Buffer level fluctuations in NERO

[iluvJLO]

I'm new to dvd burning. I just bought a lite-on SOHW-1633SX and was wondering what discs I should get.

I also wanted to ask a question about about my Buffer. When I'm burning in Nero a CD-R/RW, the "Used read buffer" bar is set at 100%, and the "Recorder buffer level/state" bar is at 96%, but when I'm burning a DVD+R/RW, the used read buffer bar percentage will fluctuate at around 50% and the Recorder buffer level/state bar would fluctuate anywhere from 1% to 60% etc, and it does this whether I'm multitasking or just burning. I'm wondering why that is and is that dangerous to my discs? I have burned successfully without any buffer underuns and played it on my dvd player without any problems. I just wanted to know what that was about. Could it be because my PC is slow? I'm on a PIII 600 256Ram. I'm just worried my discs will not burn properly and have some sort of glitches or skipping in the middle of the burns. I don't want to have to burn every 4 gig file and watch it from beginning to end.

Also, why does it say SMART-BURN activated when burning CD's but not DVD's?

Here's a couple screenshots to see what I mean.



actually, the DVDR burns aren't fluctuating anymore, but as you can see the buffer state level is at 6% and stays there

[rkr1958]

Sounds like you do not have DMA enable. I've seen this when PIO only is enabled. I'd suggest going to device manager and checking out the properties of your IDE controllers to make sure that DMA when available option is selected. That's more likely to be you problem that speed of your PC.

In terms of discs ... check out rima.com. I just ordered 100 Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs from them for $48.00.

EDIT: Never mind the IDE controller check ... I just check out your writer specs and its USB2 interface. Your problem could be the writer is working at USB1.1 versus USB2 speeds ... ?

[budz]

your cpu speed is a too slow....check out the LITEON FORUM at cdfreaks.com for some help....

[Marty2003]

My read buffer used to fluctuate a lot before I got a faster hard drive, now it stays near 100. The fluctuations shouldn't really matter at all really unless the buffer runs out completely and there's a problem with the underrun protection, but then you'll have a coaster and you'll know it.

[iluvJLO]

im using usb2 and depending on the speed i write it at it fluctuates rapidly but it doesnt get a buffer underun and stop the burning so I guess its fine then? I mean I played it on my standalone player start to finish w/o problems. Should I worry? Nothing I can do about changing the drive as Im on a laptop

BTW, I just started messing with Nero's cd quality test, file and surface tests and they all give different results off the same drive im using. I just burned a CDR and tested it rigtht away and it gave me a few errors but it read fine on my player. Then I checked some old cd-rw's i've written thousands of times and checked the tests and I got crazy numbers of errors and unreadable results but how come they play fine on the PC and dvd player? I read that it means theres data loss and it's going to die but I've had the cd's since 2001 and if it plays start to finish how could there be data loss? Is this something I should be concerned about, because according to some of the sites I visited regarding this subject said to avoid any errors at all. So if I had 1 error that would still be bad is what they said. I have stacks of CD's im sure has errors. I only tested a few but they all vary from a few years to just today and vary from generics to memorex ridata's etc.