Dvd Writer Incompatibility With Blanks?

[Joey Boy]

I picked up a Sony Vaio FS18SP last week and got round to getting some blank DVDs for it yesterday (TDK DVD-RAM 4.7GB) but it wont burn to them using nero? Though it works fine with the sh1tty e-blue DVD-Rs they gave me for free with the laptop and the TDK ones work fine with on a TV DVD recorder. Could it be the Firmware? Nero? Had a quick look on google, but couldnt find any answers

Any advice would be appriciated

[Abandon]

I bought a cheapo, rubbish MICO (made-in-China-by-orphans) dvd burner and the first 2 brands of disc I tried in it would not write using their own software, or Nero. Then I bought a 50 pack of vio dvds and they write ok, though I have to verify every time as twice the disc wrote errors. I guess that there are still compatability problems.

Make sure you know about the + and - type discs - this needs to be set properly. Many drives will not write to - discs, and others will not write to + discs (which means no backwards compatability. Check which type the recorder is. Can be + only, - only, or + and -. Don't assume it will handle both if it does not clearly claim to.

If writing to a - disc you will have to select Disc-at-once in the nero burn options as the - do not support multisession writing.

You probably knew all that though.

Once I found a compatible disc I just stuck to that type.

[Firefoxx]

DVD writers still vary with regards to blank disc compatibility, just like the early days of CD writing. My Plextor 8x DVD writer can't write worth anything to DVDrs, and I've ended up with way too many DVD coasters (many of those costers cost more than 100 baht).

My current Pioneer 16x writer has so far been the exact opposite. I've yet to find a blank disc that it doesn't like, and it can write pretty much all discs (even 1x discs) at 12x-16x speeds. Threw them in the DVD player, and they played with no problems. Superb compatibility.

I don't know of any other excellent compatibility stories, but there are some models that seem to have very good compatibility.

[Joey Boy]

It does this apparently:

DVD±RW Drive (supporting DVD+R Double Layer disc)*4

Maximum reading speed: DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-ROM: 8x

DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R DL (Double Layer): 4x

CD-RW: 20x

CD-R, CD-ROM: 24x

Maximum writing speed: DVD+R, DVD-R: 8x

DVD+RW, DVD-RW: 4x

DVD+R DL (Double Layer): 2.4x

CD-RW: 10x

CD-R: 24x

The DVD-RW means it should work with TDK DVD-RAM 4.7 or is that something different?

[cobra]

I picked up a Sony Vaio FS18SP last week and got round to getting some blank DVDs for it yesterday (TDK DVD-RAM 4.7GB) but it wont burn to them using nero? Though it works fine with the sh1tty e-blue DVD-Rs they gave me for free

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I had a similar problem, you may have just got a bad batch of TDKs,

I had a 25 pak and every other one failed,

Also, you may have some intermttant issue with the burner itself, good luck,

[waldwolf]

Joey Boy - The specifications for your Sony Vaio VGN-FS18SP indicates the DVD burner does not support DVD-RAM media. (Specs here.)

Your DVD only supports:

BURNING:

DVD+R

DVD-R

DVD+RW

DVD-RW

DVD+R DL (Double Layer)

CD-R

CD-RW

READING:

DVD+R

DVD-R

DVD-ROM

DVD+RW

DVD-RW

DVD+R DL (Double Layer)

CD-RW

CD-R

CD-ROM

While DVD-RAM disks were one of the first dvd standards, it was not widely accepted. Today, a number of DVD players will play DVD-RAM disks, but the only ones I have seen recently which will also burn DVD-RAM disks, are those made by Panasonic. The DVD-RAM disks are usually contained within a non-removeable housing, similar to a floppy disk.

NOTE: The specifications for your Sony indicate it can read DVD-ROM disks, but does not burn them.

Possibly there was some confussion by the sales person when you purchased the laptop, who misread DVD-ROM as DVD-RAM.

Looks like you got a great machine. Good luck.

cheers

Edited April 10, 2005 by waldwolf

[Joey Boy]

aye, just been doing a bit of searching and apparently this DVD-RAM is a different media type to the DVD+RW, DVD-RW all together.. ooops

Beat me to it

The annoyin thing is, this Matshita drive is apparently a company of panasonics, they just aint been assed with stickin the DVD-RAM decoder in em by the looks of it

Edited April 10, 2005 by Joey Boy

[waldwolf]

......The annoyin thing is, this Matshita drive is apparently a company of panasonics, they just aint been assed with stickin the DVD-RAM decoder in em by the looks of it 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have the impression DVD-RAM will soon be joining the ranks of the dinasoars. The media is more expensive and not as widely available as DVD-RW or DVD+RW.

A little bit of trivia:

Matsushita is the parent company of Panasonic. The name Panasonic goes back to the late 1940's - early 1950's, when Matsushita started selling products into the western world, especially North America. In Japan and elsewhere in Asia, Matsushita's brand name for appliances & radios was National. However, there was a very old US company in New England (Boston) called National Radio (who manufactured portable shortwave radios and amature radio equipment) who had trade-marked the name "National". Therefore, in North America, Matsushita had to come up with another name. The new brand-name became Panasonic. Over the years, as often happens, the Panasonic name became more recognized than the National name, so today, the Panasonic brand has replaced National in most markets.

cheers

(PS - Now in the matter of your DVD drive, you really didn't expect Sony to bow down to their arch rival Matsushita did you? )

Edited April 10, 2005 by waldwolf