Pioneer BDR-206 fails verification at BD-R DL layer break in ImgBurn, but Windows Disc Image Burner works

[griff7337]

Hello,

I’m having a repeatable problem burning Verbatim BD-R DL discs with ImgBurn. The burn completes successfully, but verification fails immediately after the layer transition.

Hardware and media

• Pioneer BDR-206DBK
• Firmware: 1.56
• Drive label says manufactured March 2024
• Vantec NexStar DX2 USB 3.0 optical-drive enclosure
• Verbatim 50 GB BD-R DL, rated 8x
• Media ID: VERBAT-IMf-000
• Windows 11

 

ImgBurn failure

I have tried:

• Multiple brand-new discs from the same spindle
• Multiple unrelated Blu-ray 3D ISOs
• 2x and 4x write speeds
• A generic powered SATA-to-USB adapter
• The Vantec enclosure specifically designed for 5.25-inch optical drives
• Different USB ports

The burn itself completes and finalizes normally. Verification consistently fails at or just after the start of layer 1:

Verifying Layer 0... LBA: 0 - 12219391
Verifying Layer 1... LBA: 12219392 - ...

Failed to Read Sectors 12219424 - 12219455
Reason: L-EC Uncorrectable Error

 

Other attempts failed around:

LBA 12219456

 

So the failure is always within the first few sectors of the second layer.

Some of the failed-verification discs appear to play through the entire movie normally, although one separate PowerISO attempt failed during writing and produced an unusable second layer.

 

Important new result

I burned another BD-R DL ISO using the built-in Windows Disc Image Burner, with:

• The same Pioneer drive
• The same Vantec enclosure
• The same Verbatim spindle
• The same computer and USB setup

Windows completed both the burn and its full verification successfully.

That suggests the drive, enclosure, and media can produce a valid BD-R DL, but ImgBurn’s write process consistently creates unreadable sectors at the layer transition.

The Pioneer also successfully backed up an entire pressed dual-layer Blu-ray using MakeMKV without any read errors.

 

Questions

Is there any known ImgBurn-specific issue involving:

• Pioneer BDR-206 drives
• VERBAT-IMf-000 media
• BD-R DL layer transitions
• SPTI versus Windows IMAPI
• OPC or another advanced ImgBurn setting
• USB optical-drive enclosures

I understand ImgBurn should theoretically be sending standard commands and that there should not be a major difference between burning an ISO with ImgBurn and Windows. However, the result is currently repeatable: ImgBurn fails at the layer break, while Windows burns and verifies successfully.

What logs or settings would be most useful to post for comparing the successful Windows burn against the failed ImgBurn burns?

[dbminter]

I am curious to follow up on your suggestion that it could be ImgBurn's writing process that is faulty, and it's always possible.  Since the built in Windows burning and verifying engine seems successful, I would be interested to see a manual Verify operation performed on one of these Windows burned BD-R DL's.  See if it fails around the layer change.  If it does, then the issue isn't the ImgBurn writing engine, since ImgBurn didn't write the disc, Windows did, but apparently ImgBurn's reading engine.

 

As for known issues with ImgBurn and the layer change with BD-R DL, it's a known issue that many users report with BD-R DL's, regarding the circumstances.  It seems that for the most part BD-R DL just isn't very reliable, regardless of hardware.  See my other testing thread for possible enabling Hardware error correction and other settings.  For instance, my best experience has been with Verbatim DataLife Plus BD-R DL and Ritek's in an LG WH16NS60 in the same VanTec enclosure you're using with ImgBurn burning at 2x only.

[griff7337]

53 minutes ago, dbminter said:

I am curious to follow up on your suggestion that it could be ImgBurn's writing process that is faulty, and it's always possible.  Since the built in Windows burning and verifying engine seems successful, I would be interested to see a manual Verify operation performed on one of these Windows burned BD-R DL's.  See if it fails around the layer change.  If it does, then the issue isn't the ImgBurn writing engine, since ImgBurn didn't write the disc, Windows did, but apparently ImgBurn's reading engine.

 

As for known issues with ImgBurn and the layer change with BD-R DL, it's a known issue that many users report with BD-R DL's, regarding the circumstances.  It seems that for the most part BD-R DL just isn't very reliable, regardless of hardware.  See my other testing thread for possible enabling Hardware error correction and other settings.  For instance, my best experience has been with Verbatim DataLife Plus BD-R DL and Ritek's in an LG WH16NS60 in the same VanTec enclosure you're using with ImgBurn burning at 2x only.

Thank you for the reply!

I manually verified the Windows-burned disc in ImgBurn against the original ISO, and it completed successfully:

Verifying Layer 0... LBA: 0 - 12219391
Verifying Layer 1... LBA: 12219392 - 16002559
Operation Successfully Completed

 

I’ll run another controlled ImgBurn burn at exactly 2x and report the full log. I previously selected 3x on one attempt, but the drive fell back to 2x and that disc still failed at the layer transition. I’ll repeat it deliberately at 2x with the current Vantec enclosure and no other disc software running.