I got a new Memorex drive today, and here are the results of my first burn. I'm still fairly inexpert at interpreting these scans, but I gather that these results are extremely poor. (For the recordable media, I also used a Memorex DL disc.) Are there some things I can tweak to get better burns and results, or should I think about returning this drive? Thanks for any help.

Your main problem is choice of media. For dual layer blank dvds, you should buy Verbatim +R DL. Also, look on the cakebox and make sure the Verbatims you buy are made in Singapore rather than India.

I don't know offhand who made that burner. May have to go poke around in the burner subforum.

Edit: Looks like it is probably manufactured by Lite-On, so it should be decent.

Yeah, I know the brand/quality of blank media can make quite a difference--still, these results are really pitiful even for the Memorex brand media.

I believe I also would buy the Verbatim Media, but if that disc plays ( the above scan) then I would just try a lower burning speed. I dont think its the drive, like Kerry56 said, its your choice of media.

I thought it was a pretty low burning speed already: I did it at 4x.

Also, in regards to the Verbatim and getting the ones "made in Singapore rather than India," I just checked with Rima.com and they said "Currently, the Verbatim dual layer are made in India." Hmmm.

Well I found a reputable seeming ebay dealer/store claiming to have the "made in singapore" DL dvds, so I'll see how that transaction goes. I scanned another Memorex burn, though, just to see, and this time I did it at an even slower burn speed: 2x. The results are even worse! See results below--this is ridiculous! I know Memorex isn't up to par with what users here say about Verbatim, but I had no idea that Memorex would manufacture something this atrocious. I've done some burning of cds and single layer dvds on this drive with good ole Taiyo Yudens, and those turned out fine, so it's looking more and more like Memorex DL dvd media is absolute total unbelievable crap.

Just out of curiosity, do these two disks play in a standalone dvd player?

Kerry56, yes! Actually it's been more than a few days now, and both discs still seem to play absolutely fine without any glitches. Any idea how that is possible? Especially for that second disc that I scanned and provided the results for below: How can such a disc with all those critical errors AND a quality score of 0 be playing fine? Is CD speed not scanning these DL DVDs correctly?

There have been a few people who say the scanning programs we have to use at home are not correctly setup to scan the inverse stack dual layer disks. Most of the cheaper DL disks use this manufacturing process.

Still don't trust the inverse stack disks though. The burning strategies we have in most of our dvd drives don't seem to be well matched yet. And there are many, many reports of making pure coasters with them. You'll just have to watch those you've already burned, and maybe run a transfer rate test on them from time to time.

To do that, hit Run Test at the top of CD/DVD Speed, then hit Transfer Rate Test. It will show how well the drive is reading the information on the disks, and if it has to slow down to read it. You should see smooth curves on that test----with no jagged drops in speed.

...Actually, I now see that the disc of 0 quality really does have some problems upon viewing it last night again, as it became unwatchable with many glitches...But today I got the Verbatim DL discs in the mail. Below are the results. Any thoughts? I burned at 2.4x, and these results with these discs look a lot better I think. The quality score isn't up in the 90's where I'd like it, but it sure beats those Memorex discs!

Hey, Kerry56, so I was wondering are the Verbatim DL discs the bad "inverse stack" type? It sounded like they were not, but I wanted to make sure...because I'm apparently having issues with the Verbatim DL discs, too. Here are some scan results, and they don't look good. I also did that transfer rate test: is this what good transfer rate tests should look like? I am confused about the poor scanning results with these results so far--even with the much recommended Verbatims and with the positive reviews I've read here about other Memorex DL DVD burners. (Though actually watching them on a DVD player, these discs seem good from start to finish. So maybe CD speed is not an accurate gauge even for these Verbatim discs?)

It could be that the Memorex firmware has something to do with the scanning, even if the drive is a Litey as suggested above. I've scanned Verbatim 8x +R DL discs with very nice results in CD-DVD Speed.

Verbatim discs aren't inverse stack

Also that layer break is in a funny place....what software did you burn the DL with?

I used CloneDVD2 version 2.8.9.9 ... Also, I don't see any updates for this drive on the Memorex website: any other solutions if it is a firmware issue?

I can't be positive it's the Memorex firmware, but I'll give you an example (with another drive) that makes me think so:

When I first got a Philips burner (forget the model number) which was a rebadged BenQ 1650, there were various scanning anomalies with the Philips firmware. Once I crossflashed it with BenQ 1650 firmware, scanning was fixed.

Another option is to keep the Memorex as is (and thus keep your warranty intact), and grab a Litey solely for scanning

Thanks, Arachne. I hadn't really thought to try scanning with a drive different from the one that the discs are being burned with--I had thought that was not recommended. So I scanned the same disc from yesterday's scans that I posted here using my BENQ. Still having scanning problems, though. (And I know this disc is better than the "quality score" on yesterday and today's scan, b/c I watched it from start to finish with no glitches.) The BENQ doesn't even want to finish the scan and stops in the middle (that layer break you mentioned maybe?)...but up until that point the scan looks very different (better) than the Memorex drive's scan. Still don't know what to do. I guess I can just continue to go by the old method of watching the disc to determine how well they're burning.

Excellent, you have a BenQ!

Try the scan again on the BenQ, but this time at 8x

A Transfer Rate Test (in CD-DVD Speed) on your BenQ would be great too. (Benchmark tab, the Run Test menu -> Transfer Rate Test).

thanks for your continued help on this, Arachne. Here are the results...once more, they look pretty different than previous scans of the same disc; though I personally don't know what to make of them with my limited knowledge. Also, the disc quality test scan appears not to have completed again--even at 8x. I got an error message once it hit what I guess was that layer break--the error said something about not being able to read info.

That's a very strange TRT, I didn't think BenQs were limited to 2x when reading +R DL (but then to be fair I haven't used my BenQs much).

That's a good scan graph up until it quits. *If* the Memorex is a rebadged Litey, I wonder if the BenQ is having a problem with that.

I know Verbie DLs are expensive and not good to waste, but trying a burn on the BenQ, then scanning on the BenQ might shed some light onto the media quality at least.

Can I burn a DL disc on the BENQ? That drive isn't a DL burner. Do you mean that in CloneDVD I would try to burn the DL disc as a single layer/DVD-5?

The BenQ 1650 is capable of burning +R DL disks, up to 8x speed I believe.

Try burning DL with ImgBurn instead of CloneDVD. It will set the layer break correctly, if possible.

Please excuse my ignorance here: I forgot to mention that the "Benq" is actually a Philips DVD R/RW DVD 8801/96 that was "crossflashed" to a Benq 1650...So do you still think burning a DL disc will work with this drive? (If so, then I feel ridiculous for having bought the Memorex drive recently, which I purchased just for DL burning.) Also, I went to the ImgBurn site: it says it is an image burner. Does that mean that discs burned with this program will play in normal DVD/CD players, or is an image burner something different?

If you successfully flashed to 1650 firmware, it will act like a 1650 drive. Doesn't matter what it started out as.

ImgBurn can be used to burn image files, like ISO's, and it can be used as a general purpose burning program also if you use the Build Mode. Look in the ImgBurn forums for guides to using this program.

You can burn dvd Video_TS folders or ISO images of dvd video with ImgBurn and it will play in any player or drive that is compatible with burned dvds---which means virtually any dvd player.

Here is a link to the guides

Sorry to keep you in suspense, but I wanted to wait until I had a disc I really wanted to burn since these Verbatim DL discs aren't cheap. Even using Imgburn like Kerry56 helpfully recommended, I'm still having scanning problems--and I tried it on the Benq this time just to make sure it wasn't only a Memorex issue. But the same results are coming up in Cdspeed. And out of curiosity I also scanned a pretty pristine and safely stored store-bought and studio-produced DL DVD to see what would happened. Although that disc ("The Long Way Around") scanned all the way through unlike my Verbatims, it looks like CDspeed barely wanted to get past that problematic layer break--and on the whole the scan with its "0" quality score again makes it seem like the disc is absolute crap, which I know is not true...so since all my Verbatim DL discs have played fine and with this other scan, now I'm thinking it's a cdspeed scanning issue. Of course I'm no expert; but I think I'm at my wits end here and my OCD motivation has run out trying to solve this one.

Try running CD/DVD Speed at 8x instead of maximum in the BenQ.

Just tried it at 8x and again at 4x--exact same results. It stops before finishing and gives a read info error when it reaches the layer split.