Rivergate Software Inc. - makers of DVDAfterEdit

Posted Jun 03,2005 7:23 PM Joe Rice

Also in b30, 10.3.9, DLT7000 Atto UL3D, when using DLTIII tapes (for max compatibility, as it'll force 10.0 density), as soon as I hit Start for a format to tape, a dialog comes up with the message "Media in tape drive unrecognized".

However, if I hit OK at this point, the format appears to proceed just fine. Hopefully it's ok to ignore this. (I'll post if a compare fails).

Joe

Posted Jun 07,2005 3:34 AM Joe Rice

I should note that once the tape has been used for an operation, it seems this error doesn't re-appear. Furthermore, a compare yielded successful results.

(For example, I began a format, then cancelled it (which didn't hang), then began a new format subsequently. No error about the media being unrecognized when beginning the second format)

Joe

Posted Jun 07,2005 3:31 PM larryapple

Thanks for that info, Joe. It all makes sense.

Regards,

Larry

Posted Jun 08,2005 5:43 AM ianshepherd

Hi Larry,

Is this related to the behaviour that Tony and I have seen ? ( http://www.tfdvdedit.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=3&ThreadID=8... )

Ian

Posted Jun 08,2005 8:42 PM larryapple

Hi Ian,

Yes, now that you mention it, it very well could be. I had forgotten about the difficulty that tape drives have when writing to tapes that have been degaussed or are brand new. They seem to have difficulty getting started, but once they successfully begin writing, they are OK. At some point I should improve the tape tools and provide an Erase function that will retry several times automatically until it succeeds in starting. Then even if you kill it after it has erased some of the tape, the tape would still probabaly work fine.

Regards,

Larry

Thanks, Larry.

In my experience the second attempt always works - could the Format option be updated to attempt one retry per tape ?

If not, for people having this kind of problem when we are writing DVD-9 jobs ( Where it's really irritating for the second tape to fail ), the workaround would be:

1. Start writing Layer 0.
2. If it fails, go to Step 3, otherwise cancel the format and then go to Step 3.
3. Start writing Layer 0 again, on the other tape.
4. If formating is successful, let it proceed, otherwise try again, with either tape, and everything should proceed smoothly.

Maybe we could add this to the "About TFDVDEdit" section on Mastering ? Or, maybe it's time for an FAQ page. If I can find some time, I might try to set this up myself...

Lastly I think it's worth mentioning these other two workarounds:

1. Set the drive's compression settings before it "settles down". This seems to help on our setup.

2. In studio "downtime", start formating a random project to any new DLT tapes, then cancel as soon as it succeeds. Maintain a stock or "pre-formated" tapes.

Ian