This is formally impossible state, blank DVD-RW in Sequential mode with lead-out at less than 4.7GB...It's possible that the media are faulty. cdrecord-pro and Nero don't like them much either. But I have the same problem with normal DVD-R's that cdrecord-pro and Nero write perfectly fine. black:/home/mal# dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/hda INQUIRY: [TSSTcorp][CD/DVDW TS-H542A][TS03] GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION: Mounted Media: 11h, DVD-R Sequential READ DVD STRUCTURE[#10h]: Media Book Type: 25h, DVD-R book [revision 5] Legacy lead-out at: 16424665*2KB=33637713920 READ DISC INFORMATION: Disc status: blank black:/home/mal# growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/hda=test.img Executing 'builtin_dd if=test.img of=/dev/hda obs=32k seek=0' :-[ PERFORM OPC failed with SK=5h/ASC=30h/ACQ=02h]: Wrong medium type
Well, I don't have any good answer to this. Error code reads as "CANNOT READ MEDIUM - INCOMPATIBLE FORMAT" (see http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/keys.txt) Those reports I've got from other TSSTcorp users are all about DVD+R and reported legacy lead-out values were perfectly sane... Keep in mind that it's not necessarily media which is faulty, but this particular media brand is poorly supported by your unit [newly upgraded] firmware. So I still stand by my original advice to test several media brands.
As for why does growisofs fail, but not others. Well, note that unlike other applications growisofs defaults to Incremental Sequential recording mode, which might be the explanation. I mean it might have worked in DAO mode. But examine http://lists.debian.org/cdwrite/2004/09/msg00062.html before you try to apply DAO procedure to this media... A.