Prodisc S04 R- getting stuck/hanging

charm 2005-01-22 01:52:00 UTC #1

I've been burning prodisc plus great since i got my 1620. I bought alot of plus discs before and after i got the drive.

Being that I still had a couple hundred Prodisc r- I thught I would get rid of them once and for all. Well I did one, and that got stucj, and wouldnt let me avout thw time meter ended showing 1.5 hours before the abort command was accepted.

a couple hours later i try again with a different movie. this time it goes and then i notice around 90% its showing 0x and 8mins and counting, then all of a sudden it moves up to 4x then back down to 0, repeats, then it rolls back up to 8 and finishes, took 15 mins. usually when i set it to 8 it takes 7 mins

I am using dvd decrypter burning img file.

I just did a scan, and i failed, at the failure there were 2300 pi errors

I am using the Z firmware, and this is a oem 1620 drive

you may remember my previous posts 2 months back, when i got this drive and it wouldnt even recognize R-, nobody else had the problem so i got a retail unit, well that one did the same thing. So I blamed it on my motherboard, and tore my computer apart. I am using a family members, and it is not easy juggling 5 SATA hardrives on its 2 ports.

I know there will be no good explantion to this, so if you can give me to bits of advice to these 2 questions i am about to present i would appreciate it.

Other than renaming to .ISO, is there any program other than dvddecrypter that will burn an IMG file?
What is the most stable and successfull firmware. I like speed, but quality is my top priority, being that I burn professionaly

thanks a bunch

charm 2005-01-22 03:03:05 UTC #2

well I have decided to do a flash to retail, still deciding on P or T
I wish I knew what the deal was with g7Z9, of course no one says much

And although I am doing the flash to retail, I still wonder what the benefir is?
Is it just for the sake of it? or for the fassion fo your drive showing as a benq?

socrates007 2005-01-22 11:20:45 UTC #3

I suggest you try several different firmware versions out and see what works best for your particular media. That is to say, see which produces the best burned discs for playing back on your home DVD player. Just my $0.02

Spartane 2005-01-22 11:41:07 UTC #4

BenQ are actively evolving their firmware, so I believe you would be best advised to go with the latest firmware B7T9. Only switch back to B7P9 if you are having problems burning your discs.

Once you've completed the conversion from "G" to "B" firmware, then I'd recommend running the original BenQ B7T9.EXE program as a final step in the process, since I don't fully trust the final result with WinDWFlash (no good reason for this - just precautionary).

charm 2005-01-22 13:25:38 UTC #5

I graceously thank you guys for replying to my ever rambling posts. Here is my update:

I did the g7z9 > B7T9 upgrade with winflasher last night. finally its now a benq! From my previous problems I bought a retail 1620 that is just sitting, so i will get around to trying that soon. I just have the energy to constantly change drives. With my main machine now down, I have to juggle 6 SATA drives with just 2 ports on my backup machine

Well here is my update, I woke up today and did a burn in nero with an iso at 8x, it failed. i just burned a VIDEO_TS at 2.4x :a at it did finish, but during verification it is stuck at 88% telling me it has read errors from sector #### to ####, and it is hanging there

So what i will do know is flash from the winflash v7t9 to benq retail b7t9 firmware and do one more test. If it still fails, then i will get off my ass and stick in my barely used retail benq 1620 and test that out. If it still doesnt work and i just wasted ten discs. Then i will have to prounce the differnt burn forums as well as the forum my bulk dvd retailer has(supermediastore) and put up a "buyer beware" on these discs, until someone else who ownes these disks speaks up and says theirs works fine.

After I learned of bitsetting and benq quality i made the switch to + only. I still have taiyo yuden retail 8xR- thermals, and Ridata G05 8xR- (which i have barely used) left, also i got a few prodisc 4xr- r03. the TY and PD 4x, both have worked in this drive. The only difference these 8x R04 have is that they are inkjet printable, which i doubt have anything to do with it, I have burned plenty R+ prodisc inkjet printables with no problem.

danielwritesback 2005-01-22 14:07:30 UTC #6

Did you say Prodisc Printables? Aren't they #1 for dvd rot? I seem to remember reading that plain Prodisc was fantastic, but that the printables would become unreadable in storage.

charm 2005-01-22 14:53:19 UTC #7

hmm i never heard that
I hope to god not

this is my take on prodisc as a whole, they have an ongoing relationship with mitsubishi which i am sure you know. When I buy prodisc 8x R- printable from supermediastore, I get MCC discs. When i first was buying 4x r- printable they where r03, the second and final order where r04 (prodisc 8xr-)

another tidbit on prodisc/MCC relationship im sure you know, was that back when 8x was king, prodisc made vertabatim discs. Prodisc also uses the AZO process.
So all in all I trust them, their corporate relationships with mitsubishi and pioneer garnered more trust. Before I started burning professionally i thought and studied long and hard on which company had the best price/highest quality. I know prodisc had came along way, and my vendor backs them with a 60 day return policy(along with ritek) and i know how much "opinion" is based on gossip or worse, on just what people read. which proves riteks huge following, even after reported quality control problems, which prodisc also had.

Also as far as Storage/Backup, I stick with Taiyo Yuden and MCC. I was pissed with TY for a while cause of their price. Their oem price came down to 50-70 cents, but even better their TDK, SONY and Fuji branded discs PLUMETED. I first got Sony for 40$/100 then got fuji for 35$/100 then got a 100 pack of TDK for 30$! now what is lame is now i have near 1000 silver matte discs, which i only use for backup, my business money making discs have to be printable, I plan on "trying" to sell these Fuji 25 packs on ebay for 15$ to make some of money back, and to build my history on there.

If you find any recent links pertaining to bad Prodisc quality please do me a favour and link it. My business hurts on compatibility issues, but will FAIL if a disc fails halfway or at the end. which has NEVER happened, after selling at least 600 prodisc printables

thanks for your reply

danielwritesback 2005-01-22 15:45:02 UTC #8

The report I read was that the prodisc printables had issues in storage after a year or two. Possibly, and likely, this was an older media type than you are currently using.
The report did state that all printable discs and those with labels were far more prone to failing in storage than those without labels. And that, in many cases, discs with labels became readable after the label was removed, wheras printables have a non-removable top surface so that the problem could not be removed. Zero problems were reported with Ritek in storage, while Prodisc printables had the highest failure rate of the discs in the report.
Of course, the previous frightening statistics on printables have almost no validity on newer media which is different and could not have been the subject of the report.

My own experience with the purchase of printables has reflected the results of that report, but it is just possible that I should not have stored mine in a flexible (and warped) cd wallet. My printables were CMCE01 which were inherently questionable before storing them, so comparison is not really valid. Just like the report, every Ritek disc still works perfectly.

The only thing that I can determine with reasonable certainty is:
Method of storage may seriously affect printable media.

Let's guess that printable media should not be exposed to flexing or temperature extremes because the paint may flex/give at a different rate than the plastic disc.

charm 2005-01-22 23:15:32 UTC #9

hey daniel thanks for your input. I am going to start burning some movies printing them and storing them. I will update you in a year
a I hope you live in the US Quality media has gotten as cheap as well cheap media, Rebranded TY is available all the time now for .40 cents a pop, if not less. In the last two months I have gotten Sony, TDK, Fuji all Taiyo 30-40 cents.
Now printables, you still got to go to supermediastore, but prodisc 8x+ is still only 39 cents plus ship

UPDATE: Alright I crossflashed to T9 then reflashed to official P9. Then burned a disc, it seemed to burn greatm it even passed the verification, but when i ran the PI/PO test IT FAILED, meaning it stopped seemingly 3/4 of the way through I ran a CRC error scan, and it pretty much stopped at around the same spot, is showing 800 errors, and it doesnt seem it is going to stop anytime soon.

SO BUYER BEWARE: I love prodisc, but I would be mindfull when burning their R04 r- discs. It could be they are just "bad" discs. I remember reports of bad batches from prodisc and ridata these last six months.

I also recommend to you mass movie burners, like me, that you have your burner program do a data verification at least on 10% of your burns, I always have with my backups. That and CRC scan were my only defense till I got benq. If you dont do the verification than at least do the PI/PO scans, which is probably silly of me saying on this site

My only troubleshooting options left are to try my retail benq drive, and try another spindle of the same discs, which i am sure I have (I buy in bulk)

Thanks for reading, enjoy your working machines(I have other problems too)
Have you hugged yours today, you never know when it might fail