DVD: can't burn dual layer or at > 4x
I have an NEC ND-3500AG DVD burner. The mfr specs say it can burn single
layer DVDs (-R, +R) at 16x, and dual layer DVDs at 4x. But so far I can't
get any burn speed above 4x, and I can't burn dual layer at all.
I mainly use K3b for burning, but have fooled around a bit with cdrecord and
growisofs. None of these have anything to say about DL DVDs, and growisofs
complains if I try to burn an 8 GB ISO. It has an "overburn" option but
this doesn't seem well suited to dual layer. (Though I admit I haven't
tried, since dual layer media cost about $5-$7 each.)
As for the slow single layer burning speed, cdrecord provides some
information:
$ cdrecord dev=ATAPI:/dev/dvd -prcap
<snip>
Warning: Using ATA Packet interface.
Warning: The related Linux kernel interface code seems to be unmaintained.
Warning: There is absolutely NO DMA, operations thus are slow.
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : '_NEC '
Identifikation : 'DVD_RW ND-3500AG'
Revision : '2.16'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.
Drive capabilities, per MMC-3 page 2A:
<snip>
Maximum read speed: 8467 kB/s (CD 48x, DVD 6x)
Current read speed: 5645 kB/s (CD 32x, DVD 4x)
Maximum write speed: 8467 kB/s (CD 48x, DVD 6x)
Current write speed: 1411 kB/s (CD 8x, DVD 1x)
Rotational control selected: CLV/PCAV
Buffer size in KB: 2048
Copy management revision supported: 1
Number of supported write speeds: 6
Write speed # 0: 8467 kB/s CLV/PCAV (CD 48x, DVD 6x)
Write speed # 1: 7056 kB/s CLV/PCAV (CD 40x, DVD 5x)
Write speed # 2: 5645 kB/s CLV/PCAV (CD 32x, DVD 4x)
Write speed # 3: 4234 kB/s CLV/PCAV (CD 24x, DVD 3x)
Write speed # 4: 2822 kB/s CLV/PCAV (CD 16x, DVD 2x)
Write speed # 5: 1411 kB/s CLV/PCAV (CD 8x, DVD 1x)
So clearly cdrecord, at least, isn't seeing all of the capability that my
drive is supposed to have. But even it thinks I can burn at 6x, while in
fact I never get more than 4x, even with 8x-capable media.
Questions:
(1) Is the burn speed restriction a limitation of the current ATA
implementation (libata?)? Related to the "no DMA" warning?
(2) Are people getting better than 4x burn speeds? With what burner? I'd
love to hear from someone with an ND-3500AG.
(3) Has anyone out there successfully burned dual layer DVDs? How? With
what burner?
(4) How can I get more information about the medium that's loaded in my
drive? E.g. max burn speed, whether it's dual layer.
BTW, I'm using all DVD+R; haven't tried -R yet. Thanks in advance for any
light you can shed on this.
Andrew.
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