HELP! > DVD-RAM Issues

Newbie Forum
#1

This is kinda a long story, so bear with me, I could really use some help as I’m ready to boot my LG drive across the street.

I used to have a BenQ DVD Burning drive, I think it was the 1620 but I could be wrong… Anyways I used it for a while, and tried to burn a DVD to play in my DVD player, first time I tried it, it didnt work, so I looked at the box for my DVD player (a Panasonic DVD-S35) and noticed that it seemed to only support DVD-RAM types of DVD-R discs. Luckily my BenQ drive came with some software that allowed me to change the “book type” they called it, so I switched the format and tried again and it worked.

However a couple months ago the BenQ drive died, it just wouldnt work anymore (tray wouldnt open, wouldnt eject, couldnt read etc) after fooling around with it for a bit, I decided that I would just exchange it since it was under warrenty still. (I hated gettin BenQ, I’d always used LG drives and never once had an issue, nor with my LG cell phones… or my LG stereo anyways)

I got instead a LG 4163B. The install disc was messed up and I couldnt get any of the software to work, but after finding and downloading some software the drive worked perfectly.

Until now…

I had some AVI files on my computer and wanted to burn them as a DVD. (FYI I have the new Nero 7 Ultra) So I spent a while in photoshop making menu screens, getting screen shots for buttons, tweaking things etc. And finally I started burning it. The final disc worked quite well once the burn finished and I tried it in both my drives (the other is a standard DVD-ROM drive).

After it worked on my comp, I went downstairs and tried it out, it worked fine on the DVD player that was hooked up (some crappy RCA DVD/VCR combo). But I tried it on my Panasonic and it didnt work (grrrr). I figured I needed to switch the “book type” for this new drive, but I cant find a utility to do that, and the LG help files are as incoherent as they are unhelpful.

So my question is…

How do I get Nero (or the drive) to burn this movie as a DVD-RAM disc so my own way better dvd player can read it?

I’d really appreciate any possible help as this really has me stumped and LG isnt any help (love thier products, hate thier readme’s, manuals etc).

Thanks in advance.

#2

I think you’re confusing DVD-RAM with DVD-ROM.

DVD-RAM is a specific type of media that very few PC burners currently support & even less DVD players support.

What you’re trying to do is set the book type of a DVD+R disk to DVD-ROM & the LG will support this as will Nero.

I don’t have Nero V7 but in V6 , in the Burning Rom you choose Recorder->Choose Recorder-> select the LG & in Options drop down & select DVD-ROM. Nero will then remember this setting & for all DVD+R media you burn it will set the book type to DVD-ROM. The LG itself cannot be permanently set to DVD-ROM unlike your Benq.

Hope that helps.

#3

Welcome to CD Freaks OmegaRenegade Liked your novel HELP!!! > DVD-RAM Issues I think it would be a hit as a TV series or a Movie. This is kinda short answer very sorry but not good at writing novels but I think you are confusing DVD-RAM with DVD-ROM they are two different formats but you are in Luck because your burner can write both formats but because your were talking about Book Type in your novel I think you need to Book Type your DVD+R disks to DVD-ROM so you can play it on your Panasonic you can find all the help and how to do it Here in the LG forum you might need new firmware so you can book type your disk to DVD-ROM but it’s all there waiting for you.

#4

Hello,
Here is a bitsetutility for the LG-drives:
http://users.skynet.be/bk260970/LG-bitsetutility.zip
(drive must however be an internal one, so doesn’t work with USB or firewire).
This softwareprogram enables booktype set to dvd-rom as long as the computer stays on. So after a reboot or reset or powerdown, the program has to be started again.

#5

I wish I was just confused. So how much is my DVD player worth since it supports DVD-RAM? :slight_smile: It may be rare, but it does exist, the box says so lol, says it supports DVD-RAM DVD-R playback, I also know its true because the BenQ drive I had before burned a disc as DVD-RAM and it worked just fine.

#6

While I agree that you mixed up the terms…
Yes it supports DVD-Ram I have the same lg4163B drive and the discs can be reused. The cost of the discs is about $5 canadian or more and they don’t hold more data so I see little advantage to using those discs.

Found some info on the discs so edited my post

Advantages of DVD-RAM
Long durability of minimum 30 years.
Can be rewritten > 100,000 times (DVD±RW ca. 1,000 times).
No DVD burning software required in computers – discs can be used and accessed like a removable hard disk; MS Windows requires a special DVDRAM driver or InCD program, although Windows XP can write to FAT32 formatted discs directly.
Very fast access of smaller files on the disc.
Automatic hardware verification of written data, no need to run a software verification after the burning finished
The cartridges make it very handy (where applicable).
In video recorders, DVD-RAM can be written to and watched (even separate programs) at the same time, much like TiVO.

[edit]
Disadvantages of DVD-RAM
Type 2 discs do not always come in a case.
Most DVD recorders do not support DVD-RAM.
The medium is more expensive than DVD±RW.
DVD+RW can be written faster than DVD-RAM when writing large amounts of data.

The LG4163B drive only supports bitsetting for DVD+R and not DVD+RW.
I understand why you want to set it to DVD-Rom because I too have a standalone that’s a bit picky but mine is with DVD+RW but lucky me I also have a NEC drive that bitsets those.
For the LG I have NERO 6xx Burning rom and it allows you to set the disc to DVD-rom under menu item Recorder/choose recorder/options/dvd rom. The option button is also usually on the bottom panel just before you burn.
The settings should stay like that and not need to be reset unlike my NEC which needs to be reset after every boot.

#7

All I know is that I tried to burn a DVD and it wont play on my DVD player. Since it only reads DVD-RAM and DVD-R disc types. The disc I burned (according to CDSpeed) is in DVD-ROM format, which is why it will not work (info about the drive itself available here: http://www.epinions.com/content_106780003972).

Nero does give options to change the format, but only gives 3 options, DVD-ROM, Physical… and Current… and I need a format other than DVD-ROM. Neither the LG bit setting utility above, nor CDSpeed allow me to change it to the formats I need. So how do I get it to burn types not currently listed?

#8

Since it only reads DVD-RAM and DVD-R

First of all you can only bitset DVD+R discs and not DVD-R so the disc you have now is a +R. Your player may not support it even if it is bitset to DVD-ROM
Do you have any old discs that you burned and you know work so you can check the code on them?
It is possible that your player only plays DVD-Ram, original DVD-rom pressed discs and DVD-R.
I have never heard of someone being able to set a +R or -R to DVD-Ram but I’m open minded on the subject. :slight_smile:

#9

My player definatly will not support it if its in DVD-ROM, I’ve tried a couple times (first time due to not knowing what I was doing, others due to forgetfullness.

Also, I just checked several of the working DVD’s and none were in DVD-ROM format.

#10

Too bad.

I checked something else also.

The LG4163B will only bitset the booktype to the media default or to DVD-Rom. I checked with the utility that guido_ke posted earlier and also DVDInfo pro and for the LG they both only offer those options. Unless there is a firmware upgrade that improves on that I think your stuck.

I have a NEC ND1300a drive also and was able to set a DVD+R and DVD+RW as DVD-R. Now I don’t have your player so can’t test the discs.

I guess you will have to stick to DVD-R discs for that player.

btw) You said the booktype of your other discs was not DVD-rom but you didn’t say what it was. Could they have been DVD-R. If they were DVD_ram what program allowed you to set it to DVD-RAM?

#11

It says DVD+R. I’m hoping that means the player will read DVD+R (even though it doesnt say so on the disc) I hope so or I have alot of DVD+R discs that will take me a very very long time to use up

#12

It says DVD+R.

And is it correct that these are the discs that work but that your player doesn’t say should play?

I don’t know the age of your player but at one time the DVD-R was like the CD-R in that the dash was not pronounced just used as a separator because there was only one format so documents were all written that way. When DVD+R came out it was supposed to be compatible and more often than not it was. Many problems were just bad burns but reported as incompatibility so the statistical data is unreliable.

That’s good if the +R do play. That means just don’t set the booktype.

I also verified DVD Decrypter because it has a pretty complete list of drives and their settable booktypes. Under menu item tools, drive, change booktype I checked them all. NEC, BENQ, Ricoh, Lite-on, LG, Plextor and Nu Tech and none will set the booktype to DVD-Ram. LG is in the group of those with the least options.

Make sure to set Nero so that it uses the disc default otherwise it remembers your last setting. If that was DVD-rom then thats how your +R will end up being booktyped. Check my earlier post or TimC to see how to do it. Even if you use a utility to undo the setting Nero can override it so you have to apply the change there

Better hope the unset +R work otherwise your back to only -R discs.
Good luck and cheers :slight_smile:

#13

Guess I’ll have to experiment and see what happens :S

#14

What type of DVD player do you have that will not read DVD-ROM?

It is strange since ALL pressed DVD movies are in fact DVD-ROM. It would be stupid to make a player that wouldn’t play store bought movies.

#15

I’m sure that his player plays pressed DVD-rom. Setting the booktype on a +R or +RW is not a guarantee that it will be compatible. A lot of other factors come into play. There are older players that will only accept DVD-rom as booktype but even after checking and accepting the faked booktype might fail because for example the laser is slightly weaker and won’t work with burned discs or maybe there is a wobble in burned discs not present in pressed discs. The pressed discs are designed for mass reproduction and offer maximum compatibility.

#16

I found that he did in fact give the make and model of his player. The link he gave shows that it will play much more than just DVD-RAM and DVD-R.

Since it only reads DVD-RAM and DVD-R disc types.

#17

If this is the model?:

Panasonic-S35

It seems to favour DVD-R for burned media. There is no mention of the + format

The DVD-S35EBS is a fully featured DVD player with 54MHz/10-Bit Video DAC processing and multi format playback including DVD Video, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, CD, CD-R/RW, SVCD, VCD, JPEG, MP3 and WMA. There’s variable zoom and an audio/JPEG navigation menu. The DVD-S35EBS has a component output and an RGB output via a SCART socket.

If that is the model since it seems to be part of a series of players.