Big Problem

[REHov520]

Whenever I try to burn DVD's, starting about a year after I got my MacG5, I started to get a frequent error message "POWER CALIBRATION ERROR" right before the disk starts burning. This would happen about 23/25 times that I would attempt to burn DVD's. However every so often, after trying for 2-4 hours, I would finally get one that would work perfectly. Whats also weird is that the 1 or 2 discs after that would usualyl also burn perfectly.

I've done a lot of forum research on this and everyone says it's a problem w/ the drive or the media. However, I have tried several different brands of DVD (Memorex, imation, TDK, Dynex), and none of them seem to work better than others. I've also run a laser cleaning disc on my DVD writer in case it was a problem with this.

Since this seems to be a common problem (lots of people have had it) that nobody seems to really understand (everyone blames it on the media but many people complain they've tried many types) I was wondering if there was another possibility. Maybe a difference in the disc writing speed and the write speed of the DVD? Can someone explain to me what the 4x, 8x, 16x on the DVD's mean? I'm thinking maybe that has something to do with it.

Anyway, if anyone has any idea about this besides finding better media or cleaning their writer, it'd be really helpful for me and many others, as I found many posts on this topic on this and other forums. Thanks.

 

[sebastian]

There are certain bits on blank disc telling to drive what is optimal speed for burning. Some drives have their own system to burn also called 'power calibration'. Laser power is calibrated for each blank. Meaning: no matter if blank is, let's say, for 8x burning, drive decides to burn this disc with 6x speed.
If drive can't calibrate it's laser's power (no matter automatically or reading disc speed's info) then you have error and usually this is dive's fault.
Using laser cleaning disc can sometimes make things even worse, beacause there's not always only dry dust on laser's (lens) surface or lens is 'stucked' somehow. Opening DVD drive for closer inspection is better joyce. And clean lens manually (very carefully!) just like camera's lens.
These 4x, 8x, 16x on DVD mean max. burning speed for discs.
Usually 4...8x burning gives better results even for 16x discs...using max. speed often gives more errors. Belive me, important thing when burning video files.

 

[volcano]

In summary, spend more money on faster burners, but burn your DVDs with 4x speed max if you want %100 reliability...(Does this also explain having to drive your car with 50kmph max when it is capable of of making 240...)