DVD Burner Problems

[510picker]

I'm having a problem with a newly installed internal dvd burner. Every dvd I have attempted to burn fails when it attempts to verify at the end of the burn. Looking at the newly burnt dvd through Windows Explorer shows all of the files in place. When I attempt to open one, I get results like the photo posted below. The weird thing is when I bring the dvd to work my computer reads it just fine and the files open fine.

The dvd is installed as a slave to my other cd drive. The jumpers have been moved to the appropriate positions. I have checked the manufacturers website (LG) and there are no firmware updates available. The most frustrating thing is I threw my receipt away so I can't take it back. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

http://www.dphoto.us/forumphotos/data/500/dvd_problem_example.jpg

[gparr]

Just a guess, but have you tried making the DVD burner the master and the other CD drive the slave?
Gary

[510picker]

Gary - I have not tried that. I will give it shot tonight. At this point I will try anything. Thanks for your help.

Matt

[MatsP]

I woudl also check that both the CD and DVD drives are the same mode. The DVD drive is probably wanting to do high transfer rates. Since two devices on the same connection will have to share the same speed, the lower of the two speeds will be selected. Low speeds may well end up spoiling the write operation (data underrun) and cause the effect shown.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to work around this problem. The only suggestion would be to disconnect the CD drive and use the DVD only.

--
Mats

[Bobby Digital]

www.afterdawn.com (http://www.afterdawn.com-may)

may be able to help

[Needy]

You might also want to check your BIOS settings. When I installed my DVD drive I had problems with write speed and quality until I changed the drive's settings in the BIOS, worth a shot at least.
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[flyfishertoo]

I am not disagreeing with anything that has been suggested here because I don't have a clue about what the problem might be, but if were any of these things, what about Matt's comment that it reads correctly at work but not at home. Is the problem just read related, and not write related?

[NikNikon]

Flyfisher has a goog point, you say you're opening the pics in Windows explorer, have you tried looking at the contents of the disc using some image viewing software or Photoshop? A lot of stand alone DVD players will read photo DVD's too. Just some idea's to nail down what's really causing the problem.

[510picker]

They look the same no matter what software I use. Not all of them look like this, only some. It's a random thing.

[dbevis]

It possibly is that the DVD writes 'weak' or has a read sensitivity issue. Or possibly it's tied in with the particular brand of media you used and your drive can't properly write on it.

I could see the reader losing it's sync or track info and 'jumping' to another block of data, but I don't know how a DVD is written. Generally, I'd think it's unlikely that an inner section pops out at the bottom with perfect left/right registration. It's not clear to me if the white-space is part of the actual imageor not.

All signs point to the drive, though. I'd give a different media brand a shot, to see if the read circuitry has a problem pulling the data back off the disk. Either way, I would not want to keep using the drive.

A useful test would be to write the same batch of images using a different DVD burner, then try to read them on yours.

I guess it would be useful to burn at the slowest rate selectable in your software. You might simply be pushing the limits of the media/drive combo you have.

The perfect, just offset, registration is really weird though. Not what I'd expect at all.

[510picker]

Problem Solved! Apparently I have a DVD burner that doesn't want to be a slave to some lowly CD-R drive. Switching the DVD to the master solved the issue. I can read DVD's that I have already created and I made some new ones that burn and verify perfectly.

I appreciate everyone's help! Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones we overlook.

[gparr]

Problem Solved! Apparently I have a DVD burner that doesn't want to be a slave to some lowly CD-R drive. Switching the DVD to the master solved the issue. I can read DVD's that I have already created and I made some new ones that burn and verify perfectly.

I appreciate everyone's help! Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones we overlook.

Hey! I got one right! More than once I've had drives of different types be picky about whether they were masters or slaves. No doubt an ego thing.
Gary

[NikNikon]

Very cool, that's another reason I like this place, you can bounce tech problems off other members and get worth while results. Glad you didn't get stuck with a bad burner.

[flyfishertoo]

Glad you got it working. I know that somewhere in your efforts, you decreased the write speed. Were you able to up the write speed after you got it working, or have you tried that?

[dbevis]

Results are what matters, but it's strange that the write operations worked despite the conflict with the CDROM. I wonder if there's a different 'handshake' when reading vs. when writing? Or maybe the writes grab a higher priority (i.e., exclusive) access to the DVD so the CDROM can't interfere?

Dunno, can't argue with success, though. :)

[510picker]

The write and read speed are both set to maximum. I believe the burner is working as the manufacturer intended it to. Now I need to buy some Lightscribe disks to see how well that feature works.

[MatsP]

Results are what matters, but it's strange that the write operations worked despite the conflict with the CDROM. I wonder if there's a different 'handshake' when reading vs. when writing? Or maybe the writes grab a higher priority (i.e., exclusive) access to the DVD so the CDROM can't interfere?

Dunno, can't argue with success, though. :)

There shouldn't be any difference - at least as long as both drives aren't being used at the same time. I'd be interested to see what the actual settings differences are... Probably will never find out.

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Mats

[Rune]

Did you remember to check the drive's transfer mode? XP can sometimes default to switching off DMA transfers. This would (at the very least) degrade performance.

(Device mgr -> disk controller properties -> transfer mode -- should be set to "use DMA if available")