Thanks to all who answered--I learned a lot. The solution turned out to
be very simple: use DVD-R media. Thanks to Bryan's explanation, I now
have somewhat of an idea why.
-mj-
Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> Oh man, where should I begin? I'm going to top-post, because there's
> just a lot of things to know. I really need to make a HOWTO (as people
> on the DVDRTools have been asking).
>
> I could really "go in deep" on all the record/rewrite formats, because
> they are pretty different. For right now, let's assume you are using
> DVD-R.
>
> In a nutshell, there are 3 major types of drive firmwares:
> - Matsushita (DVD Consortium)
> - Pioneer (DVD Consortium)
> - Sony/Philips (DVD+RW Consortium)
>
> Even though there are dual-format and even multi-format burners these
> days, there are different types of firmware supported by different types
> of drives.
>
> Pioneer firmware pretty much works with any of the following "linear,
> character-by-character record" programs:
> 1. cdrecord-ProDVD (Jorg's official DVD recording program, non-GPL)
> 2. dvdrecord (a fork of an earlier CDRecord release, GPL)
> 3. cdrecord+DVDpatch (CDRecord 2.0 + DVD drive support strings)
>
> Matsushita drives are a little different, typically only work with #1,
> maybe #3. #3 typically comes with most newer distros (much to Jorg's
> dislike, because the package is still called "cdrecord").
>
> Most other DVD Consortium drives seem to be either Matsushita or Pioneer
> firmware-based, some are actually both. E.g., the LG GSA-4000 series
> actually support both, and _all_ DVD formats (DVD-RAM/R/RW+R+RW).
>
> Sony/Philips firmware is a bit different, designed around the features
> (and limitations) non-DVD Consortium DVD+RW format. So while newer
> drives support dual-format, they don't support all the modes. It seems
> only Jorg's cdrecord-proDVD is capable of driving them.
>
> *BUT* you don't have to use a "linear, character-by-character record"
> program. Yes, the most "consumer compatible" way to record a DVD-R is
> to do so in "disc-at-once" (DAO) mode so the laser is never turned off
> from beginning to end (it's also mutually exclusive with burn-proof),
> which is something that Sony/Philips firmware don't support (at least
> not until more recently).
>
> Hence why the "dvd+rwtools" tools were created. In a nutshell they
> allow direct block access to the disc, instead of using a linear record.
> The reasons for this have to do with the fact that DVD+RW (which DVD+R
> is based on) drives weren't designed single-groove recording like DVD-R
> drives (note, DVD-RW works completely different than DVD-R), because
> there are inherit limitations and disadvantages with "linear, character-
> by-character record" (the only real positive if legacy consumer player
> compatibility).
>
> So if you're recording DVD+R on a Sony/Philips drive, you want to use
> "dvd+rwtools." If you're recording DVD-R on a Pioneer/Matsushita drive,
> you want to use either cdrecord-ProDVD or cdrecord+DVDpatch. If you're
> swapping the two (DVD-R on S/P, DVD+R on P/M), they you might be able to
> use newer versions of the programs and it will work, it depends.
>
> There's a lot of history in the formats, and the drives were designed
> from different viewpoints.
>
> Pioneer, clearly for consumer player compatibility (DVD-R, DVD-RW more
> of an "afterthought" and not very well designed). Matsushita, clearly
> as an optical data archiving drive (DVD-RAM is the ultimate in
> reliability and longevity, but very, very slow and not consumer player
> compatible). Sony/Philips, clearly a high-performance MO drive, and
> attempted to beat Pioneer to market on a lot of things (but never did
> prior to dual-layer).
>
> -- Bryan
>
> More info (not to enough depth, hence why I need to put out a HOWTO) ...
>
> CD-R and DVD-R are single-groove, like a vinyl record and -ROM media.
> The laser runs down a single, linear track, beginning to end -- a
> revolution actually move the head outwards.
>
> CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW are a MO discs, with sectors,
> cylinders, etc... When it does a single revolution, it comes back to
> the same place it started, so it must "step up" to the next cylinder to
> emulate the same. That's why CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD+RW are not
> as "compatible" with players, which expect a "single groove."
>
> The difference with MO it's also why you should use character-by-
> character "record" for the "single-groove" media and a "rewrite"
> approach, and not MO (either the kernel packet driver -- e.g., DVD-RAM
> -- or dvd+rwtools -- e.g., DVD+RW/+R) for the block MO media.
>
> MO also has a horrendous error rate, about 10^9 (1 per 1GB!). The only
> standard MO format (there are plenty of non-standard ones) that tries to
> improve that is DVD-RAM. It uses a verify after write and a media that
> can be re-written 100,000 times, instead of only about 1,000. But DVD-
> RAM is not very player compatible at all -- only a few Panasonic and
> Toshiba devices.
>
> So for both longevity as well as consumer player compatibility, avoid
> anything MO-based.
>
> Long story short on DVD+R, Sony/Philips originally couldn't get DVD-R to
> work on its drives, because of the design of its firmware and laser.
> They promised a new record format in DVD+R. Unfortunately, they even
> ran into issues, and didn't get it out until the 3rd generation of DVD
> +RW (2nd generation in the US -- the original 3GB DVD-R+W was Japan-
> only), which also led to a lawsuit against HP and others (as their
> DVD100i drives were marketed to support DVD+R).
>
> I'm sure Sony/Philips wish they could turn back the clock as their
> promised endeavors to beat Matsushita/Panasonic to market have pretty
> much been the opposite (sands dual-layer, something Sony/Philips did
> beat them to), but what is done is done.
>
> In the end, DVD+R is really an pie-slice MO bastard, and not a single-
> groove like DVD-R. Adding the lack of a DAO mode, at least in older
> drives, and DVD-R is the more compatible format. Unfortunately the
> Sony/Philips firmware was never designed for DVD-R and DAO, so you'll
> typically have issues with record programs for it -- which requires you
> to use dvd+rwtools. I highly recommend you _avoid_ DVD+R (I know people
> are going to differ with me on this).
>
> Now Sony _was_ the first company to introduce a dual-format drive. And
> they seem to have improved the firmware as of late 2003-2004 (just about
> the same time as Sony/Philips finally got DVD+RW/+R interoperability
> improved between licensees as well as their own consumer players!), and
> Jorg's cdrecord-ProDVD can drive many Sony/Philips drives now. But DVD
> +RW was really designed for data usage, not consumer players, hence why
> it took awhile (despite what Sony/Philips ads say about the "most
> compatible consumer format").
>
> There's been a lot of shots fired on the DVD Consortium v. DVD+RW
> Consortium front. I try to avoid it. I've been using DVD-RAM since
> '98, and adopted DVD-R in 2000 on-ward. Sony/Philips promised a lot,
> but they let a lot of consumers down on anything except the fact that
> DVD+RW is the fastest. Of course, I could get into the whole CAV v. CLV
> issue, which isn't really much of an issue on a "single groove" CD-
> R/DVD-R (because the timing and pits are always the same, linear
> relativity), but wreaks havoc with compatibility in a MO format (because
> it's in a pie-slice like arrangement, which will vary in spacing,
> etc...).
>
> [ E.g., I retroactively call CAV CD-RW formats as CD+RW, because they
> are very, very different and can even cause "damage" to drives than CLV
> CD-RW. Same deal, DVD-RAM and DVD-RW are CLV, DVD+RW are CAV. There
> are physical format differences between a CLV MO and a CAV MO. ]
>
>
>
> On Sat, 2005-06-04 at 02:08 -0700, Mark Jarvis wrote:
>
>>I have an NEC DVD-RW ND2500A (that's not the label I bought it under,
>>but that's what it really is.) It's supposed to read/write CDs, DVDs,
>> DVD+Rs, and DVD-Rs. I'm basically dual booting between XP and CentOS 4.
>>Following the recipe in "The Linux Cookbook", I tried to copy a DVD using:
>> dd if=/dev/hdd of=/tmp/diskfile.iso
>> then
>> cdrecord dev=/dev/hdd fs=32m -sao -v -eject -dummy /tmp/diskfile.iso
>> to test and
>> cdrecord dev=/dev/hdd fs=32m -sao -v -eject /tmp/diskfile.iso
>> to actually record.
>>I had a lot of trouble getting a good read of the whole original DVD--it
>>kept getting an I/O error at 94-95% of the way through. After multiple
>>cleanings and 20-40 attempts, I finally got the whole thing copied with
>>no reported errors. It then took me a couple of tries to get the
>>cdrecord options right and to run as root to get the requisite priority.
>>The "-dummy" run ran with no errors that I noticed--there was an LOT of
>>output--and "-dummy" didn't work. It wrote to the blank DVD anyway. I
>>then did a run without the "-dummy". Although the original will play on
>>both my PC and the DVD player hooked to the TV, the two copied DVDs
>>(DVD+Rs) are coasters. DURN!
>>Any solutions, suggestions, pointers to articles I should read, etc.
>>will be appreciated.
>>BTW, I've never quite gotten around to playing DVDs or my music files
>>(mp3 and Real Player .rmj files) from Linux. I'd appreciate being
>>pointed in the direction to start.
>
>
>
>
