I have an NEC 3520AW burner with liggy and dee's 2.U3 firmware, and recently whenever i burn movies there is a skip/freeze somewhere in the movie. Sometimes one sometimes two sometimes three. The audio/video will freeze for a few seconds and then pick up a few seconds later in the movie. I have tried different software, different media, different burn speeds, different firmware. If anyone can suggest something it will be greatly appreciated, otherwise im saying screw it and getting a plextor.

Your problems will not be solved by getting a Plextor unless your difficulty comes from too much money in your wallet....that the Plextor can solve.

Post the media ID from your discs, use CDSpeed, and the player you are using to view as well as the burn speed and software used to burn. While it is possible that your burner is wearing out, it is much more likely that your problem is media related.

Nero CD-DVD Speed: Disc Info
Basic Information
Disc Type: : DVD+R
Book Type : DVD-ROM
Manufacturer: : unknown
MID : YUDEN000 T02 (000)
Write speeds: : 2.4 X - 4 X - 6 X - 8 X - 12 X - 16 X
Blank Capacity : n/a
Raw Data
Physical Format Information (00h)
0000 - 01 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 25 87 1F 00 00 00 00 - .........%......
0010 - 00 00 03 59 55 44 45 4E 30 30 30 54 30 32 00 38 - ...YUDEN000T02.8
0020 - 23 54 37 10 02 4E 72 02 8C 63 16 16 0B 0B 0A 0A - #T7..Nr..c......
0030 - 01 19 1B 0C 0C 0C 0D 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................


Nero or DVDDecrypter used to burn, burning at 8x, and a philips dvp642 used to play it


as i said, i have used other media as well, and same thing happens. I just purchased the drive maybe 7 or 8 months ago if that. on my previous burner (sony dru530a) i had problems reading/writing and replaced the IDE cable and it fixed it, could that be a problem or not?

::EDIT - this is my disc quality test, wondering if this has anything to do with it...

fake yuden?

YUDEN000T02 (Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R) is one of the best media in the market. If you get a scan like that it's more likely a fake one. A real Taiyo Yuden should have these:

- Says Made in Japan on the disc and/or package.
- Has TG00xxxx (DVD+R) or GG00xxxx serial (DVD-R) on the middle hub ring
- Brand matters: Fake Taiyo Yuden thread.

Definitely fake TY; CD-DVD Speed would not report an unknown manufacturer for an authentic TY disc.

Moral of the tale: never trust any media made by a company that doesn't have sufficient faith in its products to use its own distinctive media code.

Maybe there's a problem in CDSpeed database? Because my real TY (Sony AccuCore - Made in Japan) also reports "Manufacturer: Unknown."

Btw, itchytickles: you might want to update your Nero CD-DVD Speed.

Mine are also Sony AccuCore, same discs as zevia. Also, i have the latest version, just dont use windows xp theme as it looks gay

This also happens with Ritek Discs i had a couple weeks ago.

i noticed that during the burn sometimes the device buffer (not system buffer) drops and pauses and picks back up to normal. Could this be a problem?

At what speed are you burning? Is this an external enclosure by chance?

Also, try scanning the disc at 5x instead of 8x on the NEC

As you mentioned plextor, i want to know whats so special about those drives? i mean for £70+ it must offer something fantastic over the 30 - 35 quid nec/benq drives.

burning at 8x, although i can burn at 16x. No, it is internal. and dee, i will try scanning later on tonight and post results...if i get this fixed it will save me alot of money instead of having to go buy a new drive.