cvmanjoo Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 Hello, I got 16D1HT Blu writer from a friend who was upgrading to his chassis which does not have 5.25 Drive. (I didn't have an option to choose a drive.) After I got, I looked into reviews here and realised This particular drive have an is issue with re writable disc. as per the following post with was posted in 2016 Is this issue has been solved after these many years? I'm not sure how to check hardware revision but drive is manufactured in March 2023. And has a firmware 3.11 out of the box. Just want to confirm before throwing DVD-RWs to Bin. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted December 30, 2023 Share Posted December 30, 2023 3.11?! Intersting. ASUS appears to have updated the firmware, but NOT provide a firmware update package for updating drives with. I have since tried that ASUS after posting that review. When I did test the most recent ASUS I got, the firmware was 3.10. On 3.10, it was borked with DVD+R DL media. It failed to Verify at the Layer change on quality MKM discs. Just for my own piece of mind, would you open ImgBurn with this ASUS attached and copy and paste the Devices Found list from the log upon opening ImgBurn? I want to make sure what it says for the device string and firmware string. If there is a 3.11 firmware for this drive, I may invest in testing it out again. See if they fixed the deal killer with DVD+R DL. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 Thank you for your interest. Here is log you asked for. I 09:42:40 ImgBurn Version 2.5.8.0 started! I 09:42:40 Microsoft Windows 8 Professional x64 Edition (6.2, Build 9200) I 09:42:40 Total Physical Memory: 16,600,288 KiB - Available: 7,882,936 KiB I 09:42:40 Initialising SPTI... I 09:42:40 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 09:42:40 -> Drive 1 - Info: ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.11 (H:) (RAID) I 09:42:40 -> Drive 2 - Info: ASUS DRW-24D3ST 1.01 (I:) (RAID) I 09:42:40 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM and 1 BD-RE XL! I also attached photo of drive info and Drive Capabilities screenshot. What about this drive destroying DVD-RW and BD-RE discs? Is that fixed? I was planning to burn DVD-DL this week, I think I shouldn't do it 😂. I think for now Its best to stick with my old drive for successful DVD burn. If you want me to, I'm also okay to try this new drive for DVD-DL burning. Also, let me know if you need other info of this drive. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Thanks for all that info! If you're willing to possibly waste a DVD+R DL to test the ASUS 3.11 firmware with, by all means do so! Saves me having to buy it, test it, and possibly return it. If you do test, look for a failure to Verify at the Layer change, so make sure the image you burn is more than 4.7 GB. As for the destruction of DVD+RW and BD-RE, 3.10 apparently fixed those two issues. Those were the first two things I tested in 2019 when I tried updated firmware for that ASUS BD drive. It was when I tested DVD+R DL that I sent the drive back after it failed. In 2016, when the drive was relatively new, the first thing I tested was DVD+RW. I had a chance to write a BD-RE shortly after the DVD+RW failure so I decided to go ahead and try it in the ASUS as another test and it destroyed the BD-RE, too. If you test DVD+R DL and post the results, if you get it work without failure, I'd be inclined to try the drive again and run my battery of tests on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted December 31, 2023 Author Share Posted December 31, 2023 Here is the log you asked for. Its Succes! I 01:30:02 ImgBurn Version 2.5.8.0 started! I 01:30:02 Microsoft Windows 8 Professional x64 Edition (6.2, Build 9200) I 01:30:02 Total Physical Memory: 16,600,288 KiB - Available: 6,788,132 KiB I 01:30:02 Initialising SPTI... I 01:30:02 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 01:30:02 -> Drive 1 - Info: ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.11 (H:) (RAID) I 01:30:02 -> Drive 2 - Info: ASUS DRW-24D3ST 1.01 (I:) (RAID) I 01:30:02 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM and 1 BD-RE XL! I 01:32:49 Operation Started! I 01:32:49 Source File: F:\Ripped DVDs\The Batman (2022)\The Batman (2022) [DVD9].mds I 01:32:49 Source File Sectors: 3,869,472 (MODE1/2048) I 01:32:49 Source File Size: 7,924,678,656 bytes I 01:32:49 Source File Volume Identifier: The Batman (2022) I 01:32:49 Source File Volume Set Identifier: 579FBC50003B0B19 I 01:32:49 Source File Application Identifier: IMGBURN V2.5.8.0 - THE ULTIMATE IMAGE BURNER! I 01:32:49 Source File Implementation Identifier: ImgBurn I 01:32:49 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 01:32:49 Destination Device: [0:0:0] ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.11 (H:) (RAID) I 01:32:49 Destination Media Type: DVD+R DL (Disc ID: CMC MAG-D03-64) I 01:32:49 Destination Media Supported Write Speeds: 4x, 8x I 01:32:49 Destination Media Sectors: 4,173,824 I 01:32:50 Destination Media L0 Data Zone Capacity: 2,086,912 (Changeable: Yes) I 01:32:50 Write Mode: DVD I 01:32:50 Write Type: DAO I 01:32:50 Write Speed: MAX I 01:32:50 DVD+R DL Reserve Track: No I 01:32:50 Link Size: Auto I 01:32:50 Lock Volume: Yes I 01:32:50 Test Mode: No I 01:32:50 OPC: No I 01:32:50 BURN-Proof: Enabled I 01:32:53 Write Speed Successfully Set! - Effective: 11,080 KB/s (8x) I 01:32:53 Optimal L0 Data Zone Capacity: 1,991,792 I 01:32:53 Optimal L0 Data Zone Method: Copied From Original Disc I 01:32:53 Set L0 Data Zone Capacity Succeeded! I 01:32:53 L0 Data Zone Capacity - Effective: 1,991,792 I 01:32:53 Filling Buffer... (80 MiB) I 01:32:54 Writing LeadIn... I 01:33:24 Writing Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 3869471) I 01:33:24 Writing Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 3869471) I 01:33:24 Writing Layer 0... (LBA: 0 - 1991791) I 01:41:31 Writing Layer 1... (LBA: 1991792 - 3869471) I 01:48:49 Synchronising Cache... I 01:48:50 Closing Track... I 01:48:52 Finalising Disc... I 01:50:12 Exporting Graph Data... I 01:50:12 Graph Data File: C:\Users\Manjunath\AppData\Roaming\ImgBurn\Graph Data Files\ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.11_01-JANUARY-2024_01-32_AM_CMC_MAG-D03-64_MAX.ibg I 01:50:12 Export Successfully Completed! I 01:50:12 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:17:22 I 01:50:12 Average Write Rate: 8,375 KiB/s (6.2x) - Maximum Write Rate: 10,976 KiB/s (8.1x) I 01:50:12 Cycling Tray before Verify... W 01:50:20 Waiting for device to become ready... I 01:50:31 Device Ready! I 01:50:36 Operation Started! I 01:50:36 Source Device: [0:0:0] ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.11 (H:) (RAID) I 01:50:36 Source Media Type: DVD+R DL (Book Type: DVD-ROM) (Disc ID: CMC MAG-D03-64) I 01:50:36 Source Media Supported Read Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x I 01:50:36 Source Media Supported Write Speeds: 4x I 01:50:36 Source Media Sectors: 3,869,472 (Track Path: OTP - L0: 1,991,792 - L1: 1,877,680) I 01:50:36 Source Media Size: 7,924,678,656 bytes I 01:50:36 Image File: F:\Ripped DVDs\The Batman (2022)\The Batman (2022) [DVD9].mds I 01:50:36 Image File Sectors: 3,869,472 (MODE1/2048) I 01:50:36 Image File Size: 7,924,678,656 bytes I 01:50:36 Image File Volume Identifier: The Batman (2022) I 01:50:36 Image File Volume Set Identifier: 579FBC50003B0B19 I 01:50:36 Image File Application Identifier: IMGBURN V2.5.8.0 - THE ULTIMATE IMAGE BURNER! I 01:50:36 Image File Implementation Identifier: ImgBurn I 01:50:36 Image File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 01:50:36 Read Speed (Data/Audio): MAX / MAX I 01:50:37 Read Speed - Effective: 5x - 12x, 12x - 5x I 01:50:37 Verifying Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 3869471) I 01:50:37 Verifying Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 3869471) I 01:50:37 Verifying Layer 0... (LBA: 0 - 1991791) I 01:56:24 Verifying Layer 1... (LBA: 1991792 - 3869471) I 02:01:42 Exporting Graph Data... I 02:01:42 Graph Data File: C:\Users\Manjunath\AppData\Roaming\ImgBurn\Graph Data Files\ASUS_BW-16D1HT_3.11_01-JANUARY-2024_01-32_AM_CMC_MAG-D03-64_MAX.ibg I 02:01:42 Export Successfully Completed! I 02:01:42 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:11:05 I 02:01:42 Average Verify Rate: 11,655 KiB/s (8.6x) - Maximum Verify Rate: 17,726 KiB/s (13.1x) I was so anxious for burning this disc. Both Drive and Disc I choose to burn was risky Please update me here, when you do the complete re-testing of this drive. Thank you for you and your team (If it exits) for still looking after imgburn App. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Thanks! That really helps! And you even used the cheaper CMC media. However, I still need to test with MKM-003 DVD+R DL. The firmware may be fine with CMC media but may be borked with MKM. Still, it's good news going forward for testing again. I've bookmarked one of these ASUS drives for June. That's the soonest I can free up $99 to test it again. I'll update my original thread with those results IF I get a 3.11 drive. I should update my original review post to reflect the 2019 tests I ran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 (edited) Thank you. I will be looking out for your review. Edited January 1 by cvmanjoo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 It's possible I might be able to get one this month. Depends on if something I am expecting to come out this month that will cost me $79 is released or not. It's been delayed twice now since November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 1 Author Share Posted January 1 Oh, that's nice. Can't wait for your complete review. Can you please guess or confirm the following are MKM discs? https://www.amazon.in/Verbatim-8-5GB-Layer-Printable-64308/dp/B07R9PKXSX I don't like printable discs, but It's the only model available in stock. It's really hard to find the DVD+DL here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 No, those are CMC. Anything from Verbatim that says LifeSeries is CMC junk. All LifeSeries CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD+R DL are CMC media. Only DataLife Plus/AZO from Verbatim is MKM/MCC media. Hm, it's interesting you can't get the MKM media in India. The MKM's are made in the UAE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 I found half spindle of following discs in my closet, are they and good? Disc says Its Sony but MID says its Moser Baer, how this is even possible? ASUS BW-16D1HT 3.11 (RAID) Current Profile: DVD+R DL Disc Information: Status: Empty State of Last Session: Empty Erasable: No Free Sectors: 4,173,824 Free Space: 8,547,991,552 bytes Free Time: 927:32:74 (MM:SS:FF) Next Writable Address: 0 MID: MBIPG101-R10-65 Supported Read Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 11x, 13x Current Read Speed: 5x - 13x, 13x - 5x Physical Format Information (ADIP - L0): Disc ID: MBIPG101-R10-65 Book Type: DVD+R DL Part Version: 1 Disc Size: 120 mm Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified Number of Layers: 2 Track Path: Opposite Track Path (OTP) Linear Density: 0.293 um/bit Track Density: 0.74 um/track First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608 Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 16,580,607 Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 2,283,519 Physical Format Information (ADIP - L1): Disc ID: MBIPG101-R10-65 Book Type: DVD+R DL Part Version: 1 Disc Size: 120 mm Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified Number of Layers: 2 Track Path: Opposite Track Path (OTP) Linear Density: 0.293 um/bit Track Density: 0.74 um/track First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608 Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 16,580,607 Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 2,283,519 Physical Format Information (Last Recorded - L0): Disc ID: MBIPG101-R10-65 Book Type: DVD+R DL Part Version: 1 Disc Size: 120 mm Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified Number of Layers: 2 Track Path: Opposite Track Path (OTP) Linear Density: 0.293 um/bit Track Density: 0.74 um/track First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608 Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 16,580,607 Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 2,283,519 Physical Format Information (Last Recorded - L1): Disc ID: MBIPG101-R10-65 Book Type: DVD+R DL Part Version: 1 Disc Size: 120 mm Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified Number of Layers: 2 Track Path: Opposite Track Path (OTP) Linear Density: 0.293 um/bit Track Density: 0.74 um/track First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608 Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 16,580,607 Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 2,283,519 Also, I'm not able to find BD-REs here. If it's available, then it's too expensive. I could get this Even though I'm not fan of Inkjet surface. https://www.amazon.in/Verbatim-Rewritable-Blueray-Original-Spindle/dp/B0056DUNLW/ Just looking for your opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 Many manufacturers don't make their own media. They farm out to other optical disc manufacturers. For instance, many companies farm out to CMC. Even quality Verbatim DataLife Plus/AZO media is farmed out to Mitsubishi. The only quality manufacturer of DVD+R DL is Verbatim DataLife Plus/AZO MKM media made by Mitsubishi. Everyone else is basically trash. I've never used any Moser Baer media as I believe that's mostly in countries outside of the US, where I live. But, they're generally known for being lesser quality media. Better than CMC, maybe, but still pretty low quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 Thank you got it. How about BD-RE I mentioned in the above post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 Oh, sorry. I forgot about the BD-RE question. I've used those before, but I am not certain as to their quality. When I used to use them, I'd write stuff that was a yearly backup to them. Then, I'd go in the next year to replace the contents and they'd fail to write after a year. Now, I don't know if that's down to the LG WH16NS60 or not. I know the NS40 used to fail 9 times out of 10 to write properly to BD-RE DL and BD-R DL. But, it's been some years since I last used that model and it has had firmware updates since I last had one that might have addressed these issues. I really only ever used BD-RE DL for yearly backups. I abandoned BD-RE DL some years ago in favor of flash thumb drives and then replaced those with USB SSD's. They're much faster at writing and have much higher capacities available to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 3 Author Share Posted January 3 Thank you 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I've got some bad news about that ASUS unit. I e-mailed ASUS about if 3.11 was available only as a from the factory application. They, naturally, didn't answer me directly. What they did say is worth noting, though: "This unit is end of life, which means there will be no future updates for this device bios or firmware." Which means if 3.11 has any borks in it, they will never be fixed. Which also means that, soon, you can't get any more units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 I went ahead and ordered one. Amazon.com dropped from 20 left in stock 2 days ago, to 11 left yesterday, to 7 today. They said more were on the way, but if ASUS were to discontinue it, I may not get it. So, I decided to go ahead and carry over the charge on my credit card. I'll report back my findings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 Oh, that's Sad! Is New model of Blu-ray drive is coming or it's an end of Discs Era? Hopefully drive is good. I didn't find any problems with drive, yet. Nice that you are getting a drive soon. Is that new drive you are getting is 3.11 for sure? As we cannot the flash the drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 ASUS didn't inform me of anything else beyond that single sentence I copied and pasted. So, I don't know if ASUS has a new BD model coming out, but I would doubt it, given how little demand there is for optical discs anymore. I can't guarantee I'll get a 3.11 drive. The good thing about Amazon is they have very good return policies for drives where the firmware borks something. And, if I get a 3.10 drive, it does go back to Amazon, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 5 minutes ago, dbminter said: ASUS didn't inform me of anything else beyond that single sentence I copied and pasted. So, I don't know if ASUS has a new BD model coming out, but I would doubt it, given how little demand there is for optical discs anymore. Agreed 4 minutes ago, dbminter said: I can't guarantee I'll get a 3.11 drive. The good thing about Amazon is they have very good return policies for drives where the firmware borks something. And, if I get a 3.10 drive, it does go back to Amazon, of course. Then okay. What is the best drive at this point of time? If this drive is broken, I thought of buying another one and preserve it for long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Well, the "best" is really the best of the worst. The one with no deal killers was the LG WH6NS60, but they stopped manufacturing of that. So, the next best bet is the WH16NS40, but last time I used that years ago, it failed to properly write to BD-R DL and BD-RE DL. However, firmware updates have been released since then which may have addressed the issue. Also, both the NS40 and NS60 only wrote to 12x BD-R even when it said it would write at 16x. The Pioneer BDR-213 MIGHT have the potential to be the next go to drive IF they fix the current issues with the firmware and DON"T regress the 8x DVD+RW borking like they did 2 firmware revisions ago. 8x DVD+RW resumed writing okay, BUT after writing to one at 8x, all subsequent writes to the same disc were only at 6x. And 8x DVD+R DL only write at 2.4x. IF Pioneer can address these issues and DON'T regress the 8x DVD+RW firmware so it doesn't bork writing again, then the 213 has the potential to be my next BD go to drive. I'm waiting for the next firmware update. Pioneer generally releases the 213 updates every 6 months, and the last one was September 20th. So, if Pioneer updates the firmware, I'll get another 213, update the firmware, and put it through the usual battery of tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 4 Author Share Posted January 4 In India, I can get LG WH16NS40 easily. I don't think so I can get Pioneer BDR-213. Will see how your test go on our present ASUS BW-16D1HT, if possible, I will test the same test case as yours which broke. Then I will go on with in search of new drive. I think getting another ASUS drive is also difficult now. As my friend remember this was the last drive from that shop. For now, I'm just waiting for your new drive to get delivered Please do update me. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 It's been shipped and should be delivered tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbminter Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Interesting. According to ASUS, there is NO 3.11 firmware! "The firmware 3.10 is the latest for this unit theres no 3.11 made for this product unfortunately." I can only think your 3.11 firmware is custom brew designed to workaround some copy protection features. Or ASUS could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvmanjoo Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 4 hours ago, dbminter said: It's been shipped and should be delivered tomorrow. Good news. 4 hours ago, dbminter said: Interesting. According to ASUS, there is NO 3.11 firmware! "The firmware 3.10 is the latest for this unit theres no 3.11 made for this product unfortunately." I can only think your 3.11 firmware is custom brew designed to workaround some copy protection features. Or ASUS could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. Hmmm! Strange! According make MKV forums 3.11 is an encrypted firmware. Not sure about change log. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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