Battleangel

I did a big mistake yesterday as I just assumed that the “new” 8x Memorex DVD+R Printable discs would work just as well as the old 4x Memorex discs that I’ve been using for a couple of months now.
I don’t know if there is something wrong with the write strategy for the disc (by CMC MAG E01) or if they just don’t work with the burner (LiteON 401S@411S). I just crashed five discs in a row anyhow. At first I tried to complete the burn with the 811S hack and at 8x. No luck. The burn would not complete. Rolling back to 411S and doing a 4x burn I discovered that although the burn seemed to go fine, the resulting discs were, well, garbled. I don’t think verification completed for a single file. So, at least for now, a big warning for those that perhaps find this relatively cheap and plentiful disc at a local retailer and happen to have a LiteON burner.
Memorex are predominant today with many Swedish electronics outlets such as SIBA etc. From what I’ve been able to gather the quality of this disc is low by comparison but NOT THAT LOW so that it’s supposed to fail. There is something more to this story alright.

I have to say that despite the numerous hacks and tools (like KProbe, no thanks to official LiteON channels) the LiteON 401/411 and also 811 are not products that I would recommend or would have chosen if I had know what I now know. (Minus/-)R is still out of the question and as we have seen time and again, not even +R is to be trusted. And NO, it does not relate to the fact that I’ve hacked my drive. There is a choir of LiteON owners who are less than pleased with compatibility.
That is not to say that the competitors are any better. At any rate, if I were to get a new CD/DVDRW today I’d get either a NEC35xx or a Benq/Philips 1620K/1640. The Philips drive seems to be the most popular at the moment and its writing quality is stellar compared to anything LiteON can offer.

Actually, maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been experiencing a lot of funny quirks and incompatibilities lately. It seems to me that manufacturers have become increasingly sloppy with testing and ensuring the longevity of their products. It’s a disturbing development alright. But then again, prices in the field have never been as low. I’d sure prefer a more permanent approach though.