Noobie Q, burning iso to dvd not working for me!

[dlanor]

In that case you have been very lucky. I had always been buying 50 disc packs until I got those Verbatim TYG's. Because after inquiring in some burning forum I found out that those TYG's are only included in 50 or 100 disc packs (at least so far). So the only way to be on the (rather) safe side is to buy packs containing 25 or less discs.

I have bought various mixes of 25-packs and 50-packs, partly because I also reuse the containers to store burned discs, and the 50-packs are not very convenient to rifle through when looking for a specific disc. (An average of 25 discs in each hand is too much.)

But in any case I definitely got the Mitsubishi discs in the latest 50-pack I used, as I checked the IDs. I do however have two more unopened 50-packs which I'm going to check right away...

Four tests later:
I have now tested 2 discs from each of those 50-packs, near (but not at) both top and bottom of each stack, and all of them were of the usual good type (MCC 03RG20), so apparently I remain lucky in this.

I'm not too happy about that but I prefer to pay a bit more in order to avoid getting a large amount of low quality media, that I would dispose of right away anyways.

Indeed. Cheap media can easily become the most expensive choice, not only because you need larger amounts of them to get the same number of working copies, but also because those (barely) working copies will wear out your equipment quicker, due to constant retries with raised laser intensity etc.

Best regards: dlanor

[Devil Z]

Just a heads up, I'm not sure if you have any near you, but Be$t Buy is having a sale on a 50 pack of Verbatims for like 18 bucks. They are MCC 03RG20s, so they're not fake ones.

The same place also has a 25 pack of Sony's for only 8 bucks. Should I pull the trigger and try these, or is everybody here stuck on Verbatim? Supposedly, Sony is just as good as the crowd favorite-Verbatim. (And yes, there is one very near where I live.)

[dlanor]

The same place also has a 25 pack of Sony's for only 8 bucks. Should I pull the trigger and try these, or is everybody here stuck on Verbatim? Supposedly, Sony is just as good as the crowd favorite-Verbatim. (And yes, there is one very near where I live.)

It's not really Verbatim as such which is the favourite, but rather Mitsubishi who make some of the best discs in existence. But they don't sell those exclusively to Verbatim, so you can get exactly the same discs from other name brands too. It doesn't matter at all what brand name you see when visually viewing the disc. It is the manufacturer ID, as shown by programs like 'DVD Decrypter' and ImgBurn, which really counts.

The only thing that makes Verbatim a favourite name brand is that they are fairly consistent in buying their discs from high quality manufacturers, like Mitsubishi.

Some other manufacturers than Mitsubishi also make very good discs, but the same thing applies to them, in that you can't be sure that any name brand disc comes from a specific manufacturer, unless you check the manufacturer ID. And having that ID it is then simple to google for information on how that disc type was judged both in official testing and in the experience of other users on the net.

So for 8 bucks per 25 I'd buy those Sony's and then check what they really are and how good others found that precise disc type. Even better (if possible) is if you can get some of the staff at that place to test this for you, by telling them that you want to know exactly what it is they're selling (and explaining how easily it can be tested).

Best regards: dlanor

[Devil Z]

^^Yea, they are on sale there, and other user reviews stated they are Class 1 media as well. Doubtful that the Be$t Buy staff would be willing to check the manufacrturer ID for me, as all of them(including G33k Squad) pretty much cower at the word "service", no matter how simple. I might want to check in at the DVD-/+R thread to see if anyone has any experience with these.

[Devil Z]

Woot, woot! Just bought those Sony DVD-R's I was contemplating about, and I finally got one of my backups to work! Seems it was just the media after all. And here I thought all you guys were spreading pixie dust on your consoles with all this talk. There was this slight high-pitched hum coming from the right(sound) channel when I first booted it with ESR(even with all those flashing colors). I have yet to hear it again after a second boot. Thanks for all the help guys, and for putting up with yet another noob! Now on to figuring out how to convert my cd-based Wangan Midnight iso to dvd, so it will boot properly. But I think that's for a different thread on this forum.

Details: (yeah, I know this should go somewhere else but...)

iso: Initial D - Special Stage (NTSC-J)
Media: Sony DVD-R 16x (MID: SONY16D1)
Software: ImgBurn, burning at 8x
On MC: FMCB 1.7 with ESR beta r9
Result: Success!

P.S. Now my original won't have to get abused. I'm still leary on burning at a faster speed or choosing "AUTO" in ImgBurn without risking errors on disc, but maybe I'll give it shot now, dlanor.

[ignite339]

I'm always iffy about choosing Auto to burn. I usually just set it at half the max speed, which has worked for me for years.

[dlanor]

I'm always iffy about choosing Auto to burn.

Success with the auto speed setting depends on your burner, and whether or not the used media exists in the burner's internal database. So if using newly designed media with an old burner is a good reason to avoid the auto setting.

I usually just set it at half the max speed, which has worked for me for years.

That is a good method too, and you can't go much wrong with it. It is the extreme speeds at both ends (very slow and very fast) that must be avoided.

Best regards: dlanor

[Sarcastic]

...It is the extreme speeds at both ends (very slow and very fast) that must be avoided.

Mhh, I always burn backups at 4x speed (also when using 16x discs). And from experience I can tell that the outcome depends very much on the media. I get quite different results with Verbatim discs. Anyways, it seems that frequently the dics in the middle of the package are of best quality while the ones closer to/at the top or rather bottom of the package are worse. o_O?