Debugging coaster problem

[txporter]

I recently purchased Verbatim SL DVD-R (I believe it was -R) from Fry's. It was the lightscribe color pack (25 or 30 discs). Anyhow, I had just gone through a 50 pack of the lightscribe Memorex discs without much trouble (maybe 3-4 bad discs, before I knew about disc quality ) , but on the Verbatim I have had ~4-5 bad burns out of about 10-12. I have a LiteOn DH20A4H burner. My machine is only about 4-5 months old and I hadn't flashed the firmware for the LiteOn (it was running QP53). After the problem, I flashed it to QP5B. I burned one more disc and still had trouble.

Where do I go to next for troubleshooting? Is it likely a bad set of discs? Or my burner? I had planned to go through and update all of my board drivers and bios in the off chance they were to blame.

Jason

[minidv2dvd]

what software are you burning with? if it isn't imgburn then get a copy and only use that. the other thing to try is burning slower. maybe 8x if they are 16x discs.

[txporter]

Oh, sorry. Imgburn 8X burns, last one at 4X.

Jason

[minidv2dvd]

put in one of the discs and see what imgburn gives for the disc info in the right pane. scroll down to manufacturer id and see if it's mmc 03xxxx or similar. check the container and see if it lists the country or origin (made in).

[txporter]

MCC-004-00. Looks like the right media from the digitalfaq.com page.

Jason

[minidv2dvd]

some mmc-004 are made in india and still have a bad reputation for poor to variable quality. you might have a bad batch. taiyo yuden might work better for your drive.

[txporter]

Thanks for the help, minidv2dvd. One other thing that makes me wonder if it might simply be the drive or my setup: My wife purchased a CD audiobook (40+ discs) and I tried to rip it to mp3 for her ipod. I was having a LOT of trouble ripping the CDs. One would rip fine (~5 mins) and the next would take about an hour to rip. I just had her rip one of the discs that I had a lot of issues with and it ripped without issue for her. She was using itunes, I was using Windows Media Player. Drive issue?

Jason

[hech54]

One would rip fine (~5 mins) and the next would take about an hour to rip.

That sounds like your drive/IDE Channel is reverting to PIO Mode instead of DMA Mode.

[lordsmurf]

There's nothing wrong with Verbatim media made in India.

It sounds like a PIO (instead of DMA) issue to me, too.

[txporter]

Thanks for the information, hech54 and lordsmurf.

I pulled up my Device Manager (Vista64) and went to the ATA Channel 0 properties. It says the device type is ATAPI Cdrom, Ultra DMA Mode 4. Enable DMA is checked. That is my only optical drive, so it is the correct one.

I tried ripping one of the same discs that I had issues with earlier that my wife did not. It showed the same problem. The audio cd has 17-18 tracks and starting at track 13 or 14 it slows to a crawl. When I was burning DVDs, I was always seeing errors on the first file burned to disc (was archiving h.264 files with Imgburn at 8x speed). I am not sure how commercial audio cds are written nor how Imgburn burns, but could the issues be at the same location on the discs? Maybe my drive has trouble reading/writing to the center or edge of discs?

Jason

[Bjs]

Liteon = Model ???

[jman98]

Believe it or not, your burner may simply be going bad. I think I had this exact same burner and it started giving me problems after something like 4 months. I had to replace it. I remember very specifically that I started having problems after doing Lightscribe burning on it I had previously burned a lot of Lightscribe discs with no problems, but after one particular burn the drive was never reliable again.

I've never had any problems with any Verbatim single layer media, although I no longer buy any Lightscribe discs and I now exclusively buy Verbatim's DataLifePlus media (only made in Taiwan for single layer discs) when I need silver single layer DVD discs that I write to with a Sharpie. I tend to agree with lordsmurf that warnings about the Verbatim Made In India media tend to be overblown, although some people do swear to have had nothing but problems with them. However, I have never read of problems with any Verbatim single layer DVD media and only problems with some Made In India DVD+R DL discs.

[txporter]

Bjs: The burner is a LiteOn DH20A4H burner (first post).

Believe it or not, your burner may simply be going bad. I think I had this exact same burner and it started giving me problems after something like 4 months. I had to replace it. I remember very specifically that I started having problems after doing Lightscribe burning on it I had previously burned a lot of Lightscribe discs with no problems, but after one particular burn the drive was never reliable again.

I've never had any problems with any Verbatim single layer media, although I no longer buy any Lightscribe discs and I now exclusively buy Verbatim's DataLifePlus media (only made in Taiwan for single layer discs) when I need silver single layer DVD discs that I write to with a Sharpie. I tend to agree with lordsmurf that warnings about the Verbatim Made In India media tend to be overblown, although some people do swear to have had nothing but problems with them. However, I have never read of problems with any Verbatim single layer DVD media and only problems with some Made In India DVD+R DL discs.

I do use Lightscribe which I like over a sharpie (which was my old method on my old machine without Lightscribe). I think I have read that somewhere before that Lightscribe can cause drives to fail early. Oh well, if that is the issue then so be it. I suppose I could always simply add another drive and use one for ripping/burning and this current one for lightscribe??

Jason

[jman98]

My first Lightscribe drive was an LG which worked great for a few years. Then I started having problems with it. Neither of the replacements I got lasted more than a few months before problems started. That is part of the reason I gave up on Lightscribe. Also, ink jet printable discs are pretty cheap now and the quality of just printing to them is so much better than Lightscribe, there is no going back. I use Taiyo Yuden's Watershield DVD-R and CD-R discs now when I want to print a label.

If your Lightscribe drive still does that part of the burning OK, you can still use it for that. My old LG eventually stopped doing Lightscribe, which is why I replaced it. The first replacement stopped doing Lightscribe and DVD, but CD burning worked. The 2nd replacement could do Lightscribe, CD-R and single layer DVD OK but DVD+R DL burning failed almost every time.

[txporter]

Thanks for the information, jman98. I have considered going to printable media but my last machine came with a lightscribe drive and I just sort of went with it. What do you use to actually do the printing?

Jason

[lordsmurf]

Sharpie.

Disc labels get only a few seconds of view time, waste of resources to make them. Even commercial releases have started to not bother with labels anymore.

Spend more time on DVD case artwork and quality DVD menus, those get MINUTES of viewing time, as opposed to just a few seconds.

[LCSHG]

texporter wrote
"What do you use to actually do the printing?

Past it Notes--- Disk marker pen ---but I do write the title in a Book anbd file them in its proper place that only the Shadow Knows.

[jman98]

Thanks for the information, jman98. I have considered going to printable media but my last machine came with a lightscribe drive and I just sort of went with it. What do you use to actually do the printing?

Jason

Canon Pixma IP4500 hacked to print to discs. The hack is necessary because Epson owns a patent in the USA for printing to discs and Canon apparently doesn't like their licensing terms. I also had to buy a tray on Ebay for the printer. Info on the hack is here:
http://damnprinter.com/105/the-five-easy-steps.html
I use Taiyo Yuden's Watershield discs to print to. I do NOT recommend using Epson printers as I originally bought one for this job and had to return it. Epson designs their printers in paranoid mode that they flip out if they think you are using non-Epson ink cartridges. My printer refused to recognize straight out of the box Epson cartridges. It's a known problem and if you get unlucky enough to have a printer like this, the "fix" is to get a new printer. No joke. When the printer can't even recognize its own maker's cartridges it can't be used and has to be replaced. So I sent the Epson back to Newegg and bought the Canon Pixma IP4500 instead.

Note that some members here have very negative opinions about printing to discs. And while I do respect lordsmurf, as much as he hates printing labels on discs, I personally see no use in making menus (complete waste of time and totally unnecessary) and case artwork. That just illustrates that what floats his boat does not float mine, and vice-versa. So if you like printing to discs, more power to you.

[txporter]

Thanks for the responses and info, folks. I do understand everyone's points on how to label the discs. I also tend toward wanting to use a sharpie were it only me involved. My son still isn't a strong reader, so it is handy to have pictures on the discs as well. At any rate, I may move back to sharpie or continue to try to limp along with lightscribe. I don't know if I want to spend $100+ on a printer and another $20-$30 for a tray.

Jason

[lordsmurf]

Get colored Sharpies and draw a label. It might make for some fun laughs between you and the young'un, if you're a terrible artist. Better yet, get him involved, let him draw his own DVD label. Now that's fun!

[LCSHG]

Txodrter


Don’t know the age of your son but it could be he would learn to Read faster if he had to, to see a disk he wanted. As said you could get him involved
I’ve also gone through the picture disk label thing and found myself spending WAY to much time on this A Post it Note is not a real answer but fast and easy. I have been using Word and printing a cover label that fits in the case used with a SHORT list of the actors and a SHORT explanation of the contents This is on standard 16# paper
But
If I really wanted a picture disk [I don’t] I would use litescribe disks and get all the necessary equipment and software

Also I agree with you on [having all the menus etc] But
As you said whatever float’s a persons boat

[AlanHK]

I tried to rip it to mp3 for her ipod. I was having a LOT of trouble ripping the CDs.

Try CDex.
Spend a minute to set up the options (quality, bitrate, file locations), then it's very automated.