DVD burning is extremely slow

[Rengarajan]

Binary package hint: dvd+rw-tools

I have a Plextor PX-750UF USB/IEEE 1394 drive. It can burn DVD+Rs at 16x speed. When I tried to burn a 16x RITEK DVD it took about 45 minutes (the size of the ISO is about 4 GB). The same ISO burns under 6 minutes on Microsoft Windows with Nero 6.

I tried both GnomeBaker and nautilus-cd-burner. The same behavior is exhibited by both USB and IEEE 1394. Also I noticed that after the burning started my system is left with only 49 MB of free memory (reported by top command) out of the 2 GB my system has. I don't know if this has anything to with it but wanted to report it anyway.

I am running Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 LTS on a Dell D610 2.1GHz processor 2G RAM and 80GB harddisk.

NOTE: CD burning works fine (it burns at 40x which is the max speed PX-750UF can burn at).

Initially I reported this bug under the kernel-source package, but after burning CDs fine I think this has to do with DVD+RW-TOOLS package (particularly growisofs).

Let me know if you need further information.

Thanks,
Rajan

[Kamil (kamil-helldesign)]

This is a REALLY serious problem in Ubuntu. I have switched from WinXP and this is the only thing that really makes me angry about Ubuntu :/

Anyway, there are lots of people having similar problems - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=128721 . Plus, this bug ticket should be merged with bug #31709, as it's exactly the same thing. K3B has nothing to do with it, 'cause people are having this problem no matter which app (or what kind of writer) are they using - I personally have it in K3b, Brasero and Nero.

But first things first -- I've got LiteOn SOHW-1633S ( http://www.liteonit.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=67&limit=1&limitstart=1 ) with BS0Y firmware. It allows me 16x burns on DVD+R blanks. And it does - in Windows. In every app - Nero, A120 - you name it. Burning full 4,7GB DVD takes no more than 10 mins in Windows. In Ubuntu, on the other hand, I have never managed to achieve speed above 4x. Usually, burning full DVD takes me 40 minutes or more.

Here's my hdparm /dev/dvd (if it helps)

/dev/dvd:
 IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq = 1 (on)
 using_dma = 1 (on)
 keepsettings = 0 (off)
 readonly = 0 (off)
 readahead = 8 (on)
 HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument

And hdparm -i

/dev/dvd:

 Model=LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S, FwRev=BS0Y, SerialNo=
 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic }
 RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
 IORDY=yes, tPIO={min:227,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes: mdma0 *mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
 AdvancedPM=no
 Drive conforms to: Unspecified: ATA/ATAPI-5

 * signifies the current active mode

Right now I'm using this hdparm syntax to set my writer:
hdparm -d1 -c1 -a8 -u1 -Xmdma1 /dev/hda

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's DVD+RW-TOOLS package problem, as I don't think Nero is using the package (and it's very slow too).

Someone -- PLEASE, make this bug really important on the list. It's really an annoying issue.