Not Sure If My Pioneer DVR-108 Is Working Properly

[vilnius]

I bought my Pioneer a few weeks ago and at first it seemed fine but yesterday I had problems burning DVDs and I'm trying to work out if the burner has failed.

I have the Pioneer [firmware 1.18] as the master on my secondary IDE and my LiteOn LDW-851S [firmware GS0P] as secondary and I'm using 80 core cable. This was the recommended setup from the supplier.

The "problem" first showed when I burnt a DVD with CloneDVD2 and it said it had completed correctly but when I tried to play the DVD back it wouldn't play. When I checked the disc it had evidence of burning near the spindle but nothing else. I then tried to check the disc with kprobe2 but that wouldn't even scan the disc.

I then tried burning another disc, of the same sort, with RecordNow 7 and had the same result.

I then tried an Imation DVD-RW which I had previously burnt with the drive only a few days before and again it failed, but the same disc, with the same image file burnt OK on the LiteOn.

I then checked the properties of the drive in Control Panel and it only showed it as a CD-Drive and autoplay didn't show DVD Movie as an option.

This morning I checked the IDE cable before starting and it seemed OK but now I find that Control Panel correctly shows it as a DVD-RW and I have the DVD Movie option back in autoplay.

I've read somewhere that the visual change from "CD-RW drive" to "DVD-R drive" or vice versa is ONLY cosmetical...whatever that means.

I can't say that I've noticed this sort of change before but then I haven't been looking for it either.

I'm intending to play around burning some DVD-RWs today to see what results I get, and I will now be monitoring the way the burner is reported by XP (XP Pro+SP2) and see if it changes from a DVD-RW at any stage. I also thought I would try burning some CD-RWs as a comparison as I've read elsewhere on the forum that the burners have two lasers, one for CD writing and one for DVD writing and wonder if this is the problem. is there any FREEWARE software for testing the lasers?

The burner is still under guarantee but I don't want to contact the supplier until I'm sure there is a fault.

In the meantime I'd appreciate any comments/help anyone can give as I'm completely baffled at the moment.

Thanks

[TRI0N]

With no Disc in the Drive the Multi Read (your burner) will show DVD-RW when you put a DVD-ROM in it will change to DVD-ROM etc. It chages to reflect the current media installed.

You can test your drive with DVDInfoPro using the Advertisment version (Free and the Ads really isn't that annoying) and test your drive and media with it.

Is CloneDVD something you always used? Have your tied to use DVD Shrink?

Also make sure you have the latest Chip Set Drivers for your motherboards contoller hard. 90% of the time there is newer chip set drivers online then what they give you on CD or pre-installed on system.

What media brand are you using? Did you just buy a cake of something new when you bought the drive?

[vilnius]

Originally posted by TRI0N
With no Disc in the Drive the Multi Read (your burner) will show DVD-RW when you put a DVD-ROM in it will change to DVD-ROM etc. It chages to reflect the current media installed.

Thanks for explaining. I assume that as soon as the media is removed the drive reverts back to DVD-RW?

You can test your drive with DVDInfoPro using the Advertisment version (Free and the Ads really isn't that annoying) and test your drive and media with it.

Have used DVDInfoPro before but found it very annoying that the FREE version keeps expiring so quickly so changed to DVD Identifier which I'd read was as good if not better and doesn't expire. Have however just installed latest DVDInfoPro so will see what that tells me.

Is CloneDVD something you always used? Have your tied to use DVD Shrink?

Have used CloneDVD2 regularly but I also use DVDDecrypter, DVDShrink from time to time and I've also used Nero and RecordNow 7 (Build: 700B73B Version 7.0 SSD)

Also make sure you have the latest Chip Set Drivers for your motherboards contoller hard. 90% of the time there is newer chip set drivers online then what they give you on CD or pre-installed on system.

As far as I know the Chipset drivers are current, they were updated after installing the mobo. Having installed SP2 I assumed that would update any drivers also Windows update doesn't report anything.

What media brand are you using? Did you just buy a cake of something new when you bought the drive?

The media I had the problem with are Ridisc Silver Printable (I have other media as well but didn't try these) which DVD Identifier reports (get same result from DVDInfoPro) as:


Unique Disc Identifier:[DVD-R:RITEKG04]

Disc & Book Type: [DVD-R]-[DVD-R]

Manufacturer Name: [Ritek Corp.]

Manufacturer ID: [RITEKG04]

Blank Disc Capacity: [2,298,496 Sectors=4,489.3MB=4.38GB (4.71GB)

Recording Speeds: [1x, 2x, 4x]
[6x And Higher might Not Always Be detectable]

According to videohelp.com media comments these give good results:

Plays on 224 DVD Players
Plays not on 18 DVD Players
Burn Reliability is Good
DVD Reliability is Good
PC Reliability is Good
Console Reliability is Good

Using DVDInfoPro all the drive characteristics report OK but I've never used it to actually test the drive so some help here would be great.

I also use Imation DVD+RW for testing and data backup etc.

Unique Disc Identifier:[DVD+RW:CMC MAG-W01-000]

Disc & Book Type: [DVD+RW]-[DVD+RW]

Manufacturer Name: [CMC Magnetics Corp.]

Manufacturer ID: [W01]

Blank Disc Capacity: [2,295,104 Sectors=4,482.6MB=4.38GB (4.70GB)

Recording Speeds: [1x, 2.4x,]

This is the disc I referred to when I said:

Originally posted by VILNIUS I then tried an Imation DVD+RW which I had previously burnt with the drive only a few days before and again it failed, but the same disc, with the same image file burnt OK on the LiteOn.

These have always been reliable with the LiteON and I've also used them since getting the Pioneer.