dbminter

Well, it also depends on how much you use the drive. I burn almost every day, so I will, naturally, wear out a drive faster. Plus, I do my fair share of reading, too. And that will cause wear and tear on a drive, too. Although writing causes more due to the delicate nature of what it's doing. Plus, writing will almost always wear out before reading will. You may want to invest in an external enclosure. I like to use them to test internal drives because I crack open the case and put it in. It saves me time and work to test an internal candidate externally before installing it. Plus, it's probably cheaper to buy an internal drive and put it in a reusable enclosure versus buying external drives all the time. Because with external drives, each time you're buying one, you're paying extra for the external enclosure it uses. Plus, a lot of the external drives now are slim models, and slim models generally tend to be junk. However, be aware that external drives have their own inherent possible problem. Something called the semaphore timeout error. And you won't know if you'll be hit by it until you test the external drive/enclosure. It's caused by an incompatibility between the USB bridge in the enclosure and the controller on your motherboard. Generally, the only solution that works is to replace the external drive/enclosure or replace your mobo. Replacing your mobo is definitely more expensive and not guaranteed to work because another mobo you put in may have the same problem. And if you're going to swap out your mobo, it's probably cheaper and definitely easier just to replace your entire PC. Plus, you'll get the latest/newer hardware. However, that, too, is not guaranteed to solve the problem because the mobo in the new PC might have the same incompatibility.

You could try it at 4x, but, frankly, I'm blaming the drive. You said you've been using it for over a year. Very rarely do I have drives that last more than a year. A year is about average time before a drive needs replacing. My Pioneers are the only drives I've ever had that have lasted 2 years. But, one Pioneer I had needed replacing after 7 months. But, before replacing the drive, you could always invest in a can of compressed air and/or a cleaning disc. Frankly, I've never had that ever work. Your drive is either not writing correctly anymore or is not reading that type of media correctly anymore. At this point, I'd just replace the drive. However, my experience with HP drives is very little. I haven't had one since like 2002 or 2003.

Bad out of the box was just a generic phrase, my not knowing how long you had had the drive. If this was your first time ever burning discs. That being said, however, most times when a drive starts failing to write discs, it will still read discs fine. I believe the OPC setting is under Tools --> Settings --> Write tab. There should be a check box for an OPC option somewhere there. The only cleaning options I am aware of are to use a disc specifically designed for cleaning drives or to use a can of compressed air to blow into the open drive tray.

Yeah, pretty much was going to be my recommendation. If the suggested options above don't work, the problem is with the drive. Either it doesn't like both kinds of discs you tried, which is unlikely that it would fail on both kinds of media, particularly the good media. Or your drive simply needs replacing. It's reached the end of its life or it was bad out of the box to begin with.

Actually, you probably can't eject the disc at all, now that I think about it. ImgBurn exclusively locks a drive it uses so that nothing else interferes with it. It might disable access to the eject command, even by pressing the button. You could always use the pin hole, but that's generally harder in terms of wear and tear on a drive.

You could eject a disc during a burn, but the process will abort and I doubt you can resume it. I think you'll just always lose the disc, regardless. Plus, if you do eject a disc during a burn process, you run the risk of ImgBurn locking up and never giving up the exclusive access to the drive until you restart Windows. Sometimes, powering off will be necessary. And your drive may stick in a process with the light repeatedly flashing until you power off. So, the bottom line is even if you could eject a disc during the burning process, you shouldn't. You will probably not be able to achieve what you desire and you may cause a temporary inability to access the drive.

Yeah, CMC does not make drives. CMC makes media. CMC makes media for Verbatim, too. They make the discs for Verbatim's Life Series, which is why I said avoid those. Mitsubishi makes the best stuff out there and they make it for Verbatim, but Verbatim also sullies their good name by farming out to CMC, too. Anything to maximize a buck! The Mitsubishi stuff is the DataLifePlus series which you probably won't find in a store, but only online.

Your most likely culprit is this: I 15:56:29 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: CMC MAG. AM3) (Speeds: 6x, 8x, 12x, 16x) Your drive probably doesn't like CMC Magnetics media. And CMC Magnetics is the worst manufacturer of optical media out there. Half of the errors we see on this board are caused by CMC Magnetics and other cheap media. I'd try something else like Verbatim DataLifePlus (NOT Life Series) which you can only find online. It is the best stuff out there. Now, if you've used this media before in this drive without a problem, it could just be a bad disc in the stack. Or a bad stack. Or it could be your drive needs replacing. However, before replacing an entire drive, I'd try replacing the media first. It's the cheaper option and is generally the one that works. Granted, I've never seen that error before, ever, in the 10 plus years I've been here.

Yeah, I'd rank LG BD burners as pretty low quality. In addition to the Verbatm BD-R/E DL high failure rate with ISO's and ImgBurn, there are other issues. LG's are pretty rotten readers, too. And when writing to formatted BD-RE DL discs as giant floppies, it takes 9 hours to write the same amount of data my Pioneer does in 2! And it won't even write data to the 2nd layer! The only reason I use LG's at all is because Pioneer borked the firmware for 1.34 for Ritek 8x DVD+RW discs. They will always fail Verify now and will always fail Verify until fully erased in a different drive. LG also writes Ritek 6x DVD-RW where the Pioneer and my ASUS USB don't. Pioneer seems to be the only trustworthy BD drive out there, despite its flaws.

I'm not entirely sure, but it looks like it's failing at the first layer change.

Actually, it's apparently fairly common for LG BD drives to fail burning ISO's to Verbatim BD-R/E DL media. I didn't discover this, but someone else discovered, and I thoroughly tested it. I had already discovered LG's were rotten at writing BD-RE DL discs, usually failing at the layer change. Someone else posting about failures of BD-R DL in an LG discovered something, though. If you use the on the fly option in the EZ Mode picker, Verify will always pass. So, I did thorough tests, and it really does seem if ImgBurn writes an ISO file to a Verbatim BD-R/E DL in an LG drive, it has a high rate of failure at the layer change. However, in your case, XL media seems to burn fine in your LG drive. Or maybe you've never encountered an error burning ISO's to a Verbatim BD-R/E DL in an LG. I have an XL capable burner, but I've never burned one in it. So, I don't have experience to say anything about actual execution. Actually, if you have any TDK XL media left, you might want to try the Write files to disc option in the EZ Mode picker to create a disc. Unless you need an ISO like for a bootable disc. Writing to an ISO first is recommended if you can do that, though. However, you might want to try it and see if it works. What else have you got to lose? You can't really use the TDK's, it seems. So, if you have one left, you might as well perform the EZ Mode test.

If you successfully burned Verbatim XL media in the same drive but get the same error message at the same sectors on multiple TDK media, it seems to tell me one of 2 things. One, that it's failing at a layer change. With multiple layer media, failing at a layer change is the most common error you'll get. Two, the problem is drive related. Most likely, your LG drive doesn't like those kind of TDK discs. It could be the drive needs replacing. However, I doubt that, but you won't know that without burning another Verbatim XL disc and seeing if it passes. If it does, you know it's your drive doesn't like those TDK media. Please post the log of a failed burn. Under Help, choose ImgBurn logs, find the failed burn in the log, and copy and paste all entries related to writing and verifying that burn.

Funny enough, I just had to replace my current Pioneer 2209. After about 2 years, it stopped erasing/writing BD-RE S/DL discs correctly. I'd insert a formatted BD-RE S/DL and delete files from it. File Explorer would show the files were deleted UNTIL the disc was ejected and reinserted. The files are never actually deleted. I put in my 3 to 4 year old copy of the same drive, which still works save for the eject button issue, and it deletes the files fine. So, it was the 3rd Pioneer 2209 I was using. It needed replacing. So, I'm going to use this older one until I can get a new 2209 next month. The drive was also returning errors where files to be written weren't actually written and Windows prompting multiple times to repair these written to discs when inserted.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the "head in the sand" response? Is Log checked under View? Oh, seems you replied while I was. Looks like you got it resolved.

Do you mean the ImbBurn log? The log isn't there under Help --> ImgBurn Logs?

Yeah, I've never even heard of Plasmon, so they probably are cheap discs.

Yeah, they generally wouldn't change formulas mid run in the production of a cake stack. However, I've come across oddities before. For instance, a cake stack of DVD-R's where the first half were capped at 8x max. Then, half way through, they resumed writing at 16x max. So, something was done to that one half of discs in the stack.

Well, here's the weird thing. There SHOULDN'T be any difference between burning an ISO and writing files on the fly in ImgBurn. But, actual execution shows there is some kind of weird incompatibility with writing ISO's to Verbatim BD-R/RE DL's in an LG. It has to be something in the LG that is the problem, because, as you know, Pioneers have no problem with this. Even LUK, who knows the code inside and out, has commented there's no difference in the code. But, I've been able to verify it myself, after the original poster posted his workaround. LG's are not very good readers, as you pointed out. However, I had one case where my Pioneer wouldn't read a disc that the LG would. Go figure. I couldn't find anywhere with Google that was still selling 8x DVD+RW, Ritek or otherwise. Ritek had already discontinued their 6x DVD-RW some years ago. I'm holding off on Pioneer's latest BD drive. Since it's only real difference is probably the support of UHD playback, which I don't need. Plus, it's "too" new. I know how well my Pioneer works. And there's probably not a firmware update yet. I don't like getting drives that don't have firmware updates yet, believe it or not. I think they'd just have too many gotchas lurking in the background that haven't been discovered yet.

Hm, near as I can recall, the AZO discs are MKM discs, the good stuff. As LUK said, use ImgBurn to copy and paste the MID/DID so we can see. The MID/DID tells you, generally, who manufactured them. MKM means they were made by Mitsubishi, the best manufacturer out there. Now, MID/DID can be faked, of course. And I'm surprised a low company like CMC doesn't do it to avoid putting their fingerprints on their crap media. You will need special printers to print labels to inkjet label surfaces. I don't have one, but I do use those kinds of DVD+R DL from Verbatim in case I ever do get one in the future. In fact, according to the info I get in the link you sent me, I just ordered some in September. You can still use those discs in any burner, but if you don't really have an ability to print the labels, you can save money by not buying the more expensive ones for that reason.

This is most likely your problem: I 23:32:05 Destination Media Type: CD-R (Disc ID: 97m26s66f, CMC Magnetics Corp.) CMC Magnetics is the absolute bottom of the barrel disc manufacturer. Half of the problems we see on this board are caused by CMC media and those problems generally disappear when people switch to quality media. Try Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R. NOT Verbatim Life Series, which will be CMC. However, you can only find the DataLifePlus stuff online.

Oh, I see what you're saying. You're getting skips, pauses, hisses, and pops at the layer break change. And, most likely, regardless of where you set the layer break, it happens? That's because you're probably using cheap DVD+R DL discs. Pixelation and freezes at the layer change are generally the result of using cheap discs. Try the DataLifePlus Verbatim MKM DVD+R DL I mentioned. You're probably using the Verbatim Life Series DVD+R DL? Those will be CMC Magnetics, the bottom of the barrel disc manufacturer. Now, if you are using the good stuff, then the cause is generally a write problem. Either your drive doesn't like those kinds of Verbatim or the drive has reached the end of its life and needs replacing. A log of one of these DVD+R DL burns would help.

If they all say Average, just pick one. It doesn't really matter where the layer break goes unless you don't have seamless layer breaks. Because depending on where the layer break goes, if it's not seamless, you'll get a pause in the playback. And if there's dialogue there, the audio will pause. Don't use Verbatim Life Series. They're CMC Magnetics, which is junk media. The only reliable DVD+R DL media (I'm guessing you're using DVD+R DL?) is Verbatim's DataLifePlus, which you can only find online. When you say you used the next quality up of Verbatim, what exactly does that mean? If they're not DataLifePlus MKM media, then it will probably still not be good. The pauses at the layer break are caused by layer break pauses. When you set the layer break, choose Seamless Layer Break. Now, sometimes, leftover layer break pauses are in the video. Or added by the authoring software that made the VIDEO_TS. I learned this the hard way. 10 years ago, I burned a bunch of them, not knowing about seamless layer breaks. Had to burn about 20 or so all over again without layer break pauses. If after setting Seamless Layer Breaks you still get pauses at the layer break, you can use DVDShrink to get rid of the layer breaks. Doesn't always work, though, and you need to resort to IFOEdit. However, if you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't mess around with IFOEdit to remove layer breaks. Believe it or not, some layer breaks are necessary. For instance, there's apparently a layer break pause at the end of every video stream, if IFOEdit is to be believed. In the list of layer break positions, if you're offered to add a layer break at a .BUP file, I recommend choosing that. Barring that, choosing an .IFO file for the layer break. Generally, more often than not, you're only offered .VOB files in the list.

Have you been using the same burner drive for the past 10 years? If so, it's probably a case of your issue where the drive has reached the end of its life. Definitely after 10 years. Either way, it's probably just coincidence that it happened when you updated ImgBurn. If it worked before, there's little reason to believe updating ImgBurn would bork something. It should, most likely, not be a waste of money to get the quality media. Besides, in the US, it's only like $20 for 50 of them. Plus, it could be a case where the disc manufacturer has changed the "formula" for the media and it's no longer the same quality it used to be. Optodisc used to make a quality DVD-R I stood by for a while. Then, they switched to CMC and lost my business. Half of the discs were coasters, and those Optodisc CMC media first introduced me to how cheap CMC media causes all kinds of errors.

Two pieces of new information have come to light since this thread was started. One, there is a 1.03 firmware update for the drive, released about 2 weeks ago, but as far as I know, it doesn't fix any of the problems it still had, after testing it. I think 1.03 is ONLY a fix to prevent people from copying UHD Blu-Ray discs. It seems this update was only one mandated by Hollywood and does nothing to address the inherent flaws in the drive. If you're still willing to try LG drives, some rather odd behavior has been revealed with ImgBurn, ISO's, and LG drives. I didn't discover this, but I've tested it and the workaround does work. If you absolutely don't need to burn from an ISO, try the Write files to disc option from the EZ Mode Picker. I've tested it and it seems to work. If you use an ISO with ImgBurn on an LG with Verbatim BD-RE DL and BD-R DL, it will fail Verify at the layer change 9 times out of 10. However, the 3 tests I ran with the EZ Mode Picker method worked flawlessly. So, I created an ISO with ImgBurn, but I didn't use ImgBurn to burn the ISO. I used Roxio NXT 4 to burn the ISO and it completed without error. I then ran an ImgBurn Verify manually on the disc against the contents and the Verify completed successfully. I did 3 other tests this way and they all performed flawlessly. I then did a compare on the contents and they were written correctly. However, be aware of the drawbacks to this method. If you have a corrupt file during the burn process or a read occurs during copying, then the burn will fail and you've wasted a disc. Or the burn may succeed and the contents were written corrupt to the disc. You should always write to ISO files first IF you have the luxury of doing so. So, if you really want to write ISO's to Verbatim BD-R/E DL in an LG, then use the EZ Mode Picker to Write files to disc without creating an ISO. Or, if you have an ISO made by ImgBurn or any other application, don't let ImgBurn burn the ISO to a Verbatim BD-R/E DL in an LG. It makes absolutely no sense, but it has been independently verified by myself, multiple times, and by someone else who pointed this out to me. So, it's repeatable. However, if you replace the LG with a Pioneer, this should most likely definitely solve your problem. Not a guarantee as the last Pioneer I had was borked out of the box. As for getting help from LG, good luck. I've pointed out to LG for like 3 years of the problems with this drive. They don't care. However, at the time, I didn't realize the ImgBurn problem was isolated to just ImgBurn. But, there are other problems with the LG. For instance, what takes about 2 hours to write contents to a formatted BD-RE DL as a giant floppy in my Pioneer takes 9 hours to write just the FIRST LAYER! And it won't even write contents to the 2nd layer! Returns a error saying it cannot read the files from the "source drive." It's NOT an error reading from the source drive; it's an error writing the contents to the 2nd layer! I wouldn't use LG at all if it weren't for the fact that Pioneer and ASUS don't write Ritek 6x DVD-RW. (The LG won't write Verbatim 6x DVD-RW! Idiots!) And the borked firmware of the Pioneer 1.34 won't write to Ritek 8x DVD+RW. Once my supply of Ritek 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW are exhausted (You can't get 8x DVD+RW or 6x DVD-RW anywhere on the Internet anymore! ) I will replace the LG with another Pioneer.

Yeah, my experience has been they're both the same size, and I think they were designed to be that way. I never formatted with spare areas, so I never noticed a difference between BD-R and BD-RE.