Having Trouble Reading Factory-Pressed DVDs? Here's My Story of Success

[TymerTopCat]

Recently, I faced a challenge trying to read and copy files from a factory-pressed DVD movie. The disc wasn’t copy-protected, was brand new, and in perfect condition.

The Problem

Using Windows 7 (and yes, I know some people suggest moving on, but I love Windows 7 for its speed and simplicity), I inserted the DVD into one of my drives. Nothing. The drive failed to display the directory or contents, and after some time, it simply gave up.

I tested the DVD in 15 different drives I already owned. A couple of them showed the directory tree but failed to copy any files—zero bytes were transferred.

The Solution

Frustrated, I purchased six additional DVD drives all different makes and models, including two from PIOData. Of these, one drive read the DVD perfectly on the first attempt. The other required a few tries before successfully displaying the directory and copying the files.

I’ve since built a collection of 25 different DVD/Blu-Ray drives, and it’s been a game-changer for stubborn discs.

Recommended Drives

Through trial and error, I found that two drives are particularly reliable for reading problematic discs:

• Pioneer USB External BDR-X13 (Firmware 1.04): This large-format External drive consistently reads discs that other drives fail to handle.
• I was so impressed with this Drive's ability to read problem discs, I bought another ($150.00 Each Damn!), the second drive failed to copy one disc that the first one I bought could, and it has the same firmware. Arrrrgh! Frustrating.
• PIOData Drives: These also perform exceptionally well, especially with discs that require multiple insertion attempts.

Takeaway

If you frequently deal with hard-to-read discs, having a variety of drives is essential. Some discs may only be readable by certain models. Fortunately, DVD/Blu-Ray/CD drives are still relatively inexpensive, so it’s worth investing in a diverse collection to ensure you can recover data when needed.

Edited December 8 by TymerTopCat

[dbminter]

Pioneer's are the best readers.  I've never had them fail to read a disc that other drives wouldn't when the disc was, in fact, actually readable.

 

Pioneer's, though, are useless for writing 8x DVD+RW.  (The 2213 writes to 8x DVD+RW, but it still needs a firmware update as it only writes to them at 6x max for the entire capacity write time.)  For more than 10 years, they've borked the firmware for those and REFUSE to address my repeated tech support attempts with them.  Pioneer's USED to work fine with them.

 

LG's are the worst readers I've found.  ASUS are pretty good, only failing on the odd disc here and there.  But, when LG's and ASUS fail, the Pioneer had read all fully readable discs.

[TymerTopCat]

Yeah, thanks for the info on the Pioneers for reading. I use Verbatim discs, so I don't have many write failures with good media on any drives. Reading discs is the most important thing for me as you can always re-burn a failed burn attempt.

I recently purchased 2 Lite-On drives, because I did not have many in my collection and because they were made in Taiwan. Other things built in Taiwan tend to be of High quality. 

Liteon DH-16AFSH PREMM2, (NV9W Firmware) (2020/01/08) - SATA

Liteon ATAPI iHAS324 F (CL8N Firmware) (2016/10/13) -SATA

The iHAS324 seems to be pretty bad at reading discs, I was quite disappointed.

The 16AFSH is a premium version. What ever that gets you. But if failed to read one of the problem discs that the Pioneer Drive could read perfectly. But I think it's a decent reader.

 

 

[dbminter]

Unfortunately, there's only one manufacturer left on 8x DVD+RW: Ritek.  And they're beginning to wrap up production on those.

 

Unfortunately, you can't always trust Verbatim either.  I had a recent batch of bad Verbatim quality BD-R.  They all completed writes and Verifies, but, within less than 5 days were either partially or completely unreadable.  So, I TRIED reburning the data, but some of it was corrupt and unrecoverable.  Luckily, I caught the bad batch within 3 months of using the last disc I'd burned and only less than 15 had been used.  Could have been worse.

[TymerTopCat]

So you like the  8x DVD+RW Ritek Media? 

I have been using Verbatim DVD+R (Dual Layer), pretty good luck with these. These seem to be +R version.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F2YPH2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

You claim only Ritek is still making them, but soon to wrap up production?

If so maybe I should try to get some before they become dead dinosaurs.

Any advice on Dual Layer DVD9 / DVD5 Media?

Edited December 10 by TymerTopCat
Added info

[dbminter]

I don't recommend any speed rewritable DVD for long term archival storage.  The only reason I use 8x DVD+RW is for temporary copies of data.  Short term storage or to shuttle between devices.  That's why I prefer 8x.  They write faster and since I only care about temporary archival storage, I like the speed advantage.

 

The last time I looked, I only found like 4 lots on eBay from Imation of 25 disc cake stacks.  Basically, I couldn't find any "new" in an online store.  Which was why I stocked up last time I found some on eBay and purchased like 200 blanks.

 

Basically, any of the DataLife Plus DVD+/-R SL/DL from Verbatim are what I've used for like 20 years now.  NOT the Life Series you find in brick and mortar stores.  Those are CMC Magentics media, the worst out there, which is ironic as CMC now OWNS Verbatim!  The DataLife Series are the MCC/MKM Mitsubishi high quality blanks that you generally only find in online stores like Amazon.com.