hbenthow
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Posts posted by hbenthow
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By testing, I mean take a blank of every media you intend to burn with the drive, create an image to test it with, preferably an image that nearly fills the disc, and burn those images to the blanks. Just test if they finish Writes without error and finish Verfiies without error. Writes aren't as important as Verifies as far as I'm concerned. Writes will often times pass but will fail on Verifies of those Writes. You can, of course, perform disc scans, attempt to read the data back to image files, test playing movie discs on a stand alone player, etc. if you want to. I don't generally go that far. I just mostly care that they pass Verifies. And, to an extent, Writes, because one must be done before the other can be, of course.
I see. So more or less just a standard burn and verify from an ISO with no need for complex tests. That should be relatively easy.
Have you ever bought protection plans for your burners? Newegg offers some and I was wondering if they are worthwhile.
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I'd go with the Pioneer over the LG, but be sure to run tests on all media you're going to use with it to make sure the firmware works and you didn't get a low quality drive.
By tests, do you mean just attempting to burn the discs to see if they work, or something more detailed (like some sort of scan)?
There are 2 significant differences between the two drives. The 2209 model is the BDXL model. It writes to triple layer BD media and to M-Disc media. I've never burned any triple layer BD media but I have burned a handful of M-Disc BD media. If you're not interested in those functions, and I can live without them, then it's not necessarily worth it. I've never burned triple layer media because the moment you start adding layers, you get more potential problems writing and Verifying. M-Disc is a special type of media that costs more but will last a LOT longer than regular media. It's archival quality media. Think of it as using a laser but chiseling bits in stone and you can see why it lasts longer. M-Disc DVD media is readable in any DVD drive or player that supports reading DVD+R. As for BD, I don't know how well BD M-Disc works if you try to make a BD Video disc with it and it being playable in a standalone DVD player. I've received a few M-Disc media with Pioneer drives I've bought as a freebie and I always made backups of important data to the BD M-Disc.M-Disc sounds very promising, so the one that has it sounds like the better of the two.
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So, for what I need (burning CDs, single-layers DVD-Rs, maybe double-layer DVD-Rs eventually, single-layer BD-Rs, and double-layer BD-Rs), the Pioneer would be more reliable than the LG, based on your experience?
By the way, is the Pioneer riplocked?
I can say the 1.33 firmware is fine. So, if you get a Pioneer with 1.34 firmware, you can always downgrade to 1.33 with a little work. If the drive isn't 1.34 firmware, you can always just get 1.33 and install that only. Or go for 1.34 and hope you have results.
Is downgrading firmware risky?
Also, I'm a bit confused about which Pioneer model is which. There are at least two with similar names.
Is the one that you have?
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Electronics-Internal-Blu-Ray-BDR-2209/dp/B00GD792US/
Or it this one?
https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Electronics-Internal-Blu-Ray-BDR-209DBK/dp/B00H2GTXKS/
Is there any significant difference between the two?
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However, I never tested them in my Pioneer, which has a high rate of success with media... well, when you don't use the current firmware for DVD+RW.
Would the firmware make a difference for someone (such as me) who never uses rewritable discs?
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What is the Disc ID of the Panasonic BD-R's? Panasonic may have put their name of them, but they may not have necessarily made them. Put one in a drive, open ImgBurn in Write mode, and check the Disc ID in the pane of information on the right hand side. For instance, Verbatim puts its name on its media, but they farm out to Mitsubishi for their good DataLife Plus stuff and to CMC for their Life Series junk as well as their BD-RE, even though their BD-R and BD-RE DL are quality Verbatim discs. They used to make quality BD-RE but now they farm out to CMC
I checked the disc ID as you said, and it is MEI-T02-001.
I've had 3 of the WH16NS40's. I tested all 3 of them when I got them for the first time. They all did the same thing, and they will continue doing the same thing until LG updates the firmware. However, LG hasn't updated the firmware for this drive in 2 years.Very disappointing.
As for success with BD-R DL, I can only recall the failures I've seen with Verbatim discs. I don't even know what hardware they were using. There was worry that the quality of the Verbatim BD-R DL might have dropped. I wouldn't have known as I have zero experience with any brand's BD-R DL.So you don't know for certain whether it could be an issue that only affects certain brands of media?
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I don't know for sure if I ever had the WH14NS40, although I think I had one before years ago as my first LG BD burner. Back then, I am pretty sure I never tried burning a DL BD media before. I think I never started it until I got a Pioneer. And I've never tried BD-R DL. Lots of people have reported lots of failures here with BD-R DL media, even Verbatim. I've only ever burned Verbatim BD-RE DL.
I only ever buy Panasonic BD-Rs (and Verbatim DVD-Rs). I've never burned any sort of double-layer discs whatsoever, though.
Do you know if anyone has had success burning double-layer BD-Rs with the WH16NS40 (the newer model that you have)? Could it be that the failures you experienced were a fluke rather than the rule?
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Those are you two best options, and neither of them is great. I have one of each because of the problems both represent. I would try another Pioneer and simply use the downgrade utility for the firmware if you find it can't burn your DVD+RW correctly.
What about the LG WH14NS40 (the one that I currently have)? Does it write to double-layer BD-Rs correctly? I've never written to a double-layer disc (either DVD or Blu-ray) but was considering getting some double-layer BD-Rs soon. If it does, then would it be better to just get another WH14NS40 rather than upgrade to a WH16NS40?
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Oh, they won't even last half a decade. Maybe in the old days, CD drives were rated at a decade, but I've never seen an optical burner that lasted even last half a decade. I've only ever had 2 Blu-Ray burners that came close to 2 years.
It's a combination of moving parts and the heat generated by the drive when in use. It has moving parts, so it's going to eventually wear out. But, before the moving parts will ever wear out, the drive will just "burn up." The heat of electricity constantly going through it and the heat of the burning laser simply generates temperatures that will wear out a drive faster. So, how often the drive is used will be a factor, yes. If they're used rarely, then, maybe you might get a few years out of a drive.
I have 15 years of optical drive purchases. These have been my experiences. For instance, the last burner replacement I had to do was my LG BD burner because it stopped writing to DVD+R DL after 5 months.
If I do wind up buying a replacement soon, do you think that an LG WH16NS40 (not to be confused with the older model WH14NS40, which is what I have) would be a good choice? Do you know if it tends to provide high-quality burns on DVDs and Blu-rays?
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If you've been using this drive for years, it's probably just reached the end of its life. On the extreme low end, you'll get 5 months out of an optical burner before it needs replacing. On the high end, 18 months to 2 years. If you really have had a drive that has lasted for years with relatively few issues, consider yourself pretty lucky. I'd peg it down to its age.
I ordered it in April of 2014, and have been using it ever since.
I've never heard of drives needing to be replaced that quickly. It's always been my understanding that they're supposed to last a decade or longer. Does it relate to how often they are used or some other variable?
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I have an LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner which has worked well for a number of years on multiple computers (I've replaced the computers but kept the drive, switching it to each new one). I have used IMGBurn to burn DVDs and Blu-rays for years now, with very few problems. I use the automatic verify option of IMGBurn, which automatically cycles the tray then verifies the disc that has just been burned. It usually works correctly.However, I decided to burn some DVDs last night, and ran into problems. The first one burned and verified without incident. The second one seemingly burned without incident, but when the tray finished cycling, BD-Rebuilder was taking forever to verify it. The verification was at a rate of about 50 kbps, and it was estimating that it would take about 36 hours to finish. Meanwhile, the burner was making a pitiful noise like it was straining to try to read information off of the disc. I canceled the verification.I've had this problem a few times before, but it was always just a once-off that would happen once every few months or so. So I assumed that this would again be the case. I then tried burning the disc again (to a different blank disc), and it burned and verified without incident. But the next disc that I burned ran into the same verification problem. I tried burning to another disc, and the problem hit again.I ejected the last disc that gave me an error and put it back in to try to verify it with IMGBurn again, and the same problem continued. But I then closed IMGBurn, ejected the disc and put it back in yet again, then reopened IMGBurn and selected its verify option, and was able to successfully verify the disc against the ISO I had burned it from in just a few minutes. (I still don't trust the disc, though.)This error striking three times in one night has me extremely worried. Does anyone know what could be causing this problem or what I should do about it?The IMGBurn log is included as an attachment.
DVDs burned with IMGBurn suddenly not verifying correctly in LG WH14NS40
in ImgBurn Support
Posted
I just looked at the front of my WH14NS40, and it says M-disc. So it turns out that it does support it as well.