Did a little rearch on your burner: ASUS BW-16D1HT
Hi WhoDatRazor;
From what I found, you are not alone with burning problems using that drive.
Interesting that it worked fine under Windows 7 and your problems started when you went to Windows 10. Were you actually using the ASUS drive in Windows 7 or did you install that when you went to Windows 10? If you meant that you were using the Verbatim discs fine under 7 and then started having problems when you went to Windows 10...did that happen to occur when you went to the ASUS drive. It could still be the drive or the discs.
From what I could find out the ASUS is definitely a 'rebranded' drive, but I could not find out from who. Meaning that it is really manufactured by someone else, then ASUS puts their own firmware or a version customized for them in it. The problem with rebranded drives is that many times when they customize the firmware, they manage to screw it up a bit, not always but sometimes.
I have used Pioneer, Lite-On, LG, Sony, HP, Dell, and Panasonic Burners quite a bit.
The top 3 I would recommend and in the following order; Pioneer, Lite-On, and LG....almost all of the others are 'rebranded' drives. For example, many of the Sony drives are just rebranded Lite-Ons. Dells are all rebranded from whatever manufacturer is selling the cheapest at the time of manufacture. But even 3 that I just recommended have had models that performed poorly.
A couple of the Best pioneer Blu-Ray drives are the Pioneer BD-RW BDR-209M and BDR-208, one of the better Lite-On Blu-Ray models is iHBS212, and for LG's the WH14NS40 or WS16NS40 are the better performers. If you are interested in the BEST QUALITY burns, you will find the Pioneers hard to beat. I actually rate them the BEST when it comes to burn quality.
To answer your question about the problem with the write errors when burning on the 2nd layer. If its the drive, sometime the manufacturer will update the firmware and manage to correct the problem. But you can wait forever for that sometimes and it may never happen. I would say it is either the burner or the discs. I know they are a bit expensive but try a package of the Verbatim #98356 discs. When you get them check the label and make sure they are from Singapore or United Emirite.
Here is a link to them on Newegg;
I hate to tell you this, but the discs from the Taiwan plant are definitely the lower grade discs and could be the cause of your problem. I have seen the exact same problem using some of the Ritek, Smartbuy, and no-brand discs. Again make sure they do not say LTH on them. Many burners do not like the LTH discs.
As far as scanning the disks... Go look on the web for Opti Drive Control v1.70. It can be used with certain models of Burners to scan DVDs for the PIE/PIF/POF errors and Blu-Rays for the LDC/BIS errors. You burn the disc and then do a 'Quality' scan to see a graph and statistics of the errors. This is the ONLY way to 'truly' see the quality of the burn. There is other software that can do it but there is not many of them. Kprobe (only works with Lite-Ons), Nero Disc speed, etc.
Now, here is the problem with 'quality scanning' disks. You can only do it with certain models of burners. Lite-On drives can scan both DVD's and Blu-Rays. Pioneer burners can only scan DVDs, not Blu-Rays. I am not sure what LG's can scan. Most burners can scan DVD's, but not all of them can scan Blu-Rays. It depends on the chipset used in the Burners. Lite-On uses Mediatek chipsets which are great for scanning. Other drives like the Pioneer use a different chipset and hence can only scan DVDs.
I currently have 2 Blu-Rays in my computer, an older Lite-On iHBS-212 and a Pioneer BDR-209M. I use the Pioneer to do the burns (higher quality) and use the Lite-On for scanning.
As far as burning DL discs....I would say it is not 'iffy' at all anymore. It is just a matter of finding a 'good' burner and using quality discs. The problem is the drive models change and even worse the disc manufacturers keep changing the formulation/process for manufacturing their discs striving for ever cheaper manufacturing costs and higher profits. Which in turn ends up meaning poorer quality discs.
I started out early on, compressing stuff to fit it on a single layer disc, but found that compressing things just means quality loss in the long run. I now, NEVER compress anything.
A couple more tips, if you buy your discs in spindles, never perform your testing using the discs at the very top or bottom of the spindle. Even though they pack the spindle with spacers, the discs on the top and bottom (1-10) can spin a bit during shipping/handling and actually ruin the surface of the disc just enough to cause poor burns. If you look at them under a good light you can actually see the marks on the disc surface sometimes.
Burning discs at higher than their recommended speed is called 'over speeding' the discs. It is available when a burner manufacturer actually tests that particular disc and optimizes their burner for a higher speed. Sometimes it works fine, but many times you can get a poorer quality burn doing it. My Pioneer can burn the Verbatim 6X discs at 2X, 4X, 6X, and 8X. The 6X and 8X tend to produce the best quality burns, but at 8X not always. Again it really depends on the quality of that 'batch' of discs. The quality can vary from batch to batch and plant that manufactures them.
Definitely try using ImgBurn and switch the OPC setting ON if it was OFF or OFF if it was ON and see if that solves your problem.
Also as another member recommended. Try installing only one burner, disconnect BOTH the data and power cables from one of them if both are already installed. Then go into Windows/Device Manager and delete the burner from it. Reboot your PC and let it relearn/re-aquire the burner. I have seen than fix various problems too.
Hope this helps.
