Error 255

[StevenH]

Toast 8 reports an Interface Error 255 when I try to write a DVD on my LaCie Lightscribe DVD burner. Toast sees the drive as a TSSTcorpCD/DVDW SH-W162L. The drive has the latest firmware from LaCie. Toast 7 had no difficulty with the drive. Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

[tsantee]

I believe LaCie will tell you that Memorex media is not reliable with their drives; particularly the Memorex DL media. Most drives seen to only work reliably with Verbatim DVD+R DL media. So the first trouble-shooting step I'd take is get a Verbatim DL disc (I've seen them at Walmart).

[StevenH]

John at Roxio

 

I was burning data - photographs from iView Media Pro.

 

tsantee

 

Your suggestion worked. I had tried restarting the laptop but not powering down the drive. I feel a bit silly for neglecting such a basic troubleshooting step but I am very grateful for your advice. Thank you and John for such quick replies.

[joebob]

Okay, so Memorex media is supposedly poor. It's 2007 and too bad that optical drives and media are still so esoteric!!! As a 40 year old consumer, I would have thought a company as old in the data storage business as Memorex would be fine.

 

I've now looked through the LaCie manual and found a recommendation to use the following brands of media: LaCie Apple TaiyoYuden Sony TDK Verbatim Ricoh

 

Before I go out and buy more media (RW and DL), could the more experienced among us rank those brands in terms of quality/reliability? Obviously the first two brands listed are going to be more expensive than necessary, manufactured by someone else anyway, and hard to find in retail outlets.

 

Verbatim was recommended in this thread for DL applications. How about for R and RW single layer? On a related matter, should I be using + or - as my default media for video and data?

 

Thank you.

[tsantee]

Try this. Shut down the Mac and unplug the LaCie drive. Power everything down. Now restart the Mac and reconnect the LaCie drive. See if that resets everything.

[John at Roxio]

You are using the same data, same layout, and same format options in Toast 8?

[tsantee]

I agree that it is frustrating that manufacturers can be selling media that isn't tested and proven reliable on a variety of drives. Meanwhile, drive manufacturers some times do provide firmware updates that support more media brands and types.

 

When you insert a blank DVD in Toast and choose Disc Info from the Recorder menu, you will get a window that describes the media. There also will be a link to videohelp.com's user reports on that specific media. While you're at that site you can search for reports on other brands and types.

 

The distinction between +R and -R media is very small today as far as its ability to play back on different DVD players. The -R media is supposed to have slightly more compatibility. You also should use -R media if you want to use a disc with an older Mac (more than 3 years old).

 

I also suggest burning video DVDs at less than the "Best" or highest speed.

[joebob]

I have received a large number of errors with Toast 8 and my new LaCie 16X LightScribe DL d2 DVDRW when creating video DVD's. Mostly from TiVo downloads, but also from copied movies. I've tried it both plugged in via Firewire and USB2. *** I don't have proof, but I'm posting this because I've got a feeling that there is an incompatibility. I'm thinking about creating a new thread to see if other users of this drive model notice.***

 

When I use my internal SuperDrive (Pioneer DVR-106D) I don't have these problems (of course I haven't been able to do any dual layer burns with that).

 

I used Toast 7 briefly with this new LaCie drive and did not see any of these problems. It takes so long to encode/multiplex/whatever the various data sets that I haven't tried each combination of data with Toast 7 and Toast 8.

 

Mac OS X 10.4.8, dual 1.8GHz, 3.5 Gbytes RAM. External LaCie connected directly into ports on Mac, no hubs involved. I've powered the LaCie on and off a number of times, but not the whole Mac. I have fixed permissions and found almost nothing to fix.

 

Errors typically mention medium. I've been using mostly Memorex DVD+RW and DVD+R DL.

 

Such as:

 

1) The drive reported an error: Sense Key = ILLEGAL REQUEST Sense Code = 0x30, 0x06

CANNOT FORMAT MEDIUM - INCOMPATIBLE MEDIUM

2) The drive reported an error: Sense Key = MEDIUM ERROR Sense Code = 0x73, 0x03

3) Sector 0 is unreadable. Verification failed.