[CentOS] DVD writer problem

Sat Jun 4 09:08:47 UTC 2005
Mark Jarvis <mark.jarvis at pvmail.maricopa.edu>

I have an NEC DVD-RW ND2500A (that's not the label I bought it under, 
but that's what it really is.) It's supposed to read/write CDs, DVDs, 
  DVD+Rs, and DVD-Rs. I'm basically dual booting between XP and CentOS 4.

Following the recipe in "The Linux Cookbook", I tried to copy a DVD using:

    dd if=/dev/hdd of=/tmp/diskfile.iso
	then

    cdrecord dev=/dev/hdd fs=32m -sao -v -eject -dummy /tmp/diskfile.iso
	to test and

    cdrecord dev=/dev/hdd fs=32m -sao -v -eject /tmp/diskfile.iso
	to actually record.

I had a lot of trouble getting a good read of the whole original DVD--it 
kept getting an I/O error at 94-95% of the way through. After multiple 
cleanings and 20-40 attempts, I finally got the whole thing copied with 
no reported errors. It then took me a couple of tries to get the 
cdrecord options right and to run as root to get the requisite priority. 
The "-dummy" run ran with no errors that I noticed--there was an LOT of 
output--and "-dummy" didn't work. It wrote to the blank DVD anyway. I 
then did a run without the "-dummy". Although the original will play on 
both my PC and the DVD player hooked to the TV, the two copied DVDs 
(DVD+Rs) are coasters. DURN!

Any solutions, suggestions, pointers to articles I should read, etc. 
will be appreciated.

BTW, I've never quite gotten around to playing DVDs or my music files 
(mp3 and Real Player .rmj files) from Linux. I'd appreciate being 
pointed in the direction to start.

-mj-