DVD+R DL Problem

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JCNiest5

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Hi all. Hope some experts out there can help me. Basically, all the Double-Layer DVDs my burner burns are not accessible/recognized when trying to launch from them whether it's a movie or anything. I've always have problem with DL DVD when I first got a burner for them, just never bother to ask anyone. Now, I need to burn something bigger than the 4.7GB that regular DVD burners do, but it seems nothing works. The burn process will finish, but when inserting in the DVD to access it, the PC just wouldn't recognize it. Been using +R, not sure if that makes any difference comparing to the -R.

Need your help.

Thanks...
 
JCNiest5 said:
Hi all. Hope some experts out there can help me. Basically, all the Double-Layer DVDs my burner burns are not accessible/recognized when trying to launch from them whether it's a movie or anything. I've always have problem with DL DVD when I first got a burner for them, just never bother to ask anyone. Now, I need to burn something bigger than the 4.7GB that regular DVD burners do, but it seems nothing works. The burn process will finish, but when inserting in the DVD to access it, the PC just wouldn't recognize it. Been using +R, not sure if that makes any difference comparing to the -R.

Need your help.

Thanks...
Click to expand...

Which brand are your DL DVDs?
 
It's a Samsung 20 speeder with LightScribe, which I never use. It's an OEM/bare drive many vendors sell.
 
JCNiest5 said:
It's a Samsung 20 speeder with LightScribe, which I never use. It's an OEM/bare drive many vendors sell.
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You misunderstood me. I meant the brand of the discs themselves, not the drive.
 
Oops...sorry, my bad. The brand of disk is from Windata, a generic DVD+R DL. Perhaps a problem with the brand of disk I use?
 
JCNiest5 said:
Oops...sorry, my bad. The brand of disk is from Windata, a generic DVD+R DL. Perhaps a problem with the brand of disk I use?
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Very likely. The only two companies of DVD+R DL discs that I trust are Verbatim and Falcon Tech.
 
Best advice I can give anyone:

Never burn DVD optical media at anything past half the rated speed of the media, regardless of how fast it's rated for and regardless of how fast the burner claims it is. DVD+R DL media (in fact all DL media) is excessively picky and quite prone to problems when it's burned, and another recommendation that I make is always do the verify pass after you do a burn - it might take 2x as long to burn a disc, but at least you know right then and there if it's a good one.

If the OP has some more of that blank media, try this:

Go get a copy of ImgBurn at: http://imgburn.com and install it.

Get one of the blank unburned discs, and put it in, then run ImgBurn, select the Write option, then wait for ImgBurn to ID the disc information. It'll list the actual manufacturer of the media on that window (could be Ritek, Taiyo Yuden - very unlikely however, or any of oh, 15 other makers of optical media these days). Report that info (and the media identifiers as well) here in the thread if you can.

The brand name on the box or printed on the media doesn't mean that company made it - some do, like Verbatim but even they have been known to use discs made by someone else but labeled with their name on 'em when situations require it. By knowing the true manufacturer you will have some certainty about the true quality.

But I still recommend to people don't burn over half the rated speed of the media you're using. If it's 16x DVD+R, burn it at 8x, maybe 12x if you have a solid burner and good media, but 8x practically guarantees never having a bad burn.

And for the excessively picky DL stuff, because of their still very high cost (when compared to standard single layer media), I never burn 'em at over 4x on my Plextor; I trust Plextor but, even so, I am not willing to waste DL media just because...
 
The media's max speed is rated at 8x, so I believe when I try to burn it, it's burning at that speed. I will try the Imgburn as recommended. Thx...
 
And don't burn it at 8x... burn at 4x, and verify, and I'll bet things turn around. The burning speed is controlled by the software based on the media info which is a list of info that tells the burning software "Hey, I'm <so and so> and I can be burned at 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, and that's it" somewhat. ImgBurn has two settings:

AWS for Advanced Write Strategy - it reads the media info and sets itself accordingly for good burns at the max speed (if it's 8x as read by the media info it will burn at that speed)

and...

MAX which is where the burning software reads the media info from the drive after the drive has detected the speed from the media. Confused yet? :)

Set it manually to 4x for DVD+R DL if the media is marked as 8x media, burn, verify, done.
 
Bahamut said:
And don't burn it at 8x... burn at 4x, and verify, and I'll bet things turn around.

{snip}

Set it manually to 4x for DVD+R DL if the media is marked as 8x media, burn, verify, done.
Click to expand...

And even that might not help if the media used is crappy to begin with. What's more, modern high-speed media don't like very low write speeds at all (particularly in PC burners which do not provide the correct write strategy at write speeds below a certain setting). As a result, if even 4x produces coasters (generally speaking, the lowest speed which can be selected for DVD+R DL in a modern PC burner is 2.4x), then I can conclude that the media is shitty.
 
E4g1e said:
And even that might not help if the media used is crappy to begin with. What's more, modern high-speed media don't like very low write speeds at all (particularly in PC burners which do not provide the correct write strategy at write speeds below a certain setting). As a result, if even 4x produces coasters (generally speaking, the lowest speed which can be selected for DVD+R DL in a modern PC burner is 2.4x), then I can conclude that the media is shitty.
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Agreed 100%. Now if the OP posts the media info or at least the actual manufacturer we'd have some clue... :D A quick Google search of "windata blank media" turns up tons of negatives and not many positives but no real info on manufacturers. Someone even bought a stack one time that turned out to be TY media which would be a very very rare thing indeed.
 
Bahamut said:
Agreed 100%. Now if the OP posts the media info or at least the actual manufacturer we'd have some clue... :D A quick Google search of "windata blank media" turns up tons of negatives and not many positives but no real info on manufacturers. Someone even bought a stack one time that turned out to be TY media which would be a very very rare thing indeed.
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Except in this case the Windata discs are actually made by UmeDisc in Hong Kong/China. And much of it uses fake MKM or fake TY codes.
 
I uses Verbatim DVD+R DL discs exclusively. Additionally, I only purchase them from Best Buy when they are on sale so that I can check the lable to confirm the discs are manufactured in Singapore. These disc are also made in India, but those are lower quality. Based on experience, half of the Verbatim DVD+R DL cakes I ordered from Newegg.com have been from India. I'd rather pay slightly more to ensure they are manufactured in Singapore.

Verifying a burnt disc is a good idea, however, I have experience in the past a couple of times when even after 100% data verification, the DVD was bad. Probably blank discs from India.

Never burn faster than 4x. The faster the burn the more error are prone to be on the disc. Also, if you burn a DVD movie onto a blank DVD to be played on a standalone DVD player, never ever burn faster than 2.4x regardless of the DVD's or the burner's max speed.
 
JaguarSKX said:
Never burn faster than 4x. The faster the burn the more error are prone to be on the disc. Also, if you burn a DVD movie onto a blank DVD to be played on a standalone DVD player, never ever burn faster than 2.4x regardless of the DVD's or the burner's max speed.
Click to expand...

This mainly applies to DL DVDs. 16x-rated SL DVDs, on the other hand, should be burnt at 6x to 12x (depending on the quality of the media). Slow speeds should be avoided with high-speed media since very slow speed burns are much more prone to errors and high jitter than moderate-speed burns on that same media. And, of course, burning at the media's or burner's maximum speed is not recommended for video DVD authoring.

And I assume that your particular Verbatim-branded DVD+R DLs are of the 2.4x rated variety. Verbatim also offers DVD+R DL discs rated at 8x (up to 10x on certain drives); those should be burnt at 4x or 6x for best results.
 
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E4g1e said:
And I assume that your particular Verbatim-branded DVD+R DLs are of the 2.4x rated variety. Verbatim also offers DVD+R DL discs rated at 8x (up to 10x on certain drives); those should be burnt at 4x or 6x for best results.
Click to expand...

Yeah... Best Buy doesn't sell the 8x variety...

... and I'll admit I'm too cheap to buy 'em. I don't burn movie DVDs that often so an occational 2.4x burn is not really bothersome.
 
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