In an earlier post I discussed the problems I was having burning DVDs from recorded programs in Windows Vista Media Center. I assumed the issue was either a Vista problem or a DVD firmware incompatibility. It turns out it was neither. A friend asked me to try to burn a copy of a recent History Channel program (Last Stand of the 300) and dropped off a blank DVD even though I warned him that I was having problems. To my surprise the episode burned to DVD without a problem.
After a bit of research it turns out that the fault was my blank DVD media. Even though I tried both DVD -R and DVD +R formats neither disc would work. I was using Playo media I had bought from Staples at the same time I bought the IOMagic DVD burner. It turns out that there are relatively few manufacturers of DVD media and not all media is compatible with all burners so it is recommended that you find media that is compatible with your burner and the players that will read it afterward.
Most brands of media are not actually manufactured by the companies selling them (Sony and Memorex sell media that is OEM'ed) and the higher quality producers are: Optodisc, Ritek or Ricoh, ProDisc, Mitsubishi Chemicals and Pioneer. In order to figure out which media you are actually using you can download a program such as DVD Identifier. It turns out that my Playo discs are actually Mitsubishi media and although the discs may be good quality they are not all that compatible with my burner. The disc that did work as a no name brand (Spin-X) which was a ProDisc media and worked quite well. It seems that burning DVDs suffer from a rather high rate of incompatibility (up to 30% with ReWriteable media) so the effect is quite noticeable. Some tables do exist for burner and media compatibility which may help but ultimately checking the actual media types is the best insurance for reliable burning.
For those looking for the latest firmware for the Lite-On SHW-160P6S (also IOMagic IDVD168DL) version PSOC dated Nov 15 2006 it can be found here. Oddly enough the LiteOn site only lists the older PS0B version and IOMagic has nothing at all to say about firmware. (Who knew Packard Bell was still around albeit in France/Belgium?)
Comments