Hi
Hoping one of you can help me out here
My PC has 2 DVD writers.
The one I use most is an LG GSA-H55N (bought and fitted)
The secondary one is a TSSTCorp S162L (factory fitted)
Both use the same IDE (?) connector cable.
The PC runs Vista Ultimate, is a decent spec, 1 year old quad motherboard and has a (quite old) Hauppauge Win TV tuner.
I am trying to back up dozens of old VHS videos to DVD. I have previously copied other DVDs and there’s one problem which randomly persists across all types of movies I try to write:
The discs always write fine e.g. no errors are reported. The discs will play back in the same drive. They will not, however, always play back properly in our DVD player. I have also seen them glitch on one other DVD player.
It’s rare to get a complete failure - what normally happens is the DVD drive hiccups, “hunts” (the error correction light flashes) and you can hear it “grinding”, then it gives up and moves forward to the next bit it can play (gap between 1 second and say 10 seconds)
If I write the same title twice it won’t necessarily glitch in the same place. The glitches can come thick and fast making the production unwatchable, or maybe only a few times per disc.
If I write, say, a perfect original DVD copy that might play perfectly, or do the same. The software (whether 1 Click, Nero or Power Producer) would not appear to be at fault, it’s the same with all. The original media would not seem to be the fault either since it happens with anything/everything. Either the disc ends up perfect or nearly useless.
I am trying to isolate what the cause of this is. I have tried:
- Updating the firmware in both drives
- Different media (Verbatim and Sony)
- Writing at maximum speed (16x) and writing at 4x
- Shutting down all non essential Vista services and leaving the PC free while writing
Not sure whether it’s related and I only noticed this recently, but the secondary drive doesn’t seem to want to accept blank media at all (no disc in drive) - same with +R and -R discs. No improvement after firmware upgrade. It will however play prerecorded media. This stops me testing to see whether the 2nd drive will write the discs OK to prove whether the LG drive is knackered.
It’s possible both drives are faulty. It’s possible most of the Verbatim and Sony discs are faulty. Is there a more methodical way of going about a diagnosis than just keeping on trying?
Many thanks.