Got a new DVD recorder

I've got a BenQ DW1620 (dunno if it's the Pro model or not), that is, a double-layer, dual DVD recorder as a Christmas present. This is the first first-hand recorder I get; I didn't trust the older ones very much, so I'm quite happy ;-)

First of all, I was impressed by its price, very low according to all the features included. WRT the packaging, it is nice (got the retail version in a superstore). As a side note, it has got a successful review in an article published by PC Actual (not that I knew about it while buying the recorder, though); if you search Google you will find some more.

Anyway, after installation, I tried to blank some CD-RWs and record stuff onto them. All fine, and with great recording speeds. But well, it's a DVD recorder, thus I felt the need to write something to a DVD... so I got a DVD-RW I had around, made by Sentinel, and tried to blank it with dvd+rw-format -blank /dev/rcd0d. Result: error. At first I thought that this could be NetBSD's fault. To verify this, I rebooted into Linux, tried a similar command, and got exactly the same error. Hmm... strange. So went to Windows XP and tried again... which resulted in "invalid media". Uh, huh.

The next step has been to update the firmware, hoping that the drive could write to those disks afterward (read has worked fine all the time). But they still don't work. Unfortunately I don't have any other DVD-RW to try (will buy some more soon), just to make sure the recorder works properly. Even though, I think it's just that it doesn't like this strange brand (something outlined in one of the reviews I read), so I don't care much.

At last, I have recorded some videos I had around into two DVD-Rs. Everything went perfectly. So I can start dumping more hard disk contents into DVDs, otherwise I'll get ENOSPC soon ;)

And BTW, although late, merry Christmas!