Errors during verification stage when writing to a BD-R

[Neil Sherin]

Hi,

I recently picked up a Pioneer BDR-209 drive and have connected it up using a S-ATA To USB adaptor along with an external power supply.

Burning CD-Rs and DVD-Rs is not an issue. However, whenever I try to write to a BD-R disc - even setting the drive to 2X, the write process completes successfully but then fails during the verification process.

The ISO image that I created and then burnt contained a bunch of ISO images and I cannot even copy them back to my PC directly off the disc.

The discs were some I bought some time back - ImgBurn shows them as a Disc ID of PHILIP-R04-000. Could these be the culprit?

I tried flashing the drive to the latest firmware - it shipped with v1.50 and I flashed it to v1.52 but the issue still remains.

I have attached a log file showing multiple attempts.

I have also ordered 10 Verbatim BD-Rs off Amazon to see if they are any better - they should be here on Tuesday.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Many thanks,

Neil

ImgBurn.log

[dbminter]

I'd wait and see what your results are with the Verbatim BD-R first before I'd be worried about anything else.  I've never used nothing but Verbatim BD-R in many Pioneer BDR-2209 units and the 1 BD-209 that I had with very few issues.

 

However, it has to be said that Pioneer keeps borking their firmware releases for the BDR-2209.  That's why I no longer recommend their BD burners.  The latest 1.52 firmware destroys 6x Ritek DVD-RW and 8x Ritek DVD+RW will always fail Verify until the first write of these discs in another non Pioneer drive (Or a Pioneer with firmware 1.50.) is performed on them.

 

If you're adventurous and don't want to wait for those Verbatim to arrive, you can always try regressing the firmware back to 1.50 and see if you get better results.  1.50 was the last working firmware for that drive, IMO.  You'd have to snag the 1.50 firmware from firmwarehq, extract it with 7-Zip, and find online the tool to reflash older firmware to the Pioneer BDR-209.  It's some work, but there's information out there.  And, if you look around on this forum, I posted somewhere else how to regress firmware on a Pioneer BDR-2209.  I've done it a few times regressing borked firmware 1.32 and 1.33 back to 1.31 before 1.50 fixed all outstanding issues I had found.

 

Also, I've never used an SATA to USB adapter with a BDR-2209 before.  I've used VanTech and Other World Computing Mercury Pro ODD enclosures.  The VanTech is junk, but the Mercury Pro does the trick with one issue I encountered.  But, that's somewhat technical to get into.  It's definitely better than the VanTech, which drops communication randomly with the drive! 

[Neil Sherin]

Thanks for your detailed reply - I think before trying any reverting to firmware revisions, I'll wait for the Verbatim discs to show up. Might see if WH Smith have a single disc to try in town today - they'll be pricey enough for any more!

I'm suspecting it,'s the media as I left it writing to a BR-RE overnight and that write and verified fine.

I'll update when I have more progress!

[Neil Sherin]

I probably didn't mention clearly either that the problem with PHILIP -R04-00 discs occurs on both 1.50 and 1.52 firmware versions 

[dbminter]

To be honest, I wasn't sold on the firmware being the problem.  BD media has never been problematic over the firmware releases over the years.  It was DVD-/+RW.  So, don't worry about regressing the firmware as that won't help.  As I said, I'm more betting on the Verbatim BD-R media fixing the issue.

[Neil Sherin]

Thanks again for the reply!

Some good progress made - I had to go to town today, so picked up a spindle of Verbatim AZO BD-Rs from WH Smith - only £10.04, which I was very surprised, for 10 discs.

Did another burn of the ISO and verify and all went successfully - so it was down to suspect media! The discs that have been giving trouble are now in the bin where they belong!

I had cancelled the other discs after getting the ones today but have now reordered them as they are the non AZO type, so am interested to see how they perform.

[dbminter]

I really couldn't say.  Here in the US, we only have the one kind of Verbatim BD-R, which doesn't say anything about being AZO like some of their higher quality CD-R and DVD-/+R/R DL.  However, they seem to be of high quality because I rarely have write errors that aren't the result of bad/dying hardware.

 

At Office Depot here, they sell 10 packs of Verbatim BD-R for about $17. At the current exchange rate, that's about 13 Pounds.  So, you're getting better deals.  But, I get a better deal from Amazon.com ordering 25 of the same thing for $20.  I only get the Office Depot ones when I need some right away.

[Neil Sherin]

Sorry for not updating sooner - it's been a bit hectic here and I'd forgotten!

And the Verbatim BD-R discs were the non-AZO type from Amazon. They burn and verify fine.

I had some DVD+R DLs that I didn't realise were Ritek. They predictably did not work. Verbatim DVD+R DLs burn and verify fine.

I had a few BD-R DLs kicking around so tried one to test the drive - it burnt and verified fine. It was a CMC disc.

However, I've just bought a couple more to replenish my stock - they are US$6.60 per disc here in the UK, so I don't buy many at a time! They have turned out toe be Ritek. I haven't tried them yet as I don't want to waste a disc by just using it as a test burn. Given the issues with the BDR-209 and Ritek DVD media, do you think the BD-R DL ones will give an issue?

Edited March 25, 2019 by Neil Sherin

[dbminter]

The general rule of thumb is when you're dealing with multi-layer media, regardless of if it's DVD+/-R DL or BD-R/RE D/T/QL, Verbatim is the only consistent performance quality.  So, Ritek will be more iffy.  I'm surprised you got any kind of decent quality out of CMC DL media.  I wasn't even aware CMC made BD-R DL media.  Which will just cause me more worry whenever I should ever have to get some.  I've never used any before, just Verbatim and TDK BD-RE DL.

[Neil Sherin]

Thanks - I was surprised with the CMC. I think I won't rely on them or Ritek (if they work) for long-term storage and just buy a couple of Verbatim as and when I need them.

[dbminter]

Yeah, I wouldn't rely on CMC even if they do pass Write and Verify.  There would probably be playback issues and longevity issues.  I would think the CMC wouldn't last very long.  I know I had some Ritek DVD+R DL I was testing out because I found them in an Office Depot store.  They wrote fine, but, a year later, they weren't readable.