I've just got one of these today, and spent 4 hours trying to get one good DVD-R burn.. 13 Discs later not a single working one!

I continually get errors 'unable to seek' halfway through a write, and other strange errors randomly.. This happens even in the simulation. Even at x2 write speed they still fail.

Drive was on 1.03 firmware when I got it, 3 failed burns later I changed to 1.05.

One disc did complete, but the PC can't read it. Oddly the Mac can read this one 'failed' disc for some reason..

The media is some Datawrite brand, on the inside of the spindle rim it says
"DVD-R T1M1 " if that means anything ?
The manufacturer of the media in PlexTools comes up at TYG02 I think..

These discs burn fine on my Mac, but the plextor doesn't want to know.. Erm, I think it's the media, I'm assuming it's the media!

So... Can anyone recommned a DVD-R & DVD-RW brand that is going to work reliably and consistently ? Because right now I'm just a bit pissed off with the growing pile of coasters in front of me

If you say that the media ID code reported by Plextools is TYG02, then most likely this media is FAKE. I've never ever heard of Datawrite media using a TY dye. This is most likely the problem for your very bad results.

On the other hand, PX712A is VERY picky with media. Also some undisclosed number of PX712A have writing quality problems with various media (take at the older threads in this forum: fw1.03, fw1.04 and fw1.05 + the poll) Test your unit with some better media (preferably recommended media - see here), just to see if you've got a good drive or not ...

By the way, what's the brand of your burner which writes this media well?

PS. To verify the writing quality of a disc use the Plextools PIPO scan option. This is the only way of making sure that the writing quality is OK or not.

The Data write discs in question are these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/DVD_Media.html

The 3rd ones down are exactly the discs. And they definately show up as TYG02.

Thanks for that link, that was kind of what I was looking for, but the sheer number of 712 threads here makes it a bit hard to get a definitive answer amidst all the noise

The drive in the Mac that handles those Datawrite discs with no problems is the built in SuperDrive on a PowerBook.. All I can see in Toast about the drive type is MatshitaDVD-R UJ-825, if that's any help ?

I shall go and try to get some Verbatim discs for now. Would the Verbatim discs at the bottom of the above page I posted be suitable ? I'm afraid I'm a royal n00b when it comes to DVD media model numbers

Failing that, are Plextors own discs a no-brainer ? I mean, are they absolutely guaranteed to work with these pesky drives ?


Thanks for the pointers, I don't think I shall be smashing this drive to little bits, just yet

You should try the Datawrite classic Fuji, or any of the Verbatim media at the bottom of the link you posted. The Verbatim 4x media (+ or -) will burn at 8x on the PX-712A.

Thanks for that, I'll get a pack of each, and see what happens

Hopefully there's a brighter burning future ahead

They are FAKE! That's 100% sure at that price.

The Fuji ones can be decent enough though, but their quality varies quite a bit. Avoid dyes like Infosmart, Princo, AN ... they are crap. You can get some cheap 8x DVD-R Bulkpaqs using the ProdiscS04 dye from other places ... they tend to be quite good and cheap so you can just buy a spindle and test them out ... if you're lucky they'll write rather well.

Look for a thread called "List of DVD media suppliers in the UK" on page 2, you'll find plenty of other retailers ... check those with 4 or 5 stars, you'll find many interesting places

Verbatims are generally ok, those particular ones look ok to me ... but for that price you can have 25 discs of other better media ...
Plextor discs are very high quality, use a TY dye (which is the best) but they are expensive like hell. If a plextor drive doesn't work with them impecably, that's a bad drive for sure. Even bad drives normally work with them very well ... so unfortunately this can't be used as a benchmark

BTW, if you haven't done it already, update your FW to v1.05 and Plextools wo the latest version ... both are the best so far. Also update to the latest NERO ... then you'll also have bitsetting ...

If you are happy to use DVD+R's I would recommend TDK 4x 25pk spindle ... they have a ricoh dye, burn at 8x and are recommended media, hence you can expect excellent results (around ~£14) or even better get some Intenso 8x 10pk or 25pk spindle, which have a prodiscr03 dye, write very well at 12x and cost only about £10 ... you may also find some datawrite and bulkpaqs using this dye (but you have to make sure they actually use that one, since some of them use different dyes as well which are not nearly that good).

For DVD-R media digitalpromo.co.uk have some 8x Benq discs which use a SONY dye ... they suppose to be good and they are cheap, around £7-8 ... I have them but I haven't tested them out yet ... I'll do it most likely tomorrow and post my result in the FW1.05 thread ...
Avoid RITEKG05 dyes ...

Also have a look in fw 1.05 thread to see which media writes well and which doesn't ...

We'll that's a quick 'n dirty get started tutorial ... but hopefully it will help

Are you absolutely sure that Verbatim 4x DVD-R will write at 8x???

I don't think that's the case ... as far as I know, the only 4x DVD-R media which can be written at 8x is TYG01 and TTG01!

Those 4x Verbatims will have an MCC01RG20 dye (most likely). The only Verbatims I know for sure to use a TYG01 dye are the Pastel coloured ones ... so I'll be very cautios about the chance of writing the -R's at 8x!

The +R ones will write at 8x.

That is what Plextor says on their recommended media list for the PX-712A, that 4x Verbatim DVD-R can be burned at 2x-8x and is actually recommended: http://www.plextor.com/english/support/media_712.htm

Oh yes ... the media list on the US website is not very descriptive I'm afraid ... have a look at the list on the EU website, it actually gives the order codes of the media they refer to, so it is a bit more descriptive. That, together with a bit more detective work will land you to the conclusion that they will only write at 4x (if they have an MCC dye, which is most likely)...

Only those Verbatims which have the TYG01 dye can be written at 8x. Unfortunatelly, except the pastel coloured ones, pretty much all the rest use the MCC dye, and that dye will only write at 4x. I don't have any 4x Verbatims to test it but I'm quite sure that's the case ... probably by digging through the forum you can find an example ...

Has Plextor removed all overspeeding of DVD-R media? I just looked at that site, and a PDF from the Japanese Plextor site, and neither shows even TY 4x -R as being able to overspeed to 8x...

k -I've upgraded to the latest PlexTools, which i did't expect to make much difference, and it didn't..

I tried to do the write transfer rate, which failed miserably, even at x2

I've ordered these from JetMedia, which I saw CVS mention in the media thread..

Hopefully I'll get some luck out of these...

+-R
Taiyo Yuden DVD+R 4 speed 4.7Gb silver & white inkjet printable cake box 5 silver/5 white test pack £8
Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 4 speed 4.7Gb silver & white inkjet printable cake box 5 silver/5 white test pack £8

And some RWs to try out..
Verbatim DVD+RW 4.7Gb five pack (£1.50 each ex vat) £7.5
Verbatim DVD-RW 4.7Gb in jewel case 5 pack (£1.40 each ex vat) £7.0

Not sure if that's a good price, but I went hunting for the Plextor own discs, and I'm *not* paying 6 quid for a single disc!!

Am I right in assuming that this BitSetting features allows increased DVD+R compatiblity or something ? Or have I misunderstood this ?

oh well, fingers crossed that these TYs lot will work..

Thanks for all the help, I've learnt more about DVD write technology this last 24 hours than I ever wanted to know

Fascinating

The TY prices are quite good. The Verbatim DVD-RW are also OK, the DVD+RW's are a bit expensive ...

I've seen some Plextor media at ebuyer.co.uk ... 25 discs for £3x ... they are more expensive than TY media!!! Generally, Plextor media costs £1.xx/disc ...

You're right about bitsetting ... the discs will be "rebranded" as a DVD-ROM instead of DVD+R (this is the so called book type), and that will make most DVD-ROM units, DVD palyers, XBOX, etc which do not support DVD+R media (from rather "political" reasons associated with the DVD-R cartel, not because of technical reasons as these units are perfectly capable of reading them) to belive that they are reading a normal DVD-ROM instead of the "banned" DVD+R, and as such read them w/o any problems...

okay, I meant to post a result ealier, but things at work have been too busy, but here we go..

My lovely pile of discs arrived from JetMedia..

Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 4 speed 4.7Gb silver & white inkjet printable cake box 5 silver/5 white test pack
Taiyo Yuden DVD+R 4 speed 4.7Gb silver & white inkjet printable cake box 5 silver/5 white test pack
Verbatim DVD-R 4.7Gb 8 speed 5 disks in jewel cases, inkjet printable
Verbatim DVD+R 4.7Gb 8 speed 5 disks in jewel cases, inkjet printable
TDK DVD-R 4speed 4.7Gb 5 pack in jewel cases
TDK DVD+R 4 speed 4.7Gb 5 pack in jewel cases
Verbatim DVD-RW 4.7Gb in jewel case 5 pack
Verbatim DVD+RW 4.7Gb five pack

All of which have worked supremely with no failed burns at all..

I'm happy, time to order a big big pile of Taiyo Yudens then

Thanks for all the help..

Aside from the fake media problem... are you sure that your 712A is working in UDMA mode?

ET

UDMA as opposed to what ? PIO ? If that's the question, 100% sure

After some trouble a year ago or so with one HD giving hardware errors, which made windows roll back the DMA modes to PIO after 5 successive hardware errors, I ended up using Intel Application Accelerator to keep the UDMA modes enabled whilst I figured out what was wrong with that particular hard disc.. I sorted it and kept IIA on anyway..

Checking with it now, it tells me that both drive on that controller are in UDMA-2 mode, which is what I'd expect and is fine by me Which seems to be backed up by the minimal CPU useage ( < 5%) when reading and writing to the 712 drive at high speeds.. Same goes for the HD..

Of course.

ET