Weird blu-ray burning problem

[JimmyBarnes]

I burn my Blu-ray backup rips to BD-R 25GB.

Being a purist, I am not content to simply accept "Burn successfully completed". I use a utility to do a binary compare of the source files on HD and the ones on the newly burned BD-R.

While often the files on HD and BD-R match exactly, too often 1 or maybe 2 files are different - the utility is able to show which sections differ and display the relevant bytes.

Discs: Verbatim BD-R 25GB 4x (96434 or 96769)
Burners: Pioneer BDR-202BK or BDR-205BK (firmware 1.08 for both)
Burning programs: Power2Go 5.5.1.4522a(BD) or ImgBurn

The problem occurs with any combo of the above, burning at 2x or 4x. My PC uses Core2Duo E8400 3.16GHz, 4GB RAM, WinXPPro SP3 and functions well (I am touching my head as I write this..)


The source HD does not show any errors when CHKDSK /f is run on it. Have tried a different physical HD but got the same problem.

Stranger still, on at least 3 occasions, if I copied the different file on BD-R back to HD, then compared it with the original file on HD, the two were identical! (what the...), but this is not always so and the binary compare utility (Beyond Compare 2.4) is quite emphatic re differences, and even able to show the different sections (as I said before).

Beyond Compare has never indicated a consistent problem like this with any other burns I have done to CD or DVD - files burned from HD to disc are monotonously identical on HD and disc.

Anyway before I slash my wrists, I thought I would try the wisdom of the forum..

TIA

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You do realise the ImgBurn does a binary compare as part of it's verify phase yeah?!

If there are differences you'll get a 'Miscompare' error and it'll tell you exactly where (sector wise) the problems is and which file that sector is part of.

[Ghitulescu]

It happened to mee, too, but for DVDs (DVD DL actually). I traced the problem down to the interface (I use USB->SATA interfaces, as I can't otherwise connect my 5.25" drives to the laptop). People reported issues with CDs in ISO9660 mode with FireWire (and Oxford chips).

And yes, strange enough, bitcompares outside ImgBurn were successful.

[JimmyBarnes]

It happened to mee, too, but for DVDs (DVD DL actually). I traced the problem down to the interface (I use USB->SATA interfaces, as I can't otherwise connect my 5.25" drives to the laptop). People reported issues with CDs in ISO9660 mode with FireWire (and Oxford chips).


Looks like the problem lies in the utility itself. Have been using Beyond Compare 2.4.3 for years, tried last in BC2 series BCv2.5.3 => same prob

But latest BC 3.1.11 does not indicate a problem. Also if I disable disk caching in BC2.4.3/2.5.3, the problem goes away.
Why it only flags a problem with certain files on certain BD-R burns is still somewhat of a mystery to me..

And yes, strange enough, bitcompares outside ImgBurn were successful.

Good to know that other ppl also do binary compares..

[JimmyBarnes]

You do realise the ImgBurn does a binary compare as part of it's verify phase yeah?!

If there are differences you'll get a 'Miscompare' error and it'll tell you exactly where (sector wise) the problems is and which file that sector is part of.

I am wary of verifies where the program does not first eject and reload the disk (Nero used to a long time ago, but no longer does).

At least some of the disk content seems to remain cached in such a case, so such a compare may not be valid.

[DonQ]

Maybe completely unrelated, but I had once such kind problem with old'n'good CD burning - for few cases some bits failed to verify. It was new, just assembled PC; after some tests (memtest86+) it revealed that RAM timings were a bit off (or at least motherboard didn't like factory presets). There were absolutely no other visible signs of RAM problems, everything worked well.

[JimmyBarnes]

Maybe completely unrelated, but I had once such kind problem with old'n'good CD burning - for few cases some bits failed to verify. It was new, just assembled PC; after some tests (memtest86+) it revealed that RAM timings were a bit off (or at least motherboard didn't like factory presets). There were absolutely no other visible signs of RAM problems, everything worked well.

Bit OT, but how did you find out what the correct timings were?

And how did you subsequently adjust them?

[DonQ]

OT, but I just increased CL from factory 2.5 to usual fail-safe 3.0 for cheap Apacer memory (old'n'good DDR times, we had lot of experience with different RAM sticks) in BIOS, no more tweaks were needed.
To diagnose memory problems, use good memory test and if it errors, research hardware forums for fail-safe defaults for your motherboard and RAM type. I've almost no experience with DDR2/DDR3, thereby cannot recommend anything fail-safe here currently.