Hey hey I just got this 16x DVD burner, but when I open Nero it says it can only burn DVD-Rs at 4x max. This is a NEC ND-3540A. I've got a 3200+ Athlon and a gig of DDR ram and WinXP, so I don't see where the slow down is. Does it have something to do with the IDE connectors? Come on now. This is depressing. I was expecting DVD-Rs to be flying all around the room by now. thanks
Hey, hey yourself ~ What type of media are you using ? If you want to burn at 16X then buy 16X discs - the burner isn't magic ya know. Just a note for you as it appears you become excited easily. Burning DVD Video at 16X, don't expect to get many good burns. No matter what you use, burning over 8X will get you bad burns a lot of the times. When I say, "no matter what you burn," I'm referring to your use of the proper media for the job not crap like Princo, Great AZO Memorex and the like. I refering to Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden's. Here's a short read to help you along - DVD Video media; Memorex is an excellent example as DVD media goes. 90% of Memorex discs are made by CMC and is sub-standard as far as DVD backups are concerned. Figures as high as 50% coasters have been reported (One member bought a stack of 50 and got 23 good burns.), not what I would call an impressive record. Memorex made a name for itself with their magnetic tapes (VHS and audio cassettes) and have been living off it ever since. There are 4 different companies that manufacture Memorex DVD's BTW and product quality varies widely as you might imagine. Only 10% of the Memorex out there, those are discs manufactured by Mitsubishi in the 25 pack spindle , and they're the exception - they are the good ones. It's easy to see now why the quality of a big-named company can't be trusted - " Who's making your Memorex tonight ?" Is it just Memorex ? No ! I just used Memorex as an example, Orange Pack, Princo, Great AZO, 90% of Memorex and most "Store" brands and others are just not that good for DVD burning. Those same discs however, are quite good for your MP3 music, picture archives, spreadsheets and Data.Even DataSafe G04's, made by Ritek, have been reported as an inferior quality media and are evoking that "Oh no, I shouldn't have gotten those." That's why we are specific in the type of media we are recommending. What we are suggesting is to download this DVD Identifier to find out who manufactured your DVD and if it's a decent quality. Download DVDIdentifier http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/ Once you have your disc identified, click the "More information" icon and see what information you're given. if you're not sure of the quality, come on back and we'll check it out for you - * Cheap media freezes, skips, pixelats and may refuse to be recognized by both burners and players :-( Besides "Freezing", "skips" many times you'll get a "Cyclic Redundancy error" (CRC error) or an "I/O error". This message can mean that your discs are scratched or dirty, it can also mean that your burner won't accept your "cheap" media :-( Another problem which, "Pops up" is a "*Power Calibration Error". This can stop you right in your tracks and most often is caused by, "Yep, you guessed it", inexpensive media. *A "Power Calibration Error" can also be attributed to the Optical Components of a DVD Writer, though this isn't usually the case. Eliminating errors and going for the "Best burn" ~ Tips ~ When attempting to achieve the best burn, consider reducing that burn speed to the 4X level. Iffin you have a new 16X, DL burner, you'll probably do well at 6X. It is my feeling that 8X and over leads to occasional coasters, even when using top grade stuff such as Taiyo Yuden's OR Verbatim DataLife Plus media. The second part of the solution is to always use a decent grade media. As for quality, A good grade, Hi-quality media is needed for DVD reproduction ! Phillips, Fuji +R's (not the -R's UNLESS they are made in Japan), Sony, TDK, HP, "Branded" RiData Go3's, Maxell +R (not the -R's as they cannot be trusted), Sony, Ritek G04 and G05's (not the 01's or the 02's), Verbatim - DataLife, Verbatim - DataLife Plus and media boasting "Advanced Metal AZO" BUT, it must say "Advanced METAL AZO", this indicates a superior dye and dye application on a good composite disc.As a general rule, the majority of discs manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi, RICOH and most Ritek are good bets. Look closely at those discs we recommended, you will see some dye types not listed by us. Those are poor risks even though they are made by the same company. Prices online from SuperMediaStore.com, Meritline.com OR Newegg.com have gotten Ritek G04 starting at about a $ .36 (USD) a disc - and just recently, a "Super Sale" had 100 Taiyo Yuden discs, 4X for $.25(USD)ea. PLUS they all have an excellent return policy. As a passing note, when buying Verbatim's, they come with a lifetime warrantee. Return them with your sales slip OR register receipt and a new one will be shipped to replace it. For the best online media stores to shop, try - Mertline.com http://meritline.com/ Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-132-344&depa=0 And, Supermediastore.com http://www.supermediastore.com/media1.html Shopping around can prove worthwhile - Staples, as of this date, offered HP+R DVD's (I LQQked them up in MediaMatch and they are made by Mitsubishi) for $18.00 per 50. Verbatim's were on sale $10.00 rebate for a pack of 25, $20.00 (USD) for a pack of 50 AND Taiyo Yuden where on sale with their -R, 4X DVD's for $.25 each (USD) in packs of 100, a fortnight past - Think of it, Taiyo Yuden's for $25 ea. There are sales all the time for the "GREAT" stuff - So you sea, quality isn't always expensive ~ Hope that enlightens you some, Cheers, Pete
Hey Scuba, you know everything in the world, is their anyway you can help me? http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/220396
Thanks Pete! I'm using Ritek G04's, and I didn't even think that the media was only 4x. Geez. That's good news for me. I thought I had a more complicated problem. I also read elsewhere to keep the write speed below 12x for quality sakes. But I'll trust you with the 8x note. I don't really care about an extra minute, but I do care about wasting a blank DVD. Thanks again -Doug-
Hey Doug, I believe you'll find that the only pple that speak of burning over 8X (much less 12X) are all the young Newbies who, for some unknown reason, believe that the faster you go, the better it is ~ In fact the opposite is more likely to be true. Speak to those who have been here for a good length of time, the experienced OR a Mod if you can catch one and they, almost to a man will say, they prefer burning a lot slower as they want to eliminate the chance of errors that comes with burning over 6X no matter what media you use. As I started, the second "trick" is to lower the DVD Target size to "Custom" to 4.38GB at the most (I like 4360MB) and if the media is a crappy one, lowering it to 4200MB. Discs like Memorex are most likely to have an uneven coat of dye toward the outside of the disc and therefore will give you a host of playback headaches. Sea below for the reduced size reasoning ~ The difference of 4.7GB DVD and 4.36GB DVD - DVD disc manufacturers love to use marketing terms and sell their discs as 4.7GB discs, but this is not true -- the 4.7GB is calculated by using so-called "Japanese gigabytes", where the power of calculations is 1,000 instead of 1,024 (and 1.024 is the correct way to calculate everything in computer world -- so, 1024 megabytes == 1 gigabyte). Manufacturers do this false advertising all the time so you think you are getting more than you are, They do it with Hard Drives also so if you buy a 120GB Hard Drive it isn’t really 120GB it is actually more like 111GB. (I think that’s right - lol) At any rate, we prefer to calculate the available writing space on a DVD as 4.36GB to include the reverse math and also provide a bit of room for overhead called “Squiggle” room Cheers, Pete
