Atlas Shrugged Problems

[Adbear]

it doesn't say 'log in' it say 'logfile' and you should be right clicking on the fox icon down by your clock, not left clicking

[Donnchadh]

Originally Posted by Adbear

it doesn't say 'log in' it say 'logfile' and you should be right clicking on the fox icon down by your clock, not left clicking

That's where I was doing it wrong....right clicked and created a logfile.

I found it in My Documents as a zipped file AnyDVD_7.0.7.0_Info_D_ATLAS_SHRUGGED but now have trouble figuring out how to attach it to a reply.

sorry for the dumb moves, but this is all new to me

Donnchadh

[Donnchadh]

I hope this works.

Donnchadh

[FurryGuy]

What brand of blank media are you using, what speed are you burning the blanks at? How are you playing back the backup on your PC? What software player are you using?

Cruddy media and/or burning too fast can lead to problems on playback. A burn that exhibits no errors does not necessarily mean the burn was error-free. If the drive doesn't report any problems back to Windows, then Windows doesn't report to CloneDVD there were errors despite the fact the burn is not good. Dual-layer blanks can be especially prone to errors at/near the layer transition point if they are not quality blanks.

In my experience using Windows Media Player to watch your backups (and originals) can infrequently create problems (glitchy video, muddled audio, lockups) that using a different player won't have. VideoLAN can have similar problems as well. My OEM PowerDVD 10 has yet to not play a backup that plays fine in one of my standalone DVD players.

It sounds like there are environmental/software issues on your PC because your backups work in a standalone player but not on your PC. One troubleshooting step you might consider is re-ripping the original ot an image (ISO), mounting the backup in virtual drive software (the free Virtual CloneDrive available on the main Slysoft site) and playing back the virtual disc with your software player to see if you still have problems.

As weird as it sounds sometimes re-ripping a disc can solve a problem while just reburning the same rip can keep having errors.

[Donnchadh]

Originally Posted by FurryGuy

What brand of blank media are you using, what speed are you burning the blanks at? How are you playing back the backup on your PC? What software player are you using?

Cruddy media and/or burning too fast can lead to problems on playback. A burn that exhibits no errors does not necessarily mean the burn was error-free. If the drive doesn't report any problems back to Windows, then Windows doesn't report to CloneDVD there were errors despite the fact the burn is not good. Dual-layer blanks can be especially prone to errors at/near the layer transition point if they are not quality blanks.

In my experience using Windows Media Player to watch your backups (and originals) can infrequently create problems (glitchy video, muddled audio, lockups) that using a different player won't have. VideoLAN can have similar problems as well. My OEM PowerDVD 10 has yet to not play a backup that plays fine in one of my standalone DVD players.

It sounds like there are environmental/software issues on your PC because your backups work in a standalone player but not on your PC. One troubleshooting step you might consider is re-ripping the original ot an image (ISO), mounting the backup in virtual drive software (the free Virtual CloneDrive available on the main Slysoft site) and playing back the virtual disc with your software player to see if you still have problems.

As weird as it sounds sometimes re-ripping a disc can solve a problem while just reburning the same rip can keep having errors.

Sony DVD + R DL 8.5 GB

2.4x

CyberLinkPowerDVD7

Never had problems before with these.

Donnchadh

[FurryGuy]

Sony is not a quality brand, and since the earthquake and tsunami quality control has taken a dive. I personally use Verbatim DatalifePlus (made in Singapore) and have yet to have a problem that was not something I did.

2.4x is a good burn speed for dual layer blanks. I would bet your problem is when you play back the disc at/near the layer transition (the outer edge). Lesser quality blanks can have dye issues on the outer edge.

PowerDVD is a good player, but version 7 is way out of date. I am considering upgrading PDVD 10 to a newer version.

Just because you have not had problems in the past doesn't mean you will always be problem-free in the future. I used to use Memorex blanks because I never had problems. Then 3 50-blank cake boxes failed to burn a single one without errors (even the drive occasionally complained during write process). I switched to a more expensive quality brand (Verbatim) and have not had problems since. Trying to save money has ended up costing me a lot more because even successful prior burns with Memorex are showing signs of early dye degradation. I'm not expecting my backups to last forever, but not lasting even a year is not normal.

[Adbear]

Have you tried updating the firmware on the drive? Your firmware (1.02) is from Jan 2010, and the last firmware they made (1.03) was in March 2011
download it from here
http://www.firmwarehq.com/Pioneer/DVR-118L/files.html

You might also want to take the drive out and check the manufacturing date as I didn't think these IDE drives had been manufactured in quite a while

[Donnchadh]

Originally Posted by Donnchadh

I hope this works.

Donnchadh

Any luck on opening this up?

[Adbear]

Yes, that's why I recommended you update your firmware.
As has been stated earlier, the fact that the disc works on you stand alone player means the software is doing it's job and it's something on your PC that is causing the issue, otherwise you'd have the same result on the stand alone as well.
First thing to do is insert the original disc, and with AnyDVD running try playing the original, if that works then re-rip the disc and burn the new rip to a better quality blank

[Donnchadh]

Problem solved. Turns out it must be the older version of Power DVD 7 player I am using.

I played the exact same disc on Real Player and it worked flawlessly. So the SlySoft copying wasn't at fault.

Needed to replace the Pioneer drive anyway; it was quite old.

Longer term, I have started to wonder what PC I should update to; I would like to be able to burn BlueRay DVD's but my current PC is totally inadequate to handle them.

Donnchadh