Most burning problems can be related to some/all of following reasons:

1. Media quality is cheap
2. Burning speed is too fast
3. Burning data is too big (too close to the edge of media)
4. DMA of DVD writer is not enabled
5. The firmware of DVD writer is out of date
6. DVD writer is old
7. The output power of DVD writer's laser has fallen off with age or is otherwise too low.
8. The booktype is not set to DVD-ROM when burning DVD+R
9. Burning software is not the latest available version

A) Use quality media

• Taiyo Yuden (Media ID: TYGx, YUDENT) , not Valueline
• Verbatim (Media ID: MCC, MKM) (Made in Taiwan or Singapore)

Use Verbatim +R DL (made in Singapore) or MAM-A +R DL 8x for double layer blank media. Don't use -R DL (useless format).

If you don't know how to obtain media code (MID), you may find the following useful programs:

http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com or http://www.dvdinfopro.com/

If you have ImgBurn installed, it can also provide you with the disc's MID.

Here are 2 good sites, to learn about media quality, and what media id to look for:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia

B) Burning too fast, may cause playback issues:

If you have cheap media, we will suggest not burning those higher than x2.0

If you use quality media, we will suggest burning at x4.0 max to prevent playback issues.

- Skipping, Freezing etc...

(Please don’t stick labels on your media. It makes DVD disc unstable, and will cause playback issues.)

But keep in mind, if you are going to burn at x8.0, please make sure you have lots of free memory, and use quality media like listed above.

And Stop all background tasks, including Antivirus software, Anti Spyware software (All those little software that you can see are on your system taskbar.)

We don't think anyone will suggest burning higher than x8.0, even if using new 16x media.

We suggest burning at half the speed of the media certified speed:

• Burn 16x media at x8.0 max
• Burn 8x media at x4.0 max
• Burn 4x media at x2.0 max

By the way, Single Layer (4.7GB) write speeds

• 1x = about 58 minutes
• 2x = about 29 minutes
• 2.4x = about 24 minutes
• 4x = about 14.5 minutes
• 6x = about 10-12 minutes
• 8x = about 8-10 minutes
• 12x = about 6.5-7.5 minutes
• 16x = about 6-7 minutes

Dual/Double Layer (8.5GB) write speeds

• 1x = about 105 minutes
• 2.4x = about 44 minutes
• 4x = about 27 minutes
• 8x = about 15 minutes

C) Set target size to 4300 for DVD-5 and 8100 for DVD-9 to avoid further failures towards the end of the movie.

• Poor quality disc will not burn right up to the edge, so set the sizes smaller than those listed above.
• Many DVD blank discs have uneven dye around the outer edge.

       So we don't want to burn that far.

D) DMA stands for Direct Memory Access, a capability in modern computers that allows peripheral devices to send data to the motherboard's memory without intervention from the CPU.

DMA is implemented in computer bus architectures to speed up computer operations and allow multitasking. Normally, the CPU will be fully occupied in any read/write operation; enabling DMA allows reading/writing data in the internal memory, external memory and peripherals without CPU involvement, thus making the processor available for other tasks.

So if you don't enable DMA, the writing speed will be very slow or it will cause burning error.

E) Please always use the latest firmware on your DVD burner.

You can get the firmware of writer: If you bought an OEM burner that came bundled with Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, etc, systems then contact that company and ask about firmware updates for your drive or check their respective websites for firmware updates.

For Pioneer burners, visit: http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html#firmware1

For Pioneer S1xJ series (or A1xJ series),visit: http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/device/dvr_a09.html (Japanese)

For Samsung burners, visit: http://www.samsungodd.com/Eng/Firmware/FWDownload/FWDownload.asp

For Plextor burners, visit: http://www.plextor.com/english/support/support_downloads.html#firm

For LG burners, visit: http://www.lge.com/support/software.jsp

1. select your location at the top
2. select dvd-rom (writer) link
3. scroll through or search the various pages until you find your burner

For Optiarc burners, visit:

http://www.sony-optiarc.us/en/support-service/downloads/updateprocedure.html

For NEC burners, visit: http://support.necam.com/Optical/downloads/FlashFirmware/

For Lite-on burners, visit: http://www.liteonit.com/global/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=154

1. Select "Optical Storage" under category
2. Select the model of your drive
3. click "search"

For Sony burners, visit: http://sony.storagesupport.com/models/21?tab=drivers

1. Select your drive model
2. click "firmware/drivers/utilities"

For Asus burners, visit: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

1. Select "optical storage"
2. Select your drive type
3. Select the model of your drive
4. click search

For Benq burners (this is the U.S. website), visit:

http://www.benq.us/support/downloads/index.cfm?productline=30

For HP burners, visit: http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Lookup?h_lang=en&h_cc=us&cc=us&h_page=hpcom⟨=en&h_client=S-A-R163-1&h_query=HP+DVD+writer&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

For Philips burners, visit: http://www.storageupdates.philips.com/en/index.html

For Memorex burners, visit: http://www.memorex.com/en-us/Digital-Storage/CD--DVD-Drives/

   1.   Under "Digital Storage", select "CD and DVD drives"
   2.   Open the webpage, select  your drive, click on "Visit Product Support" on the right hand side

For Buffalo burners (I hope you can read Japanese), visit: http://buffalo.jp/download/driver/hd/index.html

For LaCie burners, visit: http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10092

For Ricoh burners, visit: http://www.ricoh.com/drive/asia/support/download/

For Toshiba drives (Toshiba Europe), visit: http://storage.toshiba.eu/cms/en/support_services/product_archive.html

1. select your product type
2. select your model
3. select firmware update on the right hand side of the webpage

F) If your writer is more than 2 years old and burned several discs, we suggest you change one new writer.

G) If you update your hardware recently, such as floppy and disk drive controllers, graphics cards, network cards, sound cards and graphics processing units and have burning problems suddenly, you should change a larger power of your computer.

H) You should set booktype to DVD-ROM when burn DVD+R (Find this in Write setting window of your burning software). Not all DVD burners can do this, so read your manual.

By the way, older DVD Player will prefer DVD-R media.

I) Please always use the latest version of copy/burn software.

The vendor of software always upgrades their software to fix all kinds of problems, including burning issue.