C2 Pointers : Yes Read CD-R : Yes Read CD-RW : Yes Read DVD-ROM : Yes Read DVD-RAM : No Read DVD-R : Yes Read DVD-RW : Yes Read DVD+R : Yes Read DVD+RW : Yes Read DVD+R DL : Yes Read BD-ROM : No Read BD-R : No Read BD-RE : No Read Digital Audio : Yes Read CD+G : No Read VideoCD : Yes Write CD-R : Yes Write CD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R : Yes Write DVD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R DL : Yes Write DVD+R : Yes Write DVD+RW : Yes Write DVD+R DL : Yes Write DVD-RAM : No Write BD-R : No Write BD-RE : No Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
@Angisan You have a Liteon model DVDRW SHW-160P6S with firmware version PS09. That firmware is a couple of versions behind. The current firmware for your burner is PS0B available here: http://www.liteonit.com/DOWNLOADS/ODD/SHW-160P6S/firmware/DR16PS0B.rar Firmware updates for your burner can be found here: http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2175 or at the manufacturer's web support site here: http://www.liteonit.com.tw/global/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=154 To flash the firmware to your burner: 1. Click on the first link I provided above to download the firmware to your PC. 2. Since the file is an rar archive you'll need WinRAR or WinZip or some other unarchiving software to expand. You might have one or both of these installed already. If not, here are some links to unarchivers. You need only to use in the trial version mode if it's shareware. http://filehippo.com/download_winrar/ http://filehippo.com/download_winzip/ http://filehippo.com/download_7-zip/ http://filehippo.com/download_universal_extractor/ Double click the downloaded firmware file. If you have an unarchiver already installed, it should load and open the archive. If not, download one of the programs above, install, and open the firmware archive file. 3. Double click the PSOB.EXE file. It should immediately search for and locate your burner. OK the flash. It takes a minute or so. Don't do anything while the flashing is ongoing. Follow the prompts. Usual Caveat: There is always a risk in flashing firmware that something will go wrong. This risk is small. I've done hundreds of flashes for myself and others on working burners without a problem. If you are satisfied with the burns you're achieving, you do not have to do the firmware upgrade. Usually the firmware upgrades are for newer media coming to market, so if in the future you have difficulty, you'll need to do the flash.
FYI... That LiteOn is a great drive. I have one!!! As has been said infinite times: Just use good media (TY and Verb recommended), updated firmware for your media's speed/brand, and 8X burn speed for 8X media, 8X -12X for 16X media...
Laddyboy Thanks, I followed your instructions and sucessfully updated my firmware. Teflonmonk, Thanks for the vote on the drive I just got the computer about 3 months ago and wasn't really sure about the quality of the drive.
