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4.4 DVD Capacity

There are important factors to consider when recording video, audio or data to DVD. The DVD media specification provides
for two physical sizes: 4.7” (12cm) and 3.1” (8cm) (both are .47” (1.2cm) thick). DVD discs can also be single-sided (SS) or
double-sided (DS), and each side can have one (SL) or two (DL) layers of data.

The amount of data or video that a disc can hold are dependent upon factors such as the amount of audio and the degree of
compression of the data, video or audio. For example, a single-layer DVD±R disc typically will store just over two hours of
MPEG-II video, but it is possible to put up to eight hours of VHS-quality video or one hundred sixty hours of audio on a
single-layer disc.

When media companies reference the amount of data that a disc can hold, they represent the total amount in terms of
gigabytes (GB), or a billion bytes (1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes). This number, though, is not the way in which a computer
addresses the data; to a computer  the value is binary and larger than a billion bytes – 1,073,741,824 (1024 x 1024 x
1024 bytes). Therefore, when you put in a 4.7GB DVD disc, the actual available capacity is 4.38GB; and a 8.5GB Double
Layer disc has an actual available capacity of 7.95GB.

Helpful Information

page 24

LaCie DVD±RW Drive User’s Manual

FireWire

Summary of Contents for 300979

Page 1: ...ats 13 3 1 1 CD and DVD Media Definitions 14 3 1 2 DVD Video Zone 15 3 2 Inserting Discs 16 3 3 Ejecting Discs 17 3 4 Emergency Ejection of Discs 17 3 5 Accessing Discs 18 3 6 Writing Discs 18 4 Helpful Information 20 4 1 Advice for Optimizing FireWire Connections 20 4 1 1 What Is FireWire 20 4 1 2 Disconnecting FireWire Devices 21 4 1 3 Data Transfers 22 4 2 User Advice on MPEG II Decoders 23 4 3...

Page 2: ...e equipment This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accord...

Page 3: ...ropean Community Compliance with these directives implies conformity to the following European Norms Class B EN60950 EN55022 EN50082 1 EN61000 3 2 With reference to the following conditions 73 23 EEC Low Voltage Directive 89 336 EEC EMC Directive Laser Products This equipment is certified to comply with DHHS Rule 21 CFR Chapter I subchapter J in effect as of date of manufacture This equipment is c...

Page 4: ...not in operation If you expose your eyes or skin to the laser inside you drive you risk damage or loss of your vision or other personal injury Do not open your drive or attempt to disassemble or modify it Never insert any metallic object into the drive to avoid any risk of electrical shock fire short circuiting or dangerous emissions Your drive contains no user serviceable parts If it appears to b...

Page 5: ...f the drive or use excessive force on its buttons connectors and tray Doing so increases the risk of damage to the device Always place your drive in a horizontal position before using it Otherwise it may fall causing damage to the device and or corruption or loss of data Always remove the disc from the disc tray before transporting your drive Otherwise written data may be destroyed or the drive s ...

Page 6: ...video sixteen hours of VHS quality video or increase the video bit rate for higher quality movies And with 8 5GB of storage space on a single DL disc they re ideal for archiving and backup applications and could even be used as replacement for tape in some instances Now you have the tools to make high impact professional quality DVD videos conveniently make system backups and preserve all of your ...

Page 7: ... for copying a single layer DVD Video disc 8GB of free hard disk space for copying a double layer DVD Video disc Important Note To ensure optimal recording results avoid copying from a CD or DVD and record directly from a hard drive that supports sustained data transfer rates for the following speeds 8x 11 08MB s 4x 5 54MB s 2x 2 77MB s 1x 1 385MB s Tech Note Mac Users DVD Playback At the time of ...

Page 8: ... Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 24 bit color Additional Requirements for DV Capturing and DVD Authoring Minimum of 128MB of RAM 256MB is recommended 1GB of free hard disk space for every 5 minutes of DV video capture 4 5GB of free hard disk space for copying a DVD Video disc 8GB of free hard disk space for copying a double layer DVD Video disc Additional Requirements for Roxio Easy CD DVD Creato...

Page 9: ... Software 2 2 Connect the Power Supply and Switch On the Drive 2 3 Connect the FireWire Cable to Your LaCie Drive and to Your Computer Once you ve gotten the drive powered on and connected to your computer move on to section 3 Using Your LaCie Drive for important information on how to utilize your drive Getting Connected page 9 LaCie DVD RW Drive User s Manual FireWire ...

Page 10: ...tions folder on your hard drive Mac OS 9 1 and later Double click the the LaCie DVD Utilities CD ROM icon and then open the Roxio Toast Lite folder Click on the Roxio Toast Lite 5 2 2L icon on follow the on screen instructions to complete the installation Important Note Mac OS 9 1 and later does not support double layer recording Windows Users Windows 2000 XP Click on Easy Media Creator and DVDMax...

Page 11: ...ower supply may cause damage to the device and void your warranty Always remove the AC adapter before transporting your LaCie drive Failure to remove the adapter may result in damage to your drive and will void your warranty Important Note You may use your LaCie drive when in a foreign country thanks to its autoswitching 100 240 Volt power supply To be able to use this feature you may need to purc...

Page 12: ... stable connnection Tech Note Please refer section 4 1 Advice for Optimizing FireWire Connections for important information on disconnecting FireWire devices and ensuring optimum performance Getting Connected page 12 LaCie DVD RW Drive User s Manual FireWire FireWire Logo iLink Logo DigitalVideo Logo 1 2 Important Note Windows Users It may take a few seconds for your computer to recognize the driv...

Page 13: ...g techniques Close all other open programs and disconnect from the internet Copy data to your hard drive first Use the correct media with the appropriate speed rating Use media that is free of scratches and fingerprints Check LaCie s Web site www lacie com often for the latest information on creating CDs and DVDs Using Your LaCie Drive page 13 LaCie DVD RW Drive User s Manual FireWire Use your LaC...

Page 14: ...re functionally similiar to CD RW and DVD RW discs but utilizes the same recording techniques as DVD R Incorporates the Direct Overwrite DOW system allowing data to be written directly over existing data in a single pass DVD R Discs Best sutied for recording DVD videos storing multiple photo albums and data DVDs under 4 7GB These discs are also functionally similiar to CD R media and have the same...

Page 15: ...na When you insert a DVD Video disc into your drive for the first time the hardware or software MPEG II decoder will detect if the setting of your drive is the same as on the DVD Video If not a message will appear on your screen and you will be asked to change the RPC setting of your drive Important Note You can only change the RPC of your drive four times The RPC setting is copied into an interna...

Page 16: ...e door open you will damage the drive The power must be on in order to open the drive The drive must be on a flat surface to work correctly To close your LaCie DVD RW Drive press the Open Close button on the front of the drive and then gently close the Drive Access Door Warning Do not force the tray closed You will damage the drive Always remove discs before transporting the drive Never move the d...

Page 17: ...ray will open then you can access your media Mac Users Drag the DVD CD icon on the desktop to the Trash The DVD RW drive s tray will then open Remove the DVD or CD Gently push in the disc tray or push the load eject button to close it 3 4 Emergency Ejection of Discs In the event that a CD or DVD cannot be ejected with the Open Close button and the software is not controlling the drive use the emer...

Page 18: ...on and data cannot be added after the recording is finished Differs from the CD R DAO method because the lead in data area and lead out areas are all written sequentially Incremental Recording IR A DVD writing process that is similiar to the Session at Once SAO CD R writing method files may be added directly to the DVD R disc one recording at a time instead of recording the files to a hard drive b...

Page 19: ...t Writing PW A CD writing process that is very useful for data backup but cannot be used to write audio CDs Buffer underrun is impossible in this mode because the data is written in packets of a few KBs Session at Once SAO A CD writing process which is similar to DAO where all of the information is written in one session but SAO allows for the ability to begin another session and record at a later...

Page 20: ...ts two types of data transfer anyschronus and isochronous which help to guarantee the transfer of time critical data FireWire is also a point to point interface meaning that a FireWire device can transmit data to another FireWire device without having to go through a computer This lets several computers share a given device and also allows up to 63 devices to be daisy chained to the same FireWire ...

Page 21: ...rive when it is not active No unmounting is required 1 From the System Tray located in the lower right hand side of your screen click on the Eject icon a small green arrow over a hardware image 2 A message will appear detailing the devices that the Eject icon controls i e Safely remove Click on this prompt 3 You will then be given the following message Safe to Remove Hardware or similar It is now ...

Page 22: ...ve is FireWire IEEE 1394 certified Warning Do not connect FireWire cables so that they form a ring of devices There is no need for terminators on FireWire devices so the unused FireWire connectors should be left empty 2 Check that the power supply and ground connection are seated properly 3 Disconnect your computer s FireWire cable Wait 30 seconds Reconnect Tech Note Controller This is a component...

Page 23: ...rformance during playback with your LaCie drive 4 3 File System Formats Definitions When writing DVD R RW and CD R RW discs you will have the option to assign the disc a particular file format the way in which a computer names and organizes files for storage and retrieval There are essentially three file system formats to be concerned with when using a LaCie DVD or CD Drive Universal Disk Format U...

Page 24: ... just over two hours of MPEG II video but it is possible to put up to eight hours of VHS quality video or one hundred sixty hours of audio on a single layer disc When media companies reference the amount of data that a disc can hold they represent the total amount in terms of gigabytes GB or a billion bytes 1000 x 1000 x 1000 bytes This number though is not the way in which a computer addresses th...

Page 25: ...ons of the product that you purchased please check our Web site for the most current version available Troubleshooting page 25 LaCie DVD RW Drive User s Manual FireWire The Issue The drive is not recognized Questions to Ask Is the drive s power on Does an icon for the drive appear on the computer On a Mac a CD ROM must be inserted in the drive Are all of the cables connected securely and correctly...

Page 26: ...ontroller click on the plus sign next to the controller icon and you should see your device listed If you cannot see the device recheck the cables and try the other troubleshooting solutions listed here Consult LaCie Technical Support See section 6 Contacting Customer Support for more details Tech Note Mac Users Apple is constantly providing updated support for drive mechanisms within OS 10 x To e...

Page 27: ...start button to restart your computer 4 Launch the recording software again and check to see if it recognizes the drive now If you plan on using both the recording software and iTunes or Disc Burner you may want to create a separate Extension Set for the recording software 1 From the Apple Menu go to Control Panels and open the Extensions Manager 2 Press the Duplicate Set button 3 Give the new Ext...

Page 28: ... to eject your media Verify the contents of the disc by using your recording software or viewing its contents in My Computer for Windows users or File Get Info for Mac users If you ve checked and it still won t record try recording on a new blank disc Check section 3 1 Supported DVD CD Formats for the disc formats supported by your drive Carefully inspect the disc Look to see if there are highly v...

Page 29: ...d correctly See the help section of the software program for more information Check your processor Start Settings Control Panel System General tab If your processor does not meet the minimum requirements see section 1 1 Minimum System Requirements you may need to purchase an MPEG II decoder card Consult your computer supply specialist for details Consult the help section of your DVD playback softw...

Page 30: ...ng checklist and you still can t get your LaCie drive to work properly contact us via the provided Web link Before contacting us make sure that you are in front of your computer and that you have the following information on hand Your LaCie drive s serial number Operating system Mac OS or Windows and version Computer brand and model Names of CD or DVD drives installed on your computer Amount of me...

Page 31: ...m Contact Us At http www lacie com be contact LaCie Finland Contact Us At http www lacie com fi contact LaCie Italy Contact Us At http www lacie com it contact LaCie Norway Contact Us At http www lacie com no contact LaCie Switzerland Contact Us At http www lacie com chfr contact LaCie Grand Export Contact Us At http www lacie com intl contact LaCie Canada English Contact Us At http www lacie com ...

Page 32: ...recommended that the CD R RW DVD R RW and DVD R RW media be tested after they have been written to Under no circumstances do LaCie or its suppliers guarantee the reliability of the DVD or CD media used in this drive LaCie will not under any circumstances be liable for direct special or consequential damages such as but not limited to damage or loss of property or equipment loss of profits or reven...

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