Hello Marco,

I couldn't find any Fuji DVDRs on a spindle here. I was looking for spindles, because they're much cheaper than the single ones. The only spindles with 25 pieces of 4x media that were to find are Platinum DVD+R. The price is only 35 Euro at Karstadt, Germany.

I took it because there was a sticker on it "Computer Bild - gut - 12/2003". "Computer Bild" is a very popular computer magazin here in Germany.

Here is the media information:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:RICOHJPN-R01-02]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc Type : [DVD+R]
Manufacturer ID : [RICOHJPN]
Media Type ID : [R01]
Product Revision : [02]
Disc Application Code : [General Purpose]
Recording Speeds : [2.4x - 4x]
Blank Disc Capacity : [Not Supported By Method 2]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
** WARNING : Format 11h (Method 1) Is Recommended ADIP Retrieval Method
** WARNING : Format 00h (Method 2) Data May Contain Drive Modified Values
** INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 00h (Method 2) - Physical Information (Copy Of ADIP)
0000 : a1 0f 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3f 00 00 00 00 .........&.?....
0010 : 00 00 01 52 49 43 4f 48 4a 50 4e 52 30 31 02 38 ...RICOHJPNR01.8
0020 : 23 54 37 09 00 3c 67 00 ac 62 16 18 0b 0b 0a 0b #T7..<g..b......
0030 : 01 19 1b 0b 0b 0e 0f 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0040 : 01 00 38 38 00 32 5e 20 0a 22 22 10 0e 12 12 01 ..88.2^ ."".....
0050 : 00 00 00 32 5e 20 0a 22 22 10 0e 12 12 01 00 00 ...2^ ."".......
0060 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0070 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0080 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0090 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00b0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00c0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00d0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00e0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00f0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

As you can see, they were manufatured by Ricoh. I will test them and post my results here again.

If they will make troubles I can give them back.

Greetings
Dirk

Hello,

I've burnt 2 DVD+Rs from Platinum with 4x speed and they seem to be very good.

===> ZERO ERRORS!!!!

:-)

Dirk

Thanks Dirk123,

I just had a mail from another customer, they also used Platinum, but their MID Codes were different.

So you really can't trust anything anymore, until you actually get the chance to readout the MID code.

Marco
BTC Europe Support

By the way, I've been trying to contact DDD (Dessau), but no luck so far (no response).

I did manage to get in touch with another German manufacturer called EDD, they make MID codes DATATRAK001 and DATA TRACK, etc., so in the future we'll probably be able to support them.

Also the Princo story is not finished yet. End of this week I hope to have more data on which ones work and which ones don't

Marco
BTC Europe Support

Hello Marco,
it's the truth, that you can't trust anything. But how to read out the MID-Codes before buying a DVDR ??? Perhaps it would be a good idea, that the manufaturer has to be named on every DVD, so that you can definitely identify the media.

There is a German website, where you can look up which media is manufactured by which manufacturer.

http://www.instantinfo.de/index_dvdrohlinge.php


Dirk

Thanks, Dirk123,

I know the site, I use it often, but still I get so many e-mails from endusers who have media that are just not in the list.

Marco
BTC Europe Support

I have purchased Platinium DVD + R 4x this week in Germany
with the same Computer Bild GUT sticker.

they are not made by Ricoh but Ritek (normally good)

I cannot extract the code using the BTC program

I can only get the manufactures name and no more

They do not work

I cannot return them as I have broken the plastic seal.

So brand name and magazine test result is no good if the supplier is buying from different factories

As a customer there is no way to know this.

There is also no way to know that the disks that you used successfully last time will work the next time you purchase them.

I am not a happy camper



My problem also is that no-one in my area stocks any of the approved types.

BTC gives no paper work with the drive - you are told it is universal.
Normally you will buy a drive and a spindle of good DVD's.

You get home and they don't 'work and you cannot return the disks, which cost 35% of the price of a new drive, as you broke the seal.

If this is a problem then BTC should put in very big letters like on cigarettes a customer waning not to purchase any blank discs until they consult BTC website or they are approved by the guy selling them as BTC compatible.

Of course this will be as popular as syphilis with retailers who want you to buy a pile of media which is where they make money
and do not want to deal with this problem.

This is REALLY customer care.

The drive manufacturers and there are not so many have to sit with the media manufacturers and fix the problem once.

I did some thinking the last days and i believe there is a big ugly game played upon us (customers)from all the parts involved in this bussiness(media and writers producers)I mean , you go to your local dvd shop and you rent a DVD that is really badly taken care ,full of scratches ,dirt and fingerprints it is also dvd-9 (a technology supposed to be in development for the time being)
and you put it in your old cheap home dvd player and plays perfect.As for the cost ,considering the massive production of these dvds must be really low.And here we come with our expencive dvd writers(1 year ago costed more than 400 euro) only able to burn dvd-5 and we struggling to find a media that works fine with the newest home dvds and if we are lucky to find one reliable it costs 3 euro or more per piece.In a year or so the game will start all over again with the new writers able to burn dvd-9.If they are able to provide the market with cheap dvd-9 for renting the last 8 years then i suppose its apiece of cake for them to give us cheap und reliable media and writers for dvd-5 at least.
they dont care or they dont want it though.its a shame

The core of the problem is the incompatibility of media.

This of course would not be accepted if it was any other comodity item.
If you fill your car up on day at the gas station and you drive around and come back next week agin and fill it up with the same grade from the same pump and it does not move . you would not be happy.
If the gas station says it your fault as your car is not compatible with their gas, and the car company says "well we may have a firmware upgrade in a few weeks you can install" There would be public riots.
(actually something like this did happen with petrol - a new formula caused engines to break - but only later).

Before, once you found a working media you stuck with it

The fact that suppliers change the media under the label without informing the customer, and then that media is suddenly not compatible with your drive is really not acceptable.
THis has to be fixed

I understand fully that there is a continuing development and improvement of media, and I understand everyone is trying to make a profit and will source ffrom the cheapest acceptable factory.
Of course putting the code on the box wold be great - but many big names do not want to publically admit they use their competiors to make their products.


That retailers prevent the return of non-useable media is a big problem.
This is very much in the advantage of the retailer - he gets to sell you much more media than you need and you have to throw it away.
Retailers are aware of the problem and could do much more to help.

I understand from BTC that they will be putting some documentation in the drive bag to advise customers, how far this goes I do not know.

I did have one sucess I found one store who would allow me buy media and return the boken pack if it was not working in my drive.
Who was this giant of customers rights - actuall my local budget supermarket (Lidl) they worked fine (Ritek it would seem) and I can read them on a 5 year old Sony laptop.

I would say generally I am happy with BTC product, many of the problems are not of their making - but their way of tackling the problem could be improved.
The best way of fighting fires is prevention - contraception is always preferrable to abortion.
(Marco seems a very nice guy - I have the feeling he may be pulling his hair out sometimes)

Putting a warning not to buy Media would not be popular with retailers


The information flow is poor - many of the drives go to resellers from computer wholsalers (who purchase form BTC)
In my experience these people have no interest in any problems and do not pass on information they get.
BTC in many cases does not have direct contact with the medium to small retailers and these guys do not want so much work as the profit on a DVD Drive is not so high.
These guys do not want to take media back as they cannot sell split packs. They should not be looser in the chain.


Where do we go? - I guess with the sudden fall in DVD burner prices - hat the number of PC's with a DVD burner will go from practically zero to nearly all in 2 years and due to the falling cost of media this market will boom - there will be short period of problems -but when every corner bookstall has blank DVD's on the shelf the customer and resller pressure will be so that companies who do not get their act togther and supply universally useable material will be moved out of the market as they will not be purchased at wholesale level.

Hello Marco!

I noticed that the actual firmware on the BTC website is again v043. What about v045??? What happened that BTC took this version away from their site? Are there any problems? I have this one flashed last week and it seems to be ok.

By the way, Platinum DVD+R 4x (Ricoh) work very good with the 1004. :-) I've burnt about 10 of them and without any error!!! *smile*

Dirk

Hi to all,

probally you have read about all my problems with this drive and that Marco was so nice to exchange the burner as well as send me some medias.

Well what happened, yesterday i got the new burner + High Quality Verbatim Medias back (as a replacement for the media i sent him).
I tried to burn a DVD-R and a DVD+R and they burned fine, but then again 4 medias of that type failed while comparing data (inaccesible files) and i tried it on 2 DVD-ROMS to read it back (Data btw).

So i was at the end with my nerves and money and decided to finally get another burner, that i bought right now, a NEC 1300A.
Altough this maybe not the best burner, it seems that it supports the most types of media and thats whats important for me.

I burned all the 3 Medias (4 times already) that totally failed with the BTC (Princo, PrimeOn, Ritek G04 "The One" all 4X Medias) without a single problem on the NEC 1300A (all at 4X, even the Princo that did not even write past the Lead-In on the BTC)!!!!

However, thanks again to Marco and his great support that was totally unusually and great. I will of course buy other BTC Hardware in the future, just because this good support and that i still believe its just a Media-problem (anyway a VERY BIG ONE it seems) with this drive.

This drive needs alot of improvement in my opinion and hopefully the 1008IM will be a better and improved unit.

Looking forward to buy BTC again in the future!

Best Regards.

Buy one for 111 € in Media Markt Frankfurt Germany this week !

Buy a BTC dual recorder in German Media Markt for 111 €
this week. Great price I think.

My only 2 problems, write Memorex DVD+RW Media 1-4 speed
only with x1 on Nero 6.0.0.23
And the included DVD+RW from RiData 1-4 also only x1 speed.


Update from Firmware 40 to 43 wont work. (See picture)


best regards

Nighty

Hello Nighty,

I'd got the same problem with the firmware and so I looked around the web, where to find a solution.

Here is a page, where the firmware-update works:
http://www.firmware-flash.com/~tdb/

Dirk

I suggest you close this thread soon. It getting quite big and actually contains to many different problems going in all directions. As I see it, it is allready quite hard to catch up with all the good info/suggestions in here.

Cheers,
Peter

hello Marco,
my problem continues to be there. my drive as secondary master with slave attached does not read anything, as master single or as secondary slave it reads something but has reading problems (opens a window in 4-5 minutes and don't execute anyhing, even a copy), as primary slave the same.
i've thought (as you said) that could be the mainboard and i was waiting for some tests that btc had to perform, but now i've talked with that friend of mine that had bought the same drive and i've discovered that he has an ecs mainboard.... so my mainboard is working perfectly!
please help me!!!

Hi all,

I have bought my drive for about a week and it works pretty good.

Firmware 045
Nero 6.0.0.23

The drive works as slave on IDE2. Master is a Plextor Premium. The Board is an Enmic 8NAX+ Nforce

The best media for this drive are in my opinion Verbatim DLP DVD-R (MCC 01RG20)

They works in all DVD-ROM and Stand alone I tested perfect (12pc):

Toshiba 1612 (with Firmware J008 up to 16x)
LG 16/40

LiteOn 2001 plus
Redstar 230
Redstar 231

No freece, no malfunktion, absolutly without any problems.

The Verbatim don't cost the world too. Here in Germany 5pc / 8,99 Euro. So I think, no experiments. It costs al lot.

Cu P.

Should have closed this thread some time ago.....
Anyway, thanks everybody for sharing your experiences.
Glad the last post is another satisfied enduser.

Carpediem,
Please send me a mail to support@btceurope.nl
If you have AIDA, send me a report (www.aida32.hu) of your system configuration. By the way, what mainboard do you have and what mainboard does your friend have ? It might share the same chipset, even though the brand might be different.

Marco
BTC Europe Support