Weird errors writing to layer 1 on BD-RE DL… this used to work!

[MrRom92]

Hello! I’m new to the forum, I’ve tried searching for a similar situation but I couldn’t find anything so I joined and figured I’d ask. I’ll try to lay it all out as clearly as possible, as I’m honestly stumped. 

 

About 6 years ago, I purchased an LG BE14NU40. This is an external USB Blu-Ray drive, and I used it for all sorts of functions. Burning and ripping blu-rays, burning M-Disc DVDs, and - primarily - ripping CDs with EAC. 

 

I love this drive. To say it got heavy use would be a vast understatement. I got about 4 years of constant use out of this drive. Must have ripped thousands of CDs. Real robust, it showed no signs of stopping, just kept on ticking… that is, until a disc I was ripping went and EXPLODED inside the drive. Well, that was the end of that. 

 

I went for a while simply using another drive I had handy, until several months ago it’s laser gave out. Cheap little slim laptop drive but all I needed it to do was rip CDs, and it did the trick for a while. At that point, I decided to finally replace my beloved LG drive with one of the same. Well, mostly the same. This time I got the LG WH14NS40, the keen-eyed among you will note this is the same drive that’s used in the external enclosure of the BE14NU40 I previously owned. I would still primarily be using it externally with a laptop as usual, but I figured by going with this instead, I would be able to insert it into the drive bay of a future PC build. As of now I am using it with an externally powered USB adaptor, so it is basically being used as an external drive. 

 

 

So, summary so far... had BD drive, went boom, replaced with (pretty much) same drive. Onward we go.

 

 

With my old drive, I would occasionally copy blu-rays, sometimes to a standard BD-R (or BD-R DL) to keep as a backup, and sometimes I would (gasp) download a rip and temporarily write it to a BD-RE DL just to watch it. I never had any trouble doing this. 

 

 

This isn’t something I’ve really tried at all in the past couple of years - certainly not since getting the new drive. But I recently got a hold of a very rare/expensive disc and wanted to burn a backup/playing copy. This is a process I’ve done before and know it worked.  But before committing to disc, I figured I’d to a test burn with the new drive and a BD-RE DL just to be sure. 

 

First test, was ripping and burning an iso of a single layer BD. I then burned it to this BD-RE DL disc - obviously only writing to layer 0. Everything worked as expected, the verification was successful, and the disc played back in my player.

Okay, so ripping BD worked, and burning BD worked... check. Now onto the rare disc I actually want to copy. This one is a 50gb dual-layer disc, so writing the ISO will actually require the BD-RE DL blank I’ve been using.  

 

 Oh, and for the record - the disc is TDK branded, and is mostly white but has some sort of small Japanese writing on it. As does the jewel case it came in. All in Japanese. I don’t think this was intended for the US market, not that it should matter but I figured I’d point that out.

The MID is TDKBLD-Wfa-000 - and again, I’ve used (essentially) the same drive to successfully write to both layers of this very disc in years past. It’s only supported write speed is 2X. 

 

 

So, here’s where my problems begin. Once I ripped the BD50 I intend to copy, I initiated the burn. It proceeds as expected and no errors or hiccups of any sort appear to happen during the burn.

 

The verification seems to proceed properly at first as well, but as soon as it hits that second layer… that’s where ImgBurn starts to choke and spit out I/O errors. It seems that it did not burn the disc successfully after all, despite not showing any signs of trouble during the writing process. 

 

 

 

Like like I said, with my old external drive, same laptop and the same exact disc, I had no trouble writing to both layers in years past. 

I’ve tried all I can think of, short of a laser lens cleaning disc, which I have somewhere downstairs and will try to find and use as a last resort. In the meantime, I’ve tried quick-erasing the disc, full-erasing the disc, writing the ISO with Nero, I updated the drive firmware, etc. nothing I do seems to make this work and I must have attempted this test burn a dozen times by now. Now I am hesitant to try it on real WORM BD-R DL media in the event that burning to the second layer of those also fails and results in expensive coasters, but I don’t know if this is just this particular disc or my drive. All I know is that I’ve used this very disc and a similar drive with success in the past  

 

 

Is it possible the disc is just old? I have battered 20+ year old CD-RW discs that I must have used hundreds of times that are still good and result in error-free burns. This isn’t nearly as old. And the first layer is able to be written to and read without error, as proved by me ripping and burning a copy of a single layer blu ray disc.

 

 

so... what could be happening here? 

 

 

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Lots of info there, but not the one thing we actually ask for.... the log

I'd say to get hold of another BD-RE DL and see if you run into the same problem. If you have the option of getting multiple discs, try and get ones with different MIDs. Maybe your drive will prefer one over the others. If it fails with all of them, you'll know it's most likely your drive at fault.

[MrRom92]

1 hour ago, LIGHTNING UK! said:

Lots of info there, but not the one thing we actually ask for.... the log

I'd say to get hold of another BD-RE DL and see if you run into the same problem. If you have the option of getting multiple discs, try and get ones with different MIDs. Maybe your drive will prefer one over the others. If it fails with all of them, you'll know it's most likely your drive at fault.

 

since i I had the external version of this drive before and it worked fine with this very disc, it’s all so confusing... I know some drives are picky with some media, but considering this combo worked fine for me in the past I’m not sure what could account for the variation. If it turns out the drive is faulty or a lemon I’m afraid I’m now out a few months past when I purchased it… oy.

 

in the meantime, here is the relevant portion of the log… sorry bout that…

[MrRom92]

Slightly edited to remove sensitive information, but you get the idea...

 

I 05:29:44 Operation Started!
I 05:29:44 Source File: C:\[REDACTED].ISO
I 05:29:44 Source File Sectors: 22,492,544 (MODE1/2048)
I 05:29:44 Source File Size: 46,064,730,112 bytes
I 05:29:44 Source File Volume Identifier: [REDACTED]
I 05:29:44 Source File Volume Set Identifier: 43394543 [REDACTED]
I 05:29:44 Source File Application Identifier: BluStreak Tracer 2.2(2
I 05:29:44 Source File Implementation Identifier: Rivergate Software Inc
I 05:29:44 Source File File System(s): UDF (2.50)
I 05:29:44 Destination Device: [0:0:0] HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH14NS40 1.01 (G:) (USB)
I 05:29:44 Destination Media Type: BD-RE (Disc ID: TDKBLD-Wfa-000)
I 05:29:44 Destination Media Supported Write Speeds: 2x
I 05:29:44 Destination Media Sectors: 24,438,784
I 05:29:44 Write Mode: BD
I 05:29:44 Write Type: DAO
I 05:29:44 Write Speed: MAX
I 05:29:44 Hardware Defect Management Active: No
I 05:29:44 BD-RE FastWrite: No
I 05:29:44 Link Size: Auto
I 05:29:44 Lock Volume: Yes
I 05:29:44 Test Mode: No
I 05:29:44 OPC: No
I 05:29:44 BURN-Proof: Enabled
I 05:29:44 Write Speed Successfully Set! - Effective: 8,992 KB/s (2x)
I 05:29:45 Filling Buffer... (800 MiB)
I 05:30:36 Writing LeadIn...
I 05:30:48 Writing Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 22492543)
I 05:30:48 Writing Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 22492543)
I 05:30:48 Writing Layer 0... (LBA: 0 - 12219391)
I 06:16:56 Writing Layer 1... (LBA: 12219392 - 22492543)
I 06:55:44 Synchronising Cache...
I 06:55:45 Exporting Graph Data...
I 06:55:45 Graph Data File: C:\Users\[REDACTED]\AppData\Roaming\ImgBurn\Graph Data Files\HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_WH14NS40_1.01_THURSDAY-JUNE-20-2019_5-29_AM_TDKBLD-Wfa-000_MAX.ibg
I 06:55:45 Export Successfully Completed!
I 06:55:45 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 01:26:01
I 06:55:46 Average Write Rate: 8,829 KiB/s (2.0x) - Maximum Write Rate: 8,927 KiB/s (2.0x)
I 06:55:46 Cycling Tray before Verify...
W 06:55:55 Waiting for device to become ready...
I 06:56:15 Device Ready!
I 06:56:19 Operation Started!
I 06:56:19 Source Device: [0:0:0] HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH14NS40 1.01 (G:) (USB)
I 06:56:19 Source Media Type: BD-RE (Disc ID: TDKBLD-Wfa-000)
I 06:56:19 Source Media Supported Read Speeds: 2x, 4.2x, 6.2x
I 06:56:19 Source Media Supported Write Speeds: 2x
I 06:56:19 Source Media Sectors: 24,438,784
I 06:56:19 Source Media Size: 50,050,629,632 bytes
I 06:56:19 Image File: C:\[REDACTED].ISO
I 06:56:19 Image File Sectors: 22,492,544 (MODE1/2048)
I 06:56:19 Image File Size: 46,064,730,112 bytes
I 06:56:19 Image File Volume Identifier: [REDACTED]
I 06:56:19 Image File Volume Set Identifier: 43394543 [REDACTED]
I 06:56:19 Image File Application Identifier: BluStreak Tracer 2.2(2
I 06:56:20 Image File Implementation Identifier: Rivergate Software Inc
I 06:56:20 Image File File System(s): UDF (2.50)
I 06:56:20 Read Speed (Data/Audio): MAX / MAX
I 06:56:20 Hardware Read Error Retries: 1
I 06:56:21 Read Speed - Effective: 2.6x - 6.2x, 6.2x - 2.6x
I 06:56:21 Verifying Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 22492543)
I 06:56:21 Verifying Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 22492543)
I 06:56:21 Verifying Layer 0... (LBA: 0 - 12219391)
I 07:18:12 Verifying Layer 1... (LBA: 12219392 - 22492543)
W 07:57:58 Miscompare at LBA: 12219520, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:57:58 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:57:58 Image File: 0x07
W 07:57:58 Total Errors in Sector: 2,040
I 07:57:58 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:00 Miscompare at LBA: 12219521, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:00 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:00 Image File: 0x88
W 07:58:00 Total Errors in Sector: 2,038
I 07:58:00 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:05 Miscompare at LBA: 12219522, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:05 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:05 Image File: 0x0A
W 07:58:05 Total Errors in Sector: 2,040
I 07:58:05 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:06 Miscompare at LBA: 12219523, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:06 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:06 Image File: 0x07
W 07:58:07 Total Errors in Sector: 2,043
I 07:58:07 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:07 Miscompare at LBA: 12219524, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:07 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:08 Image File: 0xED
W 07:58:08 Total Errors in Sector: 2,040
I 07:58:09 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:09 Miscompare at LBA: 12219525, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:09 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:09 Image File: 0x28
W 07:58:09 Total Errors in Sector: 2,040
I 07:58:10 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:10 Miscompare at LBA: 12219526, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:10 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:10 Image File: 0x07
W 07:58:10 Total Errors in Sector: 2,040
I 07:58:10 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:10 Miscompare at LBA: 12219527, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:10 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:10 Image File: 0x93
W 07:58:10 Total Errors in Sector: 2,040
I 07:58:10 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:10 Miscompare at LBA: 12219528, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:10 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:10 Image File: 0x7E
W 07:58:10 Total Errors in Sector: 2,038
I 07:58:10 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:10 Miscompare at LBA: 12219529, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:10 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:10 Image File: 0x07
W 07:58:10 Total Errors in Sector: 2,042
I 07:58:10 Verifying Sectors...
W 07:58:10 Miscompare at LBA: 12219530, Offset: 0, File: \BDMV\STREAM\00021.m2ts
W 07:58:10 Device: 0x00 (Empty Sector!)
W 07:58:10 Image File: 0x6E
W 07:58:10 Total Errors in Sector: 2,037
I 07:58:10 Verifying Sectors...

[dbminter]

How long have you used these TDK BD-RE DL?  I've found that those discs usually die after about a year, even when they've only been written to once.

 

Another possibility is the LG drive itself.  I don't know about the WH14NS40, but the WH16NS40 was nearly absolutely useless at writing BD DL media.  It would fail 8 times out of 10 to Verify, and usually always failing at the layer change.  And it wasn't just my experience.  One other person had the same results I did.

 

I fixed the problem by trying out the WH16NS60, which seems to work fine for DL media.  You can try that or a Pioneer BD drive to see if that helps if you want to invest more money into troubleshooting the issue.

 

Granted, the WH16NS40 wasn't returning Empty Sector errors in the Verify log like your drive is.

 

One thing you can try that the other person had some luck with and I had some INITIAL luck with is not burning an ISO.  Use the Write files/folders to disc option.  For some weird reason, that had better luck with the WH16NS40 than burning an ISO.  It SHOULDN'T have mattered a difference, but it apparently did.

[MrRom92]

13 minutes ago, dbminter said:

How long have you used these TDK BD-RE DL?  I've found that those discs usually die after about a year, even when they've only been written to once.

 

Another possibility is the LG drive itself.  I don't know about the WH14NS40, but the WH16NS40 was nearly absolutely useless at writing BD DL media.  It would fail 8 times out of 10 to Verify, and usually always failing at the layer change.  And it wasn't just my experience.  One other person had the same results I did.

 

I fixed the problem by trying out the WH16NS60, which seems to work fine for DL media.  You can try that or a Pioneer BD drive to see if that helps if you want to invest more money into troubleshooting the issue.

 

Granted, the WH16NS40 wasn't returning Empty Sector errors in the Verify log like your drive is.

 

One thing you can try that the other person had some luck with and I had some INITIAL luck with is not burning an ISO.  Use the Write files/folders to disc option.  For some weird reason, that had better luck with the WH16NS40 than burning an ISO.  It SHOULDN'T have mattered a difference, but it apparently did.

Thanks for the info and all the help, really appreciate it. I’m trying a different test right now, using Nero to try and write 50gb of random files to the disc and see if it verifies. Just to see if there is any similar error and rule out anything weird with that particular ISO. At only 2X speed, I should see what’s up in a couple of hours. 

 

 

Its interesting that these discs potentially fail and become unusable after some time. I purchased this particular disc in 2015. And like I said my last drive never had any trouble with it whatsoever, so... who knows. I’m willing to try out a new rewritable DL disc, is there one that’s currently considered “best” or at least most dependable? I’d guess something from Sony, but I don’t want to assume. I want something that’ll last a nice long time, though I guess the single layer rewritables probably last longer. I should probably just get one of those too. 

 

 

The WH16NS60 is my “dream” drive - planned to purchase it but haven’t gotten around to it, considered just biting the bullet when I needed a replacement but the prices on the 14NS40 were too low to ignore… will definitely be including one in my next PC tower though. Need to start backing up my meager 4K collection. 

[MrRom92]

36 minutes ago, dbminter said:

How long have you used these TDK BD-RE DL?  I've found that those discs usually die after about a year, even when they've only been written to once.

 

Another possibility is the LG drive itself.  I don't know about the WH14NS40, but the WH16NS40 was nearly absolutely useless at writing BD DL media.  It would fail 8 times out of 10 to Verify, and usually always failing at the layer change.  And it wasn't just my experience.  One other person had the same results I did.

 

I fixed the problem by trying out the WH16NS60, which seems to work fine for DL media.  You can try that or a Pioneer BD drive to see if that helps if you want to invest more money into troubleshooting the issue.

 

Granted, the WH16NS40 wasn't returning Empty Sector errors in the Verify log like your drive is.

 

One thing you can try that the other person had some luck with and I had some INITIAL luck with is not burning an ISO.  Use the Write files/folders to disc option.  For some weird reason, that had better luck with the WH16NS40 than burning an ISO.  It SHOULDN'T have mattered a difference, but it apparently did.

Thanks for the info and all the help, really appreciate it. I’m trying a different test right now, using Nero to try and write 50gb of random files to the disc and see if it verifies. Just to see if there is any similar error and rule out anything weird with that particular ISO. At only 2X speed, I should see what’s up in a couple of hours. 

 

 

Its interesting that these discs potentially fail and become unusable after some time. I purchased this particular disc in 2015. And like I said my last drive never had any trouble with it whatsoever, so... who knows. I’m willing to try out a new rewritable DL disc, is there one that’s currently considered “best” or at least most dependable? I’d guess something from Sony, but I don’t want to assume. I want something that’ll last a nice long time, though I guess the single layer rewritables probably last longer. I should probably just get one of those too. 

 

 

The WH16NS60 is my “dream” drive - planned to purchase it but haven’t gotten around to it, considered just biting the bullet when I needed a replacement but the prices on the 14NS40 were too low to ignore… will definitely be including one in my next PC tower though. Need to start backing up my meager 4K collection. 

 

 

Edit: Aaaaand the Nero test just failed too. So this should rule out the ISO. This time it didn’t even appear to write to the second layer, the burn failed immediately once it reached that point. ImgBurn on the other hand appeared as if it was burning away trouble-free, with no indication of a problem until the verification. 

Edited June 21, 2019 by MrRom92

[dbminter]

If you want a quality product, definitely DON'T get Sony.  Sony has made little but junk since 2002.  My first BD-RE SL was a Sony.  Died before its 5th write.  Bought a few Sony BD-R that were on sale at K-Mart.  Half of them failed during the burn stage.  I could go on and on about my experience with Sony trash since 2002, but I'll just say avoid them like the plague.

 

Your only other real option for BD-RE DL is Verbatim, however, be aware that TDK sometimes makes Verbatim's BD-RE DL, too.  So, it's a crap shoot, literally, as to what you'll get.

[MrRom92]

2 hours ago, dbminter said:

If you want a quality product, definitely DON'T get Sony.  Sony has made little but junk since 2002.  My first BD-RE SL was a Sony.  Died before its 5th write.  Bought a few Sony BD-R that were on sale at K-Mart.  Half of them failed during the burn stage.  I could go on and on about my experience with Sony trash since 2002, but I'll just say avoid them like the plague.

 

Your only other real option for BD-RE DL is Verbatim, however, be aware that TDK sometimes makes Verbatim's BD-RE DL, too.  So, it's a crap shoot, literally, as to what you'll get.

Not that my experience with anything Sony has been uniformly better, but they are responsible for most things pertaining to the Blu Ray standard… which, now that I think of it, might actually explain quite a bit  I suppose the Verbatim disc could be worth a shot for $10. Worst case scenario it doesn’t write, Amazon will probably be quick to refund. But if it ends up going bad on me too down the line then it completely negates the cost benefit of having a rewritable disc versus just a spindle of cheap write-once dual layers… 

 

 

on that note, I just got a spindle of cheap “Smartbuy” brand BD-R DLs, Ritek manufactured stuff, so… I initiated the burn with one of these at 2X, let’s see if a write-once disc fares any better than the TDK rewritable. 

[dbminter]

Yes, Sony pretty much made the Blu-Ray standard and here's stupid they were!  You can put BD Video content that fits on a DVD on a DVD and a Blu-Ray player will play it, but NOT the other way around!    You're VERY unlikely to find BD Video content that will fit on a DVD and you can always find a use for putting DVD-9 video content on a BD. 

 

And that's not to say Sony always made junk.  They made the first dual format DVD burner.  They made the (Fat, NOT the slim, model!) Playstation and Playstation 2.  They used to make their own quality DVD-R before outsourcing to 2nd tier Ritek.  It's just that Sony can NO LONGER make anything other than junk.

 

I've never written any BD DL media other than BD-RE, so, I couldn't say if BD-R DL will do any better in the WH14NS40.  But, you're probably less likely to get good results with DL Ritek media.  The only good DL manufacturer of DVD is Verbatim/Mitsubishi (Chemical Corporation).  So, I'd expect similar results with BD.  I had 3 Ritek Office Depot DVD+R DL I tried out as a test.  After a year, 2/3 of them were unreadable!    And I immediately transferred the still readable one to Verbatim/MKM (Mitsubishi) DVD+R DL.

[MrRom92]

4 minutes ago, dbminter said:

Yes, Sony pretty much made the Blu-Ray standard and here's stupid they were!  You can put BD Video content that fits on a DVD on a DVD and a Blu-Ray player will play it, but NOT the other way around!    You're VERY unlikely to find BD Video content that will fit on a DVD and you can always find a use for putting DVD-9 video content on a BD. 

 

And that's not to say Sony always made junk.  They made the first dual format DVD burner.  They made the (Fat, NOT the slim, model!) Playstation and Playstation 2.  They used to make their own quality DVD-R before outsourcing to 2nd tier Ritek.  It's just that Sony can NO LONGER make anything other than junk.

 

I've never written any BD DL media other than BD-RE, so, I couldn't say if BD-R DL will do any better in the WH14NS40.  But, you're probably less likely to get good results with DL Ritek media.  The only good DL manufacturer of DVD is Verbatim/Mitsubishi (Chemical Corporation).  So, I'd expect similar results with BD.  I had 3 Ritek Office Depot DVD+R DL I tried out as a test.  After a year, 2/3 of them were unreadable!    And I immediately transferred the still readable one to Verbatim/MKM (Mitsubishi) DVD+R DL.

The original fat release model 60gb PS3 was my primary Blu Ray player for well over 10 years. Since the day I bought it, it never worked to actually play a game (constant freezing/crashing after playing anything for more than a few minutes) but for movies, totally fine. I only retired it after getting an Xbox One X, for which I’m also re-buying some of the games I had for PS3 but couldn’t actually play…

[dbminter]

I had the exact opposite experience with the fat model PS3.  It played games fine but didn't play Blu-Ray movies out of the box!    So, I sent it in to Sony for replacement.  The unit they sent me in 2012 did work for playing Blu-Ray movies.  And, I have to admit, for the past 7 years, it's been a good video player.  Really surprised me that Sony could give me something that worked! 

 

And there's the horror story of the 2nd generation PS3 Blu-Ray remote.  It would constantly fail to work after about 30 days.  And it didn't just happen to me but pretty much on every review on Amazon.com.  I believe Sony DESIGNED it that way so it would die from planned obsolescence to force people to constantly replace it for as long as they were stupid enough to give their money to Sony's coffers. 

 

It was those 2 debacles that after years of other proof, finally convinced me that Sony is a crap company now.

[MrRom92]

6 hours ago, dbminter said:

I had the exact opposite experience with the fat model PS3.  It played games fine but didn't play Blu-Ray movies out of the box!    So, I sent it in to Sony for replacement.  The unit they sent me in 2012 did work for playing Blu-Ray movies.  And, I have to admit, for the past 7 years, it's been a good video player.  Really surprised me that Sony could give me something that worked! 

 

And there's the horror story of the 2nd generation PS3 Blu-Ray remote.  It would constantly fail to work after about 30 days.  And it didn't just happen to me but pretty much on every review on Amazon.com.  I believe Sony DESIGNED it that way so it would die from planned obsolescence to force people to constantly replace it for as long as they were stupid enough to give their money to Sony's coffers. 

 

It was those 2 debacles that after years of other proof, finally convinced me that Sony is a crap company now.

I’ve had this PS3 worked on by several different people, the board completely resoldered, everything you can possibly do... nobody has any idea why it just doesn’t effing work. I gave up on it like a decade ago and just stopped buying games for it. Wasting hundreds of dollars on a full Beatles rockband set I couldn’t use was the last straw. Luckily the ps1/ps2 backwards compatible games work fine, and I love a lot of those so... not all is lost, but anything PS3 is out of the question. Just not happening. 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I digress… the cheapo ritek “smartbuy” dual-layers worked fine, burned both ISOs in that set I ripped, both discs burned (at 2X) and verified without any issue. So I guess the TDK rewritable really is toast, or at least one of the layers anyway. Mystery solved!