dbminter

I've never run the option, myself. I just guessed it wouldn't perform an actual write to media.

A simulation can save you wasting a write once disc or taking longer to burn a rewritable, which would also cost you one of the few rewrites you actually get on rewritables. However, sometimes, the simulation burn succeeds and yet the actual burn may still fail. So, your mileage may vary with this function.

Had a chance to perform a DVD Video test so I chose to test a 4x Office Depot Ritek DVD-RW. Disc erase completed. LeadIn Write completed successfully. Burning now at 4x. Burnt successfully. Verify completed successfully. Reading to image file. Read successful. Mounted image file successfully. Image contents verified in a separate application. So, good test there.

Up until Windows 10, I never had to reset Windows Update to get it to work.

Came across a test I hadn't thought of. Needed some Audio CD tracks ripped to MP3 so I used the Asus drive as the source. No problem ripping. MP3 I tested played fine.

Had a chance to test a data Blu-Ray to Verbatim DataLife Plus inkjet BD-R. Disc ID: VERBAT-IMe-000. Burn started okay. Will take about 10 minutes, currently at 5.5x at 7% in. Burn completed okay. Verify completed okay. Now reading created BD-R to an image file in the same drive. Approximate time: 10 minutes. Read to an image file okay. Performing verify on some of its contents in other programs. Image files mounted to virtual drive fine. Verifies completed successfully. So, another test down. Just leaves DVD+R DL, data and DVD Video, DVD-RW, Audio CD, and CD-RW tests.

Is there a web site that lists new Windows Updates that are available as they are released? I ask because under Windows !0, Windows Update cannot be trusted. I've had to reset it for like the 10th time to detect and download the latest updates. One of the first things I had to do after updating Windows 8.1 Update 1 to Windows 10 was stop the Windows Update Service, stop the Background Intelligent Transfer Service, delete everything in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution, and restart Windows to detect new updates and download them. So, I'd like some web site that lists what new Windows Updates are available as they're released. That way, I'll know when they're available and can know if Windows Update has stopped working YET AGAIN!

ImgBurn can burn the entire space available on a BD-RE, which is 25 GB, as long as the image file is 25 GB or less. 22.5 GB only matters when you format the disc as a giant floppy disk in Windows/File Explorer.

Got a chance to test the DVD Video 8x RICOH DVD+RW DVD Video disc. While less than a GB was written to the disc, it played back fine on the PS3. So skips, pauses, hisses, or pops.

Files successfully written to disc. Now performing Macrium Reflect verify. Verify completed successfully. So, all in all, these tests bode well for this drive. I still have to perform the DVD Video playback test. And I still have yet to burn BD-R, Blu-Ray movies, CD-RW, Audio CD, DVD+R DL, and DVD-RW. However I only perform these tests as I come across them. I could always test the rewritables because they can be reused. In fact, I can kill 2 birds with one stone like, for instance, burning an Audio CD to CD-RW. But, the WORM media can only be written to once so I'd be wasting a disc just for a test. So, if I can remember to, I'll test BD-R and DVD+R DL as I come across the need for them. I'll try to remember to post my results of the DVD Video test when I get to it either tonight or tomorrow.

With a standard data double layer DVD, there is no need to specify a layer break position. It's handled automatically by ImgBurn, I'm guessing. So, what is different about DVD Video contents that requires a specified layer break position?

Drive booted into Reflect recovery environment fine. Verify completed successfully. Now comes some deletion of files from a formatted Verbatim BD-RE DL, followed by a write of files to that same disc. Deletion completed successfully. A little under 21.5 GB is being written to the same disc now. At 2x, this will be about another 40 minute write. So, I'll rejoin this thread when that's done. After that, it will be another read test with another Macrium Reflect verify under Windows. After that, the only test left will be to playback test the 8x RICOH DVD+RW DVD Video in the PS3. I think I might get to it tonight instead of tomorrow, but I'm not sure.

42 minutes of writing completed to 2x Memorex RITEK BD-RE SL. Verify has begun, 5 minutes have passed; 10 minutes remain. Verify completed successfully. Now to start a Macrium Reflect verify of its contents. Then, it will be out of Windows into the bootable recovery environment for Reflect. I'll also test booting from this USB drive, too. Macrium Reflect verify in Windows completed successfully. And about 22 GB of the available 25 were written to. Now to close down Windows and proceed from there. Another piece of good news. I was having problems with my old USB 2.0 DVD burner. While trying to read data under Windows 8, the drive would just disappear from Windows, killing the read. Powering off and on the drive returned it but it would disappear again after a little bit of reading. On Windows 10, this drive doesn't do that, but it is a USB 3.0 drive. Since it's on a different USB bridge, that could be the case. Or it may have been a Windows 8 only thing. Now that I'm on Windows 10, that problem may have disappeared. However, that drive needed swapping out, anyway. To show its age, it was LightScribe capable. Plus, it was a LiteOn. LiteOn's have a tendency to randomly add pauses into the playback of DVD+R DL's that aren't layer breaks. So, I've been phasing them out of buying in the future. Plus, the last one I had was one of their no longer made BD burners. It stopped writing to BD-RE after 3 months and out of 3 DVD+R DL DVD Video discs, 2 of them had the random pauses added to them. Reburning the same image did not have these pauses in them. But, it was something I'd noticed in LiteOns in the past with the DVD burners from them I used to buy.

Performing a read test by reading the software disc that came with the drive to an image file. Then, I'll burn that file to a disc. Read to a file fine. Now to burn the file to a disc. Burn complete fine. Verifying now. Verify completed successfully. So, it seems, thus far, that 8x RICOH DVD+RW write and verify fine and Verbatim DataLife Plus CD-R write and verify fine in this ASUS drive. Next, the really slow 2x write to BD-RE that will be booted from and a Macrium Reflect verify run against its contents as the read test.

Burning a 2nd DVD Video I didn't know I needed until now. Burn completed successfully; verify running. Verify seems a bit slow on this drive. It's been 1 minute and it's at 6x. I never paid attention before to how fast verify should be, though. Some drives are just slow readers. LG's are.

Okay, drive arrived, it's installed, and is burning the 8x DVD+RW DVD Video disc. I couldn't find any firmware updates for the drive, but I've never seen a check for a firmware update for an external burner ever find one in the 11 years of my using ImgBurn. The good news is there was no semaphore timeout error when the burn started. The burn has completed and the tray cycled as I'm typing this. Verify has started so it's good so far. Verify completed. Haven't had a chance to watch the DVD in my PS3 test for a playback test yet. I'll forward that when I get to it which probably won't be until tomorrow.

I would guess if you unchecked Format with certification, the format would be relatively quick. I've never enabled that option but I would guess from its description that enabling it would dramatically increase format time as an entire read of every sector would have to be performed. A first time format, though, would require the entire format time, I'd guess, as the disc is not usable until its fully formatted. 2x BD-RE takes at least 45 minutes. Depending on if your drive supports the function (My Pioneer BD doesn't.) another 45 minutes for verification may be performed after that. I would guess Windows would have to do a full format of the BD-RE, too, on the first time it's used. BD-RE rarely comes from the factory pre-formatted, although I did receive some that were. I never change the Windows default format options so my formats are quick. So, as long as you didn't check Format with certification, the format should take under a minute. It's always been that way when I formatted BD-RE media. As for where to put the .EXE, I don't understand what you're doing. If you run the installer, it should put all the files you'll need where they need to belong. As far as I remember, there's more than just the .EXE file to run the program, but I'm not sure of that. Can ImgBurn be run as a portable application? I don't know.

Today should be a good day for testing the new drive. It's being delivered today and I have 3 discs I need to make. An 8x RICOH DVD+RW DVD Video disc, so that will be a playback in the PS3 test. A bootable data disc that needs verified contents in Macrium Reflect, so that's a good data read test. Lastly, writes to a formatted BD-RE DL followed by another Macrium Reflect data read verify in Windows. So, this is a fairly good cross section of various types of data and medium, for read and write tests.

I'm afraid I don't know this, but reading this I found might be worth your while. I don't know how accurate the information is. My PS3 has no problem playing rewritable BD that was formatted with ImgBurn's default settings. http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198344-imgburn-formatting-new-bd-re-disks-inviting-problems.html

Still, doesn't Cinavia only apply to Blu-Ray content?

Why do new DVD's have an AACS folder on them? AACS is the content scrambling system used on Blu-Ray.

Well, the latest update is the package should arrive by UPS Tuesday. However, Amazon.com still lists the package as being delivered by USPS with no tracking number. However, I have a tracking number for UPS so that information seems to be most likely the most accurate. So, maybe I'll get it Tuesday; who knows?

I've been using formatted BD-RE DL's for about a year now to store monthly file backups to. The backup verifies (Not ImgBurn.) have been fine for the year. So, I haven't had any problems doing so for a year. There is always the inherent problem with rewritable discs not being as reliable. Plus they won't last as long as a write once read many disc. And a rewritable does have a finite number of rewrites built into it. A USB flash drive is probably the better choice, though. They'll definitely be faster than using a 2x maximum rated RE disc. You can use R BD discs but you can't reuse the space once it's filled. And they're smaller in terms of storage space versus the size of a BD disc. Plus, you can get capacities that exceed even the largest BD XL which I think is 125 GB. They make 128 and 256 GB flash drives.

If you're formatting Blu-Rays like giant floppy discs with File/Windows Explorer, then the format will always give you only about 23 GB out of the available 25. It has to do with the file overhead used by the file system. If you use ImgBurn to burn an image to a Blu-Ray, you'll get the full 25 GB of space.

If you have Windows 7, you can use Windows Media Player to play DVD's. If you're on 8 or 10, you'll need something like Media Player Classic to play DVD's as DVD video playback is not natively supported. Use rewritable discs until you get this issue resolved. That way, you won't waste discs for tests you may not even need to run. If you don't have DVD playback software installed, then Windows will never play the DVD VIDEO_TS contents. I'm guessing you're using Windows and not something else so disregard if you're like using Linux.