Terrible Problem! (Only for Experts!)

[purplemate]

[** Problem Description **]

When I burn on the system described below, the DVD's turn out only semi-readable.
Meaning, some files (for example, VTS_03_1.VOB) are unreadable to any set top player or
DVD-ROM drive. The DVD-R drive itself can read the disc perfectly.
I tried making a clean Windows 98 Installation instead, and burned then, which worked
perfectly - disc perfectly readable in all dvd-rom/set top players (Same image file, same burning program, same brand of media). so I reinstalled
Windows XP, reinstalled all my software (as described below) and again, burning won't work.
Any burning program reports 100% successfully completed, yet the files in question (always
the same files) are unreadable.
I even *replaced* my burner for a new one, but problem is still here.
Known facts:
A) Burner is OK
B) Media is OK
So what's causing the problem?


[** SOftware installed according to 'Add/Remove Software' **]

ACDSee
Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Audiogalaxy Sattelite
Cool Edit 2000
DAEMON Tools
DivX Codec 3.1alpha release
Download Accelerator Plus
FlashFXP
GEAR PRO "Professional Edition" 6.01
Getright
ICQ
Intel(R) PRO Ethernet Adapter and Software
LiveUpdate 1.6 (Symantec Corporation)
Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage
mIRC
Mjuice Compononets
Nero - Burning Rom
NVIDIA Windows 2000/XP Display Drivers
PicaView32
QuickTime
REALmagic Hollywood Plus
Realplayer Basic
StyleXP
Symantec Ghost
VERITAS RecordNow DX
VobSub v2.16
WinAce Archiver 2.0
Winamp
WinMX
WinRAR archiver
Winzip

[** Hardware installed according to 'Device Manager' **]

Display Adapters--> NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra

DVD/CD-ROM Drives--> PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-104
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1212
VIRTUAL DAEMON TOOLS SCSI CdRom Device

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers--> Intel(r) 82801BA Bus Master IDE Controller
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel

Network Adapters--> Intel(R) PRO/100+ Management Adapter
Intel(R) PRO/100+ PCI Aadapter

Processors--> Intel(r) Pentium(r)III Processor

SCSI and RAID controllers--> STEALTH SCSI Controller

Sound, video and game controllers--> Audio Codecs
Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373) (WDM)
Game Port for Creative
Legacy Audio Drivers
Legacy Video Capture Devices
Media Control Devices
Video Codecs

System Devices--> ACPI Fixed Feature Button
Direct memory access controller
Intel(R) 82801BA LPC Interface Controller - 2400
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443
Intel(R) 82801BA/CA PCI Bridge - 244E
Intel(R) 82802 Firmware Hub Device
Intel(R) 82815 Processor to AGP Controller - 1131
Intel(R) 82815 Processor to I/O controller - 1130
ISAPNP Read Data Port
Microcode Update Device
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
Motherboard Resources
Motherboard Resources
Numeric data processor
PCI bus
Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator
Programmable interrupt controller
System board
System CMOS/real time clock
System timer
Terminal Server Device Redirector


[** Processes running according to 'Task Manager' **]

EXPLORER.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
StyleXPService.exe
SVCHOST.EXE
SVCHOST.EXE
Icq.exe
CTFMON.EXE
LSASS.EXE
SERVICES.EXE
WINLOGON.EXE
CSRSS.EXE
NVSVC32.EXE
MDM.EXE
SMSS.EXE
GEARSEC.EXE
ALG.EXE
DAEMON.EXE
SPOOLSV.EXE
wuauclt.exe

[ABEG]

A good question is how many good discs did you burn using Win98 and how many bad discs have you burnt with XP? Also, what media are you using? Have you tried different media, perhaps some high quality Apple or Pioneer media? I know that I had similar problems with a batch of DVDPro media I got from SuperMediaStore and the discs were very hit or miss and had problems like the ones you are describing.

ABEG

[dvdnewbie]

Sorry to ask a silly question, but have you done a XP update. It is well know that Xp has issues with burners. I solved my problems with the update on Microsoft site.

Hope it helps......

Ian

[purplemate]

Hey

I burned 2 successful discs on Win98 and none on WinXP.

And my Windows is updated with all the updates available on windowsupdate.

Any other ideas? I'm getting really desperate.

[Digitizer]

This should work for NT-based systems:
https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/Files/PIB222501_Drives-ChangeATAPICntrllr.pdf

[purplemate]

Nope
Tried that. Still no go =/

Any other ideas?

[ABEG]

Again, I would recommend trying different media. What media have you used thus far? Two succesful burns doesn't necessarily mean that the media is fine. As I mentioned in my previous post I had a 25 pack of media that was very hit or miss with half of the discs not working correctly.

[ItsMe]

A couple of suggestions.

Check to see if XP's UDF is turned on. If it is, turn it off and use the UDF software that came with the drive or RecordNow. The UDF and Wireless network drivers that come with XP are utter crap.

When authoring write the VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS files to your hard drive and use RecordNow to burn them to DVD. This solved a problem I have with Ulead DVD Workshop and my HP DVD200i drive when burning direct to DVD.

[SLK001]

You basically have answered your own question. If the disks cannot be read by a settop player, but can be read by the recorder, then there is a 99.9% probability that the media is bad. Try burning something with a quality disk, like Pioneer, Apple or Verbatim. If this burn is successful, then you are in the 99.9% probability window.

Look at the disks you are trying to burn. If you see "waves" in the dye coating, then these disks are most likely crap.