[mythtv-users] speed of burn

John Pilkington J.Pilk at tesco.net
Thu Jun 14 19:21:36 UTC 2007


Paul Harrison wrote:
> norman wrote:
>> I presume that when a DVD is burnt, using Mythtv, the burn will take
>> place as fast as possible. Also, that the speed will depend, amongst
>> other things, on the burner and the disc itself. Thus, if I want to try
>> to control the speed, I will have to use software other than that
>> supplied with Mythtv.
>>
>> Is this correct and, if so, which software would you recommend please?
>>
>> Norman
>>
>>
>>   
> 
> There is no provision at the moment to change the burning speed it's
> left up to growisofs to use what it thinks is best. You could fairly
> easily add a '-speed=N' parameter (for example -speed=4 would burn at 4x
> speed) to where the mythburn.py script calls growisofs.
> 
> Paul H.

I (usually) burn DVDs from an iso image that I have checked for 
playability, either with xine or with the internal player.
I use k3b to burn, at a slower speed than the one it offers, and I set 
it to verify the data.  Maybe this is unduly cautious, but a defectively 
burned DVD is rarely of any use: faults in the operation of one player 
are annoying, but a defective burn can't, as far as I know, be 
rectified.  I haven't used archive quality blanks, and maybe this is the 
reason why I did have problems when I let k3b go at its own speed - I 
think it was an earlier version than the one I have now, but the drive 
would suddenly speed up and then announce that it had finished.  It just 
didn't write much usable data.  The speed of production doesn't really 
bother me.

Usually I try not to burn when I believe that anything else that is 
critically timing-dependent is going on: if it's convenient I may exit 
mythtv.  Maybe the internal wrapper for growisofs can take care of 
timing conflicts better that the external k3b - I don't know if there 
*is* a difference.  I'm not sure, either, where my growisofs binary file 
arrived from, or whether the same version is accessed by all the DVD 
writing utilities that I have available.

It's clear that many aspects of the DVD burning process might affect the 
likelihood of creating a playable disc, and the sensible approach seems 
to be to try to get as many as possible working on your side - 
particularly so if you aren't fully satisfied with the results so far.

Sorry about the ramble.

John P


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