Well I have no decent scans, because the two media I have tried thus far (pidata and infinity ) have only produce coasters.

So I thought I would make this thread so people could give feedback on DUAL LAYER ONLY media. This would help me and others choose some good media that would work.

I live in the UK, so if you could post where you bought it, that would be a great help!

Why start a new thread? Several people have recommended to use Verbatim MKM media, yet, you refuse to buy them. What other information do you want? There's a 203B scan thread with a few DL scans. Don't expect people to look for you if you aren't willing to do it yourself.

In my experience with all my drives the only media to be considered is Verbatim DL ( Mitsubishi ) 2.4x or 8x.

Even the not so good batches of Verbatim produces much better results that other brands/MIDs.

Verbatim 2.4x can me burned by many drives at 4x-6x with very good results.


I tested RICOHJPND01-067 and the quality results are poor. They are readable but the scans and the jumps in standalone players indicate that are problems.

If you search in the DVD media test section you will find that RITEK media is almost a nightmare.

KTL, I made this as the "few" scans of DL media is incredibly hard to find in a 80 page thread when the majority is SL....

zhadoom, thanks for the reply.

I refuse to buy verbs as the cost per disk is just rediculous. I see people with other burner makes having no such problems with cheaper media. I go through a lot of dvd's and verbs work out tremendously expensive in the short and long term. I would accept for now if they had 8X media available at the price of 2.4X but they are ripping off the customer. £45 for 25 2.4X disks is a bloody joke....

If this burner is totally incapable of burning cheaper media, it will be sold.

I have tested the 203B and 203N, Both drives are real fast drives but in IMHO are one of the worst drives to use for DL as there burned DL discs are not compatible with many standalone players, Sure if the DL plays in your standalone you would'nt care. However what happens the day that standalone is dead. Off Topic, The LiteOn 20A1P DL +R burns i never seen fail in any standalone player. And don't ask cuz i use verb only MII, MIS, and even the MKM-003 at 10x. The sammys are fast as hell with SL. There double layer needs work which will never happen, Instead of FW they put out drives. But for 30 bux what do u want. The sammys above have at least a 35% failure playback rate in a standalone player. LO 20A1P 1% if that. Off Topic again, PPl say the LO 20A1P is noisy. Thats true when ripping or writing at fast speed. However take the top of the line Plextors in SpeedRead Mode there just as noisy. Want to rate these sammys like cars they have writing horse power thats a given. But sux at DL compatibilty playback in a broad range of standalone players reguardless of the media's scan results.

I suppose I've come to accept MKM's big price tag. To me 0% success rate stuff is even more expensive.

I'm not burning that much +DL media, but when I burn DL I always use MKM001.
A bit expensive yes, but sofar not even one coaster (out of ~40 total burned in past year).
Old NEC ND-3500 can burn them and so can my S203B at 8x if you are out for speed. Okay you'll have to run firmware true MCSE, that's all.

As per question about starting this thread, I think you'r right. The S203B "close" thread is complete mess after 80+ pages.

So which is the best suggestion of drive? If I can overspeed as Pinto suggested then how well does it work? Is there a high success rate?

IMO i use 20A1P LightOn's for DL only because there 99.9% compatible with standalone players, But in another fourm we are talking about this and the Pioneer 112 and 212 came up. I don't own any pioneers. I have burned over 1000 DL's and the 20A1P has a high compatibility playback rate with standalone players, As far as scans and speed test i don't care, What i care about is the pic as good as original and does this DL playback with no BS in almost any standalone player. The 20A1P does this. I have 3 and all three work the same. My real plextors too and so does the LG-GSA-E60L. Media Verb MII sams club special no problems or Verb 8x to 10x MKM-003 MIS. The sammys what can i say i have the 203B and 203N, They sux as DL burners as there DL burns are not compatible with alot of standalones.

Care to elaborate about S203* drives "incompatibility".
I'm very curious about your findings, (in a technical aspect it is).

1000 DL's... interesting hobby you have. Care to post some burns/scans in appropriate forum section.

I'll post some scans of Ritek D01 01, CMC MAG D03, CMC MAG D04 and also some MKM 001 media when I've made some burns. Verbatim is without a doubt the best DL media but I've had really good burns with Ritek media on my LiteOn 20A1 and they are less than half the price of the Verbs. The one media code to stay far away from is RICOHJPN D01, its pure crap most of the time since its a pirated media code.

You have the answer 2x in 2 fourms " 203B or N" DL+R disc's verb's bitsetting dvd-rom are not compatible with alot of standalone players" Other burners in the DL+R with booktype set to dvd-rom playback in more standalone players then ones made with the 203B. Far as speed goes, scanning and all the other 203B BS i have'nt said one comment about that. Im sorry if i could i would tell you how i know this but i can't for a good reason. And the reason is a very good one as different ppl use equipment for different reasons aka computers, burners, etc. Maybe someone will PM you but not i. But in no way im saying it's junk but i will put it this way. It's not a wideeee standalone compatible DL+R burner. All thats too it.

Here is my first scan (more to follow):

Samsung 203N, SB01 (lightscribe version)
DVD+R DL 2,4x - CMC MAG D04
Burned @ 4x

Somewhat off topic.Yeah, we can hear you clear and loudly, I think.
More informative would been to specify what media, at what speed, what booktype and most important @ what standalones...
The "amount" of your sweeping answers/posts won't make it up, not for me anyway.
No need for PM's, if you have something constructive to say, post it in forum...
Thanks.

Did'nt i say Verb media above i see it. Ok MKM-001 or 003 MIS. You ask what booktype?. Ummm you can booktype a DL+R other then normal or dvd-rom. Sorry did'nt say what brand standalones, Many Toshiba, Sanyo's, Some models of Philips and panasonics. Read other thread. Again what you burn and what i burn and what for is two different things and i can see why many don't see this. You prolly don't understand what im saying but thats ok. What im saying is simple, If other burners does DL's that playback in a wide range of standalones what i am saying is so should the 203B. Message #12 says booktype DVD-ROM does'nt it, Msg #12 says someone not me maybe PM you does'nt it. Must be bubbles

Samsung 203N, SB01 (lightscribe version)
DVD+R DL 2,4x - RITEK D01 001
Burned @ 2,4x

Except for the two nasty PIF spikes at 1 GB and ~6 GB it's a 90% quality burn. Not sure what those spikes are about, I'm gonna try another disc and see what gives.

Zeldorf thanks for the scans!

Anyone notice a horrible buzzing sort of noise when its burning / reading? Wondering whether the issues I am having are to do with a faulty burner?

gashliquor

PS I have read some of your posts in another thread on the DL and that you thought you could get to the bottom of it?? Any progress??

So I do not have to go back and read 2-3 threads:

You are saying you think the 203b is not a good DL burner for stand along players..I get it.

1. Why do you thing Samsung will not fix this in firmware as you said it will not happen?

2. Do you have a guess as to why this is (booktype setting etc)??

In your post :

Im sorry if i could i would tell you how i know this but i can't for a good reason.

*Can you give me a hint on this comment...job reasons, security reasons....

My drive makes a high pitched noise when burning sometimes but not otherwise.

None of the noises described, reading or burning.

Destination Device: [3:0:0] TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203B SB01 (E (ATA)

Destination Media Type: DVD+R DL (Disc ID: RITEK-D01-01) (Speeds: 2.4x)

FujiFilm 2.4X, made in Taiwan

Write Speed: 2.4x

Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:44:04

Average Write Rate: 3,241 KB/s (2.3x) - Maximum Write Rate: 3,360 KB/s (2.4x)

Scanned with SH-S162L TS08 @4X

CMS4D1BMSB24SL4.jpg

CMS4D1DQSB24SL4.jpg

Samsung 203N, SB01
Platinum DVD+R DL 8x - CMC MAG D03
Burned @ 4x

Hello , im new here,
and decided 2 buy a 203B sata drive after seeing the review...

my firm is SB01
OEM CODE : SB
and as i said...SH-S203B SATA

but i have encountered a problem!
for now p have tried to burn 4 DL DVD+R CD's
the 1st was SILVERLINE and they failed at the layerbreak
now i bought me a nice pack of 10 verbatim DVD 2.4

after seeing the 1st failed i decided something was not right and now im here...

so there are a couple of things i came up with:
1) the burner is defected....(brand NEW!!!)
2) the CDs are defected....(tried 2 many brands for this)
3) my hard drive capacity (free space anyhow) effects the burns and makes them fail...
4) im doing something wrong here?!...

btw just to add this, i was useing an LG drive with silverline for a year now. and didnt encounter any problems till it died....


WHAT CAN I DOOOOOOOOOO?!

OK...
so i used IMGBurn (latest version)
and tried on cloneCD (which have always worked before!!!)

burn speed is kept low (2X-2.4X)

and i cant get the error msg since i think i will have to destroy another CD
unless the programs save the logs by them selfs ...

and i prsonally think there's something wrong with my comp... when i open the process tab on the task manager the process are not being assigned to any user... i think i need 2 format but i need 2 know the problem befor i try another disk, its expansive and i hate waisting money

Hi, can you plz explain me the need in this pci sata adapter (which i dont want and dont have mutch room for)

for now i will probably go for another burner if this will be he inly way to fix it,
as i said, i had an LG drive which worked perfectly!!! with any media (including the stinky silverlien dbd+R dl DVDs)

as for my com specs:
i have and AMD 64 3000+ procesor
an ASUS k8n SLI delux (sli enabled 6600GT and 2 sata porst and 4 RAID porst not in use)
also i have a PSU from enermax which is brand new (infinity 500W)

and for the HD capacity....i have a 120GB drive which has 3 partitions (2*50GB and 1*20GB) .... and i dont have mutch free space on each partition...