[NTLUG:Discuss] DVD writing problems.

[Steve Baker]

Chris Cox wrote:
> Well... I know I've done this with 9.3... even dual layer DVDs.
>
> So, it's not specifically a 9.3 or k3b issue (at least it doesn't
> have to be an issue).
>
> It's possible that the DVD drive needs a flash update (I've had
> that problem with a Sony unit... it didn't appear to work... I
> upgraded the firmware on the DVD drive... and presto!).
>   
Oh - that would be *BAD*.   I'm currently in a Windowless environment.
(I'm currently between jobs - and I only use Windows at work)  The only
Windows machine we own is my wife's laptop which is currently 180 miles
away - and doesn't have an IDE port to connect my DVD burner to anyway.
> Sometimes, vendors force the DVD drive to go throug some kind
> of initialization before they work... esp true for region
> coding... but possibly for other things.  Unfortunately
> that usually means Windows (sigh).
>   
NOT GOOD!
> Of course, at lot of times, I would upgrade my system to
> using a newer K3b from Packman (for example).  But 9.3,
> it too old for that to work now.
I have the very latest K3b - compiled from sources I downloaded
yesterday - along with the latest cdrdao.   It runs fine under SuSE 9.3
(aside from this DVD business that is).
>   But if it matters,
> it wasn't too long ago I had a 9.x (I think 9.3) running
> in our datacenter with dual drives... it was specifically
> for burning CD/DVDs... and that one I know for sure was
> just plain jane K3b from the distro.
>   
Yeah - the old K3b had the exact same problem as the new one.
> Will the drive understand any kind of DVD? (not writable ones
> for example).
>   
Yes   "mplayer dvd://" plays movies just fine - and I can boot from an
old Linux install DVD-RW disk we wrote on my son's machine ages ago.