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<H2>... as of version 5.0<SUP><IMG SRC="../linuxfund-tiny.gif" WIDTH=38
HEIGHT=11 ALT="(*)"></SUP> <A HREF="../tools/">dvd+rw-tools</A> provide
support even for <A HREF="http://www.dvdforum.org/">DVD-R[W]</A>
recordings.</H2>
<TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="95%" ALIGN="CENTER">
<TR VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="JUSTIFY">
<TD><A HREF="http://www.linuxfund.org/"><IMG SRC="../linuxfund.gif"
BORDER=0 ALT="(*)"></A>
<TD><FONT SIZE="-1">Up to version 5.12 the support was classified as
"experimental," because it was based solely on user feedback.
In time for 5.13 release <A
HREF="http://www.linuxfund.org/">LinuxFund.org</A> has donated DVD-dash
capable unit, which permits me to perform pre-release tests on site and
thus renders the "experimental" status obsolete:-)</FONT></TR>
</TABLE>
<!--
<P><HR>
<H3><P ALIGN="justify"><IMG SRC="/icons/Disclaimer.gif"
ALIGN="LEFT">This is a <I>preliminary</I> informational page! Note that
the code currently available for public download does <I>not</I>
support DVD-RW recording! For this [presumably short] moment the DVD-RW
code is provided upon <A
HREF="mailto:appro@fy.chalmers.se?subject=dvd+rw-tools-5.0%20test-drive">explicit
request</A> only. Do state which unit do you have as well as other
background information [such as DVD-ROM compatibility experience]! At
this point I'd prefer to hear from Pioneer unit owners. If you don't
get a reply [within couple of days or so], then the code is already
being finalized and will be available for public download shortly.</H3>
-->
<P><HR>
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">How are dvd+rw-tools different from <A
HREF="ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/ProDVD/">cdrecord-ProDVD</A>?
When it comes to DVD-R[W] burning that is...</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD>DVD-R[W] specification defines following recording strategies:
<UL><LI>Disk-at-once;
<LI>Incremental Sequential;
<LI>Restricted Overwrite (DVD-RW only);
</UL>
<P ALIGN="justify">Now, cdrecord-ProDVD supports Disk-at-once
strategy only, while dvd+rw-tools all the <I>others</I>. That's
it<TT>:-)</TT></TR>
</TABLE>
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">What is the difference between these recording
strategies? Which one is the one for me?</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD><P ALIGN="justify">Disk-at-once is the one
<I>guaranteed</I> to provide <I>full</I> compatibility with
DVD-ROM/-Video. But apparently only as long as recording didn't
suffer from buffer underruns (see <A
HREF="../#plusvsminus">this paragraph on +RW page</A> for
technical details). DAO recordings are unappendable. Oh! It
should be explicitly noted that "<I>full</I> compatibility
with DVD-Video" doesn't really mean that DVD-R<B>W</B>
media recorded in this mode will be <I>universally</I>
playable! DVD-RW reportedly suffers from compatibility issues
very similar to DVD+RW. In other words these incompatibilities,
both -RW and +RW, have way more to do with low reflectivity of
these media, than with their logical formats.
<P ALIGN="justify">As for Incremental strategy [limited]
DVD-ROM/-Video compatibility is provided at single
packet/extent "level." Good news are that growisofs
burns the whole filesystem image as a single extent, so that
you have all the rights to expect it to come out as compatible
as DAO recorded with [eventual] buffer underruns. Yes, buffer
underrun protection gets engaged, so that you don't have to
worry about how much <I>extra</I> load your system can sustain
during the burning process. In addition Incremental strategy
provides for <I>multiple sessions</I> and dvd+rw-tools do
utilize it. But you should keep in mind that very few DVD-ROM
players actually support DVD multi-sessioning! Even among those
explicitly supporting DVD-R most will play till the first
Border-out only.
<P ALIGN="justify">Restricted Overwrite (DVD-RW only) provides
for arbitrary overwrite (well, with certain restrictions:-),
meaning that it's possible to grow ISO9660 volumes <I>within a
"single session,"</I> in the very same way as with
DVD+RW (or -RAM/plain file for that matter). So that <I>if</I>
your DVD-ROM unit can play media recorded in this mode (it most
likely just does as long as it can play DVD-RW at all), but
doesn't support multi-sessioning, then this is the mode for you
(provided that you wish to add data at different occasions that
is). Buffer underrun protection is unconditionally on. As for
compatibility with DVD-ROM/-Video. Apparently user Data Zone is
equivalent to one recorded in DAO, but as if every 32KB block
has suffered from buffer underrun.
<P ALIGN="justify">Disk-at-once and Incremental recording
strategies are applicabe to DVD-R media and DVD-RW media in
Sequential mode. Restricted Overwrite strategy is applicable to
DVD-RW media explicitely formated for Restricted
Overwrite.</TR>
</TABLE>
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">How do I switch between DVD-RW modes?</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD><P ALIGN="justify">Initially blank DVD-RW media is in
Sequential mode. To format for Restricted Overwrite invoke
'<TT><NOBR>dvd+rw-format</NOBR> /dev/scd<FONT
COLOR="red">N</FONT></TT>'. <!--Unfortunately this might turn
out to be a lengthy procedure, it takes a whole hour to format
1x media<NOBR>:-(</NOBR> "Might" in the last sentence
means that even though dvd+rw-format attempts to invoke so
called Quick Format procedure, some units apparently choose to
perform full format anyway. On the bright side,--> Once the
media is formatted you don't have to reformat it to zap the
content, it's more than enough to simply write over the
existing data [with <TT>growisofs -Z ...</TT>]. <!--If your
unit supports truly Quick Format, it--> Your unit might report
some bogus media capacity (e.g. Pioneer DVR-x05 reports ~8GB or
178.5% of real capacity) right after initial format. It
apparently just does so till you burn some data on it, so don't
get fixated on this...
<P ALIGN="justify">To change [back] to Sequential mode [or to
reuse the media in Sequential mode for a new dataset] invoke
'<TT><NOBR>dvd+rw-format</NOBR> -blank /dev/scd<FONT
COLOR="red">N</FONT></TT>'. Unfortunately specification
requires <I>lengthy, an hour per 1x media,</I>
<TT>-blank=full</TT> procedure applied <!--(which is as lengthy
as full format)--> before you can reuse the media for
Incremental Sequential (but apparently not for Disk-at-once)
recording. I really fail to understand why does it have to be
that way, but that's the way it is. Period.</TR>
</TABLE>
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">How do I burn?</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD><P ALIGN="justify">For practical burning instructions see
the <A HREF="../#growisofs">growisofs paragraph</A> on +RW
page.</TR>
</TABLE>
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">Any [other] caveats?</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD><P ALIGN="justify">When burning DVD-R[W] growisofs
recognizes an extra command line option, namely
<TT>-speed=<FONT COLOR="red">X</FONT></TT>, which lets you
choose the burning speed. If you use brand-name media, you're
unlikely to have to use this option. Your unit will determine
optimal velocity automagically. But if you use no-name media,
<TT>-speed=1</TT> might turn out to be a must. Problem is that
some units reportedly fail to determine optimal speed for
no-name media and pick higher one, higher than media can stand,
which results in unplayable recording. This may vary from
firmware to firmware (Pioneer users should consult <A
HREF="http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia/dvd/dvd-r_writing_speed_cl.htm">this
page</A>).
<P ALIGN="justify">As for -speed option in more general sense.
You might find yourself in situation when media rated as 4x is
recorded at lower speed, even if you explicitly specify
-speed=4. This is because that particular brand is poorly
supported by your particular unit firmware. It's not an
application problem, as growisofs asks unit for list of
supported velocities for currently loaded media and picks
<I>closest</I> to one specified in command line. The list is
updated upon every media load and can be found in
<NOBR>dvd+rw-mediainfo</NOBR> output.
<P ALIGN="justify">Futhermore quoting <A
HREF="http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/mediainfo_na.htm">SONY
support page</A>: "... some of discs on the market do not
meet the recognized quality and performance standards."
Question is how does it show? Apparently in bizarre ways...
DVD-RW media might [reportedly] perform as write-once or maybe
twice or three times. Blank/format procedure might appear
successful, but deferred failure is reported upon actual
recording attempt. It might be possible to blank the media in
one unit, but not in another one [of different brand]. DVD-R
recording might [reportedly] fail around 95% of advertised
capacity... Or recording might fail at start-up with
"INCOMPATIBLE MEDIUM" error code. At all these
occasions switching to another media brand [reportedly] helped.
<P ALIGN="justify">As for DVD-ROM/-Video compatibility of
Restricted Overwrite mode. Playability might be limited for
reasons <I>similar</I> to DVD+ lead-out issues (see from <A
HREF="../#compat">2nd paragraph</A>), when legacy unit is
tricked to calibration on virgin surface. In case you find
media recorded in this mode unplayable, attempt to
<OL>
<LI>fill it up with '<TT>growisofs <FONT COLOR="red">-M</FONT>
/dev/scd0<FONT COLOR="red">=/dev/zero</FONT></TT>', and if it
still remains unplayable attempt to;
<LI>re-record it "sequentially."
</OL>
<P ALIGN="justify">In order to facilitate for the latter test
and be excused from wasting an hour on full blanking procedure,
growisofs version 5.6 implements rudimentary support for DVD-RW
DAO recordings (yes, for DVD-RW only). Recall that DAO
recordings come out unappendable, which goes so to say against
growisofs' spirit:-)
<P ALIGN="justify">As of version 5.6 growisofs no longer relies
on logical unit to do all the magic, but explicitly asks the
burner to perform OPC, Optimal Power Calibration, prior
recording. It seems that it's not necessarily a "good
thing™," as it's maintained that media profiles
pre-defined in unit firmware might be more optimal than those
obtained as result of auto-calibration. I explicitly check if
the unit returns any OPC descriptors in reply to <TT>READ DISC
INFORMATION</TT> command [assuming that if it does, then
pre-defined media profile is in effect], but it wasn't actually
observed to be a case so far. If anybody can elaborate on this
further, I appreciate a note...</TR>
</TABLE>
<!---
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">Why is the support classified as
<I>"experimental"</I>?</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD><P ALIGN="justify">The sole reason why it's <B>still</B>
classified as "experimental" is that I don't have
DVD-R[W] capable unit in my disposal and can't perform
regression and other tests myself. The support is therefore
based on your feedback, which is the actual reason for
why...</TR>
</TABLE>
--->
<!---
<P><TABLE CELLPADDING=4>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TH>Q. <TH ALIGN="left">I can't mount the media right after it's
burned. What did I do wrong?</TR>
<TR VALIGN="top" ALIGN="justify">
<TD>A. <TD>Reload the media, i.e. eject and push the tray back, before
you draw the final conclusion...</TR>
</TABLE>
--->
<P><HR>
<!---
<P ALIGN="justify">For practical burning instructions see the <A
HREF="../#growisofs">growisofs paragraph</A>. Oh! When burning DVD-R[W]
growisofs recognizes an extra command line option, namely
<TT>-speed=<FONT COLOR="red">X</FONT></TT>, which lets you control the
burning speed. If you use brand-name media, you're unlikely to have to
use this option. Your unit will determine optimal velocity
automagically. But if you use no-name media, <TT>-speed=1</TT> might
turn out to be a must. Problem is that some units reportedly fail to
determine optimal speed for no-name media and pick higher one, higher
than media can stand, which results in unplayable recording.
<P><HR>
--->
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