Microstudio burns + player issues
 

Hi all,

I've been using microstudio for several years now and been pretty happy with it. Lately, I've ran into some issues and wondering if anyone has any thoughts on possible fixes. As of now, I run Microstudio 4.20 on my HP Pavillion Laptop, Vista (I also have it installed on my Gateway Laptop, Vista 64, for back up (won't import, but does burn)). My main issue is that the burns won't play in all of my cd players. I can play the burned cd in the cpu and it is perfect (so I am confident that it is burning on cd ok), I can also play the burned cd in my one player and it also reads and plays fine. I have another cd player (the exact same one, by the way and the disc will not even read), but it reads all other discs fine, just not the microstudio burns. I have tried them in several other players too, some read them, most of them do not. Which leads me to my real issue, the "weird" thing is this. If I re-duplicate that burned cd with another program, such as alcohol, it then plays in all players with no issues. I have tried many different types of media, updated all drivers, defragged, etc. I am at a total loss on what could be the real issue. There has to be something software related that is not 'finalizing' the burn correctly or something. I'm not trying to bash the program, I love it and want to continue to use it for many years. I have studied and read article after article for months, looking for what to possibly try next. I've run out of ideas. I'm exhausted to say the least. Any thoughts or anyone have similar issues. Thanks, Larry

First thing is many CDG players will not read CDR (burned discs) that are written one file at a time. Your original CDG disk are not burned using the same method and neither is the duplication process for Alcohol or Microstudio Duplicate Disc. These all use an image file (IMG) to create the disc so they are using one file for a continuous burn instead of starting and stopping after each file.
Since Alcohol will work re-duplicating the disc try doing the same in Microstudio with its Duplicate and see if that works as well (just to check it). If that also works then there may be something in the finalization of the burn process for Write Disc that isn't right. Both programs (Alcohol and Microstudio Disc Duplication) build an IMG (image) file and then burn from the image to the blank disc. The Write Disc reads then writes each individual file. I haven't tried using a burned disc as yet because we use Hoster for our shows. I only have one player and that one does read them ok.

Issues
 

Yes, I do understand that some players don't read burned discs...but the players I have in question here do and have been reading burned discs all along. They have even read burned discs, from the older version of microstudio. This has all happened, since the laptop (both new drives have these issues) with the new version of microstudio. That is what I wanted to try, is there a way to burn the disc to an image, then burn to the disc with microstudio. For test, I did burn a (data) .iso image from a group of files to a disc and the player recognized it fine. Now, there was no music or lyrics...just a "whole file" but the players immediately recognized the disc and started playing the file. So If I can find a way to burn a group of files to an image, then put them on the disc, successfully....I'd be happy. I will test the duplicate function as well. Thanks, Larry

I forgot to mention that Microstudio doesn't work on Vista 64 and it is stated in the specs for the program.

ddouglass,

This is where the issues get hairy. It does infact work, with vista 64...like I had said, it will burn the cd ok and it will play fine in my one player. It will NOT import. I installed this on my new 64 laptop, before I found out that it wouldn't work, but I tried a burn and it worked (till I tried it in my other player). Now my players here in question are not old at all. My show players are gemini cdx-02g (I have two) and a jvc triple tray, my original...now use for back up and it does read a few things that the others don't and also handles key changes. Thanks, Larry

It isn't everything that won't work on Vista 64, but just some of the functions such as the Import. They have tried getting it to work but Vista 64 is harder to nail down as to how it works with some functions, so that is why they don't recommend it.
One of their users has even tried forcing it to run in 32 bit emulation mode and that hasn't worked either so apparently 64 doesn't change all functions to 32 bit in that mode.
Anyway, I just talked to MTU and they will take another look at the finalization for the Write function and make sure it is working right. It won't be immediately but they will check it.

Well thanks for talking to them, I do appreciate it. Is there any way to burn the image to a virtual drive or something, then have microstudio burn it to a disc? I was just going through the software and it won't let you select anything else. I don't mind ruining a disc to do it for the test, but not a permenant solution to the problem. There is some small issue here, keeping this from working correctly. I've exhausted to the limit of my computer knowledge. Thanks again, Larry

Just do like you did in Alcohol. Insert the previously burned disc, click on duplicate disc and follow the instructions there. Microstudio cannot use a virtual drive so no way around using a disc.

Well, just when I thought I had it all figured out...the plot got thickened!
I tried to re-burn the disc with Microstudio's duplicate disc feature. It failed. It's true, when re-burned with Alcohol on a different machine, it worked. I installed Alcohol on my laptop and tried it...guess what, it failed too. So now I'm back at square one. There is something very simple keeping this from working, the information is all on the cd, it is just not making a good finalized burn. It's a HP laptop, with a slimline ds8a1h w66 firmware, dvd-rw drive, vista. I'm sure someone else has got to have this working with this set-up...still at a loss! Thanks again, Larry

That may be what is also wrong with the initial burns in Microstudio then. For some reason the drive or Vista is not finalizing correctly.
Have you done any "Hardware" updates from Microsoft? A lot of times the driver updates they put out are either outdated or generic types that don't work on all drives like they say it will.
If you have, then go to HP's website Support section for your model laptop and get their latest driver for that CD drive.

"That may be what is also wrong with the initial burns in Microstudio then. For some reason the drive or Vista is not finalizing correctly."

This is the very conclusion that I can come to, me and another actual computer person have been doing some testing and changing some things that may have an impact and then trying to burn again...so far, all fails. Try finding some updates for these slimline drives....what a chore. I've updated everything else that I can find. I will keep trying, hopefully find a solution here in the future. Thanks, Larry

Should be driver and maybe even firmware updates for it in HP Support.
Do you have the UAC turned on or off on this laptop? It could be that Vista is not giving any programs full control over the drive, though I would suspect the drive itself (driver, firmware or hardware) more than I would Vista in this case.

UAC is Off, I am the only user, with admin rights. It's appearing to be some sort of permissions issue. Not sure what though, will keep trying!
Thanks, Larry

After reading through all of the testing that you have done, which eliminates everything but this one computers Operating system of Vista and the CD Drive itself.

I am guessing that you have a drive with a weak laser, and that if you try replacing the drive in the laptop, or attaching a USB one it might work fine with our software and Alcohol's software.

This is the only thing that I can think of to tell you to try as you have tried everything else.

Well, I am hope that is not the case. My vista 64-bit does the same thing, it's standard music burns are not read by most player..yet if I burn them on my xp system..wala, they all work. So I'm hinging toward something in Vista causing an issue, just not sure what. Looking and reading all I can find to try. If I do solve this, I will share..maybe it will help someone else! Thanks, Larry