DVDs burned with IMGBurn suddenly not verifying correctly in LG WH14NS40

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

I have an LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner which has worked well for a number of years on multiple computers (I’ve replaced the computers but kept the drive, switching it to each new one). I have used IMGBurn to burn DVDs and Blu-rays for years now, with very few problems. I use the automatic verify option of IMGBurn, which automatically cycles the tray then verifies the disc that has just been burned. It usually works correctly.

However, I decided to burn some DVDs tonight, and ran into problems. The first one burned and verified without incident. The second one seemingly burned without incident, but when the tray finished cycling, BD-Rebuilder was taking forever to verify it. The verification was at a rate of about 50 kbps, and it was estimating that it would take about 36 hours to finish. Meanwhile, the burner was making a pitiful noise like it was straining to try to read information off of the disc. I canceled the verification.

I’ve had this problem a few times before, but it was always just a once-off that would happen once every few months or so. So I assumed that this would again be the case. I then tried burning the disc again (to a different blank disc), and it burned and verified without incident. But the next disc that I burned ran into the same verification problem. I tried burning to another disc, and the problem hit again.

This error striking three times in one night has me extremely worried. Does anyone know what could be causing this problem or what I should do about it?

#2

Sounds like bad media or bad burned media.

Did you change recently your media brand or something?

#3

I used Verbatim DVD5s, just like I have for years.

Also, I ejected the last one that gave me an error and put it back in to try to verify it with IMGBurn again, and the same problem continued. But I then closed IMGBurn, ejected the disc and put it back in yet again, then reopened IMGBurn and selected its verify option, and was able to successfully verify the disc against the ISO I had burned it from in just a few minutes. (I still don’t trust the disc, though.)

#4

Even Verbatim-labeled media could have bad batches, it´s also manufactured by different brands like MBI, CMC, FTI.

You can also try to make a quality-scan with Opti Drive Control, but I dunno whether your writer support that.

#5

Well, the discs that I used are from the same 100-disc spindle that I’ve been using for over half a year, and almost all of the previous discs from the spindle worked fine. I’m toward the bottom of the spindle (there are only about 20 discs left), which means that I’ve used about 80 discs, almost all of which burned and verified correctly. Is it likely that there could be a bad mini-batch inside of such a spindle?

I’m not sure whether Opti Drive Control would work with my drive or not. How would I find out? One thing to keep in mind is that I’m not so much worried about the discs that didn’t verify correctly themselves, as I can easily use another disc. I’m more worried about identifying the source of the problem so that I can avoid its reappearance.

#6

Single exemplares could be vary in quality, but it´s hard to find the source of the problems if you use only one drive and one batch of media.

The prices here are so low that a DVD-writer is cheaper than a 100pcs-cakebox of DVD-media.

ODC can you get here

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

You can use the trial to find out what your drive can do. Download it and try “Disc Quality”. If it don´t work go the “Transfer Rate”.

#7

The drive that I have is also a Blu-ray burner, rather than just a mere DVD burner. Getting another one would cost significantly more than more DVDs.

Regarding Opti Drive Control, how would I interpret the results? I always see people comparing results from it and similar programs here at Club Myce, but it looks like pure gibberish to me. Is there some simple guide that includes a deciphering key or something of that nature?

By the way, someone else told me that Blu-ray and DVD drives tend to only last 2 years at best before needing replacement, and that the one that I have (about three years old) is probably just nearing the end of its life. Is this statement accurate?

#8

Yep, I know it´s a BD-writer, but I thought you have the probs withs DVDs; a DVD-writer I can get for around 13€.

If scanning works make a screenshot and post it here, so you will get help to interpret it.

I´m not a fortuneteller, so I can´t say when the next optical media will arrive in the consumer-market. I think BD becamer a longer life as it was planned, see BD-media with 128GB. BD arrived also much later in the market because Sony want a better copy protection.

I read 2013 that the BD-successor will come, but til 2day I don´t saw it on the sale for consumer:

http://www.disc-group.com/sony-and-panasonic-to-develop-300gb-optical-disc/

http://www.cdrlabs.com/news/panasonic-unveils-enhanced-qfreeze-rayq-series-data-archiver-system.html

#9

[quote=“Tester_1, post:8, topic:398796, full:true”]
Yep, I know it´s a BD-writer, but I thought you have the probs withs DVDs; a DVD-writer I can get for around 13€.[/quote]

I actually have an extra regular DVD burner already (it came with the last computer I bought, and I took it out and put the Blu-ray burner in its place), but since my computer only has one burner slot, I don’t want to have to open the case and switch burners every time that I want to burn a DVD. I could temporarily switch them for testing purposes, but I’d rather try other tests before that.

I’ll try that, then. If I understand correctly, I’m supposed to scan the discs that burned but didn’t properly verify, then share the results in this thread. Is this correct?

I wasn’t talking about obsolescence due to advances in technology. I was talking about drives needing to be replaced due to malfunctions from age and/or usage.

#10

Well, I tried using Opti Drive Control to run the scan listed as “Disc quality”, only to be be greeted with the message, “Drive does not support this function.” Are there any other options in Opti Drive Control that I should try?

#11

Try a transfer rate. The result should be an smooth line like this:

Transfer.png675×602 60.7 KB

Small drops are not that bad, but drops like this means there is a read-problem

249 Lifetec DVD-R 1x (PRINCO) .png653×535 39.5 KB

It´s not so meaningful like a quality scan but maybe we can see if the drive have reading problems.

If there are problems you have to sort it out and try other media or another drive, it´s the only way to make a statement which instance is to blame

#12

I tried the transfer rate scan, and it was a smooth ascending line that looked more or less identical to the top picture that you posted. There were no drops whatsoever.

I decided to try burning a disc again, and I again got the same problem during the verification phase (slow as molasses read rate, estimated finish time of well over a day).

I then took out my Blu-ray burner, put in the OEM DVD Burner that had originally come with my computer, and tried burning the DVD again. This time, everything went off without a hitch - even though I used a disc that I knew to be defective (it had a visible blemish, which the burner cleverly wrote around). I then tried a second time with what I believe to be a good disc, and everything again worked perfectly.

So it appears extremely likely that the LG Blu-ray burner is indeed the source of the problem, as the other DVD burner handled the same task perfectly twice in a row (even though one of those times was with a flawed disc).

I do find it weird that the only time that problems seem to present themselves with the Blu-ray burner is during IMGBurn automatic verification sessions. Even manual verification sessions seemed to work fine. It’s just whenever IMGBurn cycles the tray and starts a verify session right after burning the disc. It did still have the problem during one manual verification session that I started, but that was while the same IMGBurn window was open from the last write/verification session. When I restarted IMGBurn and ran another manual verification, it seemed to work fine.

But since I’ve never had this problem repeat itself so many times in such a short time period before, it still seemingly points to a problem with the drive. I think that I should probably start looking for a new Blu-ray burner.

Do you happen to be well-acquainted with any particular Blu-ray burners? That is to say, are there are Blu-ray burners that you could advise me on regarding merits and problems?

#13

Indeed, strange problems. A good transfertest is an indicator that the quality of the disc is not bad, at least at the end due the higher speed.

I don´t think it´s a software-prob, but you can try CDBurnerXP, it´s a freeware and there exist a portable-version without adware or something.

There are only 3 manufacturers of BD-writer left. LG, Pioneer and Panasonic/Matshita. All other drives you can buy new are rebadges of these 3. Panasonic/Matshita only manufacture slimline-drives, so Pioneer and LG left. I have 3 LGs and 3 Pioneers and overall I would recommend Pioneer BDR-209D. It´s the best allrounder you can actually get. LG is not bad, but my BH16NS40 start to make some problems after 3 years (recognize sometimes no CD/DVD/BD) and my 16NS55 don´t like BD from MBI and MBI you get more and more under different brands in germany.

If you buy a new drive, get the Pioneer

#14

[quote=“Tester_1, post:13, topic:398796, full:true”]There are only 3 manufacturers of BD-writer left. LG, Pioneer and Panasonic/Matshita. All other drives you can buy new are rebadges of these 3. Panasonic/Matshita only manufacture slimline-drives, so Pioneer and LG left. I have 3 LGs and 3 Pioneers and overall I would recommend Pioneer BDR-209D. It´s the best allrounder you can actually get. LG is not bad, but my BH16NS40 start to make some problems after 3 years (recognize sometimes no CD/DVD/BD) and my 16NS55 don´t like BD from MBI and MBI you get more and more under different brands in germany.

If you buy a new drive, get the Pioneer
[/quote]

I’m a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I only have experience with LG, and until recently my LG drive served me well. Also, I’m on a tight budget, so the LG’s much smaller price is a big plus for me. But on the other hand, someone on another forum told me that both the LG and the Pioneer have some serious problems (for instance, he says that the LG won’t write correctly to double-layer BD-Rs, and the Pioneer tends to break down a lot). I was wondering whether you can confirm whether the problems that he mentioned in the quotes below are indeed common?

[quote]The only reason I have an LG WH16NS40 is because the latest firmwares for Pioneer’s BDR-209M are borked for Ritek 8x DVD+RW’s. I would keep getting the Pioneers, but the last one of these I had was borked right out of the box. Failed to write to BD-R’s that my 2nd 209, which I still have, would. And the 3rd Pioneer I had, before that borked one, died on BD-R after 7 months. So, I have begun to question the quality of Pioneer drives over the last few years. Especially since I have my first 2 and they’re still working after 2 years except for a design flaw in the model. After a few months, the Eject button don’t work when first pressed. Pressing it a 2nd time works. A manual Eject command from ImgBurn does the same thing, but the forced Eject on Writes before Verifies always works.

The LG WH16NS40 has its own killers. It does not write to dual layer BD and BD-RE at ALL correctly. Verify will fail 9 times out of 10 at the layer change. Plus, when you format BD-RE SL as a giant floppy in Windows/File Explorer, it writes to these discs at half the rate of speed of the Pioneer.[/quote]

Also, do you know whether it would maybe better to just buy another WH14NS40 (the older model that I already have)? Is it more stable and reliable than the new WH16NS40? Does it write to double-layer BD-Rs correctly?

#15

Can´t say nothing to the DVD+RW 8x problem, never get one in Europe and I have bad experiences with RW-media since I used it :\

Never burned a BD DL, so I can also not saying here something to that. But I think you will find experiences here in the forum

I have my 209D only a few month, used it not that often. But I have a 206 and 208, all drives works good, no RMA, no other problems. The writing-quality for BD-media was good with the 206, 208 and 209 are even better. Also no probs with DVD-R/+R

LG is not bad, but the BH16NS40 is my only one (of 10) BD-drives which make bigger problems.

The 16NS55 looks overall OK, but like I wrote, MBI-made-media is omnipresent in Germany and the LG don´t like it.

LG amkes good drives, I use LG since 2002 and was mostly pleased with it, actual DVD-writers are also good, but with BD I prefer Pioneer. I think you will find in this forum many positive comments about Pioneer.

I dunno the price-difference in your town, but here it´s around 3,50€ more for the Pioneer.

#16

I’ve now created a post in the forum asking for advice on the best burner to buy. It can be found here:

I don’t use MBI. I use Panasonic BD-Rs and Verbatim DVD-Rs.

Where I live, the Pioneer often costs nearly twice as much as the LG.

#17

OK, thats a big price difference

With Panasonic and Verbatim BD the LG should be good.

BTW, I don´t want to buy MBI for general, but more and more brands switch from different manufacturers to MBI.