A newly discovered bug in the Windows 7's native Blu-ray burning function means that owners of Blu-ray burners may be facing an obscure error message when trying to burn files that are larger than a certain size, causing failed burns on expensive Blu-ray discs.
Windows 7 upped support for Blu-ray by including burning support from right within the Windows Explorer interface. This allowed users to burn Blu-ray data discs without having to purchase a third party software, like Nero.
However, the bug, which Microsoft officially acknowledged this week with a newly added support document, will make burning operations fail if users try to write more than 22GB to a single layered BD-R, or more than 45GB to a dual layered disc.
But instead of offering a patch, a hotfix or a solution to the problem, Microsoft's only suggestion for now is to work around the bug by not burning more than 22GB or 45GB for dual-layer discs. Microsoft has not suggested a timeline for a fix, or even if that a fix is coming at all.
The bug may be related to the way Windows uses GiB notation (where 1 GiB is 1024 MiB, and 1 MiB is 1024 KiB and 1 KiB is exactly 1000 Bytes - in standard GB notation, 1 GB is 1000 MB ... and so 1 KB is 1000 Bytes), as Blu-ray's 25GB capacity translates to 23.3GiB, and if the Windows burner confuses the notations, then it could allow files over 23.3GiB to be burned, which would then subsequently fail (as expected).
While the workaround does "solve" the problem, users unaware of the posted support document may still run into the same problems, and end up wasting time and expensive BD-Rs, that is, if they don't want to invest in a third party solution (which does not necessarily have to be a paid for app, for example, the free ImgBurn supports Blu-ray burning).
Do you think Microsoft should fix the problem, or do you think it's not much of a big deal, as third party tools are usually better anyway? Post your opinion in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/f145/windows-7-blu-ray-bug-means-expensive-waste-95089.html
Clarification: An earlier version of this news article referred to the possibility that users will have to leave up to 2GB of space blank on a single layer BD-Rs (5GB of space blank on dual layer BD-Rs), in order to achieve a successful burn, and this may still be the case. But if the notation issue is at fault, and that's more likely considering Microsoft uses GiB notation in Windows and Blu-ray capacity is referred to in GB notation, then it would never have been possible to burn more than 23.3GiB to a single layer BD-R (or more than 46.6 GiB on a dual layer BD-R), and thus, the earlier stated case would no longer be true.
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