Please help - Pioneer DVR104 trashing my DVD-RWs

[chrismaddock]

Hi,

hopefully someone will be able to help here - I've just fitted a DVR104 in my PC, it happily writes CDRs, DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs, but will not erase the DVD-RWs.
Nero v5.5.9.0 gets almost to the end of the erase progress bar, then stops with an error message "Erasing Failure". If I ask for the Medium Info, it reports an empty DVD-RW. However, if I try to burn anything to that disk, it stops, claiming "Erasing Failure - incomplete erase operation detected", "Could not perform start of Disc At Once", & "Burn process failed at 1x".

I've also tried the trial version of uLead DVD MovieFactory, which will not erase the disk since it claims the disk is empty. Curiously, Windows Explorer shows the disk as Audio, with one .cda file which is unplayable, not surprising since I never put any audio files on the disk!

My system is Windows98SE, Athlon XP1600+/256Mb. The DVR104 is on the secondary IDE bus, as the master - indeed the only drive atm. Control Panel-System reports DMA is off. The discs are White Label brand, from SVP.

Has anyone come across such a problem before, or got any suggestions? Could it just be my choice of discs?
Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

cheers,
Chris

[mpb]

IT could be a number of things, but my first thought is that the media is the culprit. DVD-RW is going to be used over and over... so splurge the one time and get yourself a Sony or Pioneer disc, and it should work fine.

My secondary thought is that Win98 is part of the problem. For working with video, you really want to be using Win2000 or WinXP with NTFS on your drives. Also try downloading Veritas' Prassi PrimoDVD off your favourite p2p program... the erase operation in that one can be restarted if necessary.

[chrismaddock]

Thanks, I'll try another brand of media.

I don't think that Win98 is going to be the root of this problem - the discs that Nero won't erase were DVD-Data. I have seen various postings elsewhere reporting failure to erae properly with Nero, so I'll try some other burning s/w.

I do understand that I won't be able to get the best out of DVD-R with Win98 due to the 4Gb file limit. I don't anticipate that being an enormous problem - I've switched to DVD-R/RW primarily to cut down on the number of CDRs I'm acculumating with my digital photography.
That will be the main use - at least until I have found out whether my Wharfedale DVD player will accept burned DVDs. Reports I've seen are mixed. It didn't like my test discs, although I have seen reports that it doesn't like part-full discs - more testing needed,hence trying to recover my DVD-RWs.

KRs
Chris

[ABEG]

I had the same problem with a batch of Princo media. Once I used better DVD-RW media there was no problems to speak of. Get better media and watch for bad batches of the cheap stuff.

[chrismaddock]

No luck with these discs - both Prassi and Stomp (which have a very similar interface, curious?) report the discs as having Border 1-Open and refuse to erase or burn to them. Nero still reports them as empty, yet refuses to burn to them and won't erase them either.

I think I'll order & try a Verbatim next - don't feel like dropping the best part of £20 on a Pioneer unless it's the last resort

KRs
Chris

[chrismaddock]

Bingo - I think I've cracked it!
After seeing a posting on another forum (Heavens knows which, I've looked in so many) about erasing DVD-RWs before using them, I've spent the last two days searching for "any" other reference to it. Eventually I found the Pioneer Australia site's FAQ, which includes;

Q- How should I prepare a DVD-RW disc for use?
A- Before writing to a new DVD-RW disc you must have performed a Full Erase on the disc to prepare it. This is only required once with a new disc and it takes about 1 hour to complete. Following this each time you need to write again you need only perform a Quick Erase and that only takes a few minutes to complete. You must perform a Full Erase prior to writing in order for a disc to play as a DVD Video in a set top DVD Player.

My new Verbatim disk is happily acccepting files and erasing OK following an initial Full Erase, although I suspect the original White Labels are coasters.

Was it just me being dense, or is this requirement not widely published?

KRs
Chris

[BJ_M]

Bingo - I think I've cracked it!
...............................
Was it just me being dense, or is this requirement not widely published?

KRs
Chris

i have never done that - and they (pioneer dvd-rw) always worked in both pc and set top box. but prassi always worked better for erase and for burning images generated by maestro and impression, ive had problems with nero (disks will not play) in some machines. this is only for image files .. for dropping vobs/ifos - nero works generally ok ... (about 95% of the time) ..
i always use pioneer dvd-rw and apple media dvd-r , for no problems with media.

for cdr of course nero rules..

[SLK001]

I have never had to erase my disks before I used them in my DVR-A04. I've used both Pioneer DVD-RW and Princo DVD-RW. Just popped 'em in and burned away.

I did have a problem with one of my Princo DVD-RWs not wanting to erase (not bad for Princo, 1 out of 10). I stuck the disk in the hot Florida sun for 20 minutes, then took it in and placed it in the burner and it erased right away... go figure. I've marked that disk to watch for errors, but it is still working beautifully.

[alkhalia]

I really believe that it is the media. Some batches seem to be good while others seem to be aweful. I used a 25 pack of Princo RW's recently and had 15 of them work perfectly while the others were worthless. The 10 bad discs produced errors recording and I receive the same "Erasing Failure" message with Nero as well as "Operation completed with Errors" from PrimoDVD everytime I try. Just like everyone else, they seem to be displayed as blank discs, but you can't write to them. I'm hoping that somebody can prove me wrong, but the media really seems to be the key factor here. I have been using a Verbatim DVD-RW and it has been a dream. I have erased it and re-recorded to it multiple times (movies and data) and it hasn't failed once. I have also used TDK and one of Circuit City's DVD-R's and they worked without a problem. I have my IDE controller's transfer mode set to PIO only. When I tried setting it to DMA, one of my "bad" discs ended up erasing on the first try. I couldn't get any others to do it, though, so I'm assuming that it was a coincidence.
The price of princo RW discs is so low that it almost seems worth it if half of them are good.

My question - I've had no problems writing to the "good" princo RW's without doing a complete erase initially, but has anybody tried to do the full erase before writing to the disc and had an erasing failure later on?