Been getting tons of errors on my dvd-rw discs. Can only write at 2x when it says 4x’s.
Got errors on nero from session fixation error to power calibration errors.
The Afa’s dvd+r are ok but nero will give data verification fail during the course of verification.
I think this happened when I was burning a DVD+r disc and switching between apps and nero froze while burning.
Got so many coaster from then on.
Should I bring it to the shop? or buy branded media instead?
I buy my downstairs at the computer centre by Nova near Taipei Main Station. They sell ten HQT DVD-R imation discs for NT$160 for ten. Speed has been 4x on my Apple Powerbook. (I have also had problems with other discs claiming 4x but only recording at 2x.) Anyway, I’ve used about 50 of these discs with no problems yet. Store is sharply on the right at the bottom of the staircase; discs are usually on the right hand-side shelf by the counter in cases so you don’t need to communicate in Chinese with the staff. I’m sure other shops have just as good deals, but I was looking for plain white discs and these fit the bill.
I use Ritek DVD-R discs. Purple on the writing side, if thay makes any difference to you.
Never had a problem with them.
Easily available at Nova or elsewhere. Not the cheapest discs, but the cheapies are the ones that are typically problematic.
Did you say you were switching between apps while burning? If so, that’s a big no no. Best to close all apps while burning. The problem could also be related to your computer hardware, DVD-R drive, or even the version of Nero you’re using. Heck, the problem could even be the source drive you’re using.
If, after using a different type of discs, you still have problems, you’ll know you’ve got more fun debugging ahead of you. Lucky bugger!
Like Gubo, I use ritek discs. By the way Guba, they are cheap at Guanghua Shangchung. I bought 30 a couple of weeks ago for $NT16 a piece. Never had any trouble with them. I’ve also had no probs with TDK.
[quote=“sticks of fury”]Should I bring it to the shop? or buy branded media instead?
I am using the Asus DWR-1604p dvd burner.[/quote]
I’m using the same unit (externally) with a laptop and Nero 6 and have had no coasters. So far I’ve burned plenty of 5 different disc types without incident (Ritek, Genuine, Melody, Iomega & Agfa). Switching apps presents no problems either: the unit has a smart buffer that remembers the burn position on the disk. It could well be a faulty unit. Perhaps try burning at slower speeds. I guess you’ve updated the firmware? Apparently, the unit can also use Pioneer firmware as it’s the same unit as Pioneer’s.
Sorry you’re having problems. I’m extremely happy with the unit, especially after the nightmare of my previous Liteon DVD burner.
Iktek (?), the bright yellow computer store, has packs of 25 Agfa DVD+r 8 speed disks for only 199 NT at the moment.
They seem to be as rare as rockinghorse shit in all the places I have looked. I just wanted to check out price and avail before I buy a dual layer burner.
They seem to be as rare as rockinghorse shit in all the places I have looked. I just wanted to check out price and avail before I buy a dual layer burner.[/quote]
I’d like to try burning one, too. I’ve only seen one disc - a Sony one in Fnac for NT$500
I’ll also give my shout-outs for Ritek. They have been absolutely rock-solid for me. By the way, the white Imation HQT brand mentioned earlier is actually OEM Ritek, but cost a bit less. The main difference between the OEM Ritek, their in-house Ridata brand, and the ones that actually say Ritek on them is that the ones with the Ritek label are guaranteed to be Grade A, whereas the OEM ones might be downgrade. I’ve used a variety of OEM and branded Riteks and they’ve all been solid for me, but if you want the best, get the branded ones. Media is cheap enough now that you’re going to waste more time dicking around with the cheaper media and throwing out coasters than paying a few more TWD is worth. 4X Ritek should go for TWD15-17 depending on branded or OEM, and 8X Ritek is around TWD20 for branded.
As for dual layer media, they are down to about USD8 back in the US, but they are still in short supply. It will be several months yet before they get affordable.
The best brand I can recommend is Taiyo Yuden. Ritek seems good too, not as top notch but also not as pricy.
You can also use some software utilities, such as Kprobe, to test your DVDs. It will check how many PI and PO(PIF) errors your burns have. You can run your own comparison by burning the same Movie to two different brands of disks to see the quality difference between them. Or you can go to this forum as people there post their own testing results on different brands. I also remember reading a recent review from anandtech.com on 8 different models of burners, and they included doing the PI/PO tests as part of the review for the drive comparison.
The thing that bugs me about the lower quality disks, is not just the occasional coaster annoyances, but the data integrity of the disk after a successful burn. Disks don’t last forever, and the lower grade disk’s life span is definitly a lot shorter. So you’ll end up burning the disk, deleting the files of your HDD, only to find out 6 month later that 1 of the file is unreadable from your DVD or CD. That pretty much sucks.
Oh man! NEVER delete a file from a HD just because you’ve burned it onto removable media. If you’re out of HD space, GET ANOTHER HD. The easiest thing is to get an external USB HD with 40-80 GB of space. When you’re dealing with CDRs and DVDRs, the question is not if it will degrade but when.
For the past few months I’ve burned two copies of most things I want to keep around for a while just in case. One copy goes in a binder for archival and the other actually gets used. I picked up this habit when I started making two copies of my daughter’s DVDs because she watches them so much and is always grabbing them full palm or dropping them on the floor or jamming them in the dvd player lopsided that they get pretty scratched up after a while. Now media is cheap enough I just do it for almost everything. Just have to tell Nero to do 2 copies, so not much hassle.
That’s easy to do now since the 300GB Maxtor HD with 16MB cache is available for only 200 US bucks. Before was a different story and 2GB/13GB/40GB/80GB/120GB HDDs all costed me over hundreds, each, so I don’t think I could’ve afford to store everything on the hard disk. There is only so many HDs your case can fit too, u know I saw one nice looking case that will fit 20 HDDs but I don’t have that case yet. Maybe next year.
Good news for those of you having trouble finding 16X DVD media… Ritek and CMC are ramping up production and expect their 16X media to be 10-20% of production this quarter and 30-50% of production 1st quarter next year.
I also agree Taiyo Yuden is considered the best media; if you read all the media forums on the internet, most will say Taiyo Yuden is number one. Before of fakes; there are many.
I use Ritek DVD-Rs. Out of about 30, I’ve had a few coasters. Not too bad. They’re supposed to be pretty good but some do complain. I think at least one DVD burner (LiteOn?), combined with an app, allows you to test the quality of the DVD burn. Look around club.cdfreaks.com/ if you want to find out more.
After trying Imation DVD+r’s and getting the same result of more coasters, I went to the shop and they replaced my unit with a new one. So far so good. I am 1 for 1 with burning success!
I just felt when I was swtiching apps and nero froze, it must have done something with the optical part (the burning light was still on for a while) as it could only burn at half of the advertised rate of the dvd’s successfully. However, I tried a verbatim dvd-rw and it burned successfully. Still unacceptable if I have to get really high quality all the time.
They seem to be as rare as rockinghorse shit in all the places I have looked. I just wanted to check out price and avail before I buy a dual layer burner.[/quote]
I’ve found them in Taoyuan. You know where the big 3c is on Zhong Shan dong road is? There’s another electronics store right around the corner (walk west toward the 3 shang qao fu noodle restaurant and turn right). They’re not too badly priced either (for dual layer 8.5 gig, that is) at around 330nt or so.
I saw one nice looking case that will fit 20 HDDs but I don’t have that case yet. Maybe next year.