Phil Viton

Thanks to all! I'll try to get a-hold of a Verbatim disk and see what happens. Meantime, I can report that whatever the problem is, it's not specifically an ImgBurn problem: the same thing happens with the Sonic software which came with the computer, and also with Nero7. Thanks especially for the reference to the HP update site: I'd in fact done a driver-update attempt using the built-in support GUI, but it reported nothing. As to Media Edition, I'm told that this is in effect just a media-manipulation shell which runs on top of XP, so I'm pretty sure that the XP OS applies here. I'll report back on what happens. Meantime, thanks again to all for their thoughtful replies - much appreciated.

Here is part of your problem, the discs your using are nothing short of crap. Change your media, and see if that helps. Readability on the above media is a challenge even for the best drives. But we know that readability is unlikely to be the problem, don't we, since the toshiba can read a dvd+RW produced on another computer, using the same brand of media (that was the point of the NEC experiment)? And analagously, we know that writeability is unlikley to be the problem either, since dvd+RW's produced on the hp can consistently be played on the same computer, and also on stand-alone dvd players. All of which suggests to me that media quality is not in play here.

Thanks to all who replied. As requested, I attach a log file. I'd also like to be clear that except for this one situation the Toshiba drive seems to be working perfectly: it can read any other type of dvd, including non-rewriteable DVDs (I've tried only DVD+) created with the hp writer. The problem seems to occur only with DVD+RW. ============ log file I 11:23:32 ImgBurn Version 1.2.0.0 started! I 11:23:32 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2) I 11:23:32 Initialising SPTI... I 11:23:32 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 11:23:47 Found 1 DVD?RW! I 11:25:40 Operation Started! I 11:25:40 Device: [2:0:0] HP DVD Writer 740b HI24 (E:) (ATA) I 11:25:40 Media Type: DVD+RW (Disc ID: CMC MAG-W01-00) (Speeds: 2.4x) I 11:25:40 Quick Erase: No I 11:25:40 Erasing Disc... I 11:50:48 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:25:07 I 11:50:55 Operation Started! I 11:50:55 Source File: C:\ProgramFiles\dvd\Images\dvda\DVD_SHRINK.ISO I 11:50:55 Source File Sectors: 2,037,445 (MODE1/2048) I 11:50:55 Source File Size: 4,172,687,360 bytes I 11:50:55 Source File Implementation Identifier: DVD Shrink I 11:50:55 Destination Device: [2:0:0] HP DVD Writer 740b HI24 (E:) (ATA) I 11:50:55 Destination Media Type: DVD+RW (Disc ID: CMC MAG-W01-00) (Speeds: 2.4x) I 11:50:55 Destination Media Sectors: 2,295,104 I 11:50:55 Write Mode: DVD I 11:50:55 Write Type: DAO I 11:50:55 Write Speed: MAX I 11:50:55 Link Size: Auto I 11:50:55 Test Mode: No I 11:50:55 BURN-Proof: Enabled I 11:50:55 Filling Buffer... I 11:50:55 Writing LeadIn... I 11:50:57 Writing Image... I 12:11:43 Synchronising Cache... I 12:11:46 Closing Session... I 12:12:38 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:21:43 I 12:12:38 Average Write Rate: 3,273 KB/s (2.4x) - Maximum Write Rate: 3,391 KB/s (2.4x) ==== end log file

Can anyone suggest what is going wrong here? Basically, ImgBurn using an HP DVD Writer produces DVD's which can't be read on a Toshiba DVD-ROM; while the same ImgBurn on an NEC DVD writer produces DVDs which can. In both cases, the DVDs can be read on a stand-alone dvd player. Here are the details: ImgBurn: 1.2.0.0 In all cases I'm writing an ISO file to a DVD+RW disk; the disks are always the same brand. 1. On an HP DVD Writer 740b : the resulting dvd can be played on the host computer (Presario SR 1750 NX), and on a stand-alone DVD player. It is not recognized by the Toshiba DVD-ROM DS-R2412 reader. There's a dialog suggesting that the disk may not be formatted. (The Toshiba can write CDs but only read DVDs). This happens consistently, with various ISO files. 2. On an NEC DVD+RW ND 1100A: the resulting DVD can be played on the host computer (Dell), on the Presario, the Toshiba and on a stand-alone DVD player. Is there some magic setting that happens to be set on the NEC, but not on the HP? Looking at the disks, one difference is in the BookType: on the NEC-produced DVD (the one which CAN be read on the Toshiba), one sees: Physical Format Information: BookType: DVD+RW Physical Format Informatio (Last Recorded): BookType: DVD+RW while on disks made by the HP (which can't be read on the Toshiba) we have Physical Format Information: BookType: DVD+RW Physical Format Informatio (Last Recorded): BookType: DVD-ROM This suggests that the HP is somehow getting it wrong, but I don't understand what's going on. Can anyone suggest something? Is it possible to change the BookType on the HP, and if so how? ImgBurn does have a Change BookType tab, but the HP doesn't show up there, and to me at least the whole dialog is very obscure.