BD50 Coasters with ASUS BW-16D1HT

[DeathStalker]

Greetings!

I saw an older post regarding issues with this drive.  EVERYTHING burns fine, except BD50s (and no, they're not cheap garbage discs; ex, Disc ID: VERBAT-IMf-000, also tried CMCMAG-DI6-000).   90% of the time I get coasters 😞 

Here's the Family Tree -

I've tried burning them at the slowest speeds, and still no luck 😞   My firmware is clearly 3.03 - I know MakeMKV has a v3.10, but they don't say what the difference it makes.  Any ideas?  Also, the response I got from MakeMKV was "Terrible choice of drive for burning. LG & ASUS are absolute garbage when it comes to writing discs. Your best option for writing discs is to get yourself a Pioneer drive."   Not exactly helpful ........

Might I have better results with a different Interface?

Thanks!!!

--- DS

Edited May 21 by DeathStalker
Addt'l Info

[dbminter]

That firmware is ancient.  There is a 3.10 firmware.  Try updating to that and see if it makes a difference.

 

There actually is a firmware 3.11, but you can ONLY get that on factory shipped units.  The 3.10 firmware was the last package you could download.  The 3.10 firmware had an issue of its own, though.  It borked writing MKM 8x DVD+R DL, failing to Verify at the layer change.  The 3.11 firmware fixed that.

 

I never tested BD-R DL writing in the BW-16DHT as I've never burned a BD-R DL before.  I've only burned BD-RE DL in the LG WH16NS40 and NS60.  So, BD-RE DL testing was not something I did on the 16DHT when I tested it.

[DeathStalker]

Did 3.10 Bork anything else?  I only user DVD-R/DL discs, never + anymore.  I'm thinking of upgrading it to 3.10MK - but I don't know if there's a way to save the current firmware in case something goes wrong.  The 3.11 firmware is encrypted, and I don't know that there is a way to upgrade to that.

All I keep hearing (from another site) is that LG & ASUS drive are the worst for burning and get a Pioneer.

 

And now even just the discs themselves are being "blamed" - Guide - The long-lost feature or how to get better burn results with 50GB/100GB BD-R DL/TL | RedFox Forum

--- DS

[dbminter]

I stopped testing the 3.10 firmware after the DVD+R DL failure, so I can't say what else may not have worked.  And I can't recall what I tested before.  Probably 8x DVD+RW and MCC DVD-R.

 

Yes, the reason the 3.11 firmware was never released to the general public to update their drives was two fold: 1.) if they released an update package, it could be extracted and modified 2.) why let users update old drives when they can buy an all new one to fix the issues ASUS started?  There is no way to upgrade to 3.11 firmware other than by buying an all new drive with it installed from the factory.  ASUS has told me, though, that 3.11 is the end of life firmware and that that drive won't receive anymore firmware updates.

 

Pioneers are great drives if you never plan on burning 8x DVD+RW on any Pioneer drive or 8x DVD+R DL at anything other than 2.4x on the 2213.

 

Can't say what the performance of DVD-R DL is on the 2213.  I've not used any in like 10 years and I only used those as temporary storage as they weren't good for DVD Video.  After going through that batch I bought to try out, I never tested again.  So, depending on the manufacturer, 8x DVD-R DL might burn at 8x in the 2213.  However, I would be willing to wager that the quality DVD-R DL, if Verbatim still makes them, would behave the same way.

[DeathStalker]

I'm actually surprised that ASUS has not released a newer model in all these years.  I don't worry about ripping UHDs (which is what all the fuss on MakeMKV is all about) - I want to be able to effectively BURN a BD50 - nothing more than that.

 

I was hoping that @LIGHTNING UK! might be able to shed some light on the issue 🙂 

 

--- DS

[dbminter]

It was actually quite a surprise that Pioneer released the new 2213 model about 2 years ago.  No one else was releasing anything new and many were discontinuing optical drives because they're a dying breed.  There's little profit in them.  While there's still use and demand, it's not really enough to bother with.  So, companies simply don't care.  Another reason why firmwares are so borked, despite repeated e-mails to tech support stating the problems.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

If your drive can't produce a nice burn on the disc you're using at any of the speeds it claims to support burning them at, enabling defect management as per the thread you linked to on redfox forums might not be a bad shout.

Enabling the 'perform opc before write' option may or may not help too.

[DeathStalker]

Hmm, well not sure why, but I can't see the images on the RedFox page - for some reason I don't have permissions 😞  So I am unable to reproduce the "Defect Mgt" enablement.

@LIGHTNING UK! - what are your suggested settings for BD50s?  (I added OPC - thought I already had that)

Thanks!!!

--- DS