What does "Power Calibration Area Error" mean when I'm trying to write a DVD

The PCA is an area on DVDs that is used by the recorder to find out how powerful the laser needs to be to successfully write to the disc. It's very close to the center of the disc.

Disc writers may report medium errors if there's a physical damage or interference issue with the lens or its ability to move, in addition to actual bad media.

Try the following:

• This might happen if the disk is upside down - it's an obvious one, but wouldn't hurt to check.
• Clean the drive with a cleaning disk, or gently blow it with canned air.
• Make sure the drive has any firmware update installed.
• Make sure you are not putting labels or writing on the disc before burning it.
• Ensure SATA cables connecting drive to motherboard are secure if this is a desktop.
• Remove any CD or DVD burning software (such as Nero) and try again.
• Try burning from a Linux Live CD in the very remote chance it's an operating system/software issue.

Beyond that, if you try a different brand of DVD-R and get the same results, replace the drive.