Blu-ray burning fails during verification

[Marcial]

I am having problems with ImgBurn and it's happening with all blu-ray movies I try to burn lately.

 

In view of this problem, I have done it in 2 different ways:

1) Rip Video Disc to Harddisk with AnyDVD, then select "Write files/folders to disc" from ImgBurn and bring both folders BDMV and CERTIFICATE to ImgBurn, burn and verify.

2) Rip to Image with AnyDVD, then select "Write image file to disc" from ImgBurn and bring the IMAGE FILE to ImgBurn, burn and verify.

Both ways failed during the verification process. And sure enough, both copies were messy (pixelation or just stopped or both).

Then I tried the second choice above but instead of using ImgBurn I right-clicked on the IMAGE FILE and let Windows Disc Image Burner do the job. It came out perfect.

 

So something is wrong with ImgBurn and I need your help to fix it.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

As per the pink box up the top, please post the log.

[Marcial]

Thanks, Lightning UK, for reminding me. I haven't been in the forum in a long time.

 

I tried to attach the ziplog but I am getting this message: "Upload Skipped (this file was too big to upload). The file is 1.08 MB, only .08 above the limit!

 

Sorry, I can't remember, what should I do now? Sorry for the inconvenience.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Marcial

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You could copy and paste the relevant bit? The log can be opened in notepad.

 

The other option would be to upload it online somewhere.

[Marcial]

Sure, here we go. This is the log for FANTASIA 2000, which is just one of the movies that was stopped during the verification process.

AnyDVD_log.txt

[dbminter]

That's the AnyDVD log.  We need the ImgBurn log.  There would be no burn/verify errors in the AnyDVD log.  Unless this AnyDVD log is an attempt to read one of the failed burns that ImgBurn failed on.

[Marcial]

Damn, what was I thinking?

 

I'm sorry, I can't remember how to get the ImgBurn log file. Please tell me and I'll do it right away.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Marcial

[dbminter]

It happens.  We all make boners at some time in our lives.    My biggest one was, as a computer science major, I know you NEVER plug in the power supply to an internal peripheral with the power turned on.  And, still, I did it anyway, without thinking about it!  Partly fried the HDD. 

[Marcial]

Hope this is the one.

ImgBurn.log

[dbminter]

I notice the errors happen right at the start of Layer 1.  However, what's weird is the Empty Sector errors.  I can't comment on those, but my experience has generally been that if a drive is failing to Verify at the layer change, it's one of a two things.

 

1.) your drive doesn't like that Disc ID brand of media

 

2.) your drive needs replacing

 

 

How long have you had this drive?  Have you used these type of discs before with success?  You're using quality Verbatim media, it seems, so it's probably not that your drive doesn't like those discs.  Unless you've never gotten success with them before.  They don't appear to be cheap quality discs, so that's probably not the problem.

 

 

Layer changes almost always are problematic when errors occur.  I just replaced a Blu-Ray drive last week because it wasn't writing DVD+R DL correctly anymore.  It was failing Verifies at the, yes, you guessed, layer change.

[Marcial]

I have to update my profile so that my equipment will show as it is now. 

 

The burner I have is less than one year old, and is Pioneer Internal Blu-Ray Writer (BDR-209DBK). It has been the best I had, so far. Never gave me a problem. But... nothing stays good forever. Maybe something is wrong now, particularly or maybe exclusively with blu-rays, because it's happening ONLY when I use ImgBurn as a burning software. If I use Windows Disc Image Burner, which I suspect it is of lesser quality compared to ImgBurn, everything goes beautifully, even the verification. 

 

Well, I have 2 burners, one is LG and the other one is the Pioneer, but I am using more the Pioneer thatn the LG. Even the LG I have now installed in my PC is a modern model.

 

That said, those facts make me think that the problem is with ImgBurn.

 

I was reading last night that ImgBurn can have some incompatibility with AnyDVD if the latter is enabled. Maybe that's the problem, I don't know.

 

Is there any way to test the burner?

Edited April 30, 2017 by Marcial

[dbminter]

IMO, Pioneer quality has gone downhill over the last few years.  I still have my first one that works fine as far as I know after 2 years.  My 2nd one still works fine as far as I know after 1 year.  The only reason I replaced either one was a design flaw in their manufacturing.  After a certain amount of time, Eject commands and pressing the Eject button don't work the first time they're issued.  Issuing them again causes them to work.  ImgBurn's auto eject function after burning/verifying, when turned on, seems to work fine, though.  Then came the story of my 3rd Pioneer Blu-Ray drive.  It stopped writing quality Verbatim BD-R after 7 months.  My 4th one was worse!  It failed right out of the box to write to these same Verbatims!  Plus, Pioneer borked the latest firmware so they don't write properly to Ritek 8x DVD+RW.  It used to write to them fine for years, but then they released the last firmware they will probably ever release for this drive and it borked those discs.

 

 

So, I wouldn't put it past needing to replace a Pioneer after less than a year.

 

 

I have an LG modern burner, too, but their modern model hasn't had a firmware update in 2 years.  And, it needs it.  It writes giant floppy formatted discs at half the speed of the Pioneer.  Plus, it's a rotten reader and absolutely almost always fails to write to BD-RE DL media.  So, I have the LG primarily to write DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R, BD-RE SL, and BD-R and the Pioneer for reading discs and for writing BD-RE DL and discs as giant floppies.

 

 

There's no real way to test a dying burner.  You're already doing it with discs that have passed and are now failing.  You can test if it's the discs by getting another drive, putting it in, and testing it.  But, there's no way of telling if it's the discs or your burner if they fail again.

 

 

Wait, if you have AnyDVD running while ImgBurn is burning, you absolutely shouldn't be doing that.  AnyDVD can cause problems with Verfies if it's running while a Verify is being performed.  Plus, you shouldn't have AnyDVD running when burning to DVD+RW.  It will cause an error in the write that will bork the disc from being rewritten properly until it is fully erased again.  The take away is you should really only have AnyDVD running when you need it.

 

 

Try disabling AnyDVD and perform a Read on one of these discs that was failing.  See if it will read, however, I doubt it will.  Experience says there is nothing wrong with ImgBurn.  Otherwise, every drive I've had to replace wouldn't be miraculously fixed when the drive was replaced.  Plus, you're experiencing problems at the layer change.  Experience says this is because of cheap quality discs, disc incompatibility with the drive, or a dying drive.

[Marcial]

Well, I am glad to read you because you know a lot. That's why I come to this forum because I still have a lot to learn and to decide.

 

What I said about AnyDVD is that I keep the Red Fox red, not gray, while I am burning. That means the AnyDVD is enabled but I am not using it at the same time I burn, other than letting the "fox stay red". Maybe that's the problem, I don't know that much. But I think that's the way I always did it. 

 

On the other hand, disable AnyDVD takes only one click. Maybe I should do that and try ImgBurn again instead of using Windows Disc Image Burner, which works fine but doesn't allow me to make choices such as the burning speed, etc.

 

Ok, let's suppose that it would be a good idea to buy a new burner, if it comes to that extreme. Which one would you recommend? I know that all of them sooner or later would get old.

 

Oh, one more question, would it be advisable to update my Pioneer firmware? I haven't done since I bought it.

[dbminter]

Hey, no problem.  We've all been there where we didn't know what we know now.  It's how we learn.  By asking. 

 

 

A red AnyDVD icon in the Notification area means AnyDVD is active.  This means it can interfere with Verifies and writes of certain kinds of media.  Write once media like BD-R shouldn't be affected by AnyDVD, but I haven't tested it yet.  I do know it interferes with DVD+RW when writing when it's active and doesn't interfere with DVD-R writes when active.  Try right clicking on AnyDVD and unchecking Enable AnyDVD to turn it gray like you suggested.  Then, I'd next try to do a Read of one of these discs that failed Verify.  This would test if AnyDVD is interfering with Verifies.  If it still fails, then AnyDVD might have interfered with the writing of the BD-R DL.  You should try another BD-R DL burn with AnyDVD grayed out and see if you get the same results.

 

 

You say when you use File/Windows Explorer to write this information to BD-R DL, these discs play without pixelation?  If that's the case, the "logical" answer would be AnyDVD might be interfering with the Write.  However, of course, the logical answer is not always the correct one.  It could be the way the drive is interpreting the commands.  ImgBurn just sends out generic burn commands.  Some drives may not interpret them correctly.

 

 

Unfortunately, there's no real answer to which burner you should get.  The bottom line is no drive does everything it should because the manufacturers don't know what they're doing.  Pioneer used to be one all be all, until they borked the firmware with 8x Ritek DVD+RW.  Plus, the general quality decline I've experienced with them.  Unfortunately, I need 2 different drives to do different things.  What I described in my last reply.  If you had luck with your Pioneer model in the past, then your best bet probably is to keep sticking with that kind.

 

 

As for if you should update the firmware, it depends on what you want to do with it.  I don't have the 209.  I have the 2209.  However, the firmware revisions are the same for both models.  This indicates to me the 209 might have the same firmware bork in it that the 2209 does.  Despite being 209 as a substring in both model numbers, the 2209 writes to BD XL media and the 209 doesn't.  So, it could be because of the different laser necessarily to burn BD-R XL media, the lastest firmware for 209 might not bork 8x Ritek DVD+RW.  If you plan on never writing to 8x Ritek DVD+RW, you should probably update the firmware.  And who's to say this borked DVD+RW writing isn't across all DVD+RW models and speeds?  I don't have any other kind of DVD+RW to test with.

 

 

When I need to replace my 2209 or the next time I need to replace my LG, I'm going to either try the 209 and see if its firmware is borked or try the newer BDR-211UBK.  The only difference with that model is it supports 4K HD Blu-Ray playback.  But, depending on the laser and the firwmare, it might write 8x Ritek DVD+RW fine.  I won't know until I test both of them.  I can always return them with Amazon.com if they don't.  And I don't really need 2209's BD XL capability as I've never owned such a disc.  I believe the 2209 might also write to M-Disc, but my LG does the same thing.  And I've only ever burned like 5 of those.  So, I don't really need that capability either.

 

 

As for updating the firmware, you can downgrade firmware, but it takes some other tools, a little work, and a little knowledge of what you're doing.  In fact, I didn't know it could be done until LUK told me.  So, you can always regress back to the firmware one revision less if you find DVD+RW doesn't work right.

[Marcial]

I have to leave home now but before I respond to your entire comments, Let me tell you about the blank media I AWAYS use:

 

DVD: Verbatim DVD-R, 4.7 GB, 16X

DVD DL: Verbatim DVD+R DL, 8.5 GB, 8X

 

BLU-RAY: Verbatim BD-R, 25 GB, 6X

BLU-RAY DL: Verbatim BD-R DL 50 GB, 4X

 

And I always burn using 1/2 the speeds indicated above, and always do my best to get them manufactured in Japan.

 

I'll be back later. Thanks so much.

[dbminter]

It really doesn't matter what the label on the package is or where they were manufactured.  What matters is who manufactured them.  And that is determined by the Disc ID returned by ImgBurn.  For instance, Verbatim sells 2 kinds of DVD-R and DVD+R DL: the good kind and the bad kind.  The bad kind are manufactured by CMC Magnetics and are sold in brick and mortar stores and online as their Life series.  The good kind are MKM media made by Mitsubishi, sold only online under the DataLife Plus brand, NOT Life.

 

 

The BD-R DL you were failing on said they were made by Verbatim.  However, I have no experience with DL media except for BD-RE DL.  So, from experience, I can't say anything about BD-R DL.  But, what the ImgBurn log returned was they were quality Verbatim BD media.  The Verbatim BD-R I always use have VERBAT in their Disc ID string like your BD-R DL did.

 

 

Burning at slower speeds when you're experiencing problems is generally a good idea.  Personally, I've never had any problems burning at Max speeds, so I leave my burns at Max.

[Marcial]

Great, I just learned something new from you. I found the manufacturer using DVD Identifier. These are the findings:

 

BLU-RAY: Verbatim BD-R, 25 GB, 6X => Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

BLU-RAY DL: Verbatim BD-R DL 50 GB, 4X => Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

 

Same manufacturer for both.

[dbminter]

Yeah, that's the MKM I mentioned earlier.  The good stuff made by Mitsubishi.  MKM is on the DVD-R and DVD+R DL.  VERBAT is on the BD-R.

[Marcial]

Exactly! I think that rules out the blank media as a possible cause of the burning failure. So it's either my burner or AnyDVD enabled. I'll find out.

 

Oh, and I buy them at Amazon.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Marcial

[dbminter]

Amazon.com is where I get my media from, too, because you only buy the quality DataLife Plus/MKM stuff online.  Well, you can buy good Verbatim BD-R from Office Depot brick and mortar stores, but only in packs of 10 that are far less economical than buying them in packs of 50 from Amazon.com.

 

 

Well, the media can't be 100% ruled out.  If you've used them before in this drive fine for a period of time, then you can.  However, if this is the first time you've ever tried them, then that Pioneer may not necessarily like that media.  For instance, as weird as it sounds, before a firmware update fixed the issue, the 2209 had a problem where it would write to 8x DVD+R DL MKM media that was branded but NOT the inkjet variety, even though they shared the same Disc ID.    The only difference was one had a branded surface and the other was inkjet printable.  Shouldn't make a difference, but it did. 

[Marcial]

Wow, it could be very complicated. I see now what I got into since I started burning blu-rays; never had problems with AnyDVD ripping and burning with 1 Click DVD Copy. That is regular DVDs.

 

By the way, I just updated the firmware for that Pioneer and it seems it went well. I would like to do the same with my other burner, an LG, but I can't find its model anywhere unless I open the tower of my PC, which I hate to do. Is there other way to find out? I am pretty sure there is but I don't know it.

Edited May 1, 2017 by Marcial

[dbminter]

It used to be worse.  When I first started the world of DVD burning 15 years ago, there was only 1x media.  And what would invariably happen is you'd get to 99% complete on a burn and then it would crap out, wasting an hour's time. 

 

 

DVD Copy probably didn't do Verifies or back when you were using it, the Pioneer was still alive.

 

 

The easiest way to determine if you have a firmware update is open ImgBurn in write mode and select the drive you want to check the firmware for from the drop down list of target drives in Write mode.  Right click on the drive entry in the bar and choose Check for firmware update in the context menu.  It will tell you your current revision before opening your web browser to the firmware site ImgBurn checks.  Now, sometimes the site won't find firmware for your drive based on its drive string.  USB drives are notorious for not being found on that site.

 

 

And if you want to check the model manually, open ImgBurn and in the log window that displays opening information on startup of ImgBurn, find your drive listed in the log.  It will tell you the drive model string and firmware version currently installed.  Now, sometimes model drive strings are vastly different from what the model name actually is.  But, it beats cracking open the tower unless you have to.

[Marcial]

Yeah, it was easy after your explanation. It says: "This feature automates the search on http://www.firmwarehq.com. You must be connected to the internet in order for it to work! By the way, your current firmware version is 1.00 (1.00-A2)."

 

So I guess it does automatically.