Disc quality test... my quality score went from 90 at 30% done to 0 at 50% done...LOL.... so far (i assume related to the 16X instead of the certified 4X as indicated on the website)...so to sum up this is what i need to do....Set the burn speed at 4X...use the same dvd burner to read the disc and to burn it (internal dvd burner)...anything else im missing?

The first thing to try in my opinion is to burn these media @4x or @8x max (provided that they are genuine taiyo).

Try to create an ISO file with shrink and then burn iso with cd-dvd speed or with dvd decrypter/imgburn

results...

I dont know how to tell if its genuine except for the media ID code...which says its geniune....according to sites showing codes for media brands...

This scan is definitely a coaster.

Try to do a burn @4x or @8x. Even genuine Taiyo 4x certified can't be burned @16

I've seen people post that you shouldnt burn more than 4300MB (i usually burn max at 4450 or so). Apparently it's bad to burn near the discs edge....is this true?

Some very good media and some burners allow to do overburn.

But I usually burn up to 4464 when I use dvd shrink (and this is not overburn).

TY's are generally well manufactured and can burn right out to the edge of the disk. But there was one recent poster who was told to use the 4200 or 4300 stop mark on his TY's at Elby support's suggestion. I don't think that thread has been completely reported as resolved so it might still be unclear if that was his real problem.

OK, thanks...I'm going to do a full disc back up with menus/special features compressed to the highest so the movie gets most of the quality to 4464MB at 4X and see what happens (ugh now i have to wait 20 mins for it to burn instead of about 5 mins :-()....I like to keep all menus and special features....

Do you guys have any programs running besides AnyDVD? I usually have some web browsing windows open, winamp sometimes...antivirus running. Supposedly antivirus shouldnt run while burning although it always is when I burn...

Also, how many of you are using minus R, how many plus R?

Usually I don't shut down antivirus when I burn. But anyway when I burn usually I don't do anything other with my computer.

Regarding plus or minus I use both about 50% each.

Do screensavers affect burning in a negative way? And why are you 50/50 in terms of + or - R? Im surprised you dont stick with one...

screensavers can use many CPU power, and so can affect burnings.

Why you are surprised about plus and minus media? I use both because there are no so much differences between them. Based on what media I find on stores (at convenient prices) I buy plus or minus.

There are no specific applications for each media type.

Well, supposedly, dvd MINUS r's are more compatible with the widest span of dvd player makers....where as +R aren't as compatible with as many companies....

+R/-R in the US are almost always the same price when on sale...

as newer players become the norm, many support both equally well. +R is still the underdog as far as support goes, but if your burner supports booktyping (or bitsetting) you're better off with +R. you can set the booktype on +R media to DVD-ROM which is theoretically readable in any DVD reader. DVD-ROM allows for the greatest compatibility, but not all drives support bitsetting.

if your drive doe snot support bitsetting, I'd go with -R. Mine does support it so I use exclusively +R.

plenty of people have zero problems using -R discs. I just prefer not to because you can't set booktype on -R.

What exactly is booktype? and why is it important

booktype is how the disc is seen.

DVD-R can not have a booktype set. it will always be -R
movies you buy at the store are DVD-ROM
DVD+R can be left as +R or (if your burner supports it) changed to -ROM

for example, if you have a dvd player that doesn't support +R media, but you have a whole crapload of +R discs you can burn them with the booktype set to -ROM and it sees the disc as a DVD-ROM.

that's the un-technical explanation haha.

booktyping is not really important if you use -R media or if your dvd player will play anything.

my dvd player doesn't support +R and I buy mostly +R discs (because of the media IDs that I can find locally) so I booktype to DVD-ROM so they play

alsao, if you click on the word booktype in your post that was made into a link by the ever so intelligent cdfreaks forum then you'll get a full explanation

Wow, what a world of difference your suggestions have made...look at the test of the DVD burned at 4X and with the internal burner!

See page 1 for the last test :-)

Really a big difference

Have you checked your disc if it have some dirty? This bad spike of PIF around 3 GB is really not very pleasant