NEC 1300 creates invalid media code?

[Tiernan]

Just bought a NEC 1300 almost 3 weeks ago how, and burned without a problem for a couple of weeks, but about a week ago, the Verbatim +RW disks that had been no problem to burn were suddenly burning with no errors, but were completely unreadable on the standalone (Toshiba 2705) that had previously read them with no problems. I used DVDInfo, and the standard CMC W01 media code that had come up with every disk previous was suddenly gone, replaced with:

08 02 00 00 92 0F 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 21 7C CF .............!|.

That's the extent of the media code that DVDInfo will generate, and the Media Information option is no better:

Media Information
Region info N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Mfr ID
Formatted Size 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Total Size 3.81GB(4.09GB)
Book Type DVD+RW
BG Format Status Suspended
Current Drive Speed 2.4x 3324KBs
Default Rotation Control CLV
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
No of Layers 1

I tested at least one other disk from this batch on friend's Phillips standalone, and the test burn produced the correct CMC W01 code. Has anyone else had a problem with the media suddenly not returning the correct code (nevermind not working either!)?

Thanks for your help.

[Greenspock]

Did you install anything or change anything on your system between the 'good' and 'bad' disks? Sometimes virus scanners will slow drive reading and writing. McAfee is known to do this. Just an idea.

[Tiernan]

I did install a couple of things - most prominently Sonic's MyDVD 4 Suite (including Arcsoft's Showbiz package). Other than that, I DID think it was rather coincidental that these problems started at about the same time as I installed Sonic's package...

[Tiernan]

Fortunately or not, it seems that the media code issue was a coincidence. As per discussions on the Firmware site and other places, Verbatim has apparently recently been using/selling ultra-cheap, no-name DVD+RW's with their brand name on them. In buying the 15-pack that I did 2-3 weeks ago, I got MOSTLY "CMC W01"-coded disks, but at least 3 of them (so far) don't really have a code at all (perhaps the (4-spaces) discs?), which burn fine - no errors, but are unplayable in the one Toshiba standalone I have to test +RW burns on, so... it would appear that it's not possible to burn a disc and generate a bad media code - these are just bad/unusable discs (for an NEC, that is). So, as far as the Verbatim discs are concerned - caveat emptor!

[tlegion]

Did you by chance get those from MicroCenter (15@$19)

[Tiernan]

No, I actually paid full price ($29?) at BestBuy, as I needed +RW's for testing purposes. Still, I wouldnt be surprised if they had the same thing at Microcenter.

Now the question is: which "cheaper" +RW's to try next?