Topic: Pioneer DVD Burners

[DanielB]

Hey, I am just curious if anyone else has had problems with Pioneer DVD burners and burning DVD's while you are connected to the internet.

When I am connected to the net before the burn, it freezes during the first part of the write where it is setting up the session. If I connect during the burn, what happens is that the buffers are consantly emptying and filling... leaving momments where there is no data in the buffer for it to write and causing all sorts of issues with the burnt disk.

I am on dial-up, using a Pioneer 106 (A06 OEM) and Nero to burn (but other software has the same result).

I know what people are going to initially say, don't do anything while you are burning... but I can do a lot more than be connected to the net and not have burning issues when I am not connected.

I also have problems burning at 4x with movies. they tend to get stuck when I play them back on a stand alone dvd player, just freeze part way in, now I know there is nothing wrong with the video, because its stuff that I have made myself, they also play from the DVD fine on the computer. Not sure if its the burner, or some other problem.

Daniel

[daveeb]

You're right about the initial reaction, i'd say as a general rule that if you're burning don't do anything else and it probably won't go wrong.  

[Sandra]

Hi Daniel, I have the same model of DVD writer and havent had any problems with it, although I dont tend to do much else if I am burning a dvd other than maybe be on messenger.
Have you tried dropping the speed to 2x or even doing it at 1x on one of the ones that causes a problem on playback to see if that cures it ?
Maybe you could try a firmware upgrade, I havent needed to do one for mine but the 106 has been out for 18 months or more now so that may help.
I have a Yamada 6100 stand alone DVD player for my tv that plays Div/Xvid etc so I tend to burn a lot of films to CD and I have found that if I burn at 52x then I sometimes get the same problem as youre experiencing in as far that it plays on the pc fine but has problems, mainly with the audio on my yamada.
If I drop the speed to 24 x or less it seems to fix most problems.
Some media doesnt work as well as others either, especially mirrored ones give some people problems.
I am not too sure how the audio is stored on a DVD but on VCD and SVCD its usually at one end of the the film, pcs play them fine because of their greater processing power but stand alones often struggle to read from the end for the audio and from the various parts of the CD for the video content.
There are programs such as Virtual Dub and its variants which will interleave the audio with the video which can cure the problems with VCDs and SVCDs but again I dont think that the file structure of DVDs is the same, although when you open the burning programs to make a DVD there are seperate audio and video folders even though with Nero all the dvd files go into the video folder leaving the audio folder empty  

[TR]

Still using the Pioneer 106D here as well (dack was right about Liteone   )

I also find now and again that some burns freeze when playing back..wish I knew why? perhaps a better (more expensive) disk might be in order?

[Dack]

A lot of it comes down to how much memory you have got in your machine - when you try running another application while writing then, if you don't have enough memory, the computer starts paging it to disk (and you end up with a loud "thrashing" sound and the buffers empty).

However that shouldn't be a real problem these days as all writers have "burnproof" where they switch the laser off if the buffers empty and only switch it on again when it needs to write.

A lot of the problem with stand alone dvd players comes down to the disc and the write strategy the dvd writer used on it. I've got three writers here (and a further 2 in work). Using the same media (Bulkpaq printables - Prodisc S03 dye 6.99 for 25 at SVP)and the same source material I got the following results:

1. Pioneer 106 - Wrote and played fine (9 out of 10 players)
2. LG4120 - Wrote and played fine (All players)
3. NEC1100 - (Converted to 1300) - Wrote fine, gets stuttery at end of disc.
4. NEC2500 - Wrote fine, stutters a bit at end
5. Liteon - Had trouble writing, stuttered throughout

All writers had the latest firmwares on them (so should support the most media types)

I tend to use the Prodisc S03 dye as it works on most of my writers/players. I also use the Ritek G04 (and G05) dye discs if storing data.

[DanielB]

I forgot to mention that yes, burning at slower speeds seems to lower the number of times I get stuttering movies. usually do them all at 2x, but I have even had one at 2x screw up.

Perhaps it is the media that does that.

But I was more concerned about the internet and the freezing of the burn. It stops me doing anything on the pc when it does that.

I have 512mb of ram... and it only does that when I am on the net. Or when I connect to the net during a burn after the initilization, it does the buffer emptying thing... and I can even not be doing anything... other than having it be connected, and it still does it.

I have even had a CD freeze about half way through once... so now I never burn while I am on the net... which is quite annoying.

[Sandra]

Where have you set the page file for Nero ?
If its on its default on C it may be worth moving it to your D drive, assuming that you have one and its got more spare capacity on there
which kind of modem are you using ?
If its a usb one that will use more of your cpu than a serial or pci one and that could possibly explain why it struggles while on the net :doggie:

[daveeb]

I assume you're using XP daniel.  i find that Xp and nero dont get on too well.  i used to be able to burn vcd slideshows with me/nero.  now with xp i get virtual memory errors and never get a succesful burn (although dvd's burn ok).  cant work that one out  

ps i use the pioneer 107

[Sandra]

I have used XP and Nero for a long time without any problems Dave although I havent tried slide shows with it.
If you are geting virtual memory errors I suggest that you move the page file or increase the amount of VM and see if that cures it  

[daveeb]

i've increased the vm to max already with no success sandra  .  guess i could try switching the page file to my slave drive, although both drives are biggish and less than half full.  For some reason the memory doesnt appear to be released for new data when creating the slideshow and so quickly runs out.  yet the much bigger video files i burn go ok.

[DanielB]

hmm... I think I might have a dodgy MoBo... my third hard drive was acting strange... it was sooooo slooooowwwww... took 20 minutes to transfer an itsy bitsy txt file... so I moved it from the second IDE channel to the onboard RAID controller... now it works much much better... so either the cable I have is dodgy... or the MoBo IDE controller has gone crazy.

What a pain in the bum!

I will have to go and buy a new cable next markets, see if that makes any difference.

Strangly, I have a friend who has had the same problem with burns and jumps with an external Firewire case and the same model DVD burner...

Now... back to the more serious issue... burning while being connected to the internet... as I expect to be getting ADSL in the next month... this is a pressing issue... as then I will always be connected to the internet... so if its not the modem... I am going to get very annoyed at having to disable the ADSL each time I want to burn.

The modem I have now is a Motorola SM56 internal PCI... but I am pretty sure I had the same problems with a Lucient 56k external (serial, not usb) modem... perhaps I will try that on saturday... I think I can waste 1 dvd for a test run...