8. Why do I get a 'Track following error' message?
The "Track following error" message is a hardware error. It can be caused by the following:
Poor media - Try more than one brand of CD-R media to rule this out as cause.
Poor power - The electric power supply of your recorder could be fluctuating. If you have an internal recorder, try a different power connector and make sure it's not being shared by any other devices. If you have an external recorder, remove it from the external chassis, if you can, and connect it on your system as an internal recorder. If this resolves your issue, you need to replace or service the power source in your external chassis.
Optical head is dirty or needs alignment - Please contact your recorder manufacturer to service your unit.
Thanks IHoe, guess things work out since I was thinking of getting a dual layer burner a couple months ago but decided I didn't need it. Well, now I do.
Thanks to everyone who helped me out. I really appreciate it!
What a difference the external makes! I bought an I/O Magic one (probably not the best, but since I'm planning on getting the internal replaced over the summer, it'll be fine for now.
I haven't burned anthing yet, but just in backing up DVD's I've noticed a huge differnce. The one in my laptop took 45 minutes to ANALIZE a DVD using DVD Shrink- the internal encoding the entire 5.9GB movie in 11 minutes.
Too bad the DUal Layer DVD-R's are so expensive or I'd really be able to have fun. The cheapest I saw at Best Buy or Staples was $19.95 for a 3 pack of Memorex and $79.95 for a 25 pack of another brand that I can't remember. With those prices I'd rather just cut the larger movies into two seperate discs.
That's what Rebuilder is for. I've done most of my backups on DVD5. Encoders are slower but do a better job than transcoders, especially where more compression is concerned (big movies).
Better than Shrink or any transcoder for that matter. There's a foum on it here at AD and the homesite for the software is http://www.dvd-rb.com/ . There's a free version as well as the donor version. I have the Rebuilder Pro with Cinema Craft Encoder (RB/CCE).