Error verifying with Nero - Princo 4x.

[AngusMacGyver]

Hi, guys. I'm having problems with Princo 4x media in both recorders I have (Pioneer A06 and LG 4081). The record process is OK, but verify process fails in 100% of cases. Sectors of the last quarter of disc (at 85%)cannot be read. The fuuny thing is other brands don't have this problem with me and some records with Princo of a month ago pass in Nero CD Speed test with no problem. All new records fail in this test.
I thought it was a software problem, but I used Win98 and the problem persisted.
My question is: Why do my 30 day old records pass in the test and new ones don't? I have tested in both recorders. Is there a chance of all Princo media I have is with problem? I have 3 batchs of them. Another brand (Promedia) works fine all the time in both recorders.
I upgraded F/W in both drivers and nothing.

Media Code:

0000 : 01 40 c1 fd 9e d8 52 00 02 d9 0e 10 66 77 70 00 .@....R.....fwp.
0010 : 03 50 52 49 4e 43 4f 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .PRINCO.........
0020 : 05 cc e8 88 88 80 01 00 06 0c 13 11 77 77 80 00 ............ww..
0030 : 07 aa 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 01 1b 0d 0f 0d 08 00 ................
0040 : 09 99 0a 11 0d 5f 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 ....._..........
0050 : 0b 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0060 : 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

[Fandim]

Hi. Princo is extremely unreliable media in my experiences. You can always get lucky and get a good batch of bad media, just like a bad batch of good media.

But Princo? Some love it, some hate it, some dont verify so they'll just get to be upset later. : )

Are both the media ID's the same? Also - different distributors could handle their media differently, resulting in damage.. But it just sounds like you're getting to see what Princo really is - unreliable garbage.

Seth

[AngusMacGyver]

OK. I agree with you. I'm just curious to know why my 30 days old records pass in test of Nero CD Speed. Those discs are from the same batchs I'm using now. They are from the same pins.
Very strange to me.

PS: Acctually, I have discs of 2 different codes, but result is the same.

[Fandim]

Well, you could try cleaning your laser, that could cause it. Or have the discs been exposed to any humidity / dust / excessive heat since then? Discs can take more abuse after they're burned, as far as not being coasters, far more, than they can before they're burned.

A dusty disc can still be read back fine most times, however, if you were to try to burn a disc with the same amount of dust etc on it, it'd fail most likely.

Also - a lot of times the media quailty changes throughout the spindle, this is due to poor quality control at the various plants they're made at.

I.E. first 30 discs will be ok, and the last 20 are 100% coasters, sometimes. Just depends on quality control, really.

But it honestly could be a lot of factors. Are you using the same program to burn this time? Have you defragmented your hard drive lately? Have you installed any programs that run in the background now? Are you running anything this time that you wernt last time? Also, you say discs from 30 days ago. How about discs from 20 days ago? 15? 10? 5? Figure out where things started to go bad, and you'll know where to start looking. If your laser is still good in your DVD-Writer, is clean, and you're not doing anything different...Then you can really blame the media.

One last question - the discs from '30' days ago, are they burned clear to the edge? (I.E. 4.37GB?) If they're not, that could be why that's happening, then. Princo is notorious for not burning well passed the 4GB mark. (Or less, sometimes, even).

Seth

[BetaMaster]

I vote for the media. I had the exact same problem with my Memorex -R and cheapo -R discs - they simply wouldn't verify and all the errors were towards the end of the disc. I switched to TDK +R and Imation +R and the problem went away.

I've never tried Princo, but with bargain brands, there will alway be burners that don't like the media and simply can't burn it consistently. The trick is to find a cheap media that works for your burner. For my Lite-On 812S, I've had good results with TDK, Imation, Benq and even Kodak (all +R), but terrible results with Ritek -R, both types of Memorex and Mitsumi +R.

I burn a lot of data discs and use a tool called Advanced CheckSum Verifier, that is $15 shareware. It creates a small file that can be burned to the disc and then allows the program to check the file integrity of the files on the disc. It shows me when just one file failed to burn, or whether huge numbers of file on the disc are bad. It's easier to re-burn one file than a whole disc.

[Fandim]

Yuck...DVD's with errors are just bad mojo... Even 1 unreadable sector could lead to problems.. Not uncommon that if it has say 1 unreadable sector, that several others were at least nearly unreadable - And this could present a huge problem for you in the future, if other DVD players wont read THOSE sectors, that yours did.

(I.E. My Liteon will read files my NEC3500 wont). This is especially true with a lot of the cheaper media I burned when I was starting off. So if that disc has even a single read error, you should really consider testing it on at least 1-2 other DVD readers, as well, make sure that you'll be able to retrieve the data you're counting on being there, in the future, if the drive you tested on fails.

Seth

[tompika]

I've burned a lot of 4xPrincos with my Pioneer106 and I found that the slower I burn them the better. Especially over 3.9 GB.

I would never burn those ones at 4x.

Newer burners and/or better media is a different story.

[AngusMacGyver]

Thanks for help. In fact, I know Princo isn't a good brand, but here, in Brazil, it is easy to find. It's dificult to find good media in stores and when found, they are expensive.
I'm going to buy Ritek/Ridata.
Thanks a lot again.
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