Apota

Yes, you were right of course. I just tried it and it worked. I just didn't understand how it could go from 2 to A. That's a lot of firmware updates, so this drive must have had a lot of issues I guess. I've had problems in the past where I've tried to do firmware updates and they wouldn't work even though the drive was the same model because they were differnet because of OEM or whatever. I didn't want to brick my drive. I wish I knew how to use SmartPack so I can check on updates for the future. Can you answer any of my questions regarding the media quality tests, so I know what speed to burn the discs at? Thanks so much!

Yeah, I don't think that's the right firmware. I already saw that. The current firmware is ALO2 and that firmware is ALOA. The firmware for my drive should be ending in a number and not a letter. I think the problem is that my drive is an OEM drive and it's a PLDS drive even though it says Lite-On on it. I think it's a Philips drive made for them OEM by Lite-On, but it says Lite-On on the drive, so I don't know. I think that's why I'm having all of these firmware issues. Thanks! http://www.pldsnet.com/econtent/product/product.php

Well, I installed my Lite-On drive and you were right I got the extra tab now in Nero DiscSpeed for Disc Quality. I ran the quality test for the Sony Disc I burned at 8x speed. It asks you what speed to run the test at, and I wasn't sure, so I ran it at the maximum speed. Can I run a quality test on the Lite-On drive for a disc I burned with the Plextor drive? What speed should I run the test at? I also got an error before the test finished and I don't understand if the results were good or bad for the test. Do you know what the CDB error is all about? I'm also trying to figure out how to update the firmware for the Lite-On drive. Lite-On emailed me some software called SmartPack Utility and they said that would tell me if my firmware needed to be updated and would update it for me, but I can't figure out how it works. Do you know? Here are the pictures. Thanks!

Well, I actually do have a Lite-On BD Combo iHES106 Drive. I just pulled it out to install the new Plextor drive, but it would be easy to plug back in. I would assume that wouldn't help me though if I don't use that drive to do the burning and I want to use the Plextor. So, can I burn 4 different things on 4 different discs or do I have to burn the same thing on all 4 discs and waste the discs to test what does the best? I guess I should download and install Opti Drive Control and use the disk quality tests. I actually just installed Opti Drive Control and it's doing the test at 12x and won't let me change it and it's saying something about my drive dosen't support the quality test feature. Well, I just installed the DVDInfoPro software and it's telling me the same thing, that the drive doesn't support the test. I guess I'll remove the other older Plextor drive and install the Lite-On instead so I'll have the Lite-On and the Plextor drives and I can create the discs with the Plextor drive and test them in the Lite-On drive. Will that work? Does anyone know where I can find the firmware update for the Lite-On Drive? I contacted Lite-On and then sent me some software that's supposed to detect and update the firmware, but it doesn't work. Thanks...

So, it sounds like there is no way to find out what the best speed is because I can't get the Disk Quality tab on Nero DiscSpeed. So, maybe the best thing to do is choose 2.4x and I'll have the safest chance of the best burn. Unless the trial version of DVDInfoPro will work to give me the information I need for disc quality after the different speed burns? Thanks..

OK, I think I understand it now. If there is blue or green stars I don't have to worry about Seamless. Only if there is gray and yellow. If there is gray and yellow I use the preview to select where the best place is to do the split and I also want to choose one that has the 50/50 in it. Am I looking for anything in the file names or the cells for where to choose the split too? I haven't used the preview yet, so I don't know yet what that's like. I have set ImgBurn to just burn at the slowest speed at 2.4x to be safe. I used Nero DiscSpeed to run tests on the media to see if it will help me choose the correct speed. I have both Sony and Maxell DL media. I would like to use just the Maxell because I can get it at a better price. I'm not sure what the test results mean, so I'll post them up here to see if someone can help me make the best decision on that. I have also configured DVDFab to use what's recommended by ImgBurn, so that should work now. Thanks!

OK, I think I understand now. So, it's the player. Well, I have a brand new Samsung Blu-Ray player. One of the latest models. So, it sounds like that won't be a problem. So, I can use the preview to see where the break will be, in the movie and create the break there and test it on my Samsung Blu-Ray player? I will do another DVD and play with that preview feature to see what you are talking about and try it and see what happens. Did you say there might be a situation where you don't need to choose the seamless option and you won't have the problem when it switches layers? Can you tell me about what I'm looking for to make that decision? Thanks. A Grey star is when you have the layer break options in the middle of the movie (video). Assuming that the potential layer break that is suggested is between two cells (a chapter can be made up of several cells) is in a movie with a car chase. Having the player to slightly pause the playing when it's changing layer of the disc (there are two layers on a DL disc) can be not so nice when you watch it. The seamless should in theory prevent that pause to occur. Also don't forget that you can use the preview to select a layer break that has a natural break, like between two different scenes in the movie.

OK, thanks for the information. I still have some questions. First is about the Seamless. I have a brand new Blu-Ray burner. It's a Plextor PX-B940SA 12X Blu-Ray Disc Writer Super Multi Format (whatever that means). Here are the features: http://www.plextoramericas.com/index.php/blu-ray/internal-blu-ray/px-b940sa Here are the specs: http://www.plextoramericas.com/index.php/blu-ray/internal-blu-ray/px-b940sa?start=1 So, I don't see anywhere where it says it supports seamless. Do you know for sure if it does or not? If not, I'll email Plextor and ask them. What exactly do I ask them? If it supports Seamless and they'll know what that means? Well, you told me what green star to select for this situation, but how do I know which one to select in the future for other discs? What is that exactly? Is that showing you the condition of the sectors on that peice of media itself? What am I looking for to know what green star to choose? When you say it goes bananas what exactly do you mean? So, if I burn it with seamless it will be a totally bad burn and when I play the DVD back it will be totally un-playable? What do you mean about having cells in the video part? Are you saying that if I have disc that only has yellow and grey stars it would be a good disk to try the seamless option with to see if it works? I'm a little confused. Can you please explain in a little more detail? In DVDFab I chose to use the slowest write speed possible, but when ImgBurn did the burn it did it at the fastest speed. I thought that DVDFab passed a long that infomration to ImgBurn? How come it didn't do it at the slowest speed? Even though it did it at the fastest speed I chose for it to verify and it said there wasn't any problems. I always thought that if you burn at the slowest speed you have a lower chance of getting a bad burn. Isn't that true? Thank you for all your time and help!

You are right. I never used this software before so I wasn't sure how it worked. I thought it was burning but it never gets to that point. I goes right to preparing at 33% and then it stays on preparing at 33% for hours and never does anything else. I have taken snap shots so you can see. Hopefully that is helpful in helping me find a solution to this problem. Thanks again for all your time and help!

I already installed both those files from Intel last month after I installed the new Intel motherboard and after I installed the OS. Do you think I need to install those files a second time after I've installed ImgBurn? I don't think I have too, but I can if you think it might make a difference. What is the FirmwareHQ.com website that has the firmware update? Whey would they have the firmware update and not Plextor's website? Plextor's website always had firmware updates for my other Plextor drive. I'm confused. Thanks for the quick response and your time! Plextor's website says there is no firmware update for my drive: http://www.plextoramericas.com/index.php/index.php?option=com_jdownloads&Itemid=55&task=viewcategory&catid=100 That's wierd, but I just found the update on a totally different Plextor website. I wonder why it's not on there regular website? Here it is: http://www.plextor-digital.com/index.php/component/option,com_jdownloads/Itemid,55/catid,132/cid,481/task,view.download/

I'm trying to use ImgBurn for the first time. I'm using it in combination with DVDFab. I have a new computer with a i7-920 CPU. I got the new Intel® Desktop Board DX58SO. I'm running my two hard drives as mirrored raid. There are 6 Sata ports. Ports 2 and 3 have the hard drives. Ports 4 and 5 are empty. Ports 1 and 2 have my two burners. I have my new burner and an older one. They are both Plextor. The new drive is a Plextor PX-B940SA internal 12X BD Writer. I was trying the Maxel DVD+R DL 8X media and Plextor said it's crappy and to use the Sony, so I got the Sony DVD+R DL 8X media, but I'm having the same problem. I've been trying to burn with ImgBurn, but it gets to like 33% and then just hangs there forever. I have Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 32-bit. I have 3GB of Kingston DDR3 1333Mhz memory. I have Nero 10, ImgBurn, DVDFab, and Cyberlink Blu-ray Disc Suite software installed. I did a fresh install of the OS a few months back after reformating the new hard drives. I'm enclosing the log file. I have the write settings set to the lowest burn speed. Like I said before I looked at ImgBurn and it was at 33% and it just stayed there for an hour and wouldn't go past the 33% so I just aborted it. I'm sure that means there is some kind of problem. Right? Thanks for all your help and time! I 22:24:22 ImgBurn Version 2.5.1.0 started! I 22:24:22 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (6.0, Build 6002 : Service Pack 2) I 22:24:22 Total Physical Memory: 3,133,928 KB - Available: 1,635,780 KB I 22:24:22 Initialising SPTI... I 22:24:22 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 22:24:23 -> Drive 1 - Info: PLEXTOR BD-R PX-B940SA 1.04 (D:) (ATAPI) I 22:24:23 -> Drive 2 - Info: PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A 1.11 (E:) (ATAPI) I 22:24:23 Found 1 DVD±RW and 1 BD-RE! I 22:24:23 Operation Started! I 22:24:23 Building Image Tree... I 22:24:23 Checking Directory Depth... I 22:24:23 Calculating Totals... I 22:24:23 Preparing Image... E 23:28:47 Operation Aborted! - Duration: 01:04:24 I 23:29:22 Operation Started! I 23:29:22 Building Image Tree... I 23:29:22 Checking Directory Depth... I 23:29:22 Calculating Totals... I 23:29:22 Preparing Image... E 23:30:07 Operation Aborted! - Duration: 00:00:44 I 23:30:10 Close Request Acknowledged I 23:30:10 Closing Down... I 23:30:10 Shutting down SPTI... I 23:30:10 ImgBurn closed!