Pain_Man

Do you mean don't even use CopytoDVD or BlindWrite? I've been using PC for well over year now and this is the first issue that's come up. (Not that I use C2DVD much, excepting CDDA's I use IB more than anything else.) Is there a flaw in v. 1.37? (I'd appreciate if you'd let it be known if their next version has corrected the problem.) Should I just stick with SPTI? That's your default for IB. Thanks, Lightning... Its been a while since I "dropped in", hope all is well with you and yours...

This has happened several times now with my Plextor 760A . I've burned a DL (Verb of course!) and I get this message: I checked the Settings page and IB has permission to lock the drive. I've not seen this issue with my other burner (Optiarc 7170A). Any suggestions on how to fix this? So far it doesn't seem to be affecting the discs, so perhaps this more a nuisance than a serious problem? This DVDInfo graph looks good and the disc will play on my PC & HD-DVD player. Any help's appreciated. VOYAGER_S7D1_PLEXTOR_DVDR_PX_760A_1.07_5_4_2009_MKM_001_00.ibg

Here's something for the historically--minded, a BBC News story on a Britains worst Kings and Queens: Monstrous Monarchs As a student of history and an Anglophile and being largely of English, Scots, Scots-Irish descent, this is tough one. There've been so many idiot monarchs (and they are hardly confined to the UK). I'm trying to pick a few that the article doesn't mention. I realize (most) of these be arguable. Edward the Confessor - more saint than King, he failed to clearly designate a sucessor, leading to two wars and the imposition of William I's bestial tyranny. William the Bastard tore up Northern England so badly (for rebelling against him) that it didn't recover until for seven hundred years [!]. Stephen - (usually known as Stephen of Blois), seized the crown from Matilda (his cousin), who would have been England's first regnant Queen. His illegal, precarious position depending upon the great magnates. He was a crappy king who was defeated by the future Henry II (one of England's greatest Kings and the most succesful European warrior since Charlemagne), who forced the childless Stephen to make him heir to the throne (this was before the heir was known as the "Prince of Wales"). James II - a full-on idiot and fanatical Catholic. He was such a fanatic that even Louis XIV (who destroyed France's protestant--Huguenot--minority with despicable brutality) cautioned him to move slowly. As the Durants put it,James was "suicidally immune to advice." To be fair, however, he was not a tool of France. Whereas his predecessor (and brother) Charles II was content to take huge subsidies from Louis to follow France's line in European politics; James II refused and Louis turned off the cash. As Lord Macauley put it (might have the name wrong), "If James had been a Protestant or even a moderate Catholic, he probably would have had a decent reign" and the Stuart dynasty would have probably lasted a lot longer and, perhaps, the present Royal family would not be German (the "Windors" real name is Saxe-Coburg-Gotha--from Prince Albert's family name--changed by George V during WWI because of the understandable anti-German feeling at the time). Charles II - his reign was a mixed bag. Some good, some bad. He sold his country to France in the secret Treaty of Dover in which he promised, for a huge pile of cash--to convert to Catholicism and bring England along by force; he persuaded Louis to agree to send thousands of French troops to support him. Charles never followed through. Realizing, I'm sure, that had he done so, he would have certainly suffered his brother's fate and perhaps his father's. Georges I & II - German louts who got the throne because of a sliver of Stuart blood and their rock-solid Protestantism. But their obsession with Hanover, skewed British foreign policy and pounds in order to protect the Electorate. Their family tradition of hatred between father and eldest son, contributed to the bitterness of faction in British politics. And consider a what if: had George IV had a son (even had his daughter live, she couldn't have inherited the throne of Hanover), then Britain might very well have been drawn into the Franco-Prussian War in order to protect Hanover. Since Victoria was on the throne, World War I was post-poned for 40 years. This is important because US intervention in 1870--just five years after the end of our Civil War--would have been politically impossible and, more importantly, logistically impossible. Britain and France would have been on their own and Prussia-Germany would have dominated Europe for who knows how long.

Thanks, Lightning. Pretty sure it was just a coaster. I suppose I should try to get a refund, on the other, since the disc contains sensitive corporate information and all, can't really do that. But I can't complain. I've burnt hundreds of Verb DLs and have had maybe five coasters? It's happened so rarely (knock on wood!) that I can't remember the time before this disc. Have had no issues with other discs from that spindle. What's the deal with "made in Singepore" Verbs? Is there a product code that one can use to tell which discs were made where? Having trouble posting here. Sorry for any duplications. Ciao

Lightning, mmalves, somebody, pls...

Here's the entire log (I also uploaded the DVDInfoPro graph): I 12:27:41 ImgBurn Version 2.4.2.0 started! I 12:27:41 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition (6.0, Build 6001 : Service Pack 1) I 12:27:41 Total Physical Memory: 3,140,920 KB - Available: 2,204,448 KB W 12:27:41 Drive P:\ (FAT32) does not support single files > 4 GB in size. I 12:27:41 Initialising Patin-Couffin... I 12:27:41 Patin-Couffin - VSO Software - Version 1.37.0.0 - Internal Revision 37 I 12:27:41 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 12:27:41 Found 2 DVD-ROMs, 1 DVD XXXXXXX_PLEXTOR_DVDR_PX_760A_1.07_8_31_2008_12_28_PM_MKM_001_00.ibg

I will post the whole thing. The next disc I burned, it verified with no problems. I'm watching the GOP Convention, so I'll put it up later.

Was burning a copy of a disc for my wife's company (at the owner's request, hence perfectly legal). The burn went fine, but when it came to Verification, I got this message: (In a pop up): Verify failed! Reason: Layouts do not match. I understand the plain English meaning of the words but not their meaning in the optical media context. Here's the relevant portion of the Log: I 12:29:32 Writing Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 4130927) I 12:29:32 Writing Layer 0... (LBA: 0 - 2065471) I 12:38:08 Writing Layer 1... (LBA: 2065472 - 4130927) I 12:46:46 Synchronising Cache... I 12:47:50 Closing Track... I 12:47:57 Finalising Disc... W 12:49:34 Potential 'WaitImmediateIO' Deferred Error - (0/3) - No Seek Complete W 12:49:34 Finalise Disc Failed! - Reason: No Seek Complete W 12:49:34 Retrying (1 of 3)... Should I even try to burn another copy--or would that just be wasting a DL? All help is appreciated...

It is long, no doubt. But I thought that more people would read it rather than tap a link and have to register for the Times' site and then. Too bad. Your thoughts on the article were some of the ones I'm most especially interested in. OK, point taken. I'll remove the text and leave the link. I suppose the truly interested won't mind taken a couple of minutes to go thru the Gray Lady's registration process.

The only complaint that I--and many others--have is the cover artwork. While the "mini-LP" sleeve (apparently a Japanese fad) is quite cool, the reproduction of the LP art, is awful. It's dark, indistinct and fuzzy. Given Hugh Syme (renowned cover artist and "conceptualist" for many, many bands) and Rush's stringent quality demands, it's hard to believe they okay'd this art work. But don't let that put you off. The gold (no pun intended) inside would be worth having even if my 8 yr old had been hired to crayon a new cover for the album. The 1997--2004 remasters of Rush's entire catalog, i.e. every album excepting the last two, Vapor Trails and [/i]Snakes and Arrows[/i], were excellent, a distinct improvement on the original CDs released in the 80s (and which, before my first wife got her grubby little hands on them, I had the complete set; at one time I had every Rush album on CD, LP and cassette). I have had to replace several of my 20+ yr old CDs that have the dreaded disappearing aluminum syndrome--a fault due to poor quality control from some of the first CD pressing plants (both German and American). CDs made from 1987 on don't suffer from this problem. But this Mobile Fidelity remastering job--directly from the original master tapes defies description--so I won't lay a thick encomium on you (some have complained--rightly so--about my allergy to brevity). Suffice it to say: if you're a die-hard Rush fan, and I'm going on 26 yrs, then the US$26.99 price tag ($21 higher than the "regular" disc) is well, well worth it. Also, a lot of fan reviews are saying that this is the best MoFi release ever, and not just of Rush's catalog. 2112, Moving Pictures and Signals all got the treatment in the early 90s. Used copies of these go anywhere from $33 (Signals) to $257 (Moving Pictures). Prices for other MoFi editions of classic albums are even more statospheric: an unopened copy of Who's Next is listed on Amazon as costing $499! For a CD that originally cost--indexed for inflation--$60! I only wish I'd had the foresight (and money, back in those days, I was dirt poor, i.e. so poor I had to eat dirt, with a little salt...) to buy a couple of copies each and store one unopened. There are rumors that MoFi intends to re-released these three as well as additional Rush titles. However, I couldn't find anything about this on their website. Perhaps I'll drop the official Rush webiste and email and see what they have to say on the matter. (Hopefully "yes," "yes," and "soon." *(the latter being the first Rush studio album yet to have gone at least Gold; as I said, "yet" inevitably, they'll get over the half million mark. The Boyz from Toronto have sold more than million albums a year from nearly 35 years. There are damned few bands that can claim that.)

Couple of other things: It took me over six weeks to get this disc after I ordered it. So it Imay, conceivably, take you a good while to get it. Mofi's own website lists it as "currently out of stock"; Amazon says they have three. They make only five thousand of any disc, and each package (a "mini" LP jacket) has a number. In my case, mine is number 3042. (I'm not a hundred percent on the 5000 disc limit; but there must be a limit of some kind, else why number them?) I just checked Amazon Canada and UK. The former has it in stock (for the exact same numerical price as Amazon US, testimony to the stricken US dollar...). The UK site lists it as an "Import" does not carry it. Of course, Brit Rush fans can always order it from the US or Canada. I know it cost me a fortune in shipping to order a DVD from Amazon UK, almost as much as the disc itself! The worst shipping bill I ever paid was for a $3 CDDA I ordered from Amazon Deutchland. The shipping was $15!!! :&

Remember those Gold CDDAs of the 80s and early 90s? Mobile Fidelity, the company that brought them to us is back and with a vengeance. (actually the company began the mid-70s producing high quality records; if you're under 30 those are the black discs your parents--or grand parents--have sitting next to their one-piece, chest-line stereo system). I once they were just hype, another way to get me to buy a CD a second time or to pay double/triple the price of the aluminum substrate versions. A Tower Record's employee even told me, "There's no difference except that Gold doesn't oxidize as fast." Not hard to fathom why they went out of business. At the beginning of this year, they released a new version of Permanent Windows (US Amazon page is here.) remastered using their proprietary processing system (you can read all about it on their website mofi.com). The result is absolutely stunning. Excepting SACDs, I have NEVER heard a better audio recording*. When Neil hammers the tympani's on "Jacob's Ladder" it as tho' you are literally sitting in front of that old, monster kit as hit plays. Geddy's bass sound both fat and sharp at the same time (Rush fans'll know what I mean by that). Alex's guitar work, esp the acoustic sections, shimmer magically. And when it's time for Zeppelinesque bombs-away segues, the walls shake in most satisfying manner. At one point, I swear I can hear a pick tap a humbucker. The recording of tidal pools and high tides on the epic "Natural Science" is so realistic, all I had to do was close my eyes imagine and I was sitting on the beach at La Jolla Shores on a softly, moonlit night with my lovely lady. Get the wife (and or kids) out of the house, make sure the neighbors aren't home, pop the disc in and then turn the volume up as close as you can get before your speakers start protesting. And enjoy. It's thirty-six minutes of pure audio bliss./In short, it don't get much better than this. *Granted, I didn't have good systems until about 10 years ago, and still I certainly do not have a $50,000 system, recessed into the cherry-paneled walls of my study, concealed by motorized doors; I have a Yamaha HT-6050 receiver with speakers sitting on a pine coffee table between the sliding glass door to our dying yardlet (what idiot decided on [ grass in the hottest desert in the world?!?!] and the rear window (that is most excellent--esp for our smallish townhouse (1600s.f.).

Belated Happy Birthday, bra. Hope it was a good one. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: (But not too good for ya... :& )

Here's a very interesting article published in the New York Times on the different ways the United States & Canada (as well as some other countries) handle "offensive" speech; we've protected it, they've criminalized. I found it quite fascinating and another reason why, despite all its defects, I wouldn't live in any other country. Article Title: American Exception Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech An excellent comment from a reader (imo): "The First Amendment is a gift, like the article says, that nobody else has. Once you start making exceptions, it will never stop." (Which is precisely my objection to "hate" crime laws. They criminalize thought which an obscure writer named Eric Blair once warned us about in a little known, little read novel. I think it had numbers in the title(??).

I have found that dbPoweramp's CD Ripper (or even Easy CDDA Extractor's "Analyze & Repair" mode) is an excellent way to find out if a pressed disc has any c2 errors, et al. You'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't?) how many brand-spanking new CDs, just out of the shrink wrap, have C2 errors. At least half. (That's not scientific, of course, just based on my own experience.) Interestingly, 3 of the 4 discs from the BIG ZEP BOXED SET, which I've owned for 10 years, had no errors at all; this despite D1 & D2 having quite a large number of scratches. Only the second disc had two tracks with a few frames that had to be re-ripped. Apparently, there's no automatically connection between the apparent physical condition of the disc and its data's integrity. (Not that I understand why audio data has "frames" and I'm sure the explanation is probably far longer than even my signature box, or, page, blu rather accurately terms it. I'll cut it down. I promise.) Not talking "critical" errors that result in degraded sound quality or the prevent copying. Nay-the-less they are there. And I've checked this with both of the above named apps. (Again, I don't use EAC because setting it up is like my first marriage: an extremely frustrating waste of time, only without the awesome sex. Hey, they call whores whores for reason, after all. ) n