DVD Burners And What Do You Recommend?

[eluminator]

and crashed Windows XP twice. It's got the latest firmware update and the driver is good.

I guess it's not the LG drive. It could possibly be the enclosure. If you have any anti copy protection software installed, that could be it. There's also an ASPI driver involved and maybe that's at fault. Nero has a good one. If it's connected by USB or firewire, that driver could be at fault. The blue screen might have a clue.

I assume you didn't install an optical drive driver. I don't think that's ever necessary and it's usually a bad idea.

I never buy external drives. I always buy a good enclosure and put an internal drive in it. This is my favorite one, but the price keeps going up. I got mine for $19. It has a Cypress AT2+ chipset for the USB to PATA bridge. I have Lite-Ons in mine and they seem the least troublesome in external enclosures. These enclosures also work well for PATA hard drives.
http://dealsonic.com/usb20enfor52.html

Actually I'm done buying PATA drives. With SATA there is no bridge, it's straight thru SATA all the way. There's no difference between external and internal except, well, one is external.

 

[cmaylodm]

Get yourself a Lite-On drive. I paid $30 for their top of the line 48x CD-RW back in the day and it's still kicking, no problems whatsoever. I highly recommend the drives they make.

Make sure you get discs whose rated burning speeds aren't greater than what your burner can handle.

This makes no sense. If anything, you want to exceed the drives rated speed, as burning too fast on slow media will get you a whole lot of errors. Burning a little slower than the rated maxmium burn speed of the media won't cause any problems.

 

[Rayne]

I guess it's not the LG drive. It could possibly be the enclosure. If you have any anti copy protection software installed, that could be it. There's also an ASPI driver involved and maybe that's at fault. Nero has a good one. If it's connected by USB or firewire, that driver could be at fault. The blue screen might have a clue.

I assume you didn't install an optical drive driver. I don't think that's ever necessary and it's usually a bad idea.

I never buy external drives. I always buy a good enclosure and put an internal drive in it. This is my favorite one, but the price keeps going up. I got mine for $19. It has a Cypress AT2+ chipset for the USB to PATA bridge. I have Lite-Ons in mine and they seem the least troublesome in external enclosures. These enclosures also work well for PATA hard drives.
http://dealsonic.com/usb20enfor52.html

Actually I'm done buying PATA drives. With SATA there is no bridge, it's straight thru SATA all the way. There's no difference between external and internal except, well, one is external.

Well if it's not the LG drive, it must be me... I don't know what the anti copy protection software, ASPI driver or optical drive driver is. I do have Nero and used the device manager to update drivers. Might be something with the USB ports (non 2.0) too, updated those drivers the same way. I figured buying an external drive would be simpler (although more expensive) since you don't have to try to match an enclosure and drive together. I'll have to check out the internal drive/enclosure method one of these days.

 

[eluminator]

I don't know what the anti copy protection software, ASPI driver or optical drive driver is. I do have Nero and used the device manager to update drivers. Might be something with the USB ports (non 2.0) too, updated those drivers the same way.

If your USB is not 2.0, then I think it's too slow to do any DVD burning. It sounds like you have an old computer. You could try a PCI to USB 2.0 card, but if your computer is very slow, I wouldn't expect any 16x burns.

Normally I don't have to update any drivers, but maybe it is sometimes needed. Just curious, do you know what device needed drivers?

"anti copy protection software" was my clumsy way of referring to software like AnyDVD that allows the copying of protected discs. They burrow deep into the O.S. and if not configured right, can cause strange symptoms.

My ancient computer with USB 1 had some USB peculiarities.

 

[eluminator]

This makes no sense. If anything, you want to exceed the drives rated speed, as burning too fast on slow media will get you a whole lot of errors. Burning a little slower than the rated maxmium burn speed of the media won't cause any problems.

What I had in mind was someone with an old 8x burner trying to use 16x discs. That would probably produce bad results because the old burner wouldn't have the write strategy for any 16x discs.

 

[700club]

Dvdfab decrypter with Shrink and Nero have never failed me. I have backed up over 200 DVDs so I am not new to the game. I use a Lite-On drive with Verbatim Media and burn everything @ 8x. This forum will help you, they have wonderful tutorials to help you get started.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/

Have Fun!

 

[Rayne]

If your USB is not 2.0, then I think it's too slow to do any DVD burning. It sounds like you have an old computer. You could try a PCI to USB 2.0 card, but if your computer is very slow, I wouldn't expect any 16x burns.

Normally I don't have to update any drivers, but maybe it is sometimes needed. Just curious, do you know what device needed drivers?

"anti copy protection software" was my clumsy way of referring to software like AnyDVD that allows the copying of protected discs. They burrow deep into the O.S. and if not configured right, can cause strange symptoms.

My ancient computer with USB 1 had some USB peculiarities.

Ahh, thanks for the info, and I have Nero so I probably have that copy protection stuff. The computer is a Toshiba laptop and it's not too old. Here's a link to the specs for it and it's model M35X-S161. According to that the USB ports are 2.0 but when I connect stuff to them it says the devices will work faster if connected to a 2.0 port.

I think I found a support bulletin on the Toshiba website that looks like it describes what may be the real problem (not the LG drive) about the USB disconnecting/connecting automatically, during data transfer or only connecting at USB 1.1 speeds. It says the resolution is to update the BIOS to v1.90 or higher. Link here. According to sysinfo32, my BIOS is at v1.60 from 11/30/04 so it seems out of date but from what I've read, updating/flashing the BIOS isn't for the faint of heart (or newbs). This page has the links for downloading the updates and I think mine has the Intel driver. It seems like doing the update would solve the problem but I don't want to end up with a 7 lb paperweight. Anyone have words of wisdom on this? Is it easier/safer to do these days?

 

[James S]

if you're using USB1 then you absolutely have to set the speed to the slowest the drive can do. Even with CD's you can't get more than about 4x on USB1 reliably. (might be 8x I forget, but it's slow...) And DVD's burn at a much higher rate to start with.

Most if not all drive now support buffer underrun protection. Originally these drives couldn't start and stop their laser fast enough to stop burning if the computer stopped sending data fast enough and pick up where they left off when the computer started up again. That led to very big buffers.

Now most can control their lasers better, but you can still get them hosed up to the point where you make a coaster if the data stream is to slow or jerky for too long. If you're making coasters then you need to throttle back the speed. If the computer can't keep the buffer full then you will make more coasters even with all the new fangled tech in these fancy drives.

 

[Rayne]

Thanks for the reply and info James! I think the USB ports are suffering from what was listed in the service bulletin I read (automatically disconnecting/connecting, doing the same during data transfer or connecting at USB 1.1 speeds). When I first got the drive, it worked perfectly and I have burned DVD's at 16x before, I just like to go at 4x for less chance of errors. I think what may have started the problems was one time I put the laptop into hibernate mode but forgot to disconnect the external drive first. Think a BIOS update/flash is in order? I read another site where they suggested using device manager to uninstall all USB drivers manually, then reinstalling them or something like that. I wonder if plugging the drive in and powering it on before turning the laptop on may fix it.

 

[djkt]

Go to http://club.cdfreaks.com they are a good community, the members are more than glad to help. You can learn more than you want to know there. ANY DVD is a program that runs in background and breaks the copy protection and has a 21 day free trail and so does CLONE DVD go to http://www.slysoft.com/en/ very good software. Nero does not break copy protection but good burning program.

 

[eluminator]

It looks like you are not getting any advice about flashing the BIOS. Before I did it, I would try to get more information about any remedies if something goes wrong. Maybe a laptop forum.

I've flashed the BIOS in my computers probably 6 or 8 times, but I have desktop computers. I think I always did it via a program that runs under Windows. I never had a problem. You may have to use a DOS floppy. The floppy method might also let you restore a bad flash. I don't really know.

I think the computer BIOS is getting easier to flash over the years. With more safeguards and fallback provisions.


My desktop computers have the BIOS firmware on a ROM chip that's in a socket. I've heard of people screwing up the BIOS and getting a new chip from somewhere, maybe the laptop or mobo manufacturer.

I've never opened up a laptop, and I don't know if the BIOS ROM is in a socket, or soldered on.


P.S. Apparently Toshiba invented flash memory. That's what I read on the internet anyway. They came up with EEPROM that could be erased in a flash, so that's what they called it.

 

[Rayne]

Thanks for the reply on BIOS flashing. I'm not too confident in that area so I don't think I'll do it unless I can be 100% sure I know what I'm doing and have the right BIOS update. For now, the past few days it seems to be working okay when I plug the external drive in and power it up, then turning the laptop on. I'm not brave enough to open up my laptop either. Hopefully it keeps working!

 

[Lit Up]

Just an update.

Li Up,
You were correct. With some of the newer movies, DVD Shrink And DVD Decrypter will not work.

tiktoc 22,
I downloaded DVDFab Decrypter 3.0.8.6 and it burnt a couple of new movies into my HD that DVD Shrink wouldn't. Can you now explain to me how to burn them to a DVD+R using the DVDFab? They don't have a tutorial. Thanks much.

Gene I had a problem recently with a movie that I found others have had trouble with as well.
The solution for when that happens, and you're using DVDFab and Shrink, is to rip the folders to your hard drive first as you've done then use Shrink to manipulate those files instead of trying direct from the DVD.

I ripped then just chose main movie and left out all the extras/commentary and anything else. Worked like a charm.