dbminter

I had it in mind that DVD+RW was larger than DVD-RW. The reason for the + is because the name DVD-R was already taken, being the first DVD WORM recordable media. When the consortium created their format, they simply chose DVD+R as the name because it made sense to go from minus to plus. Another advantage of DVD+RW over DVD-RW is the erasure of that media is nearly instantaneous. There's a lead in time for erasing DVD-RW that takes about a minute. Another advantage of DVD+RW, I think, is its Writing LeadIn time is shorter than DVD-RW's. Another is I think DVD-RW only reached 6x max write speed whereas DVD+RW reached 8x. There is an advantage of using DVD-R over DVD+R when making DVD Video discs. Since DVD-R is the older format, older DVD players that don't play DVD+R have a better likelihood of playing DVD-R. DVD-R is more compatible with DVD players because it's an older format.

The oldest archived copy I have is 2.5.5.0 and that was 5.3 MB.

I think I've asked this before. If I have, my apologies for asking it again. Which has more available recording space? DVD-R or DVD+R? Which has more available recording space? DVD-RW or DVD+RW? Thanks!

Most likely not. You could try checking for a firmware update, but that rarely helps. Plus, there rarely is one available. In Write mode, right click on the drive letter and choose the last option in the context menu, the one about checking for firmware updates. There's always the chance a different burner drive will work better. You can always try replacing your burner with a different make and model, but that rarely works. One thing you might be able to do is don't burn to the second layer. You may still get use out of them, but you're paying more for less value. Most double layer disc failures occur at the layer change. However, there's no guarantee your image still won't be burned to some part of the 2nd layer even if you do create a single layer sized image.

There's your problem, most likely: MID: CMC MAG-D03-64 You got the junk Verbatim. You most likely bought the Life Series found in brick and mortar stores. Those are the CMC junk, relatively useless. You want the DataLife Plus (NOT Life Series.) or AZO kind of discs you only find online in stores like Amazon.com and OfficeDepot.com. (NOT in Office Depot stores as those are the Life Series.) CMC junk media causes over half of the problems we see on this board. Most are generally resolved when people switch from the junk CMC media to quality media. As you said, this is your first time. These are things you only learn from experience. Like sex.

As for the reading of CD Text when the disc doesn't contain any, that line in the log is a bit misleading. It's reading FOR CD Text. IF it finds it, it copies it. It's really a check to see if CD Text exists. As for certain browsers not working with forum software, I've noticed similar behavior on the Macrium Reflect forum. My default browser is Waterfox Classic, which is based on the original formula of Firefox. However, the Reflect forum won't navigate properly in Waterfox. It does in the modern version of Firefox, though.

If you get the right Verbatim, e.g. not the Life Series, they make the best media out there now.

I am probably one of the last people on Earth still burning DVD's.

The very first recordable DVD's I ever made were from a company called PrimeDisc in 2002. Last I checked a few years ago, they were still readable. Yet, I had a disc from what I later learned was a known bad company, Vanguard, that died before a year had passed.

Near as I know, the Analysis step cannot be skipped when attempting to read Audio CD's in ImgBurn because they aren't technically data discs. They're Audio CD discs, beasts unto themselves. They were created before PC's became common, so PC's had to retro fit in order to read them.

Near as I remember, PS1 discs had separate tracks for data and audio. One track was an audio track for things like music and audio files being played in game. So, it would have to be BIN/CUE since it has an audio track in it. However, there are other applications like Alcohol 120% that, I think, read PS1 discs to their own file format. In fact, some PS1 games can't be read by ImgBurn and some drives, so I always threw them at Alcohol. Or Alcohol may also have used BIN/CUE; I haven't used it in like 10 years.

It's most likely the LG drive in question. LG drives are known for being less than quality readers in some cases. I know my experience with them has been they fail to read some discs that other drives read just fine. Not just by ImgBurn but by File Explorer for data discs. LG BD burners have been much better readers in my experience than my use of DVD burners in the past. I'd try getting another USB drive that isn't an LG and see if you have better results.

CD Text allows for a mixture of upper and lower cases. BIN can be mounted in CloneDrive, but it isn't necessarily guaranteed to work properly. That's why you need a .CCD file for them. I forget if CCD is enabled by default in ImgBurn when creating a disc image of a CD. Try creating an image of the Audio CD and mount the .CCD file it plays. I don't know about VLC, but Media Player Classic Home Cinema plays Audio CD's mounted this way. As for being unable to access the mounted image contents in File Explorer, you are attempting to read from the CloneDrive letter, right? Not just trying to double click the BIN and see if File Explorer opens the contents like ISO's do?

Oh, I forgot about the CloneCD format file, .CCD.

If by the casing you mean the CD cover art, no, CD Text does not contain that. It's just the text that some hardware and software players can recognize for displaying the name of a track being played or the CD being played. I take it this Sony/Ubisoft football game disc is a Playstation 1 disc? Those are a unique beast. Some have 2 different tracks on them. One track is a data track which contains the actual game itself. The other is an audio track containing audio files the game plays from disc. As for why ImgBurn creates CUE/BIN, it just does. LUK must have had a reason for creating Audio CD's in that format. I think even Alcohol 120% saves Audio CD's as BIN/CUE, but don't quote me exactly on that.

I've not used VLC in a long time. I abandoned it because of it's high bug count and failure to do a lot of things it claimed it could. I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema instead. So, I can't say how VLC would load a mounted CD image. However, that sounds about it. If you were to mount an Audio CD BIN as a virtual drive, VLC should then play it like any other Audio CD. .CDT is the file for exporting CD Text from an Audio CD containing CD Text as a raw dump. Another reason to burn with CUE files instead of loading BIN files directly into ImgBurn, I would think. See this thread:

To paraphrase Seth Brundle from The Fly, the computer is giving us its interpretation of an Audio CD. It doesn't have a "file system" per se, but in order for Windows software to play the actual audio tracks on the CD, it needs the CDA's which are generated by the interface. I believe CDA is Compact Disc Audio. They're links to the actual tracks natively on the CD. As far as I know, there is no native way to mount a BIN file in Windows. I use an external application called Virtual CloneDrive. It creates virtual drives in the system where you can mount ISO, BIN, etc. as virtual drives. I use it for CD discs. You mount the BIN file. You can delete the CUE files, but they may be necessary for proper writing later. CloneDrive mounts BIN files so CUE files are not necessary for mounting. And, for burning in ImgBurn, CUE files are generally necessary for certain Audio CD properties, like, I believe, CD Text. And, I believe, though I'm not sure, if necessary, you can create new CUE files from existing BIN files with the Tools option to Create CUE file, but you may lose certain properties.

The 0 bytes being detected for an Audio CD by File Explorer is normal. Technically, an Audio CD has no "data" as typically defined by Windows. It's a proprietary format created long before PC's became popular. So, PC's had to retro fit support for them. So, while they're read on stand alone CD players because they were created for them, Windows had to adapt to read Audio CD's. It can play them, but it can't read "data" off of them with proprietary software like Windows Media Player or any other CD ripper. Any Audio CD that has data on in when you insert it into a PC is actually a Mixed Mode disc. It has one Track for audio tracks and a Track for the data. When inserted into the PC, the PC can detect the data track as data, but won't recognize the audio tracks portion in File Explorer. As for why ISO is not used for Audio CD, it just isn't. CUE files are necessary for properly accessing Audio CD tracks, and CUE is used in association with BIN as brothered pairs. So, that would be my guess as to why ISO isn't supported.

Looking forward to it!

You may be using the cheap Taiyo Yuden discs made by CMC Magnetics, which might explain the skipping issues. If you can, post the log of this burn and verify in its entirety. Under Help, choose ImgBurn Logs. The log is opened in, usually, Notepad. Find the burn in question and copy and paste the relevant log entries into a reply to this thread. If they aren't the CMC TY discs, it could be your LG disc does not properly burn to those TY discs. A firmware update may help. In Write mode, right click on the drive letter and choose the last option in the context menu to check for firmware updates. It could be the PS1 does not like those TY media. The PS1 is considerably old hardware, so these recordable discs are newer, which may present a problem. In my days, I've seen best luck with TDK CD-R's for PS1 archives. The last thing is the problem may be the LG burner. Trying a different burner may help.

Yes, that shouldn't really matter what interface you use. You generally change interfaces, though, when one might be a problem and another works better. So, maybe in your case, it helped. I would generally only change interfaces if one particular one offers additional features and options. Elby's does over SPTI, though.

You've got a slim drive. Slim drives are notorious for being a lot of junk. Your best solution is replacing the drive, since at this point, the problem is mostly down to the drive. It doesn't like any DL you've thrown at it. Don't replace it with another slim model, though. Best to get a half height 5.25" burner and put it in an external USB enclosure, like I do. Plus, Matshita is known for making shita drives. You can, of course, keep trying multiple slim models hoping you get a good one. Like LG's slim internal BD burner, BU40N, in my Dell is, even though it became useless after a short amount of time because the cap holding discs in place keeps popping off. But, then, you'd have to find a slim model external enclosure, which I know nothing about.

I didn't think the updating firmware would work. Most external drives rarely have firmware updates released for them. Don't know why. The Windows 10 recognized as Windows 8 is a holdover from how old ImgBurn's last gold release was. Between Windows 8 and Windows 10, Microsoft changed how Windows identifies itself. ImgBurn simply doesn't have the necessary code to differentiate Windows 10 yet. So, that's normal. This will be addressed in the next version. Of course, I can't say when that will be, obviously.

It is entirely within my experience that a drive can work with all other kinds of media but one particular one and need replacing. For instance, a BD burner has 2 lasers: one for CD and DVD and one for BD. So, it can be a case where BD works and CD or DVD don't and CD and DVD are fine but BD aren't. And even in DVD only burners, it has been my experience that DVD+R DL function will fail first but SL media burn fine. It is generally not a case where PC's have gone wrong that cause bad burns. It's either the drive or the media. Since you said you had 2 of these drives and got the same results, the problem is most likely a combination of that media you're using in the drive you're using. You could try and see if there's a firmware update for your drive that might be better compatibility with the media. In Write mode, right click on the drive you're burning to and choose the last option in the context menu to check for firmware updates.

Well, you could have one of two issues or a combination of both. As was noted in the FAQ, slim models tend to be junk. It could have simply given up the ghost. As you note, Ritek/Ricoh media can be cheap discs. Depending on where you live in the world, it can be either decent 2nd tier quality media or junk. It could just be you got lucky 35 times in a row as the nature of cheap media means something you get a burn that works and sometimes you don't. Given you had no problems up until recently, it seems less likely the problem would be cheap media and more likely a problem of a cheap slim drive model burner.