phr111,
See the thing is, Memorex switches contract manufacturing companies based on bids from the manufacturers (as does Maxell, TDK and Sony +R >but, to be fair, I hear the -R Sony 1x-8x are consistantly good). And other store shelf brands do this too. So your local store may have an ordered supply-lot of O.K. Memorex media which you buy for a while, even for a long while depending on how much inventory the store's warehouse orders. Then they get their next shipment but this batch of Memorex media has been made by a different manufacturer, maybe in a different country and it's specs, characteristics and compatibilities have changed even though the packaging of the disk spindle looks exactly the same.

Also, there have been postings on cdf of Memorex media that worked at the time of the backup, but would not play a year later in the same player. The "No Disk" or "Unrecognized Disk" error or the playback is pixellated (checkerboarding as you called it) or jittery or jumps scenes. Degradation or rot due to manufacturing quality.

Rewritable media is poorly recognized by many DVD players. I always felt RW media's "place" was to be read from the same drive that burned the disk, to just pre-test split points, audio tracks or menu fuctions, before doing the real and permenant backup. But not to play or test on standalone player. But I don't even need RW's to test anymore. The whole backup scene has become so easy and dependable now, that I only use RW once in a great while. Like if I'm having trouble with a DVD that has complicated authoring to see if I got the angle title-sets, or infinifilm features to correctly fuction in CloneDVD backups.

Rewritable media fails to be rewritable either quickly or eventually. After the 2cnd burn or maybe the 25th burn. But it fails. Not the whole disk maybe, but sections of the disk are no longer rewritable. Maybe the sections that are causing your glitches. Use -R or +R. Buy "Made in Japan" (the key to quality) by Vervatim or Taiyo Yuden which, in your area(?) maybe you can only order from online stores. It's so cheap these days. Other members may suggest other good brands. These two brands are flawlessly recommended by everyone here. With a good backup rig, you won't have many coasters anyway. And you know your tests are valid.


Very . A dedicated box! Me too. No conflict worries.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118883/

Merry Christmas,
Whisperer

Actually it does add up. Forget all you thought you knew about archiving. Burning DVDs is not the same as burning CDs. I could pretty much swap any CD burner and any blank CD media and get a usable burn. Not so with DVDs. Each new burner I get I have to find media that it likes (and my stand alone players like). Once I find a good match, I keep buying it.

I suggest you get a sample pack of media from Rima or American Digital and burn the same movie on each disc. Or, just get a small pack of TY discs and try them - they seem to work in anything.

Also, pick a movie that does not have to be compressed to fit on the blank media. Burn only the movie - not the extras. Even with the the best media you will see artifacts on your bigscreen if the movie has to be overly compressed to fit. Once you get the non-compressed movie to work, then you can play with bigger movies to see what your compression tolerance level is.

as everyone has said, you can't rule out media as the issue unless you've been recording the MEDIA ID code on each disc that you burn. brands use a number of different manufacturer's and the only way you can say you're using the "same discs" is if they ahve the same media id. and if you're using memorex, the likelihood of you having consistent media ids is VERY slim. memorex is the whore of the dvd world. They outsource their production to wherever it's cheapest this week without regard for quality standards, slap their name on it, and people buy it because it's a "known" brand when in fact, there's nothing known about it since there's no way of telling who manufactured the discs until you actually put them in your computer and check the id.

There is no virus that targets Sony burners.

What there is... is incompatibilities between media and burner.

AND dodgy media quality control. I've had spindles go bad on me halfway through enough times to no longer buy dodgy media, even if it's on sale!

Reasonsnotrules a Whisperer1:

Were or how can I find this Media ID? And all of the Memorex media, so far, has come out of Taiwan. Are there multipal outsourced manufacturers for Memorex in that country, that you know of?

So far, I've not had any backups go bad over time that I know of. That idea is scary when I look at my collection. On that note you may have sold me. Sending back my stash will suck, again.

memorex has multiple manufacturers everywhere.

media id can be read with nero cd-dvd speed in the disc info tab. cd-dvd speed is a nifty little utility that is a single exe file...nothing to install on the system so I definitely recommend it.

people on this board don't necessarily stay away from memorex because of its poor quality, but because of it's vast unpredictability. Some people hav egood luck with some of the media IDs that can be found in memorex media, but you never know what you're going to get or if you're going to get that ID again when you buy memorex.

as far as reviews of media IDs or trying to guess what you might get, http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia is a good starting point. if you enter what brands/speeds/types of media you have it will give you probable media codes for it and you can log on and review that code. it's all user-compiled and not all burners like all media so tkae the reviews with a grain of salt, but it's a good base.

you'll find that verbatim discs (MCC media code) and Taiyo Yuden discs are among the most recommended on this board.

if you're into shoping at stores, TYs can be found in sony and fuji dvd+R 8x MADE IN JAPAN. those will ALWAYS be TY (for now at least). it's the brands that offer the greater predictability in what you will get that are favored by cdfreaks members.

or you can cut out all the guesswork and order discs from rima.com and they tell you the media code up front on what you will receive. it's a little more expensive though, and I enjoy the bargain hunting haha.

Thanks for the info.

Not a fast typer, so I don't say alot. Takes to long.

Anyway, I'll look over some of the discs at random. Want to buy some DVDs? I quess not.

Your supposed to be with family today, not playing with a computer. My girlfriend tolerates me, I quess. She likes the movies.

Ill be eating turkey in a few hours with my mom and dad . They are getting up there in age now. Could be any day, you know.

Back to movies, I'll post my checking this ID stuff. It will be interesting to see what happens with it.

Later, got to go.

i'm just sitting around waiting for people to come over. I still technically live at home (when I'm not away at college) so my parents are cooking and I'm being the typical un-helpful daughter by hiding in my room on my computer until it's time to eat/entertain people.

and as far as memorex goes, they're what i bought when i first got into burning, and within 3 months my first discs were unreadable. probably due to both inexperience and crappy media. I'd pop some of the old discs in to tell you what media code they were, but they're 100% unreadable in my computer. so yeah haha.

i have had 2 sony burners the dru 500 and the dru 700 and they both did the same thing. also they would never record past 4x. if i tried 6 or 8x they would turn out with digital errors and yes i have used many different forms of blank media. now my new pioneer burner will burn at 16x with no problems on the same pc

muddog and anyone:

Just when I think I got it, you mention this. When did your problem develop?
Mine was around mid november 2005

I've redone the firmware and up to now things look ok... Never say never. The remaining mystery is what may have corrupted my firmware? I didn't think that was possible and thus didn't concider it till lately.

If anyone has more info on this, please post it. May software updates cause such a problem. IT WAS A REAL HEMROID IN MY LIFE SOLVING THIS.

Thanks to all and to all who can help.

phr111
Are you posting back that all is working now? If so, congratulations. Keep your burn speeds to 4x or even slower with the older sony and use the quality media brands (that both your burner and your standalone player likes) that we have all suggested to you. Personally, I suggest you don't waste alot of time with testing media codes to try to prove your media is ok or not. Just buy the bloody good stuff in the first place and skip the budget, on-sale, or store shelf crap.

Read this guys post and follow the links if you want more media info.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=160548
I thought you had agreed that conspiracy is not a factor here, old boy.
Possible reasons:
1. Static discharge from your body when you have touched the drive (dry winter air or walking on floor carpeting will charge you up).
2. Power fluctuations or "dirty current" from your local utility. Or lightning. Or the wiring in your residence. Is your system plugged into a high quality surge protector or backup power supply?
3. Your computer's internal power supply box maybe provides less power than your computer may require during certain tasks you have performed. Or may be getting old and not peforming at a perfect 12v all the time. Blow the dust out and make sure the fan is spinning or buy and install a new higher rated PS if you suspect that it is not up to par.
4. You didn't get a good firmware flash the last time you upgraded the firmware.
5. At some point your system froze and you did a "hard" shutdown (with the power button) to break the freeze and reboot. This can cause real havock with a computer's functionality.
6. "Other"
No

Best regards,
Whisperer

Whisperer1:

Yah, things seem better. Apperciate the info possibilities. No conspircy theory at this end. Sony be good. Ruffle some feathers did I? By the way how did you know I was an old man(boy). We old guys are the only ones who believe in consiracy, right.

I do like like that mel gibson role. Good movie.

Need to keep an eye on things in this world, you know.

Later

There WAS at least one other shooter on the grassy knoll in Dallas on that crisp, sunny, fall day in November of '63. Our country has become a very different place since then...

BTW: when you flashed the drive firmware, was it with a new, higher version number firmware or did you flash it with the same version firmware again?

dru-530a = 2.1g firmware

dru-510a = 1.1a firmware

Most recent for both.

And what do you think will be the fate of this forum with the new law in finland? From the sounds of it it will continue, but how long do you think that will last. Hard to tell, I'd quess.