External DVD Writer issues

Hardware
21

I have 2 desktops with CD/DVD drives, but the one in my lsptop has failed , so I use a usb one there. I can boot from any of them, even the usb one.
Would not be able to use my collection of Linux Magazine disks without these devices.
I also have a floppy drive sitting in the cupboard, that I could install if needed.
I used to have an external CD writer in a powered box that connected to a SCSI port.
I remember when CD writers first came out , they were so sensitive that we used to use a compressed air cylinder in the lab to dust off each CD before attempting to write to it. Writing could not be interrupted… you had to disable everything else the PC was doing and disconnect it from the network while writing a CD.

I remember having a carton of 9 track reel tapes with data that I wanted to archive.
A friend in the lab set up a process to read the reel tapes on a VAX minicomputer , network the data to a PC , and write a CD. It took several days, and all fitted on one CD…about 250Mb I think … I still have the CD and it is still readable 30 years later.
It contains images of about a million punched cards of sheep breeding data that once occupied a whole room.
Improvements in data storage are amazing.

3 Likes
22

I recall that there are different DVD encodings for different parts of the world. Could that be the issue?

2 Likes
23

Probably you mean region code.
I’m quite sure drives for computers arrive to users as region-free, so they should play all regions discs.
But a good guess, it’s worth to try / check.

I now checked, my drives were regionfree:

root@Nagygep:/home/laco.kde# regionset /dev/sr1
Current drive parameters for /dev/sr1:
  RPC Type: Phase II (Hardware)
  RPC Status: no region code set (bitmask=0xFF)
  Vendor may reset the RPC 4 times
  User is allowed change the region setting 5 times
Would you like to change the region setting for this drive? [y/n]: n
root@Nagygep:/home/laco.kde#

To check it, install regionset
sudo apt install regionset

Insert a readable disc into the drive, then execute regionset, like I did, of course, use your real region, for me it’s Europe, hence the “2”.
Use your drives name, /dev/sr1 is the second DVD-RW in my desktop, you’ll have a different name for the drive.

root@Nagygep:/home/laco.kde# regionset /dev/sr1
Current drive parameters for /dev/sr1:
  RPC Type: Phase II (Hardware)
  RPC Status: no region code set (bitmask=0xFF)
  Vendor may reset the RPC 4 times
  User is allowed change the region setting 5 times
Would you like to change the region setting for this drive? [y/n]: n

If it is region-free, I don’t think it can be a problem.
If it has a wrong region set, then I think it’s worth to change it.
I just set my to region 2:

root@Nagygep:/home/laco.kde# regionset /dev/sr1
Current drive parameters for /dev/sr1:
  RPC Type: Phase II (Hardware)
  RPC Status: no region code set (bitmask=0xFF)
  Vendor may reset the RPC 4 times
  User is allowed change the region setting 5 times
Would you like to change the region setting for this drive? [y/n]: y
Enter the new region number for your drive [1..8]: 2
New RPC bitmask is 0xFD, ok? [y/n]: y
Region code set successfully.
root@Nagygep:/home/laco.kde#

Just a warning:
I have set now one of my drives to region 2, which should be OK for Europe.
As I don’t do any more DVD’s nowadays, I wouldn’t really care if I had killed my drive. So I was easily that brave to change the region, and thought, I just reset it to region-free afterwards.
But I don’t seem to able to do that, I can set it any non-zero region code, but not to zero (region free).

@Sheila_Flanagan , if your drive is region-free (I bet it is), I think it’s better to leave it so. If your drive is set to a foreign region, such as Latin America (region 4), and you live (and try to use your drive) in the U.S. that may be a problem. Wherever you live, so set your drives region according to this chart.

1 Like
24

Yes, @kovacslt one of the things I liked about the drive is that it is region-free–meaning if I could only find a certain DVD movie/series in Region 2, it would still play on this unit, even though I am region 1.

I did not know you could switch regions.

Thanks,
Sheila

25

You can, however only a very few times.
And now it seems to me, switching out of region-free is a one-way switch, no way back to region-free :thinking:

1 Like
26

I think that only applies to music and videos.
Data DVD’s are not affected.

1 Like
27

Even music and videos are affected only if specifically marked as region-locked.

2 Likes