Hello all!

I've been going through these forums and google for a while trying to find a solution to my problem, but haven't found people having the same issue.

The problem is, like the topic says, that the dvd-media burned on the drive doesn't work properly on a normal dvd-player. The dvd works properly for anything from 25 to 65 minutes, but then the picture gets messed up, sound breaks up making the dvd unwatchable. This can also occur just in the midst of a movie, but it usually takes 20-40 minutes for the problem to "fix" itself. Most of the dvd:s work fine on the gsa-h10n itself (just one that doesn't).

And to make things more interesting, when I've burned media that has episodes (series like csi etc), the discs work pretty well, with just minor breakups (few seconds, only at one point), mostly in just one episode.

I've tried on two different medias, Verbatim's DVD-R and Imation's DVD-R. I've tried burning on 8x and 16x. Firmware is JL10 (not flashed, and couldn't find newer one from LG's page.

So if anyone has any suggestions what to do, it'd be greatly appreciated

Run a transfer rate test on the faulty discs.
The latest firmware is JL11, you'll have to search various LG websites to find it.

Hi mikkisz!
Was the Verbatim DVD-R "valmistettu Intiassa" or "valmistettu Taiwanissa"?
If you have a friend with a LiteOn/Sony or Plextor drive, try to make a Disc Quality (aka Q-Check) test. The graphs can tell us something about the discs' quality

Good luck!

as a matter of fact you won't find it on LG's websites (unless things have changed).
read this thread:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=183031
you can find a link for JL11 there.

First of all: Thank you for the replies!

kg_evilboy: The media is "valmistettu Intiassa" (Made in India in english )

I ran transfer rate tests on two faulty discs using Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.7.0.0. Both discs were read fine, and showed no errors. I also tried ScanDisc feature on one of the discs; all good & green.

Hopefully the attached image will work (newbnewb).

And here's some of the TRT-data.

Transfer Rate
Start 4.30x
End 10.29x
Average 7.70x
Type CAV
---------
Transfer Rate
Start 4.28x
End 9.33x
Average 7.13x
Type CAV

If I should run more tests etc. please prompt me to : >

I'm gonna also hook up my old Sony DVD-drive to do that Q-Check.

Nice TRT.. shouldn't have readability issues in any player at 1X. You tried them on a different DVD player?

I haven't tried on any other player, but I've tried some discs burned on another drive, and they work just fine on my player. So I'm guessing the problem's not with the player...?

When I downloaded the firmware, it was from LG's UK page. I bookmarked it, but now it gives a page not available message.

mikkisz :

Made in India Verbatims have been known to be somewhat problematic. They seem to be somehow different from the made in Taiwan stuff. What I've noticed from various posts about Verbatim media is that drives which burn the MIT stuff well don't seem to handle the MII stuff well. It seems like manufacturers can tweak their drives/firmware to suit either type but not both. Most drives seem to be setup to favour the MIT stuff. What usually happens in that case is that burn quality for the MIT stuff is excellent but when MII Verbatims are used, burn quality can be quite horrible. This could be the cause of your problems with Verbs.

As for your Imation discs, I'm guessing you have Imation 16x DVD-R discs, which are usually CMC MAG AM3. These are not known to burn well on any writer. The H10N is supposed to do a decent job of them, but you never can tell. I've heard that the +R version (CMC MAG M01) burns well on certain burners. I bought a batch of Imation 16x DVD+R discs which were that media code and burn quality is quite horrible on 4 writers I've tried, at 4x-12x. This is even though two of my writers are supposed to be able to burn these discs quite nicely. So I don't think you can trust those Imation 16x DVD-R discs either.

My advice is twofold :

1. Update your firmware first.
   This post in the thread linked to by dodecahedron above has download links for JL11 that work :
   http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=23
   
   After that, try and see if the discs burned with JL11 work properly in your CD player.
   
   
2. Change media
   Get hold of some MIT Verbatims, particularly the 16x DVD+R version. Don't worry that it is +R rather than -R. Just use booktyping/bitsetting to set the booktype to DVD-ROM when you burn and it should work with your DVD player. If you are using Nero, it will do it automatically for you. Currently, MIT Verbatim 16x DVD+R is about the best 16x media money can buy in terms of burn quality. Nothing, not even TY 16x comes close to it for consistency.

LG removed JL11 (H10N) and JL04 (H10A) from their various service sites. Nobody knows why. However, it both still seem to be available using their auto update tool. The links in this page :

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=23

actually link to the download location which the auto update tool gets the firmware from. Those still work.

There have been rumours that LG removed the firmware because something was wrong with the firmware. That doesn't make sense since the firmware is still available with their auto-update tool. Most people who used JL11 when it was available from their webpages seem to be happy with it vs a handful of complaints about it (which is usual for any firmware update - someone always says the older version was better). There should be a lot more complaints about it if something is really wrong. Also, LG has done strange things with firmware releases in the past. They have been known to sometimes release certain updates via auto-update only, for example. And one particular firmware release is available on only one of LG's websites (LG GSA-4163B A106 - http://ca.lgservice.com only). You can never tell what LG is doing with their firmware updates.

@joseph5:
what karangguni said

So today I hooked up my Sony DVD-ROM DDU1621 S1p6 and ran transfer rate tests on two discs and the results are attached. I ran both discs twice and got pretty much same looking graphs each time, and every time I got an error saying: ILLEGAL MODE FOR THIS TRACK (056400).

I also updated the firmware to JL11 but that did no good, same problem persists.

Do I have a faulty drive and should return it or does this bring any ideas for solutions to your minds? And thanks for the help so far!

Edit: The movie that the left graph is from starts to have problems around 1h 10mins or something and the right one around 25 minutes in the movie.

I guess it is a faulty drive and you should search no further...

see if you can get it exchanged with a h22n model which i think gives much better results then the h10n model.

What discs were those burned on? If you are still using the same Imation discs or made in India Verbatim, even JL11 won't help you much. Yes, media makes that much difference.

At karangguni: I tried the same Verbatims as before, yes. I also returned the drive to the shop for them to test, hopefully they don't have some megaquality discs. I feel it is a bit unfair that media would make so much difference

Sorry to have to tell you this, but the quality of DVD media varies quite greatly depending on what brand and which place of manufacture. It isn't like buying CD-Rs at all, where you can just buy nearly any brand of discs and be sure it will work properly.