[SLUG] DVD virgin

[Paul Teasdale]

On Saturday 15 Apr 2006 16:17, Stephen O'Neill wrote:
> john at johnallsopp.co.uk wrote:
> > Where did I go wrong in all that? How can I get 8.5Gb capacity out of
> > my drive if the DVDs are only 4.7Gb?
>
> I have no experience of DVD burning... but I think that the answer is in
> dual layer - some discs have two layers of 4.7GB...
>
You are of course correct Stephen. Most DVD-RW drives now support dual layer 
which is where the 8.5Gb comes from. Dual layer disks are still fairly hard 
to find and expensive the last time I looked (averaging about £3 per disk). I 
have only ever seen them in +R (not even +RW) format and I'm not sure if -R 
DL (Dual Layer), -RW DL or indeed +RW DL formats exist. I know for a fact 
that my DVD writer only supports +R DL with no mention of any other dual 
layer format supported. 

I also know that the last time I looked (at the end of last year) there was a 
problem with mkisofs that stopped most of the Open Source tools from 
"writing" dual layer disks. I quote writing because mkisofs is not strictly a 
DVD writing utility but is what most actual DVD writing utilities call 
beforehand to make the actual disk image (before it is written). AFAIK it 
could not handle the new strategy for splitting data across the two layers. 
This may have been sorted now however.

Furthermore I do believe that Nerolinux can write dual layer discs but that's 
a commercial program. I just give this as an example to show that it is 
currently possible albeit if you have to spend some cash.

> But someone else will fill in the blanks - you may be able to
> investigate from there.
>
John can fill in the blanks himself. He'll have to bear in mind that if he 
wants 8.5Gb with his current disk stock he will actually have to fill in two 
blanks :)

Regards,
Paul.
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