I have been trying to burn a dvd iso in mandrake 10.1. First I tried K3B; when I realised it was running growisofs I tried that directly; when I realised that was running cdrecord I tried that directly. Failures all. However I did have dvd burning at some point, but I have no idea what has changed. I have been trying out differnt software (using urpmi to install) and though maybe something was conflicting (I am new to Linux and this was always a possibity in Windows), but I reinstalled the installation and that hasn't seemed to help, though all the necesary software is installed.

Here is my trying to burn a dvd iso with cdrecord:

[charles@lilchuck charles]$ cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J�rg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to <warly@mandrakesoft.com>.
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
scsidev: 'ATA'
devname: 'ATA'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
################################################################################ #########
#
# Warning: Using ATAPI via /dev/hd* interface. Use dev=ATA:X,Y,Z or dev=/dev/hd X
#
################################################################################ #########
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (warly-Mandrak elinux-scsi-linux-sg '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
scsibus1:
1,0,0 100) 'PIONEER ' 'DVD-RW DVR-107D' '1.10' Removable CD-ROM
1,1,0 101) *
1,2,0 102) *
1,3,0 103) *
1,4,0 104) *
1,5,0 105) *
1,6,0 106) *
1,7,0 107) *

[charles@lilchuck charles]$ cdrecord -v dev=ATA:1,0,0 driveropts=burnfree -dao dd.iso
Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 J�rg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to <warly@mandrakesoft.com>.
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: 'ATA:1,0,0'
devname: 'ATA'
scsibus: 1 target: 0 lun: 0
#########################################################################################
#
# Warning: Using ATAPI via /dev/hd* interface. Use dev=ATA:X,Y,Z or dev=/dev/hdX
#
#########################################################################################
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (warly-Mandrakelinux-scsi-linux-sg '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
Driveropts: 'burnfree'
SCSI buffer size: 64512
atapi: -1
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'PIONEER '
Identifikation : 'DVD-RW DVR-107D'
Revision : '1.10'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.
Current: 0x0011
Profile: 0x001B
Profile: 0x001A
Profile: 0x0014
Profile: 0x0013
Profile: 0x0011 (current)
Profile: 0x0010
Profile: 0x000A
Profile: 0x0009
Profile: 0x0008
cdrecord: Found DVD media: using cdr_mdvd.
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc DVD-R(W) driver (mmc_mdvd).
Driver flags : SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: PACKET SAO
Drive buf size : 1605632 = 1568 KB
FIFO size : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: data 4464 MB
Total size: 5127 MB (507:57.98) = 2285849 sectors
Lout start: 5127 MB (507:59/74) = 2285849 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP start of lead in: -150 (00:00/00)
Disk type: unknown dye (reserved id code)
Manuf. index: -1
Manufacturer: unknown (not in table)
Blocks total: 2298496 Blocks current: 2298496 Blocks remaining: 12647
scsi_set_streaming
Speed set to 11080 KB/s
Starting to write CD/DVD at speed 8.0 in real SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write 0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
trackno=0
BURN-Free is ON.
Turning BURN-Free off
BURN-Free is OFF.
cdrecord: Turning BURN-Free on
Performing OPC...
cdrecord: Success. send opc: scsi sendcmd: no error
CDB: 54 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
status: 0x2 (CHECK CONDITION)
Sense Bytes: 70 00 03 00 00 00 00 0E 00 00 00 00 73 03 00 00
Sense Key: 0x3 Medium Error, Segment 0
Sense Code: 0x73 Qual 0x03 (power calibration area error) Fru 0x0
Sense flags: Blk 0 (not valid)
cmd finished after 26.079s timeout 200s
cdrecord: OPC failed.
Writing time: 26.186s
cdrecord: fifo had 64 puts and 0 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 0 times full, min fill was 100%.

First make a iso image of a file then burn it, for example
mkisofs -f -r -udf -o /home/myfiles.iso
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=image.iso

Right. I have an iso and already tried a growisofs command line similar to what you suggest. When that failed I tried:
cdrecord -v dev=ATA:1,0,0 driveropts=burnfree -dao dd.iso
which, if I understand it correctly, is essentially the same thing. The result it in my original post.

This turned out to be a problem with the media. See the line about dye type.

I'm getting the same error when trying to burn a DVD with cdrecord:

I'm using generic Office Depot DVD-R 8X media. What should I be using? What brand/type of media did you use to successfully burn an iso to DVD?

TDK has worked well for me. Plus, I'd suggest staying away from generics as I've found (mainly with CDs) that they don't last very long.

you cant use cdrecord to burn DVDs - you need to use growisofs.

Shelton.