Hey guys, I just bought a new 18x Samsung DVD burner to replace an old 4x one. I still have the 4x drive alongside the new 18x, but I mainly just use the 18x to read/burn DVDs. The Samsung worked fine for the first few DVDs that had to be ripped/burned, but for some reason i could not seem to get the Samsung to recognize National Treasure. I tried DVD Shrink, dvdFABdecrypter, ripit4me, and Nero Recode 2 and each program would just crash when trying to read the DVD. Now, the interesting thing is when when I took the National Treasure DVD and placed it in my old 4x burner, each program would at least recognize and start analyzing/reading the DVD without crashing (but the ripping/burning process still failed about halfway through). I have already upgraded the Samsung's firmware to the newest version and really hope that this is not a hardware issue. Any thoughts on what could be the problem? I really appreciate any help i can get.
Hi. Have you checked as to how the drives are set up on the IDE bus? Is one set as slave and the other master? Are you using jumper settings or are they selectable by the OS? Did you do anything with the jumpers on the drive when you installed the new burner? If both are on the same IDE channel, one needs to be jumpered as master and the other as slave to avoid conflicts unless both are jumpered in selectable mode and your hardware and OS supports that mode. Try uncabling the older drive and see if that solves the problem. If so, then likely both drives are jumpered as master or slave. It could be if this problem only occurs with that one title, the DVD is defective in some way. Is this the only title with which you have problems?
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I have also purchased a Samsung 18X DVD-ROM (Writemaster). The device reads and burns without incident, but for some reason, DVD video playback on this model is extremely poor. The video display appears far too dark and has a grainy quality. I have tried: different monitors; different DVD codecs(WinDVD, PowerDVD) of the latest and greatest variety; and adjusting brightness/gamma settings in all manners possible. I have found that if I export the DVD content to my HD and play the video from that HD location, the playback quality is absolutley perfect. For the time being, I would advise staying well clear of this product.
Okay, here is an update on the Samsung 18x DVD-ROM Writemaster. It would appear that the DVD video playback is fine in other computers. I've tried replacing the IDE cable to no effect. The IDE port on the main-board seems to be in working order. I'm now thinking that this is an incompatibility between some my computer and the main-board. I'll get hold of (a) another DVD-ROM to test on my PC, and (B) an IDE-to-SATA adapter and try running it through that.
Okay, wrap me over the knuckles, I was terribly wrong about my Writemaster. It turns out that the problem was with my wonderful NVIDIA 7900 GTO video card. It seems that if you don't use the NVIDA Pure Video HD beta driver with this card, then it handles video rather poorly. That all said and done, I now rate the Samsung 18x Writemaster as one excellent piece of kit. Fill your boots!
