Failed attempts to copy home-recorded DVDs

[lommasson]

HOME-RECORDED DVDs, COPIED OR ATTEMPTED TO COPY:

 

I have two Panasonic DVD Recorders/VCR Combo units. These receive their signals from Comcast, one through a digital (but non-HDTV) cable box and one directly from cable. (We have the Digital Plus package of channels but I do not access HDTV programming.) The home-recorded DVDs I make on the Panasonics are from local and cable channels, mostly black and white programs such as Perry Mason, Combat, and black and white and color movies from TCM.

 

Occasionally I wish to make a copy of a home-recorded DVD on my Dell Dimension 4700. I do not attempt to copy commercially recorded DVDs. The DVD-R media I use are name-brands, Memorex, Verbatim, TDK, or Maxell.

 

The original installations of EMC 7 and EMC 7.5 were able to copy home-recorded DVDs without a problem.

 

EMC 8, and the most recent reinstallation of EMC 7.5, will not copy home-recorded DVDs.

 

ROXIO EMC 7, 7.5, & 8 INSTALLATION AND UNINSTALLATION HISTORY:

 

Before installing programs I shut off anti-virus and other security software as well as closing all open programs with Windows Task Manager.

 

My Dell came with Sonic RecordNow! 7.3 LE software. Before installing Roxio EMC 7 the Sonic DLA portion of RecordNow! was uninstalled. The original installation of Sonic RecordNow! made copies of home-recorded DVDs. RecordNow! was uninstalled in a few months as it had fewer features than EMC.

 

EMC 7 was installed without the Drag to Disc feature. EMC 7 update patches were installed as available. EMC 7 satisfactorily copied home-recorded DVDs. Photo Suite 7 could not synchronize slide show images with soundtracks.

 

Later, hoping for program improvements, EMC 7.5 was installed, without the Drag to Disc feature, and then its update patches were installed as available. This installation of EMC 7.5 satisfactorily copied home-recorded DVDs.

 

In November 2005, hoping for program improvements, I purchased EMC 8. EMC 7.5 was uninstalled and EMC 8 was installed without the Drag to Disc feature. Immediately I discovered that the optical drives were no longer recognized. The computer locked up when attempting to read from DVDs or CDs. The Audio Capture feature was used once.

 

I emailed Roxio with my observations and concerns about EMC 8. No response was received. On 12/19/2005, for the second time, I emailed Roxio with my observations and concerns about EMC 8. This inquiry was acknowledged by Roxio Technical Support but no relevant or specific advice was given.

 

EMC 8 was soon uninstalled and EMC 7.5 was reinstalled without the Drag to Disc feature. Update patches were reinstalled. EMC 7.5 satisfactorily copied home-recorded DVDs through around early April 2006.

 

EMC 7.5 stopped making copies of home-recorded DVDs around early April 2006. This was around the time I uninstalled McAfee software (a trial version installed by Dell) and installed Norton Internet Security 2004 (a trial version from the Dell Dimension 4700 Tools System Software CD). (I have available a retail version of Norton Internet Security 2005 that I have never installed.)

 

Then I saw that there was an EMC 8 update patch. I saved the patch to my hard drive. I uninstalled EMC 7.5, reinstalled EMC 8, updating it with the patch.

 

The reinstalled EMC 8 again failed to read the optical drives and locked up the Dell 4700, just as the original installation had done.

 

I uninstalled EMC 8 and reinstalled EMC 7.5, without Drag to Disc, and reinstalled its update patches. The optical drives can be read and home-recorded DVDs may be watched on the Dell, but they can no longer be copied by EMC 7.5. There are several errors given when attempting to copy DVDs, some say “cannot read from media,” or “cannot write to media,” or “incompatible format,” and perhaps some other error messages. EMC 7.5 will burn CDs.

 

Lately, in desperation, I reinstalled Sonic RecordNow! 7.3 LE, without the DLA utility, from the Dell supplied reinstallation CD. The reinstalled RecordNow! LE can no longer make copies of home-recorded DVDs. It correctly burns CDs.

 

While I prefer the Audio Capture of EMC 8 (with its instant finalization like the older EMC 5 Platinum) the ability to make occasional copies of home-recorded DVDs is very important to me. How might I get EMC 7.5 or EMC 8 copying home-recorded DVDs on my Dell Dimension 4700?

 

DELL DIMENSION 4700 SPECIFICATIONS

 

Dell Dimension 4700 (new 12/04)

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP

Remote Control for MCE 2005 (there are no TV tuner or capture cards installed)

Sonic RecordNow! 7.3, Dell installed software (reinstalled without DLA utility)

MS Works Suite 2004, Dell installed software

Pentium 4 530 with Hyper Threading (3.0 GHz, 800 FSB)

512 MB Ram DDR2 400 MHz

160 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM

ATI Radeon X300SE 128 MB PCI Express X16 Video Card

Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24 bit HD Audio Sound Card

Dell E1704 FPV Ultra Sharp Flat Panel Monitor

LiteOn SOHD-16P9SV DVD-ROM (replaced original DVD-ROM)

LiteOn SHOW-1633S DVD-RW (replaced original CD-RW)

[lommasson]

Following the advice given here I was able to get EMC 8 functional.

 

Owing to the discussion concerning compatibility of DVD media I came to the conclusion that the DVD copy failure was a problem with the DVD burner itself. Today, after reading a number of very favorable customer reviews I replaced the LiteOn with a NEC 3550A. I just test-burned a copy of one of my home-recorded DVDs. I am amazed at the NEC's speed in completing the copy. The old LiteOn had been slowing down before it quit. The NEC-burned test copy looks good.

 

Shortly after purchasing my Dell Dimension 4700 in December 2004 I read reviews and found much praise for the LiteOn 1633S DVD burner. I bought two of them, one for my Dell and another for my daughter's Dell 8250. The LiteOn 1633S burners performed well until a few weeks ago. My daughter tells me today that she's been getting about 50% coasters lately.

 

It's my daughter's birthday today. I guess I know what to get for her.

 

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

Bruce

[bimicher]

Following the advice given here I was able to get EMC 8 functional.

 

Owing to the discussion concerning compatibility of DVD media I came to the conclusion that the DVD copy failure was a problem with the DVD burner itself. Today, after reading a number of very favorable customer reviews I replaced the LiteOn with a NEC 3550A. I just test-burned a copy of one of my home-recorded DVDs. I am amazed at the NEC's speed in completing the copy. The old LiteOn had been slowing down before it quit. The NEC-burned test copy looks good.

 

Shortly after purchasing my Dell Dimension 4700 in December 2004 I read reviews and found much praise for the LiteOn 1633S DVD burner. I bought two of them, one for my Dell and another for my daughter's Dell 8250. The LiteOn 1633S burners performed well until a few weeks ago. My daughter tells me today that she's been getting about 50% coasters lately.

 

It's my daughter's birthday today. I guess I know what to get for her.

 

Thank you everyone for your help!

 

Bruce

Did you ever update the drivers and/or firmware for your LiteOn burners? EMC 8 gets the burn information from the burner and if its not up-to-date problems like you described may occur.

[lommasson]

Thank you Alan for the advice. I did see mention of that fix for EMC.

 

I don't currently have EMC 8 on my Dell 4700.

 

At this point I am hoping to get the reinstall of EMC 7.5 functional without having to brave the EMC 8 horror again unless it is the last resort.

 

Bruce

 

EMC 8 Horror story continues:

 

Today I uninstalled EMC 7.5 and RecordNow! 7.3 LE.

 

Then I shut down Norton Internet Security 2004, including Anti Virus, and all open programs through Windows Task Manager. Then I did a custom install of EMC 8, omitting Drag to Disc. (This is my third reinstall of EMC 8) Then I rebooted the Dell. Then I shut down the Norton and other open programs again. Then I installed the large EMC 8 update patch from 12/2005. (This is my second reinstall of the large EMC 8 update patch.) Then I rebooted the Dell. Then I shut down the Norton and other open programs again. Then I installed the fix to get the drives recognized. (This is the first time I have used this patch.) Then I rebooted the Dell. The drives are now recognized.

 

On Power DVD I played a portion of one of my home-recorded DVDs, a Verbatim DVD-R. The DVD played fine. Then I placed a blank Verbatim DVD-R in the LiteOn burner, went to EMC 8 and attempted to "copy disc." In a few seconds the burner tray opened and then I got a failure, see below.

 

Next I played a portion of another one of my home-recorded DVDs, a Memorex DVD-R. The DVD played fine. Then I placed a blank Memorex DVD-R in the LiteOn burner, went to EMC 8 and attempted to "copy disc." In a few seconds the burner tray opened and then I got a failure, see below.

 

Here is the detail text from both of the failures:

 

Sense: 02 ASC:30 ASCQ: 05 (Command 2A)

____________________________________

 

Px.dll. 2.7.17.500

PxAFS.DLL: 1.0.0.1

pxdrk.dll: 1.1.6.3.0

PxMas.dll: 2.7.17.500

PxSFS.DLL: 2.7.17.500

PxWave.dll: 2.7.17.500

PXWMA.dll: 1.0.0.3

 

 

Then, leaving the same Memorex DVD-Rs in the play and record drives, I re-approached EMC 8 to "copy movie." Then I got this failure:

 

Cannot write medium. Incompatible format--Unit not ready.

 

That's where it stands at the moment.

 

Bruce

[cdanteek]

Sense: 02 ASC:30 ASCQ: 05 (Command 2A)

 

ASC 30: Incompatible medium installed/Cannot read Medium - Unknown Format/ Cannot read Medium - Incompatible Format.

ASCQ 05: L-EC Uncorrectable error.

 

Numeric order codes ASC and ASCQ assignments

http://www.danbbs.dk/~dino/SCSI/SCSI2-D.html

 

You need to find out what media is 100% compatible with your writer. What your using now, your writer don't like.

 

cdanteek

[lommasson]

Did you ever update the drivers and/or firmware for your LiteOn burners? EMC 8 gets the burn information from the burner and if its not up-to-date problems like you described may occur.

 

Upgrading firmware was another issue that I never thought to persue. I have downloaded the Lite On 1633 firmware update. There are a couple of other computers in the family that I can upgrade with these Lite On 1633 drives and install this firmware update.

 

Thank you for bringing up firmware updates.

[lommasson]

ASC 30: Incompatible medium installed/Cannot read Medium - Unknown Format/ Cannot read Medium - Incompatible Format.

ASCQ 05: L-EC Uncorrectable error.

 

Numeric order codes ASC and ASCQ assignments

http://www.danbbs.dk/~dino/SCSI/SCSI2-D.html

 

You need to find out what media is 100% compatible with your writer. What your using now, your writer don't like.

 

cdanteek

 

Thank you for reminding me of compatibility issues. I shall do some investigation of compatible media.

 

A few days ago when I still was hoping to get EMC 7.5 functional again I attempted to copy a home-recorded DVD. There was a failure. The report said something like "can not read media." I took the DVD out of the DVD-ROM, wiped it off, and reinserted it. The next attempt to make the copy returned a report that said something like "can not write to media." I took the blank DVD out of the DVD burner, wiped it off, and reinserted it. The next attempt to make the copy returned a report that said something like "incompatible format." These are just approximate recollections of the actual EMC 7.5 failure language.

 

Initially I suspected compatibility to be the problem but came to reject compatibility issues because the LiteOn SOHW-1633S has, using EMC 7.5, sucessfully burned numerous copies of home-recorded DVDs from the very same spindles of both the Verbatim DVD-R discs and the Memorex DVD-R discs I still have on hand. In fact, if my memory is serving me well, the LiteOn has also sucessfully burned copies of home-recorded DVDs to and from the Memorex DVD-R, Verbatim DVD-R, Great Quality (Fry's) DVD-R, and TDK DVD+R discs, even intermingling DVD formats ("plus" and "minus") in the play and record drives, with EMC 7.5.

 

The LiteOn burner was manufactured around the same time as the Dell Dimension 4700, 12/2004. The LiteOn DVD-ROM was manufactured around 9/2005. The LiteOn drives seem to take anything that's thrown at them. For several months they performed well under EMC 7.5, until a month ago (see my original post).

 

The 160 GB hard drive is defragmented regularly; currently with around 87 GB of free space. I capture one to two hours of music from BBC Radio 2 each week. That occupies a good amount of space on the hard drive until the programs are burned to CDs and the captured file is deleted. I'm many months behind on that project.

 

Bruce

[awoo87]

HOME-RECORDED DVDs, COPIED OR ATTEMPTED TO COPY:

 

I have two Panasonic DVD Recorders/VCR Combo units. These receive their signals from Comcast, one through a digital (but non-HDTV) cable box and one directly from cable. (We have the Digital Plus package of channels but I do not access HDTV programming.) The home-recorded DVDs I make on the Panasonics are from local and cable channels, mostly black and white programs such as Perry Mason, Combat, and black and white and color movies from TCM.

 

Occasionally I wish to make a copy of a home-recorded DVD on my Dell Dimension 4700. I do not attempt to copy commercially recorded DVDs. The DVD-R media I use are name-brands, Memorex, Verbatim, TDK, or Maxell.

 

The original installations of EMC 7 and EMC 7.5 were able to copy home-recorded DVDs without a problem.

 

EMC 8, and the most recent reinstallation of EMC 7.5, will not copy home-recorded DVDs.

 

ROXIO EMC 7, 7.5, & 8 INSTALLATION AND UNINSTALLATION HISTORY:

 

Before installing programs I shut off anti-virus and other security software as well as closing all open programs with Windows Task Manager.

 

My Dell came with Sonic RecordNow! 7.3 LE software. Before installing Roxio EMC 7 the Sonic DLA portion of RecordNow! was uninstalled. The original installation of Sonic RecordNow! made copies of home-recorded DVDs. RecordNow! was uninstalled in a few months as it had fewer features than EMC.

 

EMC 7 was installed without the Drag to Disc feature. EMC 7 update patches were installed as available. EMC 7 satisfactorily copied home-recorded DVDs. Photo Suite 7 could not synchronize slide show images with soundtracks.

 

Later, hoping for program improvements, EMC 7.5 was installed, without the Drag to Disc feature, and then its update patches were installed as available. This installation of EMC 7.5 satisfactorily copied home-recorded DVDs.

 

In November 2005, hoping for program improvements, I purchased EMC 8. EMC 7.5 was uninstalled and EMC 8 was installed without the Drag to Disc feature. Immediately I discovered that the optical drives were no longer recognized. The computer locked up when attempting to read from DVDs or CDs. The Audio Capture feature was used once.

 

I emailed Roxio with my observations and concerns about EMC 8. No response was received. On 12/19/2005, for the second time, I emailed Roxio with my observations and concerns about EMC 8. This inquiry was acknowledged by Roxio Technical Support but no relevant or specific advice was given.

 

EMC 8 was soon uninstalled and EMC 7.5 was reinstalled without the Drag to Disc feature. Update patches were reinstalled. EMC 7.5 satisfactorily copied home-recorded DVDs through around early April 2006.

 

EMC 7.5 stopped making copies of home-recorded DVDs around early April 2006. This was around the time I uninstalled McAfee software (a trial version installed by Dell) and installed Norton Internet Security 2004 (a trial version from the Dell Dimension 4700 Tools System Software CD). (I have available a retail version of Norton Internet Security 2005 that I have never installed.)

 

Then I saw that there was an EMC 8 update patch. I saved the patch to my hard drive. I uninstalled EMC 7.5, reinstalled EMC 8, updating it with the patch.

 

The reinstalled EMC 8 again failed to read the optical drives and locked up the Dell 4700, just as the original installation had done.

 

I uninstalled EMC 8 and reinstalled EMC 7.5, without Drag to Disc, and reinstalled its update patches. The optical drives can be read and home-recorded DVDs may be watched on the Dell, but they can no longer be copied by EMC 7.5. There are several errors given when attempting to copy DVDs, some say "cannot read from media," or "cannot write to media," or "incompatible format," and perhaps some other error messages. EMC 7.5 will burn CDs.

 

Lately, in desperation, I reinstalled Sonic RecordNow! 7.3 LE, without the DLA utility, from the Dell supplied reinstallation CD. The reinstalled RecordNow! LE can no longer make copies of home-recorded DVDs. It correctly burns CDs.

 

While I prefer the Audio Capture of EMC 8 (with its instant finalization like the older EMC 5 Platinum) the ability to make occasional copies of home-recorded DVDs is very important to me. How might I get EMC 7.5 or EMC 8 copying home-recorded DVDs on my Dell Dimension 4700?

 

DELL DIMENSION 4700 SPECIFICATIONS

 

Dell Dimension 4700 (new 12/04)

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP

Remote Control for MCE 2005 (there are no TV tuner or capture cards installed)

Sonic RecordNow! 7.3, Dell installed software (reinstalled without DLA utility)

MS Works Suite 2004, Dell installed software

Pentium 4 530 with Hyper Threading (3.0 GHz, 800 FSB)

512 MB Ram DDR2 400 MHz

160 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM

ATI Radeon X300SE 128 MB PCI Express X16 Video Card

Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24 bit HD Audio Sound Card

Dell E1704 FPV Ultra Sharp Flat Panel Monitor

LiteOn SOHD-16P9SV DVD-ROM (replaced original DVD-ROM)

LiteOn SHOW-1633S DVD-RW (replaced original CD-RW)

 

Hi

Have you tried the two fixes at the top of the page. I had to disable the RX filter to get my drives back to normal.

[lommasson]

Hi

Have you tried the two fixes at the top of the page. I had to disable the RX filter to get my drives back to normal.

 

 

Thank you Alan for the advice. I did see mention of that fix for EMC.

 

I don't currently have EMC 8 on my Dell 4700.

 

At this point I am hoping to get the reinstall of EMC 7.5 functional without having to brave the EMC 8 horror again unless it is the last resort.

 

Bruce