Verbatim DVD+R 100pk & burner position: vertical vs. flat?

[GSP_87]

I bought two 100 packs of Verbatim DVD+R Taiwan AZO at the same time. Used up one pack, and burned them ok using the one external burner that works for it and likely has the right firmware for it. I burned maybe two DVD+R from the 2nd 100 pack, and two discs had many blocky parts where DVD player connected to TV had what might be reading problems, but computer read those problem areas fine. A 3rd disc also has some blockiness, but not as many or as severe as the other two. I always burn at 4x. I burned the last disc from 1st 100 pack a maybe a week before starting to use the 2nd 100 pack. Any idea what the problem is? Also, is it better to burn with the burner vertical or flat horizontal?

[GSP_87]

Using the same Panasonic A120 to play the buggy/blocky DVD+R problem areas, some areas that were bad played thru ok, but other parts were blocky. It's clearly not a normal burn or disc dye, or something's screwy with the DVD player.

[Ethlred]

What program are you using to burn with?

Did you change the burn speed?

Are you verifying your burns?

What speed are you really burning at?

I always burn at 4x.

None of my Verbatims have that as a choice. Slowest is 6X and that is what they got burned at even when I used to try to burn at 4x.

Are your files fragmented? If they are that can lead to bad burns.

Also, is it better to burn with the burner vertical or flat horizontal?

Flat is more stable so the drive isn't going to fall over and damage a spinning disc while falling. Other than that I have no idea. I don't think there will be any difference as long as the drive is not moving while the disc is spinning.

[GSP_87]

I think all the variables betw 1st DVD+R pack and 2nd were the recent ones that were blocky may have been author to disc rather than author to DVD ISO then burn the ISO to disc. One disc from the 2nd pack that wasn't author to disc had a few very faint instances of split second blockiness. I usually make an ISO first because that's the only way I can use as much of the 4.38GB capacity as possible. When I try to burn to disc, the software thinks there's not enough space and tries to dumb down the resolution of one of the videos to make it fit. The disc that played bad on Panasonic A120 seemed to play fine on PlayStation 2. The Panasonic A120 has been less forgiving with burned discs than newer DVD players. Program: Ulead DVD Movie Factory 6 (when burning ISO, Ulead QuickDrop 2.0) No change in burn speed, and was considering trying 8x since I read somewhere burning at 4x on media meant for burning at higher speed was bad. Don't know how to check what the actual burn speed was other than what I select it to be. It's possible the files are fragmented. The external burner comes with a little stand to brace the burner when it's vertical.

[hech54]

It's best NOT to cram the disc full.
Burn with ImgBurn.

[[_chef_]]

Do you have some logfiles from the burn??

Find oput the true MID of certain discs and compare them, also check the available burnspeeds using Imgburn...

[Ethlred]

Ulead DVD Movie Factory 6

There is no Ulead only Corel.

In other words that program is so old it has changed hands twice. I think it was Intervideo in between.

A third for Imgburn. It can even tell you how fast the disc was burned. And yes you may be trying to cram too much on the discs. Create the DVD STRUCTURE on your HD to no more than 4.35 GB and then try burning it with ImgBurn. That is assuming the DVD files can be played without blocking from the HD. If it is blocky from the HD then it has been overcompressed and you probably won't want to burn that.

[GSP_87]

PS2 also had trouble playing and stopped and indicated unable to play disc. The discs that were blocky were not all burn to disc. I've seen people recommend ImgBurn many times. Has it proven to succeed where other software failed in the exact same task? What makes it head & shoulders above the rest?

[Ethlred]

The discs that were blocky were not all burn to disc.

Assuming that meant they were blocky on the hard drive and were not burned that means the VIDEO itself is blocky in which case it has nothing to do burning at all.

Which is what I suspected. You are NOT making things clear and we have been guessing as to what you actually mean. Which is why I asked so many questions to begin with.

It matters not what you burn with if the video was turned to garbage BEFORE it was burned.

Clarity is a virtue that can improve with practice.

Be specific so OTHERS can tell what you intend to say. YOU may know what you what you intend to say but we cannot divine it by magic. When questions are asked answering them in DETAIL is advisable as opposed to going all over the place as you seem to be doing.

So again:

What is it you are really trying to do NOT just what you think the problem might be.

Frequently the real problem people have has NOTHING to do with what they ask. They have engaged in what they have figured out might be a multipart task, gotten to the oh say the sixth of eight and lost site of the first and the eighth. That is they are fussing with a task that is not the actual problem when the REAL problem is their task list was wrong from the beginning as they had a goal that CANNOT be reached going down the path they chose or sometimes down ANY path.

Such as you may be trying to cram 10 pounds of video into 3 a three pound container and with what was likely a bad compressor in the first place.

[GSP_87]

I'm just stating the facts that might be relevant. I'm trying different players to see if it's a disc dye issue because I know one player is more picky than others. The source videos are fine. The resulting +R discs are not. It could be a few bad discs in the 100 pack. I don't know. It could be my harddrive is very fragmented as someone suggested might be the problem. Anyway, I tried it again but using ImgBurn and burning while the burner was flat/horizontal rather than vertical. Zero blockiness. I am wondering if ImgBurn overcomes fragmented harddrives via having more buffers than Ulead.

[lordsmurf]

I'm just stating the facts that might be relevant. I'm trying different players to see if it's a disc dye issue because I know one player is more picky than others. The source videos are fine. The resulting +R discs are not. It could be a few bad discs in the 100 pack. I don't know. It could be my harddrive is very fragmented as someone suggested might be the problem. Anyway, I tried it again but using ImgBurn and burning while the burner was flat/horizontal rather than vertical. Zero blockiness. I am wondering if ImgBurn overcomes fragmented harddrives via having more buffers than Ulead.

The is all likely.
Good self-troubleshooting.