[plug] DVD burn question

[David Dartnall]

Gavin Chester wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-06-27 at 20:52 +0800, David Dartnall wrote:
>   
>> Gavin Chester wrote:
>>     
>>> On Wed, 2007-06-27 at 16:42 +0800, David Dartnall wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>
> -snip-
>
>   
>>>> Any thoughts? Where have I gone wrong?
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> you don't say what burning app you're using, but in this case I think it
>>> may be irrelevant. You also don't indicate whether there was any error
>>> output, even if it completed okay. So i'm stabbing in the dark here:
>>>
>>> If you have one good dvd and/or the original image still, then try again
>>> with another disc. I have found (and had conformed by the k3b developer)
>>> that dvd burners are VERY fussy about media. I bought a spindle of
>>> cheapies once and had to throw out more than half as coasters :-( With
>>> good media (eg, verbatim, etc) I have near 100% success. HTH.
>>>
>>> Gavin  
>>>   
>>>       
>> Thanks Gavin, I was using Feisty's 'Copy Disk" process - inserted DVD, 
>> Totem started to play, closed Totem and clicked on the Desktop icon of 
>> the DVD which brought up a menu offering a 'Copy Disk' option which I took.
>> There were no failure notifications, and after having checked that the 
>> first one worked, I carried on with the second. No dice so tried again 
>> without success (and again). So I installed K3b and tried with that a 
>> couple of times. I now have five coasters, all of which were flagged as 
>> correctly burnt and completed.
>> The medium is TDK.
>>
>> I'll buy some Verbatim & try again...
>>     
>
> Bummer ... :-( So it sounds as though you have a typical ubuntu/gnome
> setup - so excuse me if my advice is "kde-centric" since I choose not to
> use gnome and you might need to translate ;-) For example, I prefer k3b
> over gtoaster nowadays. 
>
> On dvd media: I have also had good luck with benq media that I bought
> very cheaply on spindle - so it's really the "no name" stuff that is
> false economy. You don't just have to buy benq or verbatim brand, tdk is
> also good. There may be others, too. I found my drive is more fussy and
> rejects dvd+r a lot of the time whereas dvd-r of a good brand has given
> me 100% success. Forget some advice you may get about dvd-r good for
> audio and dvd+r good for video. There is conflicting opinion on this and
> I think the reality is that they are interchangeable, but because dvd-r
> has been around for about 4-5 years longer as a standard it is more
> universally compatible. 
>
> On burning: I have tried several ripping and encoding programs, but
> being kde-centric I have near-faultless result using k9copy which rips
> and encodes, and then fires up k3b to do the burning. If you have a disc
> already 4.2gb and under, or an iso image then k3b alone will do a direct
> dvd copy or burn the image to disc. Sounds like you may need to do a new
> copy or create a new iso image and start again?
>
> On drives: I have found that a dvd drive can become "locked" by sleeping
> processes and be unusable in different ways. I searched and searched on
> this issue and in the end the only way to reclaim the drive is to reboot
> - logging out isn't good enough. Maybe totem isn't giving up full
> control of your drive?
>
> Summary: I would get good quality dvd-r media, reboot and try the disc
> copy process from scratch with k3b and you should have good results.
> BTW: maybe change your desktop behaviour so totem doesn't start
> automagically - it may be interfering with control of your drive - it
> certainly will be mounting your disc before you want. HTH.
>
> Gavin     
>   
Gee, Gavin you've gone to a lot of trouble for me - thanks.
I'll report progress as soon as there's any to report.
regards
Dave