Is there a trick to burning RW discs?

[jmsrickland]

I have several dvd discs of various brand names which some are of the -R format and others are -RW format.

I have a Sony DRU-820A DVD burner which according to specs is able to burn all formats (-R/RW, +R/RW, etc.).

I have no problem whatsoever using any of the -R discs and burning something on them but I have not been able to burn anything on any of the -RW discs. All of the applications, however, have no problems reading from these -RW discs.

It's seems to be a common problem amoung my various programs. Nero, Video Studio, DVD Shrink, and several others cannot burn to -RW's. The usual error message I get from each of the applications is something about unable to write the lead-in record, what ever that is.

I can take these same -RW disc and burn onto them using my Panasonic standalone recorder.

Now I don't know if this is a problem related only the the Sony burner, perhaps a missing codec, or if there is something I am supposed to do before any of these applications can burn to them.

[Krispy Kritter]

Have you tried using any new discs that your standalone has recorded onto yet? Its possible the standalone is writing something onto the discs the pc doesn't like, not that it should make any difference, but since they still work in your standalone...

[jmsrickland]

If I I burn onto a -RW using the standalone recorder they play quite well on the PC. No problem with reading them it's just writing to them from the PC. I have Memorex, Maxell, Verbatim, and even Sony. It won't even burn a Sony RW but it will burn all of these if they are not RW type. Maybe I should just try to get an answer from SOny and see what they say.

[yoda313]

Have you put these rw discs in the standalone first??

If so it will format it to the standalone recorders structure for recording the next time you use it. You can't take a "formatted" rw from a settop and then write to it on a pc burner as far as I know.

Take a fresh untouched dvdrw and put it in the pc drive first. Then you should be able to use it in the pc assuming you haven't put in the standalone first.

This is even if you haven't recorded anything on it. Simply putting it in a standalone will initialize the format. Even if its blank its now tagged for that recorder. The "lead in" area I believe is the technical term.

[Skith]

Have you tried doing a full erase of the disc on the PC before writing to it? Have you tried +RW discs (and if possible bitset them to DVD-ROM).

[edit: typo]

[jmsrickland]

When I say I can't burn RW's on the Sony I mean brand new never used before discs. I was just stating that these same types and brand names (not the same disc) are recordable on my standalone and if burned on the standalone they are readable on the Sony. I don't try to use these (burned on the standalone) to record to from the PC. I already know I can't do that.

I am not trying to format these discs on the standalone then try to burn on them on the PC.

I have tried to burn both -RW and +RW discs on the PC and cannot, only -R and +R can I burn on the PC.

I don't know what bitset them to DVD-ROM means.

[jmsrickland]

Have you put these rw discs in the standalone first??

If so it will format it to the standalone recorders structure for recording the next time you use it. You can't take a "formatted" rw from a settop and then write to it on a pc burner as far as I know.

Take a fresh untouched dvdrw and put it in the pc drive first. Then you should be able to use it in the pc assuming you haven't put in the standalone first.

This is even if you haven't recorded anything on it. Simply putting it in a standalone will initialize the format. Even if its blank its now tagged for that recorder. The "lead in" area I believe is the technical term.

A little problem here understanding this. I understand that if I format an RW on a standalone, burn it, and then fianilize it, that I cannot just write to it on my pc burner but I should be able to take that same disc and reformat it on the PC burner so that I can write to it. If this wasn't so then that would defeat the purpose of an RW disc.

It stands to reason that before I can burn it on the standalone recorder I have to first format it on that same machine and likewise if I format it on the PC burner first I should be able to also burn it on the same PC burner.

My problem is I don't know how I format it on the PC burner since no applications that I am using have the option to format.

The only features I see are to erase but I don't relate erasing and formating to be the same, unless they are the same. But even so, I have already tried to erase a previously burned RW and I still get some kind of an error. So, wheather I try to burn a new unused RW disc or try to erase a previously burned RW disc I am still getting error messages.

[Krispy Kritter]

Unless you are attempting to use an RW disc in multisession mode on the pc (add remove files on the fly..like a floppy), there is no reason to erase or format the disc. Just setup whatever you are wanting to burn in your burning app of choice and insert the disc. If it is a previuosly used disc, you will get a prompt stating the disc is not blank and asking if you want to continue (at least that is how Nero works). I assume it will work similar on the standalone.

There have been others that have reported that discs used in a standalone, can no longer can be erased / written using a pc.

For you problem, it sounds like you have a bad / failing burner. It could just be age or defective. More laser power is needed to read / write RW media, so it is possible that R media is still functional and RW is not.

[jmsrickland]

You would think that if it has enough power to read an RW then it should have enough to write to an RW. No problems read any RW no matter what unit burned it but no RW, and I mean brand new never used, won't burn.

If it's the unit it is not the age because this is a brand new Sony DRU-820A that I just bought about two to three months ago. It has never been able to burn to any RW right from day one. Since I know that the RW discs are good then the problem is either just a defective unit or perhaps like you say, the power is insuffient.