Optorite DVD Burner

Hi all. I've read all the posts about media types but don't think this is the same problem. I have tried recording data discs with Nero 6 as well as trying movie copies with DVDXCopy Express. I have used Ritek media -R media as well as Verbatim +R media. In all cases, it appears that the drive is recording the disc yet when I try to read it back in the Optorite no directory information is displayed. If I put the discs in my laptop DVD all I get is a constant head search to the point where I have to eject the disc to make it stop. My JVC DVD player would not read the DVDXC movie disc at all and essentially locked up. I do not have the latest firmware and I bought the drive in June. One other thing, I used to use Roxio 6 and when I wrote data to a -R disc using the drag and drop recording, the disc was completely unreadable after ejecting. I also tried a +RW and it left the disc completely unusable. Does anyone have another idea I can try or does it sound like my drive is toast? Thanks!

 

Yeah, I've been reading the rest of this thread and it seems like other people have had the same problem with different media. DVDPro reports "Princo" as the "type" of media but perhaps they're not true Princo or something. Anyway, my sampler pack which contains 5 different brands of 4x media should be here tomorrow so I have my fingers crossed.

Also, I'm not so sure I want to use DVD+R media. One reason is that the media (from what I've seen) is generally more expensive than -R, almost twice as much in some cases. Also, ever since I've had my 104 (a little over a year) there has been this stigma placed on +R media. Maybe it's just me but it seems like +R media is the "AOL" of DVD writable media meaning it's not a "true" way of doing things. Perhaps I just need to get over that stigma. :>

 

I'd get the latest firmware first of all. I've read a lot that has said there are more media problems with the older versions and the newer ones seem to offer better media compatiblity. I upgraded my firmware before I even wrote my first disc so I don't know for sure, but there have been a lot of post suggesting that.

 

The Princo and Ritek G03's I have are authentic, verified
using the dvdinfo program. Next stop is optorite tech
support, to see if they can offer any help. When i asked
then about upgrading firmware via linux they replied back
to me within a few hours....hopefully they'll do the same
again.

Mux, I've got 2.16 here, and as of right now, that's the
latest. I'm actually considering trying to downgrade it to an
older version to see if that helps.

ILjXYZ, there's nothing AOL about + media. IMO -R is
cheaper more compatible (from what I've read) but +RW
is the RW to use, as you can do true incremental writes
to it....And I've done so using growisofs from Linux..

 

dcinege, that was what influenced my purchasing of the DVR-104 over a year ago, too. Better compatability with readers and cheaper discs. I did upgrade to 2.16 before I burned my first disc, too and am having problems so I really think it's the media. I guess I can donate my remaining DVDPros to the person who buys my 104 when I sell it. :>

By the way, it burns CDs just fine. I know that really doesn't have anything to do with DVD burning because it uses a different laser and all, but that's my one (false) glimmer of hope that I didn't get a DOA drive. :>

 

To sum up my results so far:
Laptop CDR/DVD: MATSHITA CW-8121
Creative DVD: DVD6240E (Hitachi GD-2500BX)
Standalone: APEX 600
Laptop Creative Standalone
Princo 4x
No Yes No
Ritek G03
No No No
Memorex (Ricoh) +RW 2.4x
No Yes No
: (

 

Hey guys just wanted to let you know that I purchased 100 princo's and 100 sky brand media from yesbuy.net and both were really cheap and worked well in the burner and on my standalones, I have 3 altogether 1.Magnavox 2.Daewoo 3.Panasonic. The sky media was about $60 for 100 and thats with free shipping. Anyway just wanted to let you know that they were reliable and worked well in my optorite.

 

I have a feeling it's a coin-flip whether you get a good Optorite drive or not. I must have got lucky! I have burned about 100 data and/or movie DVDs so far and not a single problem yet. I burn everything with Nero 6 and DVD Decrypter. The media I have had luck with is:

Fujifilm DVD+R, DVD+RW (2.4x)
Princo DVD-R (4x)

 

Hello All-

I've been reading this forum for a few weeks now to try to figure out what DVD burner to purchase and settled on the Optorite DD0203.

This drive (at least on paper) seem to satisfy all my criteria for a DVD±R drive. Inexpensive, fast, feature rich, compatible, etc.

Well it arrived today via UPS along with a 4xDVD-R sample pack I ordered and it installed without problems with v2.07 firmware. I downloaded v2.16 and flashed it(W2K) and it worked fine.

Burned a DVD backup using the "That's" brand 4xDVD+R disc it came with at 4X.

That's brand 4xDVD+R:
Worked in Pioneer 606D settop player
Worked in 2yr old generic DVD-ROM player I got from Fry's for $30
Worked in XBOX and PS2

Then I burned an Optodisc 4xDVD-R @ 4X:
(I burned this disc over my home network without a hitch, 100T)
Failed in generic Fry's drive
Worked in 606D
Worked in XBOX and PS2

I tried burning a Princo DVD-R 4X @ 4X across the network but my machine locked up about halfway thru. Not sure what caused it. So that burn failed.

Next I burned a CompUSA 1X DVD-RW @ 1X completed fine but wont read in any drive not even the Optorite. I tried this same media on a Sony DRU??? and it never worked either so I suspect this media sucks.

TDK 4x DVD+R @ 4X:
Worked in set top Pioneer 606D, Generic Frys, PS2, XBOX, Apex AD-500W

DupEZ 4x DVD-R @ 2x (Nero would only allow 2x):
Worked in 606D, generic fry's, XBOX, PS2, Apex AD-500W

Ritek 4X DVD-R @ 4x
Worked in 606D, generic fry's, XBOX, PS2, Apex AD-500W

Also to note, Optorite drive would not recognize Memorex DVD-RW 2X media

Those are the discs I have burned so far, I'll post more results as I get them.

So far for $130 this seems to be a great drive. I guess my advice is make sure to test a wide variety of media and if something doesnt work like it should, return it for a replacement?

Thanks!

 

FYI I was able to 'aquire' nero 6 to test with. I made a data disc on a princo and it worked fine on my laptop's drive! According to nero my laptop's 8121 combo drive does not support DVD+R or DVD+RW for reading. That Explains half my troubles there. I'm trying to find new firmware for my combo drive that will likely fix this.

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/resources/compatibilitylist_dvdrom.html

mentions this 8121 combo drive explictly, and says +media needs to have a book type of DVD-ROM set and they will read fine in this drive.
http://www.dvdplusrw.org/resources/bitsettings.html
Explains the book type, but thus far I can't find a util for windows or linux that will make the change. All of them complain the optorite is not a ricoh drive. I'll ask tech support if it can be done.

So to sum up my results: Out of ~10 burns I've made 1 coaster withe the optorite. (A compUSA +R blank, Optodisc OEM) Every other disc has read fine on the Optorite. The remainder of my problems seem to be quirky software writing stratgies furher related to bullshit issues between - and + media compatibilty . IE The 8121 combo drive is made by panasonic, a DVD- member, and they don't even mention the existence of + format on the support site!

Aftert his round of testing my hatred and discontent has shifted from optorite back to the industry in general. : )

 

Gosh I am so lame.
I thought I was prepared for all of this when I monitored the prices of the DVD burners in the other forums. I bought the DD0203 for $125.50 and now I wonder if this will actually work.


My questions:
I have an A7V mobo (ASUS AMD board) with 512 meg RAM and 800 mhz athlon. The mobo has a Promise 100 EIDE channel as well as the less two IDEs.

If I hook the burner to the Promise, I do not have a setting in Win2K for DMA. The service controller is rated as a SCSI device.

So should I take it off the promise controller and set it as a master to one of the regular IDE? I ask because when I flashed to 2.16 I got the I/O open error and I tried to use Nero 5.5.9 information tool, I got a BSOD. I have yet to burn anything because I want to be sure this thing works before i start making coasters.

Thanks for your time.

 

MaxDepth, I and many others got the I/O error when flashing our drives. In my case, the flash went fine.

As for your IDE issue, I would give both setups a try and see which works best.

 

FYI, on my 203 I tried to copy a 160 min. movie with DVDXCopy Express on a Verbatim DVD+R and ended up with yet another coaster. However, a 74 min. flick came over fine on a generic DVD-R. This was after the flash to 2.16. Data files written to an Emtec DVD-RW also worked fine.

Not looking good for the + camp.

 

I got some -r 4X PRINCOs from allmediaoutlet.com. they NERO'd up fine on my 1.07 Herrie flashed NEC 1300; for a while; then for some reason the NEC gave NERO a "power calibration error"! This was at 4x. Messed around but finally recovered by using 2x and all is well.... My +/-R MEMOREX burns just fine at 4X. Must have been the NEC flash....

 

A quick note and a quick question if anyone wants to know or can help.

First up when ur creating a dvd in nero 6 please remember to burn with the create dvd UDF/ISO this is the bottom option. Also set the UDF to version 1.02. This will enable the dvd created to be the most compatible with standalone dvd players. UDF 1.05 is a new standard but all dvd players which support this UDF version are backwards compatible.

Secondly my problem:

I have used Princos and both Ritek G03 and G04 media with All Bios revisions currently using 2.16. When doing a speed test nero says i can only write at 2.4x with +r and 2x -r as the speed of the source data is not fast enough. All the files or on my 2 hard drives which as far as im aware are upto the jod ( UDMA 100 ) any ideas and has anyone else had this problem.

PC:
Athlon 2000
MSI KT3 ULTRA ARU Motherboard
512MB Memory
45GB Hitachi HD 7200Rpm UDMA 100
30GB Maxtor HD 7200Rpm UDMA 100

Both IDE Cables are at least 100 rated.

Thanks in advance

Nights.

 

Only thing I can advise, if you havent already, is make sure the IDE channel is set to "DMA if available". Under Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then Primary or Secondary, right click for properties, then Advanced Settings, set dropdown to "DMA if available".

My Dad's Sony drive for some reason was set to PIO and could only burn at about 2X.

Hope it helps.

 

ive been using memorex 4x at 4x with nero. have only used dvd film and dvd copy 50+ back ups. 3 coasters due to dvd rom drive death(?).
seems like you need to have no other dvd on the same ide cable. back up play in apex,sony,
x-box- some playstation2 some dont? other generic standalones and phillips. had the same luck with fuji but they weren't 4x. apex 1200 doesnt like to read anything but fuji rw (all are + by the way)

 

forgot to add this.
all with apex and some other brands check out http://www.nerd-out.com/darrenk/ has hacks for players

 

Well, for all the problems I was having with the Optorite drive I decided to return it for a refund (you can see my previous posts a few days back). I then ordered the Pioneer DVR-105 (I don't need + burning so I skipped the 106) for about $10 more than the Optorite cost me. Just installed the 105 today, popped in a DVDPro 1-4x disc, burned a movie at 4x, popped it into my DVD-Rom, bamo it reads fine. Popped it into my Sony settop player, bamo it reads fine. Just the same as my 104, only faster. My advice to you is, DO NOT BUY the Optorite drive. Too many people have experienced problems with it. There are simply too many media incompatablity issues with it. Sorry Optorite, better luck next time. And that's my two cents.

 

If Pioneer had:
A) Not crippled the video read speed
B) Had an 8MB instead of 2MB buffer
I would have bought a 106. But they don't respect me as a custom (see A) so they don't get my money.

I'm engaged in dialog right now with Optorite tech support about the issues I'm having with Linux burning software. I doubt Pioneer or Sony would even be returning my email. And actually the issues I'm have don't seem to be the optorite per se, but the burning software and not being able to change the book type of +R/RW media. If Optorite comes through with new firmware to allow changing the booktype as I've requested they will be tops in my book.