(SOLVED) Datel Sd Media Launcher BROKEN disc

[jorge_nb]

Hi, I just received my Sd media launcher from Datel, I just wanted to say that it arrived broken, I don't believe it can be fixed at all, it just doesn't work and I wanted to say it just in case any of you are still thinking on buying it.

The disc can't be read, neither by my gamecube or my wii, I have compatible sd and microsd cards but they're useless as the disc arrived broken and I can't give it back because Datel isn't answering any of my emails and I bought it more than 7 days ago (I've spent the last 10 days watching all type of forums and tutorials)

Whenever I put the AR disc on the wii it will say "The disc can't be read" and on the gamecube "this isn't a GC disc".

So if you are thinking on buying it think again as maybe you don't want to spend 20 £ (from the codejunkies website + mail taxes) taking the risk that it might be useless at all like the one I got.

[emu_kidid]

When you say "Broken", is it physically damaged or is your GameCube simply unable to read it due to laser wear?

If it's broken/scratched/physically damaged just let Datel know and they will replace it.

Edit: The Wii may not be allowed to read it due to the System Menu actively blocking it (so even a valid disc might be "unreadable")

[megalomaniac]

didnt datel stop selling these already?
if so where did you buy it?

can you claim damage upon arrival to get your funds back?

[jorge_nb]

When you say "Broken", is it physically damaged or is your GameCube simply unable to read it due to laser wear?

If it's broken/scratched/physically damaged just let Datel know and they will replace it.

Edit: The Wii may not be allowed to read it due to the System Menu actively blocking it (so even a valid disc might be "unreadable")

Ok, maybe I shouldn't have used the word "Broken". Sorry, I'm spanish, my English is not perfect

Physically the disc looks good, its not broken in half or anything, it just some small stains like water stains or fingerprint stains in an inner layer (I can't clean them on the outside, they just won't disappear), but they don't look bad, you won't be able to see them in the image. And those "holes" that are on the white part I haven't given them any importance either






Both my GC and my Wii allow me to play original GC games so I can't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to play this disc

didnt datel stop selling these already?
if so where did you buy it?

can you claim damage upon arrival to get your funds back?

Datel still selling it, its even in their main page, just scroll down a little and you'll see it:

http://uk.codejunkies.com/

By now I am still trying to communicate with them, 5 days already and they haven't answered any of my messages, I may try to get my funds back but I would really prefer to have this product working as I was going to use it a lot with my roommates, I have already paid for it and I'm supposed to have a 12 month warranty : /

[Duhasst0]

When you say Spanish, do you mean European or Latin America? Cause if you have an ntsc console that disc is not going to work without further modification. If you are from the European area then it should work, unless like emu said your laser is dying and will probably need to be replaced.

[emu_kidid]

SDML is region locked, so any of the following could be happening:

1. Region isn't right for the GameCube to read it and it says "Unable to read disc" in this case
2. GameCube laser is too worn to read it
3. Wii can't read it because of the region issue OR Wii System Menu has blocked this disc from use (I can't remember)

The disc looks fine from what I can see.

[jorge_nb]

When you say Spanish, do you mean European or Latin America? Cause if you have an ntsc console that disc is not going to work without further modification. If you are from the European area then it should work, unless like emu said your laser is dying and will probably need to be replaced.

I'm spanish, from Spain, European, my GC is PAL and so are all my original games and they all work fine, we're playing them everyday, so I don't believe my laser isn't working, at least not yet

SDML is region locked, so any of the following could be happening:

1. Region isn't right for the GameCube to read it and it says "Unable to read disc" in this case
2. GameCube laser is too worn to read it
3. Wii can't read it because of the region issue OR Wii System Menu has blocked this disc from use (I can't remember)

The disc looks fine from what I can see.

Same, my GC is PAL, my WII is too, in both all games work fine, is just this disc that can't be read.

Maybe they recorded the NTSC version by mistake or something like that

[tueidj]

It's not of the same quality as a regular game, it actually has unreadable blocks burnt into it to fool the drive into thinking it's a legit game disc.

[jorge_nb]

It's not of the same quality as a regular game, it actually has unreadable blocks burnt into it to fool the drive into thinking it's a legit game disc.

Ok but they, when they sell it to you they tell you it works on both the wii and the GC, and this problem I haven't seen it to anyone else on all the webpages I've found, that makes me think my disc has something wrong that shouldn't be there

[capzlk]

Well you don't really need it on the wii anyway since that's an easily hackable console with zero investment needed.

I dont know if you've got a xenogc installed but my cube with it has issues booting from the SDML (no idea why). Have you tried navigating to the game section in the GameCube os menu and checking if it shows up there?

It sounds like it somehow really is broken. Going by the collective wisdom of the internet, and my own.. Datel are terrible at product quality (bare minimum) and their support apparently is hard to reach.

- You have a few options if datel isn't helping.
Find another disc on ebay
- Buy a xenogc on ebay and pot-tweak your dvd drive so that you can burn mini-dvds.
- Buy another SDML off datel

To be honest, I would go with a xenogc. Yes its some extra hassle but its not hard to do and you will no longer have to deal with datel. On top of that, running games off discs is faster/better than running them off an SD card, and having a swiss boot disc (or burned copy of the sdml disc) makes life a lot easier.

Fyi, I bought an sdml at first as well (for homebrewing) but the appeal of booting onto swiss directly, being able to run ntsc copies of my pal games in 480p, and not having to deal with the ridiculous requirement to use a 2gb SD card instead of a cheap 32+ GB SDHC one made me decide to switch over. I think it was worth it

[jorge_nb]

Well you don't really need it on the wii anyway since that's an easily hackable console with zero investment needed.

I dont know if you've got a xenogc installed but my cube with it has issues booting from the SDML (no idea why). Have you tried navigating to the game section in the GameCube os menu and checking if it shows up there?

It sounds like it somehow really is broken. Going by the collective wisdom of the internet, and my own.. Datel are terrible at product quality (bare minimum) and there support apparently is hard to reach.

- You have a few options if datel isn't helping.
Find another disc on ebay
- Buy a xenogc on ebay and pot-tweak your dvd drive so that you can burn mini-dvds.
- Buy another SDML off datel

To be honest, I would go with a xenogc. Yes its some extra hassle but its not hard to do and you will no longer have to deal with datel. On top of that, running games off discs is faster/better than running them off an SD card, and having a swiss boot disc (or burned copy of the sdml disc) makes life a lot easier.

Fyi, I bought an sdml at first as well (for homebrewing) but the appeal of booting onto swiss directly, being able to run ntsc copies of my pal games in 480p, and not having to deal with the ridiculous requirement to use a 2gb SD card instead of a cheap 32+ GB SDHC one made me decide to switch over. I think it was worth it

Thanks a lot, I didn't want to modify my GC that's why I thought the SDML would be better

I thought Datel would never answer me back but they did and they sent me another DVD

This one is working fine not like the other one

So I would say this is solved, thanks to all of you again

[capzlk]

great to hear that! and good to hear that datel does reply.