Hi there, I was wondering if I could get some help with a burnt DVD issue. I have burnt a few DVDs as backups because I like to keep my collection in good condition and the strange problem is that they work on one of my standalones but not on others.

I am burning them with a Sony DVD-RW which is a DW-23A on the only firmware seemingly available for it that I have found and the media is Datawrite Titanium DVD-Rs (Manufacturer ID: CMC MAG. AE1). One of the DVDs is a straight title rip onto a new disc and the other includes menus with some titles removed to fit onto a single layer disc.

I am burning with Nero and have tried making the DVDs into ISOs and using ImgBurn but it makes no difference on what program or speed I use to burn with.

I have a Pioneer DV-490V in one room which plays the burnt DVDs just fine every time. In another room I have a Sharp CDDVD-500 which will play the DVDs but they will skip every 10 seconds or so. I also have a Sony DVP-NS305 as a tester and this will either not play the DVDs at all or playback will be very choppy and usually freeze shortly into the film. They work OK on the Xbox 360 and on an old Alba DVD player they will usually get to the menu before screwing it up completley forcing a reboot of the player.

So what is going on? Is it the media, the burner, the software, the player?

Please any help is appreciated, thank you.

Welcome to the forum

My immediate guess, from the brand of the media, and from the symptoms you describe, is that it's a media problem.

You can try burning them a little slower, but my recommendation would be to try better media (best would be Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden, but HP (8x -R/+R or 16x -R) discs might also be worth a try.

I have been burning them on the slowest speed possible (4X) in the options and it seems to make no difference. But how can these other players read the discs perfectly whereas some cannot?
I have actually just purchased some Taiyo Yuden (TYG02) DVD-Rs and are awaiting their arrival, I was just hoping to work out exactly where these ones are going wrong.

I see.

Some players are just more finicky than others, especially with budget media. Saying that, here's an exapmle of how a player can be picky: my ex-boyfriend's Philips player wouldn't play Taiyo Yuden -Rs (TYG01) - but they play on mine perfectly.

I don't see anything wrong in your methods or write speed; Datawrite are budget discs for a reason: they're not as good as (the more expensive) Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden.

Edit: and as I said, the symptoms you describe (freezing etc) are usually indicative of bad media, or dodgy burn speed (the last one's been ruled out 'cos you say you tried different speeds).

Yes, I've been through the 8X, 4X speeds which is what I have been allowed in the options.

I am running a Nero CD-DVD disc quality test on one of the discs which gave me this result:


Outlook doesn't look too good then, what a bad week for burning.
First I have some dodgy DL media which can't even layer break properly and now this.

I'm hoping that this won't happen with the Taiyo Yuden's I have ordered.

What process are you using for DL?

I've tried it many number of ways, using the VIDEO_TS folder in Nero which burns successfully but then won't play past the layer break or will but video is immensley choppy. I've also tried burning the ISO with ImgBurn but this fails at the layer break so it must be the media.

Excerpt from the MEDIA FAQ (that I highly recommend to you ):

A: When a disc responds correctly to the application of heat, the laser creates what is called "pits" and "lands" on the disc. These are what gets read by a drive when you are using the disc. What makes the disc more or less "read-able" is the accuracy in the creation of these, (more precisely the edges of them). If the media cannot properly respond to the laser, or if the laser is not properly calibrated, the edges become blurred or jagged, and reading becomes more difficult. A "good burn" results in a disc that can be read by a wide variety of drives at varying speeds. A marginal burn results in a disc that can be read by only some drives (the "better readers"). A marginal burn may also result in a disc that can be read, but will have many read-errors that cause slow reading problems and even corrupted data. Of course, a bad burn results in a "coaster" that no drives, or very few drives, can read.

The problem is that lower grade AE1 Datawrites and your SONY burner don't make a great pair.

I'm pretty sure that you'll have no more playability issues with the TYG02 discs.

For DL burning it is a straight ISO Read to your hard drive, then ISO Write the MDS File (because it contains the layer break information), with ImgBurn, remembering to set the booktype for Dvd+R DL to Dvd-Rom. Advice on media to use, Verbatim Dvd+R DL, Made in Singapore.

I couldn't do a simple ISO read/write I ended up having to use RipIt4Me - the disc was one of those Sony/Columbia ones full of dud data. Otherwise I would have done that part - the booktype was also set to DVD-ROM the disks seem to have a layer break problem though.

Frankscoy, thanks for the information on marginal burns - an interesting read.

I second that

The program you mentioned will rip in ISO Read mode. Take a real close look in Logs/Settings / Preferences, where it says Rip mode, if you click that you will get a pull down menu. When done launch ImgBurn & browse to the MDS file that will be created & let ImgBurn take it from there. If you get the discs mentioned, burn @ either 2.4X or 4X.

OK, I will try and get some of the Verbatim DL media mentioned to try that out

You can try that method with any DL media. The advice given is for the best media to use for DL.

Well, I think the problem is my media.
I've tried burning the media using all sorts of methods (including ImgBurn) and there always layer break issues which make the dvd unusable past a certain point.

That is the key.

Thanks everyone, I got my TYG02 media yesterday and the resulting burn now works in all players previously mentioned in this thread.

Another user rescued from the poor media trap

This said, CMC MAG AE1 can be good media, but under the right brands (like HP, which only sells premium grade CMC stuff in my experience).

Datawrite is an E-net brand and all E-net brands can vary from excellent to trash, in an unpredictable fashion, from one batch to the next (usual E-net brands: Ridisc, Datawrite, Datasafe, Rivision). So with these brands, you can't go with the MID, as quality varies too much.

And that's what I was using, Datawrites.

I will run a CD-DVD speed of a burned disc in a few hours (once the ink has dried) to check the quality - but so far haven't had a single problem during burning or playback.