is it the burner or the discs or the player

[dartboard]

My friend just got a new Lite-on Shm165P6SX external burner. He has had a spotty record burning dvds that he can watch on any of his 3 dvd players (cyberhome, mintek and magnavox, none more than 3 years old). He is using Fuji 4x +RW and Taiyo Yuden 16x +R (burnt mostly at 8x). He is using Nero OEM to burn with. Sometimes the dvdplayer won't recognize the disc, sometimes it plays but stutters and once it played perfectly. Burning at 8x doesn't seem to make a difference nor does the choice of disc or the choice of dvdplayer.

The videos look good on his computer. My confusion is that when I brought over a TDK 16x -R, copied it over to his computer and burned it on a +R disc, it worked perfectly.

I always thought that poor play on a dvdplayer was an indication that the disc or the player was the usual culprit, but TY are good discs and 3 players should be enough to find one that works. So any clues as to how to diagnose the problem?

[Capmaster]

Some burners do better with certain brands than other brands of media. Perhaps you happened to get two brands that the Lite-On didn't work as well with.

But the fact that you get the same results on two different media, on 3 different players makes me wonder if his new burner is working properly.

You said it's new, but maybe there was a dust accumulation on the laser lens from shipping/jostling the unit? Usually a burner will give a power calibration error if the lens is too dirty to burn properly. But with a Lite-On, I don't know as I've never owned one.

[redwudz]

Moving to DVD Writer Forum.

[dartboard]

Thanks, but how do I test to see if the burner is the problem. Will a disc scan tell me and if so what do I look for?

[budz]

Thanks, but how do I test to see if the burner is the problem. Will a disc scan tell me and if so what do I look for?

Check out the LITEON FORUM at Cdfreaks.com for more info.