dbminter

Unfortunately, you can't. They're a national conglomerate that makes its money off of people's ignorance. They lure other companies in by producing junk media they can charge higher prices for. All you can do is avoid CMC when you know you can. For instance, don't buy media in a brick and mortar store. Even Verbatim's store material, the Life series, is CMC. You have to get your media online, where reviewers can tell you the disc ID/DID/manufacturer ID/MID. Check the reviews to make sure you're not getting CMC media. For instance, in the United States, I get my Verbatim DataLife Plus DVD+R DL from Amazon.com. Your source country may vary.

ImgBurn's author will have to go over what exactly the error means. I've given all the advice I know. Generally, with burn problems on DVD+R DL that are CMC, the problem goes away when you stop using CMC. It's not always the case, but it's the most common solution.

Most likely culprit are the cheap CMC Magnetics DVD+R DL's used. CMC causes most of the problems we see on this board and nearly all the dual layer media. Try using Verbatim DataLife Plus (NOT Life you find in stores. Only the DataLife Plus you find online.) DVD+R DL and see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, then the issue is deeper than that. Also, please post the log. Screen shots help but they don't provide all the information of the log.

But, did you drag and drop a movie file to the RW disc in Windows/File Explorer? Or did you create an ISO and burn the ISO to the RW with Windows internal burning engine? If you dragged and dropped it, Windows automatically formatted it as a giant floppy. If the ISO was burned, then it is seen as not being empty because contents were burned to it. So, either way, the disc contains contents and that's why ImgBurn says it's not empty. Because it has that movie burned to it, in one way or another. In this case, as long as you don't mind the contents on the RW being erased when you choose to start a Write operation in ImgBurn, you can just tell ImgBurn it's all right to erase the disc before burning. So, yeah, you can ignore it if you don't mind losing the current contents on the RW disc. And you'll be prompted by ImgBurn if it's okay to erase the contents on the disc before the image write begins.

Now, don't quote me on this, but when you erase discs in Windows, Windows writes a desktop.ini or some kind of .ini file to the root directory. Or a System Volume folder. Especially if it erased it as a giant floppy. That's probably the reason why ImgBurn says it's not empty. Because Windows erased it. And if Windows did "format" the disc as a giant floppy, ImgBurn will see it's "not empty." It's been formatted and thus "written" to to enable using the disc as a giant floppy. You should be able to drag and drop files in Windows/File Explorer to the disc and write to it. Or if you're going to write an image to the disc with ImgBurn, it will ask you if you want to erase the disc or not. If you're sure you don't need anything on the disc, just tell ImgBurn to go ahead with the write.

MDS files are normally generated by ImgBurn as part of the image creation process. If it's a DVD-5, you can open either the ISO or the MDS. I'd only worry if it's a DVD-9, then you should probably load the MDS. However, if you're unsure, just load the MDS. For DVD-5, either one should work fine.

Did you perform a Verify after the burn and did it complete without erroring out? Have you tried playing this disc on your PC if you have software that supports Blu-Ray playback? Testing at the point where it fails on your player to see if it fails on PC, too? If it plays on PC, PC's are more forgiving than standalone players. If your PC plays it, then, it's an issue with the standalone player. It either doesn't like CMC BD-R DL or it doesn't like BD-R DL to begin with. I've heard some stories where dual layer BD media doesn't play on some players at all. I know the PS3 has no problems with Verbatim's made BD-RE DL.

Well, it is made by CMC Magnetics, the worst manufacturer of optical discs out there. I've not had any experience with their BD-R because I always return CMC junk. Their DVD and CD are notoriously known for causing all kinds of problems. Most of the problems on this board are caused by CMC media. However, I can't magically say your issue will go away if you switch to something like say Verbatim. It could be your player doesn't like that type of disc or it doesn't like dual layer BD-R to begin with. Oh, dear, CMC is now making BD-R DL. I was hoping it was a good sign that Verbatim wasn't using CMC for BD-RE DL because they weren't making them due to the fact that there may not be enough return on investment. e.g. they can't make them cheap enough. This could mean that CMC will start making BD-RE DL and Verbatim will switch to them like they have for all their BD-RE. Verbatim BD-RE DL used to be safe from CMC, with Verbatim itself making them or farming them out to TDK, which is pretty good.

Yeah, I'd first suspect the CMC discs, too, for dual layer discs. Just because you used a disc with some other company name on it doesn't mean they made it. Or that it's even an entirely different disc. Those that worked before may not have a MID/DID of CMC. They could have been MKM or some other higher quality disc. If they were Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R DL's, they were MKM's and of higher quality than CMC junk. However, Verbatim also releases junk CMC DVD+R DL as part of their Life series. (NOT DataLifePlus.) So, you never really can tell, and they can always change. Optodisc used to make their own DVD-R then switched to junk CMC's. I switched from Optodisc and never looked back. You only get 1 chance to make an impression with me.

Did you check the C:\Program Files (x86) folder and make sure there isn't an ImgBurn folder there with the files installed there? Maybe it did install but didn't install "correctly," with no Start Menu items or program associations.

These USB drives you are using, are they all slim models?

Both drives have made noises while trying to eject. They just don't eject. Since it has happened on more than 1 drive, it's something inherent in the design of the drives. However, it only happens like 1 time in 10. I've never had it fail to eject when ImgBurn issues the eject command after a write before a Verify, so I don't know how ImgBurn would react. Would it think the drive had ejected, or does ImgBurn have a way of knowing if the drive was actually ejected? Does it just wait until the disc can be read and "assume" the disc was ejected, reinserted, and then made available? I just know it's done this when I've issued an Eject command from within ImgBurn manually and when I've pressed the Eject button physically on the drive.

I've had 3 Pioneer BDR-2209 drives and 2 of them have the same basic fundamental design flaw. After a certain amount of time, the eject function doesn't always work. An Eject command is issued to the drive or you press the eject button and the drive light lights up. BUT the tray doesn't eject! Pressing the Eject button again or issuing a 2nd Eject command causes the drive to eject. This happened to my first BDR-2209 after about a year and a half. It started with my 2nd BDR-2209 before even a year had passed. Because this has happened to 2 different BDR-2209's and one before it was even a year old, it cannot be escaped: this is a fundamental design flaw in the BDR-2209.

The only difference between the two is one is inkjet printable and the other isn't. Even though the branded DVD-R's don't say DataLifePlus, they're the same media. They have the same Manufacturer ID. I only put both links because I use both discs. The branded ones for short term off storage and the printable ones for things in longer term storage that might get a label on them someday. So, you'll want to see either DataLifePlus or AZO. I don't know if DataLifePlus uses AZO but those AZO discs are the same high quality discs as the DataLifePlus ones. So, I'm guess AZO is present on DataLifePlus, too. Technically, Verbatim doesn't produce the MKM's. MKM means Mitsubishi made them. However, Mitsubishi is pretty much the best dye manufacturer out there now with the folding of Taiyo Yuden. The two discs I linked to use MCC in their MID. MCC means Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, so Mitsubishi made those DVD-R's, too. Verbatim just farms out to Mitsubishi for their DVD. Unfortunately, they also farm out to CMC for their cheaper DVD, CD, and their BD-RE. Their BD-RE DL though is made by Verbatim itself or in some cases TDK makes them. My guess is CMC doesn't make dual layer BD-RE because of the lesser profit margin from their cheap ass point of view. Let me put it this way. I've been using these MCC media for about 10 years now and I've never had a disc fail on me that wasn't the fault of the burner needing replacing. I've never had one of these discs die on me years later when I tried reading them again.

Since Taiyo Yuden no longer produces recordable DVD-5, the best stuff out there is the Verbatim DataLife Plus DVD with AZO. You will have to get them online as you can't find them in brick and mortar stores. Make sure it's DataLife Plus and not just Life series. Life series is CMC Magnetics junk. I get them from Amazon.com. Don't know if NewEgg would have them or not. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00081A2KY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A0CV9S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Have you tried burning an ISO using Windows itself to do the burn? If not, have you tried just writing files to a disc in File/Windows Explorer using the disc like a giant floppy? If Windows fails to write to the discs, too, then it's either a problem with Windows configuration or your drive is dying. When you used another disc, was it the same MCC Manufacturer ID/Disc ID/DID from the log you posted before? Have you used these discs before? There shouldn't be a problem with MCC's as they are high quality Verbatim/Mitsubishi discs. However not every drive likes every manufacturer. If you've never used these types of discs before, it might be worth trying some other kind of MID to see if the same thing happens.

Notice in your log where it says Status: Incomplete State of Last Session: Incomplete That seems to indicate a failed burn. Try another and afterwards post a log if you get a failed burn. Also, this: Disc ID: 0@P-!-00 What kind of Disc ID is that? Is there a difference between Manufacturer ID and Disc ID? I thought they were supposed to be the same thing. That they decided to rename it to Disc ID for Blu-Ray.

In general, go by the order seen at the bottom of the screen. If you have any Excellent, start with those, then work down. However, my personal preference is to check the File list and see if you have any .IFO or .BUP files listed. I'd choose .BUP first over .IFO.

PAL and NTSC don't matter with MP4 files as far as I know. PAL and NTSC only matter when you try to play a DVD or game on a TV. As long as you set PAL as the target DVD format so it plays properly on your TV, that's all that should matter. Even then, it should matter because PAL should play NTSC fine. As I said, as far as I know, any video container, like MP4, doesn't have a TV format on it. Only what if you're converting from PAL to NSTC would it matter. And if you formatted it for NTSC, it should still play on a PAL TV. PAL can play NTSC, as far as I know, but not the other way around. If you try to play PAL on NTSC, it's in black and white, distorted, wavy, and the video flashes.

I'd say your TV player probably doesn't recognize .MP4 files as a playable file type. So, it finds "nothing" to play. If you insert this disc into a PC drive and check in Windows/File Explorer, does the .MP4 file show up on the disc? We have to make sure things are actually being burned to the disc. As for the video conversion part, it seems a bit odd that 2 different conversion programs would do the same thing. So, there must be a problem with the .MP4 file itself. It's not coded correctly or uses some weird compression. I only use ConvertXToDVD to convert so I couldn't say. You could try downloading the trial and see if you get the same results with ConvertXToDVD. The video will be watermarked but you should be able to at least see if ConvertXToDVD does the same conversion thing. If it does across 3 different video convertors, the problem is with the file.

If I remember the log correctly, I believe the disc ID's were MEI's, which should be Panasonic. So, they shouldn't be that bad as my first DVD-R's were Panasonics from 2002 back when they were $14 a piece! They're still playable today. I use MEI BD-RE primarily and only ever had 1 die on me, but that was bad out of the stack as it wouldn't write after being formatted. What a shock! A USB drive that actually has a firmware update!

Yes, some drives are more tolerant of other manufacturers than other drives. Other software also isn't as thorough at trapping errors, too. So, have you used these discs before in the drive you used in the logs? If they did work before, then there's something wrong with the drive and probably needs replacing. The advice on CMC media is still good advice. In the long wrong, you're better off not using CMC media. In addition to higher burn failure rates, they probably won't last as long. Plus I've had players that simply don't recognize burned CMC DVD+R's as playable discs. Wait, if you've used these discs on other drives and other software, you're not exactly a newbie, are you?

I'd say the most likely culprit are the CMC MAG discs you're using. CMC MAG means CMC Magnetics made them. CMC is the worst manufacturer of optical media out there. You'd be surprised how many issues are fixed when people don't use cheap discs, especially those made by CMC. Try Verbatim DataLife Plus recordable DVD. Don't get the Verbatim Life series you'll find in stores or online. They're CMC MAG junk. You can only get DataLife Plus online. Being in America, I get mine from Amazon.com. Although I get the DVD-R, not DVD+R.

Now, I did not know that.

Yeah, if it plays in color on your PC but plays back in black and white on your TV, possibly with some shakiness, then you've got a PAL DVD. NTSC will play on PAL TV's properly but not the other way around. One possible way to check is to download the trial of AnyDVD and install it. Then load the DVD in AnyDVD and check its status results on the disc. I believe it lists whether your video type is PAL or NTSC in AnyDVD. PAL/NTSC conversions can be done with software. I know ConvertXToDVD will.