TSSTcorp CDDVD SH-S202J SB03 won't read disc

[dbminter]

Got my first chance to use the 16x Verbatim BD-R in the LG WH16NS60.  It only writes to 12x max on these.  Granted, I only wrote 23 GB out of a total 25, but even at that, I got only 12.0x maximum write rate.  I might have gotten above 12 with a full 25 GB, but not 16.  LG writers always were slower than Pioneers, but given how Pioneer keeps borking the firmware of their BDR-2209, I'd rather have a stable, slower drive than one they're always messing up that does some things faster.

 

I still want to try Pioneer's BDR-211UBK, though.  The LG WH16NS40 was pretty bad at writing BD DL media, but the NS60 fixed that one nagging issue that prevented me from using that drive.  The BDR-211UBK could be a similar case.  It's an Ultra HD drive versus the 2209 which isn't.  So, maybe Pioneer got this one right as it might have a different firmware.  The firmware package is larger than than the 2209's.  What worries me, though, is the firmware revision number is exactly the same as the most current for the 2209!    This makes me think that whatever the 2209 is not doing right, the BDR-211UBK will also not do right.  But, maybe I'll be wrong... most likely not!  But, my 2209 stopped writing Ritek 8x DVD+RW anyway so I can't really use it over the WH16NS60.  So, it gives me a good excuse to try the BDR-211UBK in maybe 2 months when I can scrape together $125. 

[dr_ml422]

That's great news! I'm glad you didn't give up and followed through. LG seems to be pretty good with their customer service. I have their 1ClickDVDCopy app, though I think it's not as good as earlier versions. Maybe it was the source and too much compression needed. Nothing outside of something like DVD-RB Pro will make you an almost identical copy of Dual Layer DVD to DVD-5.

It was disappointing the last episode last Sunday! Looks as if they got tired of writing and wanted to get the hell out of there asap! Many viewers complained. I have to give it its due though. Helluva storyline! Great acting. They just for whatever reason dropped the ball on this most crucial episode. There might be a follow up serial depicting how that Evil Ghost Walker came to be. Outside of that, anything else short of rewriting that scene for this series won't do. There was a couple of characters that didn't even need to be in the whole story. They never did anything but talk nonsense. 

I buy refurbished stuff and am most pleased. Most of the time it's just that someone didn't like the color, or some other minor nusiance. If it was really bad they would just chuck it, and not waste time refurbishing.

Bought my Ram and SSD drive. Left only is a PSU and then putting it together. What we used to think of as high end is rather normal now regarding a PC build. Last thing needed overall in the industry was just high end super fast storage. Now it's here. That was the bottleneck. I could just imagine how fast your build is. Probably knock out an encode in less than half the time it previously took. Let me know. I think you mentioned like half an hour or so.

[dbminter]

LG has some weird return policies.  For instance, they only tell you when you try to send in something, but if you add any stickers or labels to the drive, it's considered voiding the warranty!    Any excuse they can think of to get out of paying for the warranty.    Glad I didn't do anything like that.  I had a Post It on there, but I took it off before sending it in, obviously. 

 

It depends on a few factors like the compression used in the source file, but I can get about a 90 minute file converted in like 20 minutes.  For another perspective, a book on CD I converted to DVD.  It was an over 11 hour single file M4A that I used a single still image of the book cover as the video for.  So, there wasn't a whole lot of video to begin with.  Filmora made an about 1.6 GB MP4 from the 11 hours of audio and still video.  That 11 hour MP4 converted in about 90 minutes.

 

I had to change the default setting in ConvertXToDVD for that book on CD because the default of 5 minute chapters was not enough.  The last chapter was like 3 hours long because it had reached the maximum 99 chapters.  I temporarily changed the default to 15 minutes.  Which is annoying because you can't just change it in a single project.  If you change the setting, it changes it to the DEFAULT!    So, you have to change it, save the project with the new value, then start a new project, and change it BACK to the default so it becomes the default option again! 

[ianymaty]

Default is just default for easy fix setting the chapter time. You can change chapter time in ConvertXToDVD without setting it to default.

Go to the Chapter tab (Clock symbol tab) and click on each chapter start time to manualy input the time to start the chapter.

Also you can click and drag the chapter markers under the video in preview editor to set the chapter length.

 

I'm just curious what resolution you used for that still image.

[dbminter]

I knew you could change each chapter's length, but I didn't know there was a change to all chapters' lengths without changing the default, which cycled all chapters.

 

I don't know how to check the resolution for a still image, but if you can figure it out, here's the image I used:

[ianymaty]

Oh, I meant the output resolution you set. Full D1 or Half D1?

Your image is 501 x 499 pixels. Here you'll find a better resolution of that image https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Pirate-Planet-Novelisation/dp/1785295314

If you used Full D1 your image is upscaled to 720 x 576 (PAL) or 720 x 480 (NTSC) and padded with black bars for the aspect ratio 4:3 (Narrow screen) or 16:9 (Wide screen) if you mentain the original aspect ratio of the image and don't set it to fit the screen. Half D1 would be 352 x 576 (PAL) or 352 x480 (NTSC).

Since it's a still image that probably don't matter too much but if you need to read it (small fonts) it's better to use a higher resolution of the image that is downscaled to DVD resolution.

 

[dbminter]

All I know is Filmora made a 720 x 480 4:3 MP4 and that was fed into ConvertXToDVD.

 

The still image is just so I don't have a black/blank background playing while the audio plays.  Some players, if you have a black screen, won't display the OSD properly.  So, if I needed to check what Chapter I'm on or how far I'm into the video/how much time is left, I can't display it.  So, I really actually prefer smaller resolutions because, in theory, that should reduce the size of the output video.

[ianymaty]

Than use output to Half D1 resolution.

[dr_ml422]

ConvertXtoVideo is useless right now! Just emailed them again! I asked them to be honest about the royalty fees with h.264 as nothing using that seems to work. Mpeg-4 on the other hand works with either MP4 or mkv. They need to get their act together and stop fooling around.

I was under the impression that half D1 etc... was basically for menus and such. That way more can be applied to the rest of the video. I don't think it's a video setting per say. 

[dbminter]

LG has sent out the replacement refurbished WH16NS60.  I may need it as the new one I got from Amazon.com a week ago this past Sunday is behaving somewhat oddly.  The drive seems to get randomly stuck at writing LeadIn on BD-R.  It doesn't actually do anything, it seems, as I just power off the enclosure and power it back on.  Once communication is restored and the drive is recognized again I start the burn a second time, and it burns fine.  Again, since it's random, it's hard to troubleshoot such an issue.  And maybe I'm not waiting long enough.  LeadIn generally takes 30 seconds on BD-R, but I did have it take 90 the other day.  Next time, I'll try waiting 300 seconds and see if it still "locks up."

[dr_ml422]

Yes you would know about the default time etc... after so much experience with them.

I had it with VSO and ConvertXtoVideo! Something is not right and frankly I dgas! That's their problem! I specifically told them they were already down the path of these Mickey Mouse operators by trying to make the customer guilty of not supplying the right info! I just won 3 cases! I told them either fix ConvertXtoVideo or just refund everyone's money! Maybe they just got in over their heads on this one! I told them 2 out of 3 ain't bad! ConvertXToDVD and CopyToDVD are virtually flawless! With ConvertXtoVideo you're dealing with a totally different beast! Too many GPU cards, CPUs, formats, etc... If you're not totally committed then just stay out of the picture! I told them I have all the goodies and they all work so it's not my Hardware etc.... 

Basically they have a choice now as I told them if I notify my bank they will take immediate action seeing the precedence so far! Chase will act now more than ever!

So I uninstalled VidCoder which as I alluded to was acting up and going down the path of great to nonsense!

My new toy? MakeMKV! Unbelievable! Try it! It rips also! So after getting your same size MKV file your next step is ConvertXToDVD and voila!

No more MP4! I'm keeping what I have as it's huge, and going further it's MKV and HEVC if possible. I'll have a DVD copy to watch anywhere and my PC for the MKV files which even MS's Video and TV app plays. The rest VLC can handle. I have MPC though I noticed they're not great on audio playback. I've noticed the difference playing the same file on all 3 players. 

By the end of the day if I don't just lay around, I'll build my new beast! Downloaded Windows 10 64bit last night and burnt it with ImgBurn. About time this trillionaire gave back to us here in the states! I know he's in Africa etc... but as a friend of mine jokingly and realistically said, "We have shoeless people here!"

We forget our own and get lost outside when we first need to make sure our own are on solid ground.

The SSD and Ballistic DDR4 Ram came last night. I just might not need a PSU after all! 

[dbminter]

I'm not a big fan of MKV over MP4.  MKV tends to take longer to load for video editing, especially in things like AVIDeMux because it has to unpack some kind of video stream.  And MP4 offers the subtitles that MKV has.  I did have to use MKV specifically for converting Blu-Ray special features to DVD if I wanted to keep the subtitles from being permanently burned in.

[dr_ml422]

Well MakeMKV is a different beast! Not only will it remove any protection on DVD or Blu-ray, it knocks out everything quickly. I know you use PS4 etc... and mp4 is more common that way, but if you want to stay with 5.1 Dolby Digital Pro Logic it's the way to go. AAC 5.1 is not so Hardware friendly. I had all my collection in MKV though I must of not known how to copy the srt with VidCoder at the time. So basically I did have 5.1 but no subs. I unknowingly converted everything to MP4 not aware of several limitations. Things are not like before with MKV etc... It's way supported more and since some of the DVD software is sometimes iffy, a great mkv file comes in handy as the next step is a nice encode to w/e.

Unbelievable how the new build came out! I would of been done sooner though I got tripped up on securing the heat sink fan. No where did it say the plate was beneath the Mobo! Then screwing it in was another adventure as the plate made it very unsteady. 

Man what I've been missing! Have a NVMe SSD stick at potentially 32gbs a second! That browser opens in a heartbeat!  Hitting the sack! I'm keeping the other drive with OS and using it as an external with the new build and letting it work inside as well so my new drive won't process anything. I'm literally out! Good night!

[dbminter]

Yes, it really is amazing what an SSD can do for you.  I paid the extra for an SSD in this new Dell and my total reinstall of everything on a new computer went from about 7 days to 4!    The time savings was in the sheer amount of time saved restarting Windows like you have to do when installing a lot of software.  And Windows 10 refreshes zip along.  On my previous Dell, Windows 10 1803 took about 50 minutes to install.  On this SSD, Window 10 1809 takes about 20!

 

I'm going to send this most recently WH16NS60 back to Amazon.com for a replacement.    It does randomly have problems writing the LeadIn to BD-R.     Sometimes, it writes the LeadIn in 30 seconds.  Sometimes... 3 minutes and 30 seconds!    Tomorrow, my refurbished model NS60 should arrive from LG, so I'll have one to use while Amazon sends me a replacement.  Amazon shouldn't have a problem replacing it.  It's still within the 30 days return window and I'm not asking for a refund, but a replacement with a different unit of the same model.

[dbminter]

Received my refurbished drive from LG.  It was interesting at first.  It came in a box, which was unusual, since Amazon.com and NewEgg ship the units in plain boxes.  However, the interesting thing was the box was for an LG DVD Super Writer!    There was, though, a hand written sticker on the box that said WH16NS60, so I wasn't too worried.  And, inside the box was the correct model.  It also included another copy of the Cyberlink software disc; I've got PLENTY of those!    It also included an SATA data cable.  None of the Amazon.com or NewEgg models shipped with one of those.

 

I'm not going to put it in any of my enclosures just yet.  I'm going to order another VanTech enclosure within the next few days.  I've heard the quality control on those can be iffy, which might explain why my previous model dropped communication.  If I get another unit that does the same thing, then I'll know it's a design flaw with the VanTech. 

[dr_ml422]

Whatever you do don't update to the new May 2019 Windows 10 update! It was what I installed initially in my new build, and boy did it have the issues reported online! File search and loading took forever, and it froze as well! 

So what I did and recommend for anyone upgrading to another drive, Mobo,etc... is I used WDs free Acronis True Image to clone my previous drive to my new SSD, and makes it bootable as well on the new Mobo! Unreal that software! I activated it and it's so hooked up with all my apps etc... I'll be on the lookout for that update! I'm not in the mood to be fussing around like back in the day as we both alluded to.

Is the Amazon drive you replacing an LG? I forgot. That super-multiwriter is the one I most likely have that hits 24x. You should here it now with this new Mobo etc... Sounds like a car engine reving up! Lol! 

I just encoded and burned two DVDs with DVD Rebuilder Pro in 17-18 minutes flat respectively. Now I see what you mean about 30 minutes with your jobs!

MS doesn't give you a break with the new Mobo. I took care of that asap!

Happy mother's day to all! 

Suicide Squad was pretty good. I'm going to put the second one in now. 

As long as one of the drives is a WD you're good to go. That along with ImgBurn, ConvertXToDVD, CopyToDVD, MakeMKV, and DVD Rebuilder is one of the best software around! To perfectly clone and make your new drive bootable on another Mobo is unbelievable! 

Iocrest is another great external solution. They make good quality docks and enclosures I think. My USB 3.0 dock is from Iocrest. So far I hit 100mbs a second or more cutting and pasting to and from drives.

Here are my specs in case anyone wants a no hassle build:

ASRock B450M Pro 4

AMD Ryzen 5 2600

Crucial 500gb NVme SSD

Crucial Ballistic DDR4 32gb Kit Ram

PowerSpec Midtower

I have to get new sata cables. That's great LG sent you some. Yes the 6gb SATA are a lil tighter fit. Funny I forgot that the SATA cable on my previous Mobo had a lock, and so when I tugged I took out the whole plastic thingy floabw. I just might get that fixed. Mobo is still good.

[dbminter]

Well, if we didn't update Windows 10 every time it had a bug, we'd never update it.  I don't use native Windows file searching anyway because, on Windows 10, it NEVER found a single file that I knew was there!    That's why I use Everything for my searches.

 

The LG drive that came with the SATA cable in the Super DVD Writer was the refurbished drive from LG.  And the Amazon LG drive is the one with the slow LeadIn.

 

The only companies making 5.25" USB 3.0 enclosures, and you need USB 3.0 for BD drives, are VanTech and Mercury Pro.  Both have their limitations, but, at least, the Mercury Pro didn't drop communication randomly with the drive, like the VanTec did.  This, of course, ruins a burn and wastes a WORM disc.  I just ordered a new VanTec yesterday to see if it was a fluke or if its behavior can be reproduced.  At least, this time, I can know ahead of time, test for it, and return the enclosure if necessary.

 

I used to use Acronis True Image for years, then, for years, the software was useless!  The Rescue Media either wouldn't recognize connected USB HDD or, WORSE, would recognize the devices BUT when you started a restore, the media would conveniently FORGET the devices were connected!    Of course, this was AFTER the target partition had already been deleted, resulting in a system you can't boot!    I was just glad I was smart enough to have an old Acronis image and rescue media that worked image so I could restore my system back to booting.  Now, I use Macrium Reflect.  It also allows you to restore images to different hardware; it's called ReDeploy.  Unfortunately, the feature is not really as easy as it is doing with True Image.

[dbminter]

I could theoretically get faster DVD builds if I wrote my ConvertXToDVD output to the SSD.  But, I use the internal mechanical HDD I also got with this system for that.  They say you shouldn't write large files to an SSD if you can avoid it because it causes the cells to wear out faster.  Don't know if that's true or not.

 

I've been using Western Digital as my primary USB HDD's for well over 5 years now.  Never had one die on me.  Unlike Seagate!    The only reason I ever put a WD out of circulation was to upgrade to a higher capacity drive when necessary.  I've got 3 of them now.  My primary 10 GB one for everyday use.  An 8 GB one that used to do that job but now stores yearly backups on.  And a 6 GB one that used to be the daily one years ago but now stores redundant copies of the yearly backups.  I used to have a 4 GB one that stored redundant copies of yearly backups, but I gave that one away after getting the 10 GB one.  I swapped in the old 6 GB one for the 4 GB's purpose.

 

I've also got a 4 GB WD My Passport portable drive for storing things like temporary files, files I need to take on the go, and for the backups I made of the system when I first got it and periodic backups taken during the reinstall of everything.

 

In a month or 2, I plan on trying a WD 512 GB USB SSD.  I've got a 500 GB Samsung T5 that I do like so I thought I'd see if WD's really is 512 GB or just 500 like Samsung's.  If it is 512, then I can squeeze out that extra 12 GB over the T5. 

[dbminter]

BTW, I believe the slow down in file searches in the May 2019 Update (Windows 10 1903) has been addressed in an Insider Build.  Whether this means it will filter down to 1903 as an update or only available in the next Feature Update is unknown. 

[dr_ml422]

Well Acronis True Image WD edition worked with the clone every time. I think many of these apps have issues with restoring. Yes Macrium isn't at all user-friendly as Acronis True Image. Another one that works is mini-tool Partition Wizard. I've used it before for USB drives, though I really couldn't understand their directions for hard drives cloning. I don't know if they do as Acronis True Image does. I can't stand it when they make instructions like that.

Just in case stay away from open subtitles. They're forcing to charge and so they'll burn the subtitle into your file with the warning about supporting them. You can't take it out I think. I haven't investigated ripping out subs from videos yet. I don't want to either. Lol!

[dbminter]

I used to use Partition Wizard, because unlike Partition Master, it wasn't crippled to 8 GB and smaller drives for its free version.  However, it doesn't work right anymore!    I tried its latest version to resize a partition at the end of my WD drive, but, like the previous version, it never did anything!    It started to do something, but then just never did anything.  After half an hour, it was at 0% done.  The log file said nothing was actually done.  And because the log said nothing, tech support was useless, as I knew they would be.    So, I switched to AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition.  Granted, I've not actually tried its resizing function yet as I've not encountered a case where I need to yet, so my opinion may change, and I may have to try a Partition Master license. 

[dbminter]

Just updated to 1903 ahead of the official rollout by using a 20 day old so called RTM installation ISO of the May 2019 Update.

 

It has its problems but it has its pluses too.

 

The biggest problem is the list of recently used files in the Search bar.  I didn't ask for it, I don't want it, and you CAN'T open image files from it!    It will say there is no assigned App to open image files.  And if you set your Photo Viewer in the Default Apps, it ONLY changes the double click behavior of files in File Explorer.    This will NOT fix the Search problem.

 

Notifications have painfully returned to the bad old days of whenever one pops up, the icon that lets you know it came up will NOT clear until you manually clear all Notifications in the Action Center. 

 

My old Desktop image has been replaced with a lesser quality one.  The old one worked fine.  They entirely replaced the Windows 10 windows pane Desktop image with a lighter blue one.  And since I have a Waterfox shortcut on my desktop, which is light blue, and Waterfox webpage shortcuts, which are also blue, it's a little blurry on the eyes.  I didn't ask for this change and I don't want it.  If you're going to offer a new option, then damn well keep the old one! 

 

On the plus side, and maybe I'm imagining it, but it seems that my transfers from my internal LG BD drive, which were super slow before, have sped up quite noticeably.  And the Windows Update update behavior modifications are quite welcome and long overdue.    And something on a personal note that has bugged me a long time now.  I have a utility that runs on Windows start that communicates with my Brother printer.  It determines how much ink is left in each of the 4 cartridges and advises if they're low.  Or when they run out.  For a while, this app never detected my printer until I disconnected the USB cable and reconnected it!    So, I connected a USB port with individual power cycle buttons on it.  That way, I could cycle the communication with the port easier than unplugging and reconnecting the USB cable.  This has worked for a while now.  After updating to 1903, my printer is now recognized whenever the application starts! 

[dr_ml422]

Yes it does have noticeable positive changes. An update will be on its way to fix whatever needs fixing, hopefully.

There were some pending updates to my build which I brought back to 1809 as mentioned last night. Hopefully it will still be 1809 because everything is running lovely.

Who really uses search in explorer? And if so, I'm almost positive out of 10 random PC users maybe 2 might use it. By use I mean extensively not periodically.

One can not listen to every whimsical desire by users and implement them. 

Btw, DVDFab's lightning decode and recode option is insanely fast, and when you use their default output settings for size very clear. .

I went over some of my mp4 files and still am going to keep them. The audio just needs to be tweaked.

Have you tweaked your MPC-HC audio playback settings? 

This setting here cleared up the low audio many were experiencing:

https://trac.mpc-hc.org/ticket/5935

By transfer with your LG BD drive do you mean read and write rates? 

[dbminter]

No, I never did any kind of tweaking to MPC-HC settings because I never found a reason to dislike the results I was getting.

 

I have, though, found 2 LAV filter bugs that I let the K-Lite Codec Pack forum know of.    Twice in a while, a bug would slip in in the LAV filter where no DVD Video input would play!    After installing each update individually to find the culprit, it was the LAV filter updates.  Thankfully, that hasn't happened in a while.

 

Yes, by transfer, I mean popping in a disc into my slim model LG BD drive, opening File Explorer, and copying contents from discs to HDD.  I rarely use it to write discs because, as a slim model, my tests bore out what was said on these forums that slim models are junk.  I tried writing a small CD sized ISO to a DVD+RW and it failed Verify! 

[dr_ml422]

Well if your audio is low or if you haven't noticed that it's been, just try those audio settings and you're going to see a significant difference in sound and play back with the audio. Buy slim model not being any good are you referring to a slim BD drive? Because my LITEON slim external DVD writer is excellent.