Unable to blank dvd/rw media

[Klaus-Peter Schrage]

Am 08.03.2015 um 04:18 schrieb Ed Greshko:
> I err'd when I wrote the above as I actually found 2 DVD's in the drawer and the one I used was an off-brand from "Melody Group" here in Taiwan and blanking worked.
>
> The Philips brand DVD+RW does *not* support the "blank" option when using the dvd+rw-format tool...
>
> [egreshko at meimei ~]$ dvd+rw-format -blank=full /dev/sr0
> * BD/DVD±RW/-RAM format utility by <appro at fy.chalmers.se>, version 7.1.
> * 4.7GB DVD+RW media detected.
> - illegal command-line option for this media.

I found the dvd+rw-format man page quite readable (unlike some others) 
and helpful in explaining the difference between  DVD-RW and DVD+RW 
media with respect to blanking/formatting:

<quote>
To blank a DVD-RW and put in the incremental sequential mode, run:
dvd+rw-format -blank=full /dev/dvd
...

-force[=full]
Perform formatting even if the medium is formatted already. This is not 
recommended for  BD-RE  and  DVD+RW media, since  they  need to be 
formatted only once. Use -format=full to perform full (lengthy) reformat 
in case of DVD-RAM ...
...

Note that DVD+RW re-formatting procedure does not substitute for 
blanking. If you want to nullify the media, e.g. for privacy reasons, do 
it explicitly with 'growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/dev/zero'.
</quote>