Newbie DW1620 Q: not able to copy DVDs?

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers BenQ / Philips Writer
#1

Hi all,

Please bear with me…I’m totally new to DVD burning, having just purchased a BenQ DW1620 (bulk version). I did patch the firmware up to B7T9.

My problem is that I don’t seem to be able to successfully burn an entire DVD (movie, menus, everything) split onto two DVD+R discs. I’ve tried this with different media (Memorex and Sony DVD+R’s), and the results are completely inconsistent, both in my Sony DVPNS-400 DVD player, and the BenQ drive itself using PowerDVD. Either the DVD player plays the first DVD+R and not the second, or it doesn’t play the first DVD+R until I hit play, or neither DVD+R plays in my BenQ drive, or…etc etc…there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to which of the two DVD+R’s plays or doesn’t play, or what errors I get, when I try to play them.

I’m using DVDxCopy Platinum, no compression, default values. I also tried DVD Cloner II, and got the same inconsistent results. I’ve gone through about 15 DVD+R’s by now. Can anyone tell me whether there’s something obvious I should be doing? I’m sure I must be doing something wrong.

Thanks,
Dave

#2

Could be the media. Download this tool (it’s free) and post the Media ID of those disks > http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/

#3

Thanks…I thought it might be the media, but then again I thought since I’m getting the same inconsistencies with two different manufacturers (and plus which, one of them is Sony), I figured it probably wasn’t that.

Anyway, I downloaded the tool as you asked. Here’s what it came up with:

For the Memorex 8X DVD+R:
Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corp.
Manufacturer ID: CMC MAG
Media Type ID: E01

For the Sony 8X DVD+R:
Manufacturer: Sony Recording Media Corp.
Manufacterer ID: SONY
Media Type ID: D11

By the way, while on the subject: are these drives supposed to get the DVD’s so hot? I just put a blank DVD in for the DVD Identifier test and took it out in about 20 seconds…it was really warm to the touch! I can understand after burning for an hour…but after a 20 second test?? :0

#4

Hmmmm…just went to BenQ’s website and looked at their Qualified Media list…both the E01 and the D11 are on it. Any other ideas? :frowning: I can easily see my Sony DVD player not recognizing the DVD’s (it’s a bit old), but I can’t figure the inconsistency–it reads some and not others that I burn, using the exact same media. Same with the DW1620 itself; I got everything from a “disc not found”, to “error 8007004” or something like that, to one that worked, and then one that didn’t give an error but didn’t play. It’s so frustrating!

Dave

#5

I think you better look around in this forum DVD Movie backup etc.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=62

#6

Canadave, Your problem is that you are using DVDxCopy Platinum. I tried that software about a year ago and I had the same difficulties that you are experiencing. DVDxCopy is notorious for having conflicts with every other piece of software that is in your system. It wants to be the only software in your system. I finally got it to work by creating a whole new disk partition with no other software installed except for DVDxCopy. Once I got it working I realized that there was much better software out there.

Do yourself a favor and dump the 321 software. Download a copy of DVDDecrypter, and DVD Shrink. Both of these programs are freeware, and together, they put the 321 software to shame.

#7

OK, maybe I’m just not getting this because I’m a newbie :slight_smile: Maybe I should pose this question to you guys:

Is there a way to take a DVD and copy it, 1:1, without compression, onto two DVD+R’s, preserving everything including movie, extras, menus, features, etc?

Thanks,
Dave

#8

A late welcome and enjoy your stay at CDFreaks. :wink:

If I remember right DVDFab is able to do this.

Don’t know if also DVD Decrypter manages the disk “break” though.

:slight_smile:

#9

Use DVDFab 0.17…see mrbass.org for the DL (or PM w/ ure email). It’s freeware, and I’ve used it many times to split discs.

Cheers,

Jie

Update: the Link = http://mrbass.org/dvdfab/ … check the guides there too. I’ve also written one, which I can send you.

#10

Thanks for the welcome and the helpful links, folks…much appreciated. I’ll give DVDFab a shot and see how it goes :slight_smile:

#11

Hey…DVDFab worked GREAT! Finally got my first successful burn! :slight_smile: It even worked with the cheapo Memorex DVD+R’s. Thanks so much everybody…I was tearing my hair out there for a while!

Cheers,
Dave

#12

Glad that things worked out. The problem is not about the cheapo Memorex. Although CMCMAGE01 and SonyD11 are not the greatest media out there, they should burn and work fine. The issue is more with your 321 software, which as far as I know, sometimes fails to use the standard DVD rules in organizing the dvd movie files before you burn it.

#13

Scandy beat me to it. I was also going to recommend DVD Shrink/DVD Decrypter as a free combination. Good stuff for cheap - you can’t beat it. CloneDVD2 and AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com) also have free trial packages and are very competively priced and very good software. AnyDVD runs in the background and removes the copy protection from the disc. I love that little piece of software.

I’d uninstall DVD Xcopy and DVD Cloner II and forget them. Stick with the more popular packages and you shouldn’t have any issues. :slight_smile:

#14

I second CloneDVD2 and AnyDVD, I don’t make copies very often but with this combination it’s simple and make great quality copies…