DVD problems solved?

I used some advice from this group and the DEll owners manual and seem to have avoided problems I did have writing DVDs. Here's a summary.
FIRMWARE- Some suggested getting a firmware upgrade from the burner manufacturer, Teac. Teac doesn't offer any. I emailed their customer support about my problems a couple days ago and have received no response so far.
WRITE SPEED- Some suggested burning at 2X rather than 4X. I didn't try that. Although I haven't confirmed it yet, I do seem to get better results with blank DVDs rated at 4X rather than multi-speed ones rated up to 8X or 10X.
SONIC BUGS- I believe Sonic has bugs and suggestions to get better software are good ones. I haven't got new stuff yet but I'll look into it. Sonic insists you save the project to a new name prior to the burn, although the project was just saved. If you leave Sonic running overnight it locks up your computer and you can't shut it down using Windows.
SCANDISK- One suggested testing the DVDs using scandisk. Scandisk isn't available on Win XP and I don't think it would ever san removable storage.
KEEP DATA FLOWING TO THE BURNER- This is the essential part to getting a good burn. It means you don't have an internet connection, shut down anti virus or any other active programs and leave the computer alone until finished- no fiddling with the mouse. Also you don't want screen savers getting at the processor. DELL says turning off power managment options may be necessary and I believe that helped.
COMMON SENSE- You need to have a good DVD, and your drives should be clean. They say drives need cleaning after 10 hours of use.
I have recently wrote a couple good 1 hour movies on DVD+R and also did a successful rewrite to a DVD+RW. I don't think my burner is defective.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: DVD problems solved?
    ... drive properties under the tools tab, ... Although I haven't confirmed it yet, I do seem to get better results with blank DVDs rated at 4X rather than multi-speed ones rated up to 8X or 10X. ... SCANDISK- One suggested testing the DVDs using scandisk. ... COMMON SENSE- You need to have a good DVD, and your drives should be clean. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: DVD problems solved?
    ... FIRMWARE- Some suggested getting a firmware upgrade from the burner manufacturer, ... Although I haven't confirmed it yet, I do seem to get better results with blank DVDs rated at 4X rather than multi-speed ones rated up to 8X or 10X. ... SCANDISK- One suggested testing the DVDs using scandisk. ... COMMON SENSE- You need to have a good DVD, and your drives should be clean. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: Last Attempt at fixing DVD drives before abandoning Fedora Core
    ... >> The output of lspci might help people understand the hardware ... It appears that 4 drives are supported. ... >> This sounds more like a hardware settings issue. ... > Even though I can read CD-ROMs pefectly well, and even write to DVDs? ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: best music to game by
    ... I have seen some albums distributed as DVDs, ... Perhaps those DVDs were made using Red Book Audio standard (16-bit, ... Not to be attempted unless you have multiple drives, ... and tape has been found to be startlingly fragile. ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
  • Re: New WarpVision WOW!
    ... What I've seen is that the drives seem to need to be initially ' enabled/activated' in Windows before they will play DVDs in OS/2. ... What I've thought might be going is that the drive can only be 'enabled/activated' in Windows for DVD playing since there is AFAIK no licensed DVD software player for an add-on ATAPI/IDE DVD drive other than in Windows, The drive perhaps then assumes that if someone is trying to use the drive to play DVDs without Windows, they are using some sort of unlicensed player or something and the drive refuses to read them. ...
    (comp.os.os2.misc)