DVD+/-RW coasters

kryjathic · Jan 4, 2004

Hi is there such a thing as DVD+/-RW coaster?
I was trying to burn a video using Ulead DVD Moviefactory 2 however somewhere in the burning process an error occurred and now my DVD-RW is unreadable. I have a Sony DRU500A and when I put my DVD-RW in, the indicator light would light continuously as if reading endlessly.
Could I still recover/reformat my DVD-RW? or is it already a coaster?
BTW I've successfully burnt on other DVD+/-RW media many times.

Thanks in advance

scarecrow · Jan 4, 2004

Slot the disk in and fire Alcohol 120% to erase it... tell the program to perform an unconditional format (ignore illegal TOC), and do a full format. You might have to wait a bit before the RW gets mounted.

kryjathic · Jan 5, 2004

Ok, I tried Alcohol 120 , but my problem is the application can't read my DVD-RW, my burner seems to be reading it endlessly. I was thinking there might be some settings in windows (XP sp1) that I must change.

Duracell · Jan 5, 2004

Media incompatibility?
had a similar problem in good old CD-RW times; my RICOH won't erase Intenso RWs after first burning; had the same error symptom, the burner won't never recognize the disc anymore; sold these media to a Plextor owner;

Greetings from
Duracell

kryjathic · Jan 5, 2004

Thanks.
So could one possible solution be to have them reformat on other brand DVD burners then possibly use it again?

scarecrow · Jan 5, 2004

kryjathic said:
Thanks.
So could one possible solution be to have them reformat on other brand DVD burners then possibly use it again?

Either that, or try to upgrade your burner's firmware- which should give you impreoved readability, but flashing a drive is a bit tricky, if you have not done that before. I also have a DRU-500a, which is certainly picky with some media.
Last firmware version for the new DRU-500a series is 2.0g, and I've heard some guys which claim superior redability with an older 2.0f or even 1.0d firmware (not recomnmended by Sony for the new DRU-500a badges). I have flashed mine to 2.0g, goes pretty well up to date.
Oh, the Sony hates Princo media (RW or not), stay away from them and use Ritek, Sony or Mitsubishi media- all of them going damn fine with it.

kryjathic · Jan 6, 2004

Thanks for the input Scarecrow.
Well I did upgrade my firmware to 2.0g, but didn't help. And irony to your experience, I don't have compatibility problems with Princo DVD-RW ver 1.1 although months of burning and erasing the quality seems to deteriorate. The DVD-RW that's giving me headache are in fact the Riteks 2x DVD-RW. The Ritek 2.4x DVD+RW works fine on my DRU500a.
What softwares are you using for burning?

scarecrow · Jan 6, 2004

RecordNow and Discjuggler- but I've also tried Nero and Instant CD/DVD.
The Princos seem to burn fine, until you run a verification after burning- your chances of not finding crc mismatches there are grim at best.
My other burner (Toshiba SD-R 6112 on my portable) has absolutely no trouble with the Princo media- although it burns them at 1X instead of 2X (media are 4X certified)..