grampaw

I stand corrected! Both the Notebook with a USB writer running XP SP2, and the Desktop P3 computer running Win98SE, verify perfectly with ImgBurn 1.1.0.0 - it's only the Desktop P4 running XP SP1 that always fails to verify. Applying a little deductive logic to the attached log files, I conclude it's probably the FW 1.18 on the DVR-108 burner that somehow doesn't mesh with ImgBurn verify, since both the the burned SL and DL disks play fine. I use this Desktop P4 machine for about 75% of my DVD backups since it is the quickest of the three computers, so that's what led me to my faulty conclusion. BTW - The DVD title "Vodka Lemon" is the first DVD-5 I've ever seen with structure protection. And it's an Armenian language DVD with English subs... strange! Edit -- Oops - I didn't attach two of the ImgBurn Logs.... IMGBURN_November.log ImgBurn_Vodka_Lemon.log ImgBurn_Four_Brothers.log ImgBurn_Great_Raid.log

Speaking about ancient DVD-ROMs, I'm still using a Pioneer DVD-ROM 106 (FW 1.22) from 1999 on an old WIN98SE P3 machine for reading DVDs. That model is a slot loader, which I thought was cool at the time. It doesn't seem to recognize some DVD+R media, so I just use the DVD writer to read those disks. Haven't tried to update the firmware in years - doubt there's anything worth flashing out there. Since I'm off topic, I'll get back on the ImgBurn 1.1.0.0 verify topic - I have yet to get any movie ISO file I've burned to a DVD to verify, so I just stopped checking that box. My standard procedure is to backup the original and only play that backup, just like I've been doing forever with audio CDs. I haven't noticed any discernible defects at all when actually playing either SL or DL burned movie DVDs backed up with ImgBurn - guess this verifies that ImgBurn really is a great product...

Ooh, bad term - "bombed out." My apologies. I meant a standard sector "miscompare." I'll update the Pioneer Burner FW, it is the original which works fine with SL TY media. Or maybe I'll finally get around to swapping out to the BENQ 1430 I bought that's been sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks. And I'll get some Verbatim DL media. I never tried to play the burned disk on the computer - that's usually my third option after the stand-alone players (it has a 22" CRT and DD 5.1) I'll give it a try. I always reboot computer before burning any DVD with any software app - then I'm sure nothing is running but WinXP OS and that all memory, buffers, etc. are all clear/clean or whatever. I know, that's way over-kill. As for the ImgBurn verify, I guess a "miscompare" means the burned disk is not an exact copy, which in turn may or may not mean the disk is unplayable. The proof is in the pudding... Thanks for your suggestions

Now that DL media prices are getting reasonable, I thought I try experimenting. I took two DVDs, extracted one title from each, then created an ISO image - used Shrink reauthor mode to do this. Then I opened up ImgBurn, let it figure out L0 - L1 breakpoint (there was no MDS file), and then burned the DVD using a Pioneer DVR 108 burner. I left the ISO file on the HDD and I used RIDATA DL blank (RicohJPND000-01) for the media. I then played the DVD on both of my ancient (4 year old) players - one a Pioneer DV 440, and the other a Toshiba SD 1800. The Toshiba played start to end flawessly, the Pioneer started fine then froze right about where I'd guess the breakpoint is - a touch of FF, then Play, got me past that point and it played fine to the end. Continuing my experiment, I figured I'd try ImgBurn verify since I've never used that option. The verify bombed out about a quarter of the way into the DVD, nowhere near the breakpoint and seemingly not related to anything at that point during playback. So I have a DL burned disk playable on my two players (with a little help on one). However it doesn't pass the ImgBurn verify test. Aside from the fact I have an ancient burner, ancient players, and probably questionable DL media, can any advise me what's going on? Should I just do the real world verify on the burned disks (i.e. play them) and skip the ImgBurn verify test?

Answer to the question is "no." ImgBurn doesn't require a region to be set on the DVD writer. My Dell Latitude X1 laptop (all of 1.1 kg) has an external DVD writer. I've never set the region code nor has my PowerDVD software. You don't need to set the region code to rip a DVD, and I always remove region code when ripping. Since I never play the original (it gets archived), and only play backups, region codes are irrelevant to PowerDVD. Usually I just keep 3 or 4 DVD titles in separate VIDEO TS folders on the X1's hard drive - entertainment on those long economy-seat plane trips or whatever. PowerDVD does play VIDEO TS files from the HD quite nicely. The hard drive option uses less laptop battery than the external DVD drive.

The link below gives the File Format description http://developer.berlios.de/docman/display...0&group_id=2545

I suppose more than a few people are using ImgBurn as the burn engine for Shrink. The guide decribing how trick Shrink into using ImgBurn instead of DVDD as the burn engine is well written. However, you still have to go through this fire drill everytime ImgBurn has a new version. My suggestion is to have an option in the ImgBurn Setup program to automatically do the renaming of files involved. It could be something like; "If you are currently using ImgBurn as the default burn engine for Shrink instead of DVD Decrypter, would you like the setup to automatically update this Shrink burn engine?" You could also include a caveat or two about "option for advanced users" or something like that. Then again, I seem to remember LIGHTNING UK! doesn't like to include options, or automatic retention of current settings, in his setup programs for applications.