Blu Ray Burning Issues

[JTurner]

First of all, here's the equipment I have:

 

Mac OS X 10.6.7 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5

Toast Titanium Pro 11 (11.0.4)

Digistor Matshita BD-MLT UJ260 - USB2

 

I have been trying and trying and trying and trying to burn a Blu-Ray, but so far, I feel like I've had nothing but problems.

 

When I first acquired the device last August, I tried to use some MAGNAVOX 25GB BDs to burn. But for all of them, before the burning even started, after the RAM cache count was finished, I got the message "The connection is unstable." And then the disc fails to be written, and I'm left with a BD displaying the information I entered as if it's made, but it's not. I don't know what happened, but after burning a "disc image", I finally burnt my first BD using the same brand, and it worked with no problems.

 

Then I became more ambitious and decided to purchase some Verbatim 50GB 4x BDs. (3 initially, later on five from Japan.) The first BD burned beautifully. But the remaining two did not. Then I tried from the Japanese ones, and so far, three out of five have done the same thing. I really don't understand what the problem is, but I am feeling very disappointed and baffled, especially considering the good reviews I've read that this BD drive is compatible with Mac.

 

Oddly, when I attempted to burn something from my downstairs Windows XP, it worked flawlessly. Again, I am at a loss, as I don't know what the real problem is. Is it with the brand? Or could it be that I have it hooked into a hub (it couldn't be, especially since the few I succeeded in burning worked without so much trouble).

Edited September 17, 2012 by JTurner

[BJacks]

In my opinion Verbatim happens to make great media. By chance, are your Write speeds set to other than "Best" in Toast? Could it be that the Write speed in your Windows app is set at lower speed? Try burning at the lowest speed or matching that of the windows app. Cheers!

[tsantee]

Plug the drive directly to the Mac and not into a hub. Also, check that you have the most recent firmware for the drive.

 

The connection not stable error is pretty descriptive but it also can appear if the drive's firmware is not tuned for the specific media.

[JTurner]

Plug the drive directly to the Mac and not into a hub. Also, check that you have the most recent firmware for the drive.

 

The connection not stable error is pretty descriptive but it also can appear if the drive's firmware is not tuned for the specific media.

 

But how do I know what the firmware is for the BD drive?

[tsantee]

But how do I know what the firmware is for the BD drive?

Open Toast and with the BD drive selected choose Recorder Settings from the Recorder menu. Then click the tab that has the name of your drive. The first item in the window -- Inquiry Response Data -- includes the firmware version.

[JTurner]

Well I checked the firmware, and my drive is currently at 1.00/MMC-3.

[tsantee]

Well I checked the firmware, and my drive is currently at 1.00/MMC-3.

Now you need to go to the drive's manufacturer's Web site to see if there is a newer firmware available. Unfortunately many manufacturers only make flashers for firmware updates that run on Windows computers. So if an update is available you may need to connect the drive to a PC to do the update.

 

Even more confusing is that LaCie issues firmware updates for the drive's installed in its cases, so you need to use the LaCie updater rather than one from the drive's manufacturer if yours is from LaCie. There may be others that do that, too. Maybe the company that sold you the drive can provide some help about this.

 

My Sony Blu-ray drive has no firmware update available and you may find that yours also has none.

[Andrew23]

I just got the LG BE14NU40 Blu-ray burner. I have Toast 11.1 New Imac osx 10.8.4 I'm having the same issues. Error: Connection Unstable. Disk Failed to burn. This with both with Blu-Ray and regular DVD's. I can burn the first disk, but the next one, two, or three after that one. If I start over it works, but that means re-encoding which takes 2 hours with a 90-minute edit. This is infuriating. I've played with different settings, choosing the manual quality and 4x burn speed (disks are 6x Verbatim) It worked once in Finder but I haven't tried it again yet. This needs to be resolved. Thanx for telling us how. All I do is buy new equpt get mad when it doesn't work. I'll provide coffee or champagne when Lacie, MAC and TOAST have a love techical love fest.

[tsantee]

I just got the LG BE14NU40 Blu-ray burner. I have Toast 11.1 New Imac osx 10.8.4 I'm having the same issues. Error: Connection Unstable. Disk Failed to burn. This with both with Blu-Ray and regular DVD's. I can burn the first disk, but the next one, two, or three after that one. If I start over it works, but that means re-encoding which takes 2 hours with a 90-minute edit. This is infuriating. I've played with different settings, choosing the manual quality and 4x burn speed (disks are 6x Verbatim) It worked once in Finder but I haven't tried it again yet. This needs to be resolved. Thanx for telling us how. All I do is buy new equpt get mad when it doesn't work. I'll provide coffee or champagne when Lacie, MAC and TOAST have a love techical love fest.

Make sure the drive is connected directly to the Mac and not through a USB hub. Whenever you are doing a project that will require lengthy encoding choose Save as Disc Image (File menu) instead of clicking the burn button. When that is done select the Image File setting in the Toast Copy window and choose the saved .toast image file. Now burn your disc. There are times when Toast and the drive lose communication during lengthy waiting periods (I think the drive goes to sleep and Toast can't wake it up). Having the disc image means you don't have to start over if something goes wrong during the disc burning.