DVD writer will not write to DVD-R

[emt3920]

I have a NEC DVD_RW ND-2510A writer. Since I started writing DVD I have only used DVD+r media. I bought some DVD-r media and the writer will not write to it. I tried doing it with Nero6.6 and I also tried Imgtool classic. I had one DVD+R disk so I tried writing the same files to it using Imgburn classic and it burned it. Anybody have any idea why my writer will not write to DVD-R? I am going to attempt to provide the log file nero created. Will be grateful for any advice Thank You!

open%20range%20log.txt

[bevills1]

Which media? Several posts I've seen had problems with Ritek G05 in particular. Suggest trying different media brand whether yours is G05 or not.

[emt3920]

The brand name of the media I am trying to use is Memorex. I checked the Nero info tool and it shows the drive capable of writing DVD-R.

[ROF]

Have you updated the drives firmware? This drive is extremely old so you may find some media is not compatible with it even when using the latest firmware.

[emt3920]

I updated the firmware a few months after I got the drive. When I read about flashing the drive's firmware everyone says it is such an iffy thing to do. Another thing is I had trouble trying to figure out what upgrade to down load. The site I was at was confusing to me.

[lordsmurf]

www.nomorecoasters.com

The blank media is your problem. Memorex junk, no doubt.

[emt3920]

This media question is really giving me the blues. I always have used Memorex +R media since I found out Maxell was so unreliable. Now I am hearing Memorex is "junk" too. Can anyone say what is most reliable? I was using Maxell until I bought a thirty pack and more than half of them were defective. This is so confusing to me. Any solid suggestions on what I should buy? Also can anybody shed any light on the firmware upgrade stuff. They warn so much about things going wrong, I am scared to flash the drive.

[CrayonEater]

Well, the favorites are Taiyo-Yuden and Verbatim. Some say Sony's which are made in Japan are good too (I think those are TY), but I wouldn't support Sony after what they pulled with XCP.

FWIW, I had burned about 1000 Memorex with great results, until I got a 50-pack a few months ago that turned out to be Ritek G05, with terrible results.

The problem with most of the stuff sold in retail stores, except Verbatim, is that you don't know what you are getting and who really makes it. TY is great stuff but it's really only available through mail order (yes, some brand-name stuff is TY, but you usually won't find out until after you've bought it and got home.) The thing about the Taiyo-Yuden is that you can often find the premium stuff on sale for 33 cents a disc with shipping included, so it's probably cheaper than buying blank DVDs at retail stores, even if they're on sale, once you factor in taxes and gas.

[emt3920]

Thanks! I am going to try the Tayio-Yuden and verbatim to see if I get better results. I have a problem trying to find what I want in 8x disks. I still have not figured out how to flash this drive to use 16x disks. Sometimes they do not have anything other than the 16x disks, the package says 1x-16x but most have a warning that you need a firmware upgrade before you use the disk. Last time I went to Radio Shack all they had was 16x dvd media. Do you think they are going to stop making 8x media?

[CrayonEater]

Yes, they will. It's apparently getting harder and harder to find 8x discs. Many folks feel that the 8x TY (media code:> TYG02) is better than the 16x stuff, and this is similar with other brands as well (e.g. Ritek G05 is garbage, but earlier Riteks are slightly less crappy). Frankly, it seems a lot of folks have trouble playing DVD-Video at 16x speed or even the max speed of your current drive; it seems 4x speed is the maximum you'd want to burn at and many folks would advise even slower.

Upgrading firmware is advisable only if you need to get your drive to recognize a new media type you have purchased, but I wouldn't bother with 16x or even 8x speed burns.

[emt3920]

What I was thinking is if they no longer have 8x media available I will not be able to use the 16x media. My drive is an 8x drive but I usually burn at 4x . Sometimes imgburn will not burn any faste than 2.x times. I just do not want to have to buy a new burner just because I cannot find media to use with the one I have. I am still scared to flash my burner with firmware upgrade. They always give such dire warnings about it.

[bevills1]

You should be able to use 16x media on 8x drive which will simply burn at speed of drive. You may want to check the -R disks you have with DVDInfoPro to be sure disks are good or not. Recently I found 5 consecutive Ritek G05 -R media that were bad. DVDInfoPro should show blank media with free capacity over 4 GB, but it showed blank media with just 0.03 GB free capacity on my bad disks.

[emt3920]

Thanks. I will try burning using a 16x disk and see if it will work for me.