DVD, DVD & DVD - Technogeekery

[ffutures]

My DVD recorder started working properly again for no readily apparent reason when I plugged it in a week ago. I've been trying it a couple of times a day ever since and the drawer has opened every time, so hopefully it's now OK. One thing that occurs to me is that this has only ever happened when the drawer was closed without a disk, so I'm going to make a point of keeping something in it at all times.

Did the big drive swap today on my PCs; main machine now has a DVD (read only) drive and a dual-layer DVD writer, old PC now has a CD writer plus a single-layer DVD writer. Fairly painless, apart from having to reinstall Nero on the main machine to get dual layer support, and the discovery that the front-end program for Nero (startsmart) still hangs up on my PC; fortunately you don't need it if all you want to do is burn disks. Startsmart always says it has files missing - anyone come across this one? Now typing this on my laptop while watching the main machine burn a nearly full data double-layer data disk, just under 8gb, in 25 minutes - it can do faster if I pay big bucks for the x4 disks, but it hardly seems worth it. Annoyingly there isn't quite enough room for the whole of Veronica Mars S1 on a single disk - which is odd because the season fits fine on two single-layer disks, but never mind. Assume there is a rational explanation involving layers or something, but not sure what.

Anyway, all went well and a good deal less traumatic than I feared. Now have four gizmos that can write DVDs (the recorder, both desktop PCs and this laptop, though it only does DVD-R which is a pain) which seems like overkill, but never mind.


Later - appears that neither of the other PCs or the main PC's older DVD drive will read a dual layer data disk. I _hope_ that I won't run into this problem if I create a dual-layer playable DVD; if I do, I'm not quite sure what the point of having the drive is.
Tomorrow I'll take the old CD-R drive into work and shove it into the PC I use there - better than gathering dust here.

Comments

[ggreig]

So why do you want to avoid DVD for Forgotten Futures? (I'm curious - no strong opinion)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

First, I've got a CD copying machine for the distribution disks but it can't handle DVD, so that'd mean that I'd have to copy disks manually, which is a pain. Second, It'd triple my media costs, from 6 or 7 pence to about 20p - not a huge factor but worth considering. Third, some people still can't read DVDs.

I'm considering offering a DVD version of the FF CD-ROM for a small extra handling charge - that'd let me go with the films on that and the distribution / charity CDs, but not the "standard" FF CD-ROM.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Is the laptop the iBook previously mentioned? in that case it may well work just fine with DVD+R, even though Applle claims otherwise. Mine sure does, anyway.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The documentation says otherwise, but it certainly reads +R - just not sure it can write it. But I've got some RW disks so it won't hurt to give it a try. Not tonight though!

The problem with -R is that everything else I have dislikes the disks, whereas +R works fine, so if it does work it'll be VERY handy. Thanks for the suggestion.