weird dark ring near center of dye

[Dimentox]

Hi, I've been searching all over for a possible answer to this but I don't know exactly how to describe it.. Basically the problem happens on 4X discs (it happened on RITEK 4x, Princo 4x, and now DupEZ 4x printable - all from rima). NOTE: This problem doesn't happen every single time but about 50-60% of the time..
Also note: I have never seen this "dark ring" on any of my 1x discs (I've burned several hundred 1x discs without a problem.. And I can still burn 1x discs without this dark ring appearing)

So now the problem:

I look at the DVD dye before burning and it looks fine.
I then go and burn the DVD at 4x with my pioneer A05 (i was using the 1.33RPC 2x4all firmware)
after the DVD says it has been burned successfully, I look at the dye and about halfway into the dye I see a dark ring. It is about 2-3mm in width and it goes completely around the DVD.

Now, sometimes the disc will be playable but in a couple cases (both Princo's) the dvd will skip and/or freeze around that portion of the disc. Of course I'm estimating where it is on the disc when it freezes but it seems logical that that's the place where it freezes considering the time of the movie is roughly halfway and that's about where this dark section is.

Anyway, so my question is whether or not this is a hardware issue or firmware issue.. I was thinking about trying to put an authorized pioneer firmware on to see if that helps. Any idea if this would help? If it's a hardware issue, then it's ok since I do have an extended warranty on this.

Please let me know what you think. Also, if you know of any other posts on this subject please let me know.
Thanks!

UPDATE: I tried putting the official Pioneer 1.33 firmware and the dark ring still shows up on some burns. So I don't think it's firmware that is the problem.. Is it possible it's the burner?
Has anyone else had this problem??

[atreides93]

So only the Princo's freeze or have problems when you play back the movie?? Not surprising :)

Have you tried running nero cd speed test to test these disks? It may show a huge decrease in speed near the middle of the disk. It would be interesting to know the results between the various brands you saw this one. It does seem like maybe your burner is acting up... I don't have a 4x burner but I'm getting a 1300A pretty soon so I'll post if I notice similar rings.

[Dimentox]

Thanks for the response. To be honest I haven't tried playing the other brands since I had just assumed that this dark ring shouldn't be there as I had burned a Pioneer 4x disc without it appearing. (I also assumed that these other discs would have playback problems because of this dark area). NOTE: The dye on the 4x Pioneer disc burned at 4x was consistent with my 1x discs. Just a note that I'm able to burn at 2x on these 4x discs with my burner without the dark ring appearing. So at least I have a temporary workaround until I can determine the problem.

To make things even more strange, I tried a couple other things:

1) I installed a new Pioneer A05 in this machine (same problem)
so this led me to believe that maybe it was the O/S or something (some sort of conflicting software or whatever) -- this led me to
2) I installed the old drive in another computer -- and guess what.. same problem :(

Anyways, I will try running Nero Speed test on all of these brands of disks and post the results. I'll also run Nero Speed test on a couple of the dvds that I burned at 2x for comparison. Not sure when I'll have time, but I'll post when I do.

Thanks again.

Originally posted by atreides93
So only the Princo's freeze or have problems when you play back the movie?? Not surprising :)

Have you tried running nero cd speed test to test these disks? It may show a huge decrease in speed near the middle of the disk. It would be interesting to know the results between the various brands you saw this one. It does seem like maybe your burner is acting up... I don't have a 4x burner but I'm getting a 1300A pretty soon so I'll post if I notice similar rings.

[atreides93]

Ok I burned my first Ritek G04 4X disc last night. It doesn't have the ring you described though. I also tried CD speed on it, and it had 0 errors. I'm going to try it with a 2nd disc now.

[maa]

The ring is quite standard on DVD -R something to do with copyright if I remember rightly...

[Dimentox]

Hi, are you saying that you see this dark ring on all of your burned discs? I only see it on some of the discs that I burned at 4x. If I burn at 1x or 2x I don't see this dark ring..

Please let me know.

Originally posted by maa
The ring is quite standard on DVD -R something to do with copyright if I remember rightly...

[Dimentox]

Hi,

On the Ritek G04 that I had burned, the dark ring was a little harder to notice since the dye is very dark. You also need to look at the disc at various angles to see it. Or there's the possibility that maybe you won't see it. I noticed that not all of my 4x burns ended up showing the dark ring.

But as you requested, I ran DVDSpeed test on a non-princo disc (Ritek G04) that I burned at 4x which also has the dark ring. The test ran perfectly. The speed was constantly increasing (no dips) and the RPM's were a horizontal straight line.. So I guess the dark ring doesn't really effect playback.. I guess the princo's were the only problem. I'll try a couple other brands that have the dark ring showing after the burn just to make sure.

Originally posted by atreides93
Ok I burned my first Ritek G04 4X disc last night. It doesn't have the ring you described though. I also tried CD speed on it, and it had 0 errors. I'm going to try it with a 2nd disc now.

[maa]

I know I read something about this somewhere, +R doesn't have a ring.
I just checked my new discs and all the -R has a clearly visible ring...