LIGHTNING UK!

Yes, the CUE file is the important thing. If you don't have one for a given set of files you can use ImgBurn to make one. If it's embedded (and ImgBurn supports the file type as an image - i.e. can extract the embedded CUE from the audio file)), you can just try and load/burn the audio file directly as if it were an image.

You really should. Firmware is just the software / OS for the drive and like all other software, it's important that you keep it up-to-date. If you don't update it, you'll stay running 'Windows 95' for the rest of the drives life

Formatting is different to erasing. DVD+RW need to formatted before the drive will accept any 'Write' commands. ImgBurn extends on that slightly and basically, unless the disc info on the right states 'Formatted: Yes' for a DVD+RW disc, ImgBurn will prompt to format it. (that status comes direct from the drive) Once it's been formatted properly by ImgBurn you won't need to format it again unless another program messes it up - or the drive didn't do it properly in the first place (bad media support?). If there's something on the disc and it's formatted properly, ImgBurn will just use what's known as 'direct overwrite'. That's to say you can just issue write commands to sectors that already have data on them without the need to erase them first (this is where DVD-RW is inferior because it would need quick erasing first). A full format on DVD+RW disc at 4x would indeed be about 15 - 20 minutes so there's nothing to worry about there. From your log I'd have to guess that the drive/firmware doesn't like that media, there's a 1.07 firmware update available so I'd try that first. http://www.pioneer.eu/files/support/BDC/BDC202_FW107EU.zip

Update your firmware, it might improve support for the media you're using. http://www.liteonit.com/DOWNLOADS/ODD/SOHW...re/DR16KS0B.zip If it still doesn't work you'll have to get yourself some Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL (MKM-001-00 dye) discs instead.

4 of them are SATA the other 2 are IDE 2 are on an ICH9R controller (running in the proper 'optical drive friendly' ATA mode). 2 others are on a Silicon Image 3512 PCI controller card. The 2 IDE's are on a Silicon Image 680 PCI controller card. I know I only mentioned 6 drives but I actually have a cupboard full of them dating back several years. What you have to understand is that it makes no difference to the program (well, programs in general) how the drives are connected. All drives follow the MMC specs (available from www.t10.org) so they all talk the same language and that's independent of the interface used. Drives are like cars, they might have different engines to make them go faster but at the end of the days the user still deals with a clutch, brake and accelerator. If you push the accelerator and the car doesn't respond then there's something wrong with the car. It's no good trying to blame the user saying their right foot doesn't work when it's pretty clear that it's fine - and you'll know that because they've shoved it up your arse to prove it.

It won't do an on-the-fly copy, no. Why not? I haven't gotten round to it. Will it ever? Probably. In the mean time you can follow the 'how to copy a disc' guide in the Guides forum.

lol yeah and then we'd need a thread to correct the translation of the thread correcting the german translation.

It's ok loco, I think/hope this is between chaos and him. Would still be interesting to know what's being said though!

If you're burning with ImgBurn then it should be automatic anyway. If you're not then that's really your own problem I'm afraid!

You burn a FLAC with Embedded CUE as if it were an image file - i.e. use Write mode.

Myself and at least 1 other beta team member have the LG Blu-ray/HD DVD drive working without any problems. If your system behaves itself there's never any reason for anything to get stuck. Mine never does and I have 6 drives in my pc - and I bet I use ImgBurn a lot more than you do! Either the drive/drivers process the command successfully or they don't (and error out). If they just sit on the command for days and days that's not really my problem. ImgBurn will just continue to wait patiently for success/failure. You cannot abort/end task during this period because ImgBurn is not in control - it's waiting for Windows to finish processing the 'DeviceIoControl' API call. Windows as a whole will basically appear to have hung at this point because no I/O will work.

Try burning at 8x or 12x. AUTO doesn't mean anything if you've not configured the 'Automatic Write Speed' feature - the speed will just default to 'MAX'. Read the guides if you don't know what the AWS feature is yet. You could try hunting down a firmware update but I couldn't locate one on the HP website. You could also try using some different (better) discs - either Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden.

I guess that'll do as a workaround then... it does mean your OS's SPTI interface (via the 'CdRom' class anyway) is a bit messed up though and other programs that try to use it may also fail.

Burn and verify a disc. If it doesn't verify then you've no chance in reading the files from the disc (as it's basically the same thing). I suspect your drive is just producing a crappy burn on the media you're using. For DL media you need to be using Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL (MKM-001-00 dye)

You could also try using the wnaspi32.dll file from Nero in the ImgBurn program folder and switching the I/O interface to ASPI. The errors you're getting aren't in the normal MMC spec range so I doubt they're from the drive itself - they're probably from the driver. Optical drives really don't like being on anything except bog standard SATA controllers. Even AHCI mode can cause them to mess up and that's way more compatible with optical drives than RAID mode is.

Glad you solved it. Perhaps you could have words with whoever makes it and get them to look into / fix the issue?

Do you still have the log from where SPTI was being used rather than one of the 3rd party I/O interfaces? What controller is the drive attached to? (who makes it?) It's a bit weird for things to start erroring out when *nothing* has changed. Are you quite sure you didn't install / update *anything* ?

Different drive and totally different error. If you're saying Nero works, try changing the 'Write Type' to 'Incremental' in the settings rather than 'DAO/SAO'.

I guess I could make a note that only the GUI labels get translated... and to be honest, I doubt it'll ever get any better than that!

Here's what I'd probably try next... Use an MD5 calculation program to generate the MD5 / SHA-1 of a large image file (4GB+) on your hard disk. Make a note of it, reboot and then do the same thing again. Then reboot and do it again for good measure. Hopefully all 3 will come out to the same value. Next, try reading a disc to an image file. Make note of the MD5 from the ImgBurn log, delete the file, reboot and then do it again a couple more times. Hopefully all 3 will come out to the same value. For MD5'ing files I use a program called HashTab which you can download for free from: http://beeblebrox.org/hashtab/

Does it see original discs? Does it see discs you've burnt ok in that same drive in the past? If not, the drive has probably broken.

Change the scan speed to 4x. Set PI Errors and PI Failures to use 'Block' rather than 'Line. Then try again If the graph still looks awful you might like to try burning at 4x rather than 2.4x. My S203B seems to prefer 4x over 2.4x for DL burning.

'Apply' serves no real purpose.

If the drive won't play nicely on your Via controller, pickup a

Do a disc quality scan in cdspeed or a PIPO scan in DVDInfoPro and see how well the drive burnt the disc.