Thread: *Get your cheap-ass non-verbatim disks workin* [TUTORIAL]

EDIT: I have also included a video tutorial!
How to burn nonverbatims on your ihasxx drive
EDIT: Over the last few weeks, I have had a change of heart about Verbatims. Though they are a little more expensive, they are the only disks for me that will successfully burn every single time. When I was using memorex, I miraculously got every disk working the first time, but it was purely luck. In my second pack I only had a 75% success rate... some packs were even less, with only half the disks burning ok... So in concluding, I will accept that I was a bit rash in condemning verbatims. Although other disks will still work, verbatims have given me the fewest errors. I will also update my guide a little bit now that my knowledge has improved. You can still use this guide though, but just be warned that it may not always work for your disks.

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INTRODUCTION

Unlike what I had wrongly asserted earlier, the real issue here is the quality of the dye on the dvd. Ritek and other disks use a cheap dye that can get dodgy towards the edge of the disk, which is why the burn fails at around 50% for most of us. Higher quality disks like verbatims have a much higher quality dye and can handle the extra burning towards the edge of the disk when it starts getting sketchy for other types of media.
Another issue is that the burner's firmware has no idea how to handle certain types of disks, and will set the speed too high. In most cases, it needs to be burned at 2.4x

Now, with that out of the way, if you still want to try your disks, you can still try to edit the burner max firmware to work for your disk.

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Programs and files you will need

DOWNLOAD HERE
*Everything you need is attached in the link above in a ZIP file (including the original LT Max firmware files. Look at the attached PDF tutorial if you don't know how to flash to your drive yet.

My Uploaded version of LT Max is already fixed for Memorex disks. All you need to do is flash it.
NOTE: If you have something besides Memorex or Verbatims, you will need to change the write speed yourself using a program called Media Code Speed Edit.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that if you swap the profile of one disk for another, you will NOT be able to burn any disks that previously used the swapped profile. So, for example, you swap out a ritek for ricohjpn (or whatever it's called), you will not be able to burn any ricohjpn disks of that same type.


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PROCEDURE:
If you are just using memorex,
1. Download my zip file and unzip LTMAX Memorex file.
2. Flash it to your drive as you normally would, following the instructions in the PDF.
3. Skip to step 6.

If you are using something else besides memorex or verbatim,
1. open Media Code Speed Edit (MCSE)
2. from MCSE, open the firmware corresponding to your drive inside the "Original firmware" folder that you unzipped.
3. Once it is open search through the list of "DVD9" entries until you find the disk type that you are trying to burn. You'll notice that the burn options to the side will say "4x, 8x," and sometimes "16x". We will change this to 2.4X.
(If you don't know your DVD type, imgburn will show you on the right-hand side of the screen when you pop in a blank disk.)

4. Double click the disk format that you want to replace. When prompted, choose "RICOHJPN" that has a write-speed of 2.4X.
5. Save your modified firmware somewhere. You'll need it soon.

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6. Open Flash_utility in the IXtreme burner max folder and flash your modified firmware to your drive. Once finished, exit Flash_utility.

7. Open EEPROM_utility.exe, hit the options tab, and make sure your settings look like this... You may have to play around with your settings to see what works for you:

Force Hypertune: OFF

Online Hypertune: ON

Overspeed: OFF

Smartburn: ON


8. Once all this is done, open your .DVD file in imgburn and burn that sucker. CONGRATS!

If this has helped you, please push the thank button. I'm currently looking into providing an OSX tutorial as well as soon as I figure it out.

Also, if you're worried about the disk not working, rip it to your hard drive or make a new copy. I used imgburn via Windows XP in VMWare Fusion.