Writing to DVD

[Lee de Byl <lee@leedb.net>]

Hi,

I'm trying to get a better understanding of writing DVDs under Debian. 
I'm using a LG 4082B DVD burner, supporting DVD+R(W),
DVD-R(W) and DVD-RAM. It's installed in a machine running a 2.4 kernel, 
which has NOT been patched for packet writing, UDF writing or any other 
form of DVD support.

Most resources suggest using dvdrtools for writing to DVD-R(W) and 
dvd+rw-tools for writing to DVD+RW. Both of these tools rely on the use 
of ISO9660 filesystems. dvdrtools requires an iso file to be created 
before writing to disc, dvd+rw-tools does it on-the-fly through 
growisofs. I have had no problems creating discs using these tools.

DVD-RAM discs can have an arbitrary filesystem placed on them and be 
mounted. eg.
  # mke2fs /dev/cdrom
  # mount -t ext2 /dev/cdrom /cdrom
  # cp * /cdrom

It appears a similar method can also be used with DVD+RW discs, however 
I have also tried writing binary streams to DVD+RW discs. For example
  # umount /cdrom
  # tar -Mcvf /dev/cdrom /some/files
I don't understand why this works, but the resultant disc appears to be 
verbatim.

How dependant is the success of the last two methods on the model of DVD 
writer used? I understand that such discs would not be readable under 
most other operating systems, but would they be readable under Linux on 
other machines with generic DVD-ROM drives or DVD writers? Why can 
DVD+RW discs be mounted and used that way, but DVD-RW discs can not?

Sorry if these questions have been answerered elsewhere, but my research 
on the web and other mailing lists has proved unsuccesful.

Thanks for your help,
Lee