Burning to DVD-R

[Hamilton456]

Forgive me, I'm a relative newbie. I've burned some DVD's, but always to +R or +RW. I have a DVD burner that can handle either + or -. I just bought some DVD-R disks. My commercial software doesn't seem to want to burn to them. Ok, fine, but my freeware ShrinkIt doesn't seem to want to burn to them either. Is there another freeware program I can use or is there some other problem that I don't know about?

Oh, and forgive me if this post lands in the wrong place. It's been a long time since I used a forum and I'm out of practice.

Thanks,
Hamilton456

[GeneralLeoFF]

whats the model number of your drive?

Well I dont know anything free but Nero will be able to do the job as will Alcohol 120%

[Hamilton456]

model number...hmmm....

My DVD burner is an indiDVD +-R/+-RW/CD burner...I think the model number is 440N, but I'm not sure.

[Hamilton456]

I have a 5.5 version of Nero (just downloaded the upgrade last night..its Nero Express, not sure what exact 5.5 version it is and can't look it up at the moment). I was having a hard time with the older version though. I can get an image created, but can't seem to get it burned to a DVD, despite Nero's create from an image option....it just makes another image on my hard drive, doesn't burn the DVD (and I don't think I'm doing something obvious like directing it to the wrong location). Is the alcohol 120% a joke or a software program? Also, how would Nero help me with this problem (brief summary of step by step, I understand most of the basics -- I think ).

Thanks for your help,
Hamilton456

[GeneralLeoFF]

just wanted to look it up and be sure it was realy capable of + and - and yes it is

Thing has a damn good spec sheet to for a drive that sells on Amazone for just $170.

I guess you should just get the demo version of Nero and check out if it is capable of burning the - discs on your drive or not. Theres a good chance you may have bought some discs that are just of poor quality or something the drive just dosnt like.

[GeneralLeoFF]

heh posted when I was typing didnt see you already tried nero.

No alcohole 120% is not a joke. it;s a multi format burner and drive emulator.

[Hamilton456]

Using Nero

If I understand everything correctly, no need to reply. Just recapping in case I didn't get it.
Ok, so I should download the Nero demo (the latest version of Nero) and see if I can burn a DVD image to the -R discs I have. Then if it still coughs up a hair ball the chances are my discs were on sale because they're horrible.

[sfheath]

you could look up your burner site for a possible media compatibility chart. DVD Decryptor I think was what I used to identify these orange coasters.
That said, NEC say my 1300 burn Princo .... it doesn't!
I've stopped bothering with R now and only use RW.