Bug 89706

Summary:	DVD burning speed too slow (6x on NEC 3500 with 8x dvd+r discs), unless I cheat on the cd-r burning speed
Product:	[Applications] k3b	Reporter:	aRTee <mandrake.tips>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Sebastian Trueg <trueg>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Mandrake RPMs
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments:	Patch to (hopefully) fix the DVD speed issue

Description aRTee 2004-09-17 16:24:33 UTC

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.2.3)
Installed from:    Mandrake RPMs
OS:                Linux

System: Mandrake 10.1RC1 (will try on 10.1 CE as soon as I have time - this weekend).

K3B asked me the max writing speed of my dvd/cd burner (nec nd 3500 16x dvd+/-r), for cd-r, which is 48x.
Now, when I prepare to burn a dvd+r 8x, the speeds it offers are:
1x 2x 4x 6x, along with 'auto '(which doesn't work - it gives me an error after trying to start) and 'ignore' which starts the burn but does it (entirely) at 4x; 6x does the trick at 6x (well, ZCLV, so it starts at 4x IIRC).
Clicking the arrow to check/detect for supported speeds gives me the speeds:
1x, 2.4x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x
(not sure about the 3x being present).

If I change the max cd-r burning speed to 64, the default speed choices also include: 8x.
Clicking the arrow to detect will give the previously mentioned speeds:
1x, 2.4x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x
(again, still not sure about the 3x being present). And this is with an 8x dvd+r.
But, if I don't click the arrow (or just close the burn window and open it again) but directly choose 8x, the drive will happily burn at 8x, and finish 4.1GB in just over 9 minutes.
Before it was over 12 minutes IIRC.

I then changed the 64x for cd-r to 96, which gave me 12x and 10x as added options. I haven't tried those yet, will try to see if a 8x disc gets burnt at 10x or 12x; but if it doesn't it won't mean much. I don't have any 10x or 12x discs.
I wanted to see if I could make the 16x appear, but alas, cd-r at 99x is the max setting - no 128x which would be 16x dvd....
(Although it won't matter much, various reports on the web indicate that due to ZCLV 12x may actually take less time than 16x...)

I also tried burning a dvd+rw 4x disc at 6x and my nice try was caught and it burnt fine at 4x all the way.

So please, either add a setting for dvd+/-r(w) max burning speed or use a better algorithm to determine available dvd write speeds (instead of dividing the cd-r speed by 8..).

Comment 1 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-17 18:35:12 UTC

funny! A "better algorithm". If your drive does not report the 8x K3b cannot know about it. So you have to do it manually. That's why you are able to change the max writing speed.

Comment 2 aRTee 2004-09-17 20:15:18 UTC

Ok, so you're saying the burner doesn't give the right data? Understandable, and not necessarily a problem.

It's good to have the option to set the speed manually.

However, I have to set the maximum CD-R burn speed to 64 to be able to burn dvds at 8x. 
1) This will leave me with a system where I have options all the way up to 64x for cd-r, whereas the max speed for cd-r is 48x - not very correct.
2) How logical is it to have to change the cd-r speed setting to get the dvds burnt at the highest possible speed? With a factor of 8...?

Users will not think about this, but just consider Linux dvd burning broken.
(And to my joy I have found the contrary to be true since I got my dvd-burner last week -- thanks for K3B and the backend tools!! I even have got some friends to dual-boot to linux for K3B - they like it better than Nero. Can't comment on Nero, I have no windows..)

BTW, my burner is a 16x burner - if people want to get it to burn at 16x, how can they do it currently? Answer: they can't, the cd-r burn speed is a 2 digit thing, 99x is the max - not 128 which would give 16x dvd.

Anyway, I thought you might like to improve this, so I reported it. It may be easiest to allow to set the max dvd burn speed in the same way the max cdr burn speed is selected.

Comment 3 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-17 20:24:05 UTC

You are right. I will think about a good (hopefully ;) way to solve this.

Comment 4 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-18 09:19:13 UTC

could you please insert a 8x media and send me the output from dvd+rw-mediainfo

Comment 5 aRTee 2004-09-18 13:58:29 UTC

This is for a 'Medianca' 8x dvd+r, followed by the output for a TDK 8x dvd+r

$ dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd
INQUIRY:                [_NEC    ][DVD_RW ND-3500AG][2.16]
GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION:
 Mounted Media:         1Bh, DVD+R
 Media ID:              PRODISC/R03
 Current Write Speed:   6.1x1385=8467KB/s
 Write Speed #0:        6.1x1385=8467KB/s
 Write Speed #1:        5.1x1385=7056KB/s
 Write Speed #2:        4.1x1385=5645KB/s
 Write Speed #3:        3.1x1385=4234KB/s
 Write Speed #4:        2.0x1385=2822KB/s
 Write Speed #5:        1.0x1385=1411KB/s
GET [CURRENT] PERFORMANCE:
 Write Performance:     4.0x1385=5540KB/s@[0 -> 442367]
                        6.0x1385=8310KB/s@[442368 -> 1155071]
                        8.0x1385=11080KB/s@[1155072 -> 2295104]
 Speed Descriptor#0:    00/2295104 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@8.0x1385=11080KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#1:    00/2295104 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@6.0x1385=8310KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#2:    00/2295104 R@5.0x1385=6925KB/s W@4.0x1385=5540KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#3:    00/2295104 R@5.0x1385=6925KB/s W@2.4x1385=3324KB/s
READ DISC INFORMATION:
 Disc status:           blank
 Number of Sessions:    1
 State of Last Session: empty
 Number of Tracks:      1
READ TRACK INFORMATION[#1]:
 Track State:           blank
 Track Start Address:   0*2KB
 Next Writable Address: 0*2KB
 Free Blocks:           2295104*2KB
 Track Size:            2295104*2KB
READ CAPACITY:          1*2048=2048


$ dvd+rw-mediainfo /dev/dvd
INQUIRY:                [_NEC    ][DVD_RW ND-3500AG][2.16]
GET [CURRENT] CONFIGURATION:
 Mounted Media:         1Bh, DVD+R
 Media ID:              RICOHJPN/R02
 Current Write Speed:   6.1x1385=8467KB/s
 Write Speed #0:        6.1x1385=8467KB/s
 Write Speed #1:        5.1x1385=7056KB/s
 Write Speed #2:        4.1x1385=5645KB/s
 Write Speed #3:        3.1x1385=4234KB/s
 Write Speed #4:        2.0x1385=2822KB/s
 Write Speed #5:        1.0x1385=1411KB/s
GET [CURRENT] PERFORMANCE:
 Write Performance:     4.0x1385=5540KB/s@[0 -> 442367]
                        6.0x1385=8310KB/s@[442368 -> 1155071]
                        8.0x1385=11080KB/s@[1155072 -> 2295104]
 Speed Descriptor#0:    00/2295104 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@8.0x1385=11080KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#1:    00/2295104 R@8.0x1385=11080KB/s W@6.0x1385=8310KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#2:    00/2295104 R@5.0x1385=6925KB/s W@4.0x1385=5540KB/s
 Speed Descriptor#3:    00/2295104 R@5.0x1385=6925KB/s W@2.4x1385=3324KB/s
READ DISC INFORMATION:
 Disc status:           blank
 Number of Sessions:    1
 State of Last Session: empty
 Number of Tracks:      1
READ TRACK INFORMATION[#1]:
 Track State:           blank
 Track Start Address:   0*2KB
 Next Writable Address: 0*2KB
 Free Blocks:           2295104*2KB
 Track Size:            2295104*2KB
READ CAPACITY:          1*2048=2048


Hope this helps!

Comment 6 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-18 17:25:04 UTC

yes, thanks.
I need one more though: please insert the media again and send me k3b's console output when you press the button to refresh the write speeds.

Comment 7 aRTee 2004-09-19 12:49:11 UTC

Darn, no console output. Must be Mandrake's doing, they must have switched off the verbosity...

Anything else I can do/try?

Comment 8 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-19 14:21:29 UTC

if you could compile from source and try the console output again it would really help me...

Comment 9 aRTee 2004-09-21 09:05:53 UTC

Ok, managed to compile. Well, to find the time to do so, the compile was as easy as ./configure make (didn't do make install, just running src/k3b for now).

For the TDK 8x dvd+r disc it says the following; below that the output with the Medianca 8x dvd+r.

k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via 2A: 6
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 8467 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 7056 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 5645 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 4234 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 2822 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 1411 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via GET PERFORMANCE: 4
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s


Medianca 8x dvd+r:
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via 2A: 6
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 8467 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 7056 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 5645 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 4234 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 2822 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 1411 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via GET PERFORMANCE: 4
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc Invalid DVD speed: 0 KB/s

Hmm, quite the same. Hope this helps.

Comment 10 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-21 11:14:35 UTC

Created attachment 7611 [details]
Patch to (hopefully) fix the DVD speed issue

The length of the data from the drive was miscalculated.

Comment 11 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-21 11:14:56 UTC

please try the patch I attached.

Comment 12 aRTee 2004-09-21 19:19:55 UTC

Works fine for me, for both dvd+r 8x discs:

k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via 2A: 6
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 8467 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 7056 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 5645 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 4234 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 2822 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 1411 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via GET PERFORMANCE: 4
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 11080 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 8310 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 5540 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 3324 KB/s




k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via 2A: 6
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 8467 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 7056 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 5645 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 4234 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 2822 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 1411 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc:  Number of supported write speeds via GET PERFORMANCE: 4
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 11080 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 8310 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 5540 KB/s
k3b: (K3bCdDevice::CdDevice) /dev/hdc : 3324 KB/s


Good work!!
I'm changing the status of this bug to 'resolved'. Cheers. ;-)

Comment 13 aRTee 2004-09-21 19:21:37 UTC

Ok, actually have to select the "Mark bug as RESOLVED" thingy, hopefully I'll get it right this time...

Comment 14 Sebastian Trueg 2004-09-21 21:41:18 UTC

that is great. I had already fixed this in cvs and "forgot" to backport it to the 0.11 branch.
Thanks a lot for your help in tracking down this bug. :)