dbminter

Barring all other options failing, maybe attaching an external USB CD/DVD/BD writer and Todo will recognize it as a source to create a bootable disc to?

I don't think any external Pioneer opens with a tray. So, no. LG does make external, full height tray USB BD burners that support BDXL and M-Disc, I believe. The one drive you linked, I don't see it says M-Disc on it. Nothing in the description says that. I didn't check Pioneer's web site to see if to does support M-Disc. Just going by that Amazon.com page.

Yeah, I kind of had a bit of a brain and forgot you were looking for M-Disc. Since I don't particularly care for M-Disc, it wasn't my concern when discussing what USB Pioneer I'd try. Hm, you're right. The 209 never had an M-Disc label on it but it did support M-Disc. However, M-Disc support is no longer listed on the product's web page on Pioneer's web site IF it ever did list it. So, maybe Pioneer removed that function because people weren't using it? However, this link to the same model comes with a free M-Disc: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0Y6-000U-00055 As you can see from Newegg's page, there is no M-Disc label on that drive either, yet it seems to support M-Disc. I really couldn't tell you. The 209 drive DID support it. I've burned about 5 of them before with it. However, in the past, past models I got came with a free M-Disc and the last one I got did NOT. So, does that mean the drive no longer supports M-Disc? I couldn't say. You'd have to try it out for yourself. As for enclosures, this is what I use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRUN0HQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It has a combination cable where the power and SATA connections are bundled together so there aren't 2 separate cables. The enclosure then connects to the PC by USB 3.0 because USB 2.0 can't support the throughput necessary for Blu-Ray. Now, there is something you should know about external drives, including enclosures. You may encounter what is called a semaphore timeout error when trying to write to it. This is an error caused by the internal SATA to USB bridge and a conflict on your motherboard's controller. The only fixes, generally, are to replace your external drive/enclosure or your mobo. Replacing your external drive/enclosure is, of course, cheaper and easier than replacing a mobo. And, if you're going to replace your mobo, it's generally cheaper and easier to replace your entire PC. And there's no guarantee the next enclosure/drive/mobo won't have the same problem. The only way to know for sure is to try one out. However, on my Dell XPS 8700 PC, there is no semaphore time out error with that enclosure I linked.

Of course, not all slim drives are junk. And, IMO Pioneer is the best BD option out there for full height drives. I admit, I've wanted to try a different slim Pioneer, but I won't try it until my ASUS USB plays out. The down side to that Pioneer USB I want to try is there doesn't appear to be a tray. It appears to be a slot drive. So, you may have to manually reinsert discs for Verifies after burns if automatic Verifies are performed. I don't know if slot drives can automatically "reload" media or not. I am kind of anxious to see if that Pioneer USB drive is any good. The Pioneer BD209M has many names. Sometimes it just goes by 209, sometimes 2209, sometimes 209M, sometimes BD209M. Here's the link I ordered from: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GD792US/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Notice it goes by yet another alternate name? Pioneer is pretty much all I recommend. The only reason I have an ASUS is because I like to have an external model on hand to test with, in case my internal drives goes wonky for whatever reason. The only reason I have an LG is a long story, as I said, but the thumbnail version is Pioneer borked the 1.34 firmware for their drives so they don't properly write to Ritek 8x DVD+RW anymore. And the Pioneer doesn't read or write Ritek 6x DVD-RW. The LG will properly read and write to those media. The ASUS will write to 8x DVD+RW but not to 6x Ritek DVD-RW. And Ritek was the only remaining manufacturer of 8x DVD+RW. Now, you can't find any anywhere on the Internet. I have about 75 I found from one last seller on Amazon.com, so I bought them all up. And 6x DVD-RW was discontinued years ago, with Ritek being the last remaining seller. Since the XPS 8390 comes with a default DVD writer, there's no telling what they might swap in in its place for a BD writer. IF I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Dell would use this LG model: http://www.lg.com/us/burners-drives/lg-BU20N-internal-blu-ray-dvd-drive It's a slim, internal BD writer that supports BDXL and M-Disc. So, you'd most likely end up with an LG slim drive. Being BOTH a slim drive and an LG aren't good selling points for me. And I think it's the ONLY such model you will find that fits your criteria. If I were going to get a BD burner for the latest Dell models, I'd get a Pioneer 209 and put it in an external closure, like I recommended before. Other than that, I'd be willing to try that Pioneer slim model USB I mentioned and give it a test. I could always return it if I wasn't satisfied. That USB Pioneer you mentioned is a top loader. Top loaders are probably even worse choices for external models. Though I've never used one such BD drive, top loading Playstations were always the models that had the most disc problems, IMO. I wouldn't try one, but maybe Pioneer makes a better type? Who knows? This is the USB one I'd try: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives/BDR-XU03 Mostly because it has a stand that will put the drive vertically, and that's what I needed from the ASUS USB I got. It was vertically mounted. This is the model that, apparently, replaced Pioneer's BDR-XD05B, as that model is no longer listed on their web site: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives/BDR-XS06 Pioneer also makes a newer model that replaces the 209: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives/BDR-211UBK But, it doesn't support M-Disc, it seems. I would toy with trying it to see if they fixed the borked firmware, but the extra cost is mostly because it's a newer model and supports Ultra HD Blu-Ray, which I don't need. It does support the BDXL you're looking for. I'd still recommend the 209 because I've been using it for like 5 years and have had 5 of them. Two of them have lasted for 2 years or more. My first one still works, except for the eject button issue which I had with 2 of them. I only just recently had to replace my 209 that I mostly used as a reader, after 2 years. Also, LG drives are pretty bad readers, but I did have one case where the Pioneer wouldn't read a disc that the LG would. Go figure.

The other Dell poster's slim and full height drives were DVD burners. So, they weren't M-Disc capable. My results are generally not hit or miss. I thoroughly run tests before saying X. However, you can get random failures that just happen. Usually, though, these failures are the fault of a random disc that just happened to be bad. For instance, the other day, I had a rare failure on a Verbatim BD-R SL. They rarely fail, like 1 in a thousand failures. The cause was there was a crack in disc that apparently came out of the factory that way. Again, one of those one in a thousand failures. The way I test, I perform a test with 3 media in a row before declaring a problem. However, with your XL discs costing $20 a pop, my method is not cheap. But, I generally can't say a problem is repeatable and therefore there without running the 3 media test. Last night, had a failed DVD+R DL in my LG BD burner. Before declaring there was a problem, I tried burning it again and it succeeded on that 2nd try. Now, if I get 2 more failures pretty soon after each other, I'll declare the LG needs replacing. (LONG story as to why I still use an LG drive even though I don't recommend them.) Unfortunately, that ASUS drive you mention is junk. I had two of them, just in case the first one I got was a fluke and was bad. It did the same thing on both models, one of which went back to Amazon.com. I'd have sent the other one back but I had already sent in the UPC code from the box for a rebate, so I couldn't. I just threw the drive away. That model doesn't seem to write rewritable discs correctly. I first gave it a Ritek 8x DVD+RW. It wrote to it but completely destroyed the disc, even though it was new. It couldn't be reformatted for salvaging because the disc was not even recognized in any drive as a disc to format. Then I gave it a Memorex Ritek BD-RE SL formatted as a giant floppy. It wrote files to it, but, once again, it rendered the disc unreadable afterwards and could not be salvaged. Then I gave it a Verbatim Mitsubishi BD-RE DL and wrote an ISO to it that spanned the 2 layers. Same story! Wrote to the disc but rendered it destroyed. Since it did these same tests with the same results on 2 different copies of that ASUS drive, the problem is with the drive. It's borked. Firmware updates may fix this, but I don't think there are any firmware updates to it currently available. So, I cannot recommend the BW-16D1HT. Though I've never burned a BDXL disc before, your results with the drive seem to bear out my testing experiences with the drive. Which is a shame. I had such high hopes for ASUS as my new go to drive after the ASUS USB drive I had, the previous model to the current borky one, passed every single media test I threw at it, save for 2 which hardly any drives other than LG and LiteOn supported. I had thought ASUS might be my new go to model for internal full height BD. But, that goes to Pioneer BD209M now. Now, I think Pioneer makes an external BD burner that supports XL and M-Disc, but it is a slot model drive. And I don't think the firmware has been updated in 3 years on it. So, I'd just recommend, if you're going to go external, sticking with my first suggestion of a Pioneer BD209M and putting it in an external enclosure.

And LG's aren't really an option for BD-R/RE DL media. The one I have doesn't and others have reported issues, too, with burning ISO's in ImgBurn on LG BD burners. On the fly writing, though, does seem to work. Go figure. So, since there seems to be an issue with LG's on DL BD media, I can't see it being problem free with XL media, too. Another reason I pushed the Pioneer 209. It supports BDXL, though I've never actually burned one on it so I can't say how well it does it. And it supports M-Disc, which I have burned before in it fine. And it writes BD-RE DL fine. Never tried BD-R DL but someone else I was helping with a similar problem with the LG had no problems with BD-R DL when swapping the LG out for the Pioneer.

I would recommend NO slim drives at all. Slim drives are junk. Just had a recent poster who had an issue with a slim drive in a Dell failing to Verify that a full height drive in a different Dell did Verify. I would suggest buying a full height Pioneer BD209M, putting it in an enclosure, and using it as an external burner. I absolutely hated the fact Dell removed full height drive bays from the XPS line. Absolute deal killer for me. Not only can't you put in a good drive, but you really can't use the drive included with the system! I would have moved on from my XPS 8700 if it weren't for that fact. Now, I'm going to keep my Dell until I absolutely have to move on to a new Dell and just place one of my internal full height drives in an enclosure. If you really want a slim drive, though, I honestly can't recommend one. Slim drives have been nothing but problems as far as I've seen from posters on this board. So, I can't help you there, sorry.

Just be really careful with what you edit with IFOEdit. IFOEdit gives you, pretty much, literal god mode over how a DVD can function.

If you mean can you set a region code on a recordable disc, like DVD+/-R or DVD+/-R DL, I don't believe so. I believe, but I'm not sure, that region codes are hard coded onto pressed DVD's. If you mean set the region code on a drive, then ImgBurn has that somewhere. I think it's available when you right click a drive in the drop down list of available drives in Write mode.

You released it. It's just, as I said in that other thread, I wasn't aware it was there.

Well, I admit I Googled those options, but Pioneer's web site is such broken English I wasn't able to determine what it exactly did. So, I searched some other results just now. Finally found one that was good at explaining PureRead about 3 or 4 pages in. Seem PureRead is a function of audio CD's only. When enabled, if a rip of an audio cannot be performed normally, extra reading is done on the bad sectors/scratches and apporiximation data is added to the resulting MP3 so ripping doesn't fail. The quiet stuff is as I had thought just as you thought. It spins the drive slower so it doesn't make as much noise. This, of course, results in slower reads. And, I guess disabling it would put more wear and tear on a drive so it would wear out sooner. However, I'd rather have a faster read than a quiet one. As for a beta, there is a 2.5.8.1 but I was never aware it was there! It's been there since 8/17/2016, but never announced on the forum for the beta users. I stopped checking the folder for beta releases, just waiting for new posts in the Beta forum. Guess now I should check the folder from now on.

What is the Volume Set Identifier? It seems to be a random string of letters and numbers.

No problem! What you might want to do is buy an internal burner but also buy an external enclosure for it. Some external burners, like ASUS's current model, are junk, too. I don't buy DVD burners anymore, but if I were going to get an external drive, I'd get an internal SATA Pioneer BD 209M burner and put it in an enclosure. They're pretty much my go to drives, although I have an LG internal BD burner as well because with the latest firmware, P209M drives don't properly write to Ritek 8x DVD+RW anymore. And it's been 2 years since they last updated the firmware, so it's not like they're ever going to fix that. The LG, unfortunately, has more problems. It doesn't properly write image files to BD-R/RE DL in ImgBurn, although other apps will write image files to it. It's a weird "issue" that has no logical reason for being, but repeated experiments by me and the results of another user prove it's there. Even though there's no difference in the code for writing an image file versus the on fly writing that does work. LG's are also pretty bad readers, so that might also explain your problem. Since it's failing on Verify, it's failing on a read operation and my LG fails to read a lot of discs my Pioneer would. Although I did have a weird case where my Pioneer wouldn't read a disc my LG would. Go figure! BD-RE DL's formatted as giant floppies also won't write to the 2nd layer. You'll get a weird bogus Windows message saying the source file couldn't be "read" even though it's a write operation that's failing! Lastly, LG's are capped at writing BD-RE SL formatted as a giant floppy at 1x, even though the drive writes BD-RE SL at 2x and the Pioneer writes the formatted discs at 2x. Personally, I'd avoid LG's all together if I could. The only reason I still use them is for the writing to 8x DVD+RW and that it reads and writes Ritek 6x DVD-RW that my Pioneer and ASUS USB won't. I got the last USB model made before ASUS's current one, back when I thought ASUS was a quality manufacturer. But, their current USB contains the same model drive, internally, as their current internal BD drive. And that was junk. 2 different copies of the same model did the same thing: destroyed 8x DVD+RW and BD-RE SL and DL! After writing to them, even when they were brand new and had never been written to before, they were totally unreadable after burn and could not be salvaged by reformatting. Any drive is stuck in a forever reading loop trying to read them, so you CAN'T format them to try and salvage them! The first LG I ever had was a DVD writer rebranded for IOMega. I got rid of that pretty quickly because it wasn't writing to DVD-R correctly. It was writing discs that caused skips in playback on DVD Video discs that my Optiarc drive didn't do. There's an old joke that says LG stands for "Lucky Good" because it's lucky good IF you get one that works right. That's why I stick with Pioneers. They have their own issues, but they're mostly annoyances, like the aforementioned firmware issue. Plus, I had 2 drives display the same quality control fault. After about 7 months, the eject button wouldn't work 1 out of 10 times. Pressing the eject button or issuing a manual eject command in ImgBurn wouldn't work, but, a 2nd immediate press or eject command in ImgBurn would work. And, it seems that every eject command ImgBurn issues after a write/before a Verify would always work. But, Pioneers generally last a long time, too. My first Pioneer is still in good working order after 4 years. I keep it on hand for use when I need one while replacing another. The 2nd one I only just had to replace earlier in the month because it wasn't writing files to discs anymore, but, I'd been using it for 2 years. The 3rd one I had wasn't as good, though, requiring replacing after 7 months. The 4th one I had went back to Amazon.com because it was borked right out of the box. Wouldn't write to Verbatim quality BD-R that my first Pioneer 209M was still writing to.

Ah, as I thought. Those logs were from the same Dell computer. I figured as such since the log said the same drive was being used in both logs. Ah, a slot drive. That's probably your problem. After you said it was a slot drive, I looked up the drive string on Google and found LG's page for the model. I saw its picture and the slot drive in question is a slim drive. Is the Dell drive that Verifies a full height drive? Slim drives are pretty much junk. If the Dell drive that Verifies is a full height drive, that probably explains why it works and since the drive that doesn't Verify is a slim drive, that probably explains why it doesn't.

Are you sure these logs are from 2 different Dell computers? Or are these Dells 2 of the same kind of model? Because the DVD drive in both logs is the same model. If these Dell PC's are both the same model then that would go a ways to explaining why the drives listed are the same. So, you're saying the same HL LG DVD drive model is in both Dells and that Verify passes on one Dell's HL LG DVD drive but not on the 2nd Dell with the same model HL LG DVD? If you are saying that, then it does seem the one Dell with the drive that fails to Verify has some kind of problem on it. Could be as simple as replacing the drive. Could be a cable or port issue. Could be a Windows configuration issue. Probably the simplest solution is to try replacing the failing drive. If you're adventurous/know how to do it, take the Dell's drive that works and swap out the one that doesn't work for it. If the Verify then passes on the one that works in the PC that doesn't, you know it's the drive. BTW, you're using CMC Magnetics discs. CMC makes the worst optical media out there. Try some better quality Verbatim DataLife Plus media. NOT Life Series media; they will be CMC, too. DataLife Plus series. I would normally be blaming the cheap CMC media; however, in your case, not here. It works in one drive but apparently not in another of the same model. That seems to not be a disc quality issue but a drive quality issue.

On the memory that I thought Alcohol read my Mega Man 8 10 to 15 years ago, I decided to test the latest version. Alcohol 120% Free Edition 2.0.3 Build 10121 on Windows 10 latest version Home Edition WILL read Mega Man 8 in a Pioneer 209M BD burner to an mds/mdf file set. However, ImgBurn cannot burn this file set. The image set is a mult-track image file set, which ImgBurn doesn't support burning mult-track CD's. There's an option in the Free Edition of Alcohol 120% to burn this set with, so you may want to to try that. My guess is Mega Man X 4, for you, and Strider 2, for me, read successfully in ImgBurn before because they're not multi-track discs? Anyway, as I said, you may want to try Alcohol 120% Free Edition for reading/writing Mega Man 8.

Now, you can always set AWS settings, which LUK just pointed out to me for the first time , to set maximum write speeds you define for given Manufacturer ID/Disc ID for specific media types. If Write Speed is set to AWS and you've defined X speed for that particular MID/DID in the AWS settings, ImgBurn will automatically set your user predefined maximum write speed for that media. Remember, the write speed you get may not reflect the maximum write speed you define. You may get a lower write speed based on your drive and the write descriptor for the speed on the media.

Thanks! Should have checked the Guides first, or at least done a search. Sorry! I must have been for you with this post. I don't know why I would have set this to AWS if it's not automatically set by ImgBurn. I've never set specific MID/DID media write speeds and don't really intend to. I just always use Maximum write speeds, even though, sometimes, one shouldn't. I should probably change Write Speed to Max, even though it seems to automatically set it to Max if there's no defaulted AWS setting for MID/DID of the inserted disc.

What does AWS for a Write Speed setting mean? What does AWS stand for? It's my current setting for Write Speed, but I admit I've no idea why it's set or what it means. Must be the default set by the ImgBurn installer? Thanks!

In the Write window, in the lower right hand side, there's a Settings section. There, there's a drop down dialogue labeled Write Speed. This will set the Maximum write speed, so set your desired speed to the highest you want to go. Unfortunately, the actual write speed you get is down to the drive and the media's write speed descriptor. So, you may not get that maximum speed you set. Now, if you wanted to set a speed that is less than the maximum, I don't think there's a way to set a user defined speed. Just the maximum write rate. So, the closest you can get is to change the maximum to the speed you want, or an approximation close to it.

In the Pioneer BD Drive Utility for my BD209M drive, there's a PureRead section in the options. There's a tick box to enable or disable it and a sub setting for Perfect and Master Modes. Does anyone know what these settings do? I was wondering if these settings might change the performance of ImgBurn's Read mode on this drive if I enable PureRead and select one of the Modes for it. Also, there's something called Advanced Quiet Drive Feature. There's an option to turn it on and off and sub options of Persistent Quiet Mode, Quiet Mode, and Performance Mode. I had this setting turned on with Performance Mode enabled, but I disabled the feature entirely, thinking my Read speeds in ImgBurn would increase. Was I right to do that? Would that affect my Read performance in ImgBurn? Thanks!

You're welcome.

Yeah, as I thought, it's not a writer but a ROM drive. A DVD-ROM drive. https://www.cnet.com/products/teac-dv-28s-v-dvd-rom-drive-serial-ata-series/specs/ Anyway, that explains why ImgBurn found no writers, of course, because the drive is not a writer but a read only drive.

I would first make sure Windows is recognizing that you have a drive connected. Make sure it shows up as a drive letter in File Explorer/Windows Explorer. If Windows detects the drive, make sure it actually is a burner and not just a ROM drive. Have you written to this drive before in DVD43, if it writes to optical disc? Are there no drives detected at all when you start ImgBurn? Check the log window and see if ImgBurn detects anything. Maybe it's only detecting a ROM drive, even though the drive may be a burner. Go into Read mode and see if ImgBurn recognizes a read only drive. Open ImgBurn and without doing anything else, copy and paste the log from the log Window of what ImgBurn generates on start. That might help us some more. I'd be more likely to first make sure the drive is actually a writer and not a ROM drive. Also check under Device Manager and make sure there are no error messages that might indicate a problem with the drive. And check to make sure some writer is detected. If Windows detects a writer, try writing files to it in File Explorer/Windows Explorer. Make sure it actually works under Windows and that it's just ImgBurn not detecting it. If Windows does detect it, you could try any of the other interface driver options (I'm not too familiar with those.) in ImgBurn and see if you can coax ImgBurn into finding a writer. Beyond that, maybe LUK can offer more help than I.

I've got to admit, ImgBurn is one smart cookie. I got an error message I had never received before while testing this new Pioneer 2209 in an enclosure. After 5 successful BD-R burns in a row, I got a weird error message saying it couldn't finalize the disc because of corrupt media. W 10:27:00 Retry Failed - Reason: Medium Format Corrupted E 10:27:02 Finalise Disc Failed! - Reason: Positioning Error Detected by Read of Medium I ejected the disc, after being forced to power off the drive and back on because it was stuck in a loop on the unreadable media, and discovered the cause. There was a crack running through part of the disc from the center hole. I'm hoping the drive didn't cause this and that the media was just one of those 1 in a 1,000 failures you encounter from genuine Verbatim media. ImgBurn is one smart cookie! It actually pegged that the media was corrupt.