DVD success and query

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thanks to people on this newsgroup, I learned that what I thought was only a
CD burner (in my 5-year-old Dell desktop computer) is really a DVD burner as
well and that it accepts DVD+R disks. Yesterday, I bought some disks, and
today I burned one, using Easy CD Creator 5, the free software that came
with my computer. The process was slow, but it worked; I'm very grateful for
all the help!

One question: When I burned CDs with this program, I was able to finalize
the CD as well as the session. Now "finalize CD" is grayed out and all I can
do is "finalize session; don't finalize CD." Is this simply the way it's
done with DVDs?

I'm using Windows XP with SP3.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[smlunatick]

Thanks to people on this newsgroup, I learned that what I thought was only a
CD burner (in my 5-year-old Dell desktop computer) is really a DVD burner as
well and that it accepts DVD+R disks. Yesterday, I bought some disks, and
today I burned one, using Easy CD Creator 5, the free software that came
with my computer. The process was slow, but it worked; I'm very grateful for
all the help!

One question: When I burned CDs with this program, I was able to finalize
the CD as well as the session. Now "finalize CD" is grayed out and all I can
do is "finalize session; don't finalize CD." Is this simply the way it's
done with DVDs?

I'm using Windows XP with SP3.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

The "OEM" Bundled Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 (now owned by Sonic) was not
completely compatible with XP. Check for an update or look at
different software.

 

[Big_Al]

Thanks to people on this newsgroup, I learned that what I thought was only a
CD burner (in my 5-year-old Dell desktop computer) is really a DVD burner as
well and that it accepts DVD+R disks. Yesterday, I bought some disks, and
today I burned one, using Easy CD Creator 5, the free software that came
with my computer. The process was slow, but it worked; I'm very grateful for
all the help!

One question: When I burned CDs with this program, I was able to finalize
the CD as well as the session. Now "finalize CD" is grayed out and all I can
do is "finalize session; don't finalize CD." Is this simply the way it's
done with DVDs?

I'm using Windows XP with SP3.

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

So you never really had to replace it as we had thought?
Glad to hear you are working. And just think about how much you
learned about doing computer detective work.

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

True enough, Al! However, I still want to replace the DVD-ROM drive, so all
the info people so kindly supplied will be put to use.

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[M.I.5¾]

The "OEM" Bundled Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 (now owned by Sonic) was not
completely compatible with XP. Check for an update or look at
different software.

It is only the Packet Incremental part of the software that isn't.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Thanks to people on this newsgroup, I learned that what I thought was only
a CD burner (in my 5-year-old Dell desktop computer) is really a DVD
burner as well and that it accepts DVD+R disks. Yesterday, I bought some
disks, and today I burned one, using Easy CD Creator 5, the free software
that came with my computer. The process was slow, but it worked; I'm very
grateful for all the help!

One question: When I burned CDs with this program, I was able to finalize
the CD as well as the session. Now "finalize CD" is grayed out and all I
can do is "finalize session; don't finalize CD." Is this simply the way
it's done with DVDs?

Yes this is correct. DVDs don't need a final closure.

Although DVDs do in theory support multi session writing, the compatibility
of DVD drives is somewhat variable. The worst combination is drives that
support writing multiple sessions but don't support reading them (and this
is the majority of drives!).

It is worth checking what format your software is burning the DVD in. Put
the burned DVD in a drive and open the properties. This shows the format.
It should read 'UDFR', but some older packages (and some not so old versions
of Nero) burn in 'CDFS'. Although a technically invalid format, most (but
not all) DVD drives will read them.

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you again, M.I.5¾! Mine says UDF (not UDFR). Is that OK for reading in
other drives? My second drive, a DVD-ROM drive, reads it OK.

Jo-Anne

 

[Bill in Co.]

It is only the Packet Incremental part of the software that isn't.

I can't recall for sure, but I think it's possible to uninstall the DirectCD
(packet-based) part, isn't it? (or maybe you'd have to first uninstall EZCD,
and then selectively reinstall it by deselecting the DirectCD option)
Then just use the DAO mode - and be completely safe.

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

I can't recall for sure, but I think it's possible to uninstall the
DirectCD (packet-based) part, isn't it? (or maybe you'd have to first
uninstall EZCD, and then selectively reinstall it by deselecting the
DirectCD option) Then just use the DAO mode - and be completely safe.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but with Easy CD Creator 5, when you click
on Make a Data CD, you get three options: Direct CD, Data CD, and Data DVD.
I used Data DVD yesterday, and so far so good.

Jo-Anne

 

[Bill in Co.]

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but with Easy CD Creator 5, when you
click
on Make a Data CD, you get three options: Direct CD, Data CD, and Data
DVD.
I used Data DVD yesterday, and so far so good.

Jo-Anne

Yeah, it's relevant. I see the same options, but when I select
DirectCD, it says I haven't installed that option (which is the way I want
it, for the reasons I've already mentioned - I stay out of trouble that way.
The only downside, of course, is that the CDs are always written in the DAO
(disk-at-once mode), and once it's burned, its finished. But this method
is a lot more compatible, and much less problematic, no matter what machine
I use the disc on, so it's worth it to me. I don't need more aggravation
in terms of compatibility or potential software conflicts.

I also have Nero 6 on this computer, and I did NOT install the packet
writing part (called "InCD" - analogous to EZCD's DirectCD). So once
again, once you burn the CD or DVD, that's it. But it's much safer, and
potentially much less problematic, that way. (And there are some horror
stories about software conflicts between having two packet writing things
installed (like DirectCD and InCD) on the same computer.

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Yeah, it's relevant. I see the same options, but when I select
DirectCD, it says I haven't installed that option (which is the way I want
it, for the reasons I've already mentioned - I stay out of trouble that
way. The only downside, of course, is that the CDs are always written in
the DAO (disk-at-once mode), and once it's burned, its finished. But
this method is a lot more compatible, and much less problematic, no matter
what machine I use the disc on, so it's worth it to me. I don't need
more aggravation in terms of compatibility or potential software
conflicts.

I also have Nero 6 on this computer, and I did NOT install the packet
writing part (called "InCD" - analogous to EZCD's DirectCD). So once
again, once you burn the CD or DVD, that's it. But it's much safer,
and potentially much less problematic, that way. (And there are some
horror stories about software conflicts between having two packet writing
things installed (like DirectCD and InCD) on the same computer.

Well, my DirectCD is certainly there, although I've never used it. (I just
clicked on it today and it opened the screen for creating a CD that way.) I
have a vague memory of looking up that method a long time ago and figuring
it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. And these days
especially, when CDs and even DVDs are really cheap, it hardly seems worth
it.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Well, my DirectCD is certainly there, although I've never used it. (I just
clicked on it today and it opened the screen for creating a CD that way.)
I
have a vague memory of looking up that method a long time ago and figuring
it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. And these days
especially, when CDs and even DVDs are really cheap, it hardly seems worth
it.

Not only not worth it, but (potentially) can be so problematic.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Well, my DirectCD is certainly there, although I've never used it. (I just
clicked on it today and it opened the screen for creating a CD that way.)
I have a vague memory of looking up that method a long time ago and
figuring it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. And these days
especially, when CDs and even DVDs are really cheap, it hardly seems worth
it.

Direct CD (now replaced by 'Drag-to-disc') and Nero's InCD works well enough
most of the time, but the nature of the way CD-RWs (and DVD-RWs come to
that) are accessed gives scope for the data to be placed such that it
overwrites and corrupts the remainder of the disc structure. This
occasionally happens. Don't ever use packet incremental format on CD-RW or
DVD-RW discs for anything important. The same is true for CD-R and DVD-R
discs which Direct CD supports (but Nero's InCD doesn't).

DVD+RW discs are a whole different kettle of fish and packet incremental
format is very reliable on these discs - in fact so much so that the discs
can be formatted 'on the fly'. If your DVD drive is able to handle them,
DVD-RAM is a far far better wat to go (and Windows writes them natively to
boot).

Incidentally, although the actual mechanism of Direct CD (and earlier
versions of InCD) should be compatible with XP, it's the user interface that
causes the problem because it clashes with XP's own native CD writing
utility (in that the actual method of drag and drop is exactly the same for
both products). This may seem daft considering they were produced by the
same outfit (Roxio).

 

[M.I.5¾]

Thank you again, M.I.5¾! Mine says UDF (not UDFR). Is that OK for reading
in other drives? My second drive, a DVD-ROM drive, reads it OK.

My mistake! Yes, it should be UDF (Unified Disc Format). UDFR is a
variation for packet incremental use on non rewriteable discs.