Best DVDR for Pioneer DV-545

Thanks for the info Roy. I've solved the problem now, and it *wasn't*
the disks. I don't know how well known this stuff is, or how widely
applicable this would be, but just in case, here it is.
PC setup: Win2K, BTC DVD Dual drive DVD+/- R/RW(DRW 1004IM), Nero 6.3.0.3
DVDshrink 3.1.4. The players are a Pioneer DV-545 and a Logix 3300D.

DVD-R or -RW: all the disks I tried played on the Logix, with various
mild blocky aberations. All were unwatchable on the Pioneer (skipping,
freezing etc, or failed to recognise).

DVD+RW: perfect on both machines.

I then installed the Adaptec ASPI layer (#), and it fixed
everything. All formats of disk, and every brand I've tried, now play
perfectly on both players. I'm guessing that the lack of ASPI was
allowing some kind of encrapulation of the DVDs during the write, and
the error correction in the cheap Logix player was better than the
Pioneer. It's also worth pointing out that *any* disk written in data
mode (straight or packet mode - pre ASPI) was fine, and all of the
movies (pre ASPI) played fine with PowerDVD.
When I deinstalled ASPI as an experiment, the symptoms returned.

AIUI, Win98 and ME come with ASPI built in. I'm not sure about XP. Maybe
I should have installed the burner in my Linux box.

Ken.

I had a terrible time with Princo, and now exclusively use
Verbatim DVD-R x2 and recently x4 (written at 2x in Pioneer 104
drive using Nero 6.3.0.2 from files authored using Ulead Video Studio).
I get almost 100% success in Pioneer 545 and 656 players, plus
assorted anonymous computer DVD readers. At GBP 1.20 in bulk it
doesn't seem worth the risk of trying any more cheapos. I
buy the ink-jet printable style even though I only write on
them because the coating over the data is tougher.

Roy
--
Roy Battell.
To use this address remove the digits included to remove Spam ...
Mail: 666.co.uk