Re: [Dvdrtools-users] dvd creation for alpha linux

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2002-03-26 at 13:33, Wade Huebsch wrote:
> 4) I am fairly confused by the DVD-RAM, -R, -RW, +RW, etc..

No kidding!  Here's a quick "intro" to the 3 major rewrite and 2 major
recordable DVD standards and drive types:
http://www.matrixlist.com/pipermail/leaplist/2002-March/018919.html
http://www.matrixlist.com/pipermail/pc_support/2002-March/000991.html

Note that "recording (or rewriting)" a pre-mastered ISO image
_linearally_ is NOT the same as "rewriting" directly/randomly to a disk
via "packet writing" (usually via the UDF filesystem).  The former is
the job of CDRecord, DVDRtools, etc... the latter requires "generic SCSI
disk" support in the OS itself.

If you want just "rewrite" support for archiving purposes, Panasonic's
DVD-RAM has been supported in Linux for 4 years.  It was also the
"original" DVD rewritable standard, designed NOT for consumer use, but
long-term archiving (advanced laser, media life, 1000x more rewritable
than the other two, 2-sided cartridge option, etc...).  The
"disadvantage" of DVD-RAM is that it's not very readable in non-DVD-RAM
supporter's DVD-ROM drives (let alone players).

3rd-gen DVD-RAM drives also support DVD-R(G), like the Pioneer's DVD-RW
drives.  I have never tried the DVDRTools with it for that purpose
though, and I assume their support may be limited to the DVD-RW drives?

BTW, Sony/Philips DVD+RW _supposedly_ has an "alpha-quality" generic
disk driver so you can use it like a DVD-RAM disk too.  Unfortunately,
I've heard it doesn't work very well.  And even more unfortunately is
the fact that the 1st gen DVD+RW drives don't support DVD+R, their
one-time recordable format (you have to buy a new 2nd gen drive to do
that -- like the HP 200-series).

-- Bryan

-- 
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 One was written by legislators, the other by its people.
----------------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer         mailto:address@hidden
SmithConcepts, Inc.           http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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