Is there a problem with my I/O Magic IDVD16DL ?

[i86time]

I purchased an IDVD16DL (FW A089) on black friday to replace an aging Sony drive. It burned my 4x and 8x TDK DVD-R discs quite nicely at max speed. Then I purchased 16x TDK DVD-R, and for the most part it did OK. After about 20 great quality discs (in CD-DVD speed), it then made a coaster and the next disc didn't look too hot. I checked and according to the Firmware Page, the newest was A187 (for the BTC 1016IM- the OEM drive), so I decided to flash it. Well, long story short, this was not the correct FW, as I learned after several coasters and when discs did finish they had excessive PI failures. So I searched and found A091 was the correct new FW from Emprex. So I flashed and haven't had a coaster yet. But I have noticed something strange. When I used CD-DVD speed, I always get a read like the top pic below. The first 2.25 GB or so is fairly nice, but right around that point, there's a small spike in PIF's and a nearly constant string of 1-2 PIF's until the end of the disc and the PIE's slowly start to rise. However, if I rescan starting at around 2.25 GB, that PIF spike usually disappears and there are far fewer PIF's, but the PIE's still climb at the same part, like the 2nd pic below.

So is there something wrong with my drive, either burning or reading, or should I not worry about it since the quality is always above 90? (Note- these are 8x burns on 16x discs)

[dipstick]

I never realized you could change the start and end points in the Quality Scan test. Your scans look fine. I would change the Scan Speed from "Maximum" to 4x to cut down on variables.

I've got the same burner. It worked great for a year until I tried to burn a dual-layer disk. For some reason, it froze while burning when it got to the layer break and never finnished. Now it can't burn any DVDR. It can rip them just fine and can burn CDs, but not DVDs.

[i86time]

Thanks for the input. Just wish I could figure out what it's doing @ around 2.25 GB that's causing it to act up. Well as long as all the data can be read off of it I should be fine. Hopefully mine won't die anytime soon or when I finally try a DL. I guess I should pick up a Benq 1640 now as backup.

[OneSickPup]

Thanks for the input. Just wish I could figure out what it's doing @ around 2.25 GB that's causing it to act up. Well as long as all the data can be read off of it I should be fine. Hopefully mine won't die anytime soon or when I finally try a DL. I guess I should pick up a Benq 1640 now as backup.

Some BTC drives use MediaTek chipsets, if so don't set scan speed at maximum. Few if any drives give reliable results at maximum anyway. Set your scan speed at 4x and see what that tells you. Repost scan results if you can.

[i86time]

Well, I have no explanation for these scans. Same disc as previous scans (it had been sitting out on my desk and had a bit of dust which I wiped off, but no major scratches or anything). The top scan is at Max setting (baseline for comparison), bottom is at 4x as recommended. I have no idea how a) scans are worse than before and b) scan at the lower speed is worse than the higher speed (by PIF). Notice the PIF spike @ 2.25 GB is still there, as is the increase in PIE's @ 3.1 GB. Strange.

[OneSickPup]

I was hoping to see better results at 4x scanning but that didn't happen. I'm not sure how accurate your drive is on quality scanning. It could be that it just flat gives unpredictable results. I know my NEC 3550 will sometimes give horrible quality scans to media that a Benq will scan as great.