Nero 6 Ultra can't burn video DVD's

[Westcoast]

I just replaced the old DVD burner in my Dimension 4700 with a new one. It's the NEC AD-7170A DVD+-RW DVD-RAM, and is capable of dual-layer burns. I got exactly one good burn of my files, .vob and other files native to video DVD's, and have now had six failed attempts in a row. I'm using Verbatim DVD+R DL 8X blanks to burn these files as video DVD's. The files are not encrypted or scrambled.

I'm using a fully updated version of Nero Burning Rom, a feature of Nero 6 Ultra. I was hoping that a new burner would solve my problem, but apparently there is something basic that I am not aware of that is causing the failed burns. Nero info log shows the "no seek complete" and "burn process failed at 4x" message for all failures.

I just tried using Nero Encode to burn one of my previous failed jobs and while the project (7.15 GB) burned just fine, the disk fails to play when any menu item is selected on my DVD player. It simply jumps back to the beginning of the splash screen and displays the DVD menu.

What am I overlooking? I have a request for technical support in to Nero, but in response to my previous requests for support their technician, after reviewing Nero info logs on my failed burns, said that my problem was a burner going bad and to replace it. I did, and my issue has not changed.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[redwudz]

Try ImgBurn instead. It does a better job than Nero for DL burning, IMO, and it's freeware. It will burn from a VIDEO_TS folder.

But for the 'No Seek Complete' error in Nero, you can scroll down this page for some possible causes: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45942

[Westcoast]

I installed ImgBurn and tried it out. It burned one of my projects without problems until it came to the process of verification. The burn could not be verified. This disk plays without any apparent glitches, despite the report of a failed verify action.

But, when I attempted to burn another project, the burn failed almost immediately with a "No Seek Complete" error. I attempted yet another burn, on a different set of files for a different project, and got the same error.

I have now had 8 failures out of 10 disks. That could begin to get expensive. Nero and ImgBurn both fail to burn these jobs for me. The source disks for 5 of my 8 failures did have some surface scratches, but played perfectly in my standalone DVD player, so I ripped them to my hard drive for burning later. But 3 of the 8 failed burns were ripped from disks which are brand new, and in perfect condition.

I'm at a loss as to figure out what the problem is. Any help is appreciated.

[cd090580]

Check if your new burner is in DMA mode. It must be in DMA and not PIO.

And for Nero, maybe version 6 does not support your new burner. Try version 7.

[GKar]

How about posting your Nero burn log so we can see it.

[MysticE]

Seeing as both Nero and ImgBurn don't work it doesn't sound like a software problem. No need to get a newer version of Nero as Imgburn is your best bet for DL burning.

You didn't say if you checked to make sure the Drive was in DMA mode. Is the burner jumpered correctly? Do you have more than one optical on the cable/IDE channel? Most Dells prefer CS (cable select). Master goes on the end the Slave in the middle, but you would set your opticals to CS. Are you using a good 80 wire IDE cable?

There is also a possibility that your source files aren't right. As a quick check load the ripped files into DVDShrink and see if it accepts them.

[Westcoast]

Thanks to everyone who replied with some good information! The drive is shown as in DMA mode. I have a new ribbon cable connecting the optical drives (I have a DVD drive in the tower as well as my new DVD-RW RAM drive) and the drives are jumpered as Dell suggests to Cable Select.

I'm attempting another burn at this time, using ImgBurn, and it appears to be going well, but it's only at about 42% complete. I'll try opening DVDShrink and stick one of my projects in there to check the files. I hadn't thought of doing that. If DVDShrink doesn't like the files, I'll check all my burn jobs that way and see if my previous failures are also rejected by DVDShrink.

I'm still open to suggestions. I have to now go buy another spindle of DL DVD+R blanks to continue my work. For lack of any better ideas I think I'll pick up more Verbatim branded blanks.