2x burning problems - media / software?

[harry349]

I'm going to try to make this long story short without leaving out anything important, but I must warn you I'll probably fail miserably. Please bear with me.

I have a Pioneer DVR-A04. I have been using exclusively Optodisc DVD-R discs (cheap, 1x only) with Nero and have had success with it at 1x.

I recently purchased a 40-disc spindle of 2x TDK DVD-R discs. When I got the spindle I was disturbed to see the discs and spindle itself were entirely unmarked and unidentifiable as TDK. However once I opened it, Nero and other programs did identify the disc as TDK and allow me to burn at 2x.

Enter the primary problem. When I burn at 2x with Nero on the new discs, the hardware buffer meter for the drive "bounces" around between 10% - 95% during the course of the whole burn. Furthermore, a full DVD at 2x should burn in about 30 minutes, whereas my full burn took 45 minutes (too slow for 2x, too fast for 1x).

Someone on IRC suggested PrimoDVD or RecordNow Max instead of Nero. I tried both of these and neither one would burn these discs at all even at 1x. In fact, neither of those programs would burn my old Optodiscs either. Nero at least seems to work fine with both discs at 1x.

So I have a two-fold problem.
1. (Important) These discs might be bogus as I can't seem to burn them at 2x.
2. PrimoDVD and RecordNow won't burn anything. I don't care too much about this, but it makes me less confident of #1.

Has anyone seen any sort of similar problems or have any ideas what might be causing these problems?

TIA,
harry349

[alexnoe]

Activate DMA

[harry349]

Excellent suggestion, damn I should have thought of that. That could explain both problems.

I'll post again once I've had time to try it and let you know if that did the trick.

Thanks,
harry349

[gooki]

What colour is the dye on the underside of the "TDK" discs, light purple or dark purple?

Sounds like you could have faked TDK discs which are infact princo's.

[harry349]

I'm not sure I know what to compare it to, but I'd definitely call it light purple.

I think the discs are TDK (I talked to someone at TDK, and they verified that they do ship a 40-pack spindle of otherwise entirely unmarked discs).

I have turned DMA on (it was on for my DVD ROM and CD burner, but not my DVD burner, go figure) and since burned two discs flawlessly at 2x.

Thanks for your help guys.

harry349

[djadjet]

Believe it or not, Pioneer technical support recommends setting the DVRs in PIO mode and NOT using 80 wire UDMA cable.

Interesting!!??

[alexnoe]

The Pioneer DVR-A03 has a very "picky" interface, meaning that DMA mode may not work on any mainboard which is not within the specs.

The DVR-A04 has a new, but unfortunately broken, interface which mainly has the same problems as the DVR-A03 interface.

That's why it is recommended to use PIO if DMA does cause trouble.
However, you need an Intel chipset on your mainboard to use PIO for 2x writing.

[gooki]

harry349 what's the colour of the top of the discs?

It sounds very much like you have the princo's.